Music notation glossary · Accidentals
Sharp
a semitone higher
As a Unicode character — to paste into text, spreadsheets or chat. Whether it appears depends on the font.
In the score
What it means
Raises the note by a semitone and applies until the end of the bar. When it stands after the clef at the start, it belongs to the key signature and applies to the whole piece.
Accidentals
Raises the note by a semitone. The most common of the five: it stands in the key signature of sharp keys and inside the bar wherever a note from outside the key is needed. In the name of the raised note it shows up as an ending — the plain note name plus a syllable.
First the note without a sign, then the same note with it
Related pages
Anotona does this for you
Photograph a page of sheet music or play the melody — Anotona finds the key, engraves the notes and transposes them into any other. Free.
See AnotonaEvery note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.