Flat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
-
For other uses, see Flat (disambiguation).
In
music, flat means "lower in pitch." More
specifically, in
music notation, flat means "lower in
pitch by a
semitone (half step)," and has an associated symbol (
),
which looks somewhat like a lowercase "b". The Unicode character
'♭' (U+266D) can be used to display a flat sign.
Under twelve tone equal temperament, C flat for instance is the same as, or enharmonically equivalent to, B natural, and G flat is the same as F sharp. Note that in any other tuning system, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist.
Double flats also exist, which look like
and lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Less often
(in for instance
microtonal music
notation) one will encounter half, or three-quarter, or
otherwise altered flats.
The note A flat is shown in musical notation in Figure 1, together with A double flat.
In tuning, flat can also mean "slightly lower in pitch". If two simultaneous notes are slightly out of tune, the lower-pitched one (assuming the higher one is properly pitched) is said to be flat with respect to the other.
Play an A and an A flat
See also
- Accidental, Sharp, Natural
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Category: Musical notation