In
music
Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...
, flat (Italian bemolle for "soft B") means "lower in
pitch". Flat is the opposite of
sharp, which is a raising of pitch. In
musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation fo ...
, flat means "lower in pitch by one
semitone
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically.
It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...
(half step)", notated using the symbol which is derived from a stylised lowercase 'b'. For instance, the music below has a key signature with three flats (indicating either
E major
E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equiv ...
or
C minor
C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major is E major and its parallel major is C major.
The C natural minor scale is:
:
...
) and the note,
D, has a flat
accidental.
:
Under
twelve-tone equal temperament,
D for instance is
enharmonically equivalent to
C, and
G is equivalent to
F. In any other
tuning system, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist. To allow extended
just intonation
In music, just intonation or pure intonation is the tuning of musical intervals as whole number ratios (such as 3:2 or 4:3) of frequencies. An interval tuned in this way is said to be pure, and is called a just interval. Just intervals (and ...
, composer
Ben Johnston uses a sharp as an accidental to indicate a note is raised 70.6
cents (ratio 25:24), and a flat to indicate a note is lowered 70.6 cents.
In
intonation, flat can also mean "slightly lower in pitch" (by some unspecified amount). If two simultaneous notes are slightly out-of-tune, the lower-pitched one (assuming the higher one is properly pitched) is "flat" with respect to the other. Furthermore, the verb ''flatten'' means to lower the pitch of a note, typically by a
small musical interval.
Key signatures
Flats are used in the
key signature
In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp (), flat (), or rarely, natural () symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the clef a ...
s of
#
F major
F major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor.
The F major scale is:
:
F major is ...
/
D minor
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major.
The D natural minor scale is:
Changes needed fo ...
(B)
#
B major
B major (or the key of B) is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and ...
/
G minor
G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major.
According to Paolo Pietropaolo, it is the ...
(adds E)
#
E major
E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equiv ...
/
C minor
C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major is E major and its parallel major is C major.
The C natural minor scale is:
:
...
(adds A)
#
A major /
F minor (adds D)
#
D major
D major (or the key of D) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor.
The D major scale is:
:
...
/
B minor (adds G)
#
G major
G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor.
The G major scale is:
Notable com ...
/
E minor
E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major.
The E natural minor scale is:
:
Changes nee ...
(adds C)
#
C major
C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor a ...
/
A minor (adds F)
The order of flats in the key signatures of music notation, following the
circle of fifths
In music theory, the circle of fifths is a way of organizing the 12 chromatic pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths. (This is strictly true in the standard 12-tone equal temperament system — using a different system requires one interval of ...
, is B, E, A, D, G, C and F (
mnemonics
A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding.
Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imager ...
for which include Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father ''and'' Before Eating A Doughnut Get Coffee First).
Related symbols
Double flats also exist, which look like (similar to two flats, ) and lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Historically, in order to raise a double flat to a single flat, it was required to use the notation . In modern scores it is acceptable to simply denote this with a single flat .
:
A quarter-tone flat, half flat, or demiflat indicating the use of
quarter tone
A quarter tone is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (aurally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone. Quarter tones divide the octave by 50 cents each, ...
s, may be marked with various symbols including a flat with a slash () or a reversed flat sign (). A three-quarter-tone flat, flat and a half or sesquiflat, is represented by a demiflat and a regular flat ().
:
Although very uncommon, a triple flat () can sometimes be found.
It lowers a note three
semitone
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically.
It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...
s, or a whole tone and a semitone.
Unicode
The
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
character ♭ (U+266D) can be found in the
block Miscellaneous Symbols; its
HTML entity is
♭. Other assigned flat signs are as follows:
*
*
See also
*
Sharp (music)
In music, sharp, dièse (from French), or diesis (from Greek) means, "higher in pitch". More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means "higher in pitch by one semitone (half step)". Sharp is the opposite of flat, which is a lowering of pit ...
*
Electronic tuner
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flat (Music)
Musical notation
Pitch (music)