Reading Music:
Sharps, Flats, and Keys
Mr. Test
Music Appreciation
TRHS South
Pitches on a Keyboard
The easiest way to understand pitches is to
look at a piano keyboard.
 Here is a section of the piano keys, with some
common pitches highlighted:

Accidentals
Accidentals are symbols that tell musicians to
slightly raise or lower a pitch.
 A sharp symbol looks like an italicized pound
sign, and raises the pitch:
 A flat symbol looks like an italicized lowercase b,
and lowers the pitch:
 A natural looks like a box with two extended
lines, and tells the musician to use the basic
(“natural”) pitch:

Accidentals Demonstrated:
Sharps

Going up (raising pitch): F to F-sharp
Accidentals Demonstrated:
Flats

Going down (lowering pitch): G to G-flat
Accidentals Demonstrated:
Naturals

(Middle) C-natural: bass & treble clefs
Reading & Writing Accidentals

Notice where the accidentals were placed in
the music?
Why is that?... (take a guess)
 Since we read music from left to right,
musicians need to know if a note is sharp,
flat, or natural before analyzing the note
name.

Key Signatures
Often, due to the sound that composers and
songwriters are after, certain notes need to stay
sharp or flat for an entire work, or a section of a
work.
 Instead of writing the accidentals next to every
single note, writers use a key signature.
 A key signature is a set of one or more
sharps/flats placed at the beginning of the staff;
all of the notes with those NAMES (not just on
those lines & spaces!) stay sharp/flat unless a
natural sign is used.

Key Signature Example

Here is a sample key signature:
In the beginning of the song, it is placed after
the clef but before the time signature.
 Remember, all of the notes with these NAMES
are now flat (B-E-A), even if they occur on
different lines/spaces/ledger lines.
 Now do you see the importance of the natural
sign?

Key Changes During a Song
To change the mood at certain points, music
writers will often change the key signature in the
middle of a work. When that happens, a double
bar line is used, and naturals are used if
necessary.
 Here is an (extreme) example:
