How to Read Music - Level 1 (High Voices)

8. Sharps, Flats and Naturals  

Sometimes you will find accidentals written next to notes on the stave. Accidentals are sharps, flats and naturals. Accidentals tell you that you need to raise or lower the pitch of the note slightly.

Sharps

Sharp in music means raised.

A sharp symbol looks like this:

A sharp symbol next to a note means that you should raise the pitch slightly. Sing the note G to A, then sing G, G# and A. G# is half way between G and A.

Try this one - G, G#, A, A# and B:

And another one - E, F#, G, G# and A:

Flats

Flat in music means lowered. 

A flat symbol looks like this:

A flat symbol next to a note means that you should lower the pitch slightly. Sing the note A to B, then A to Bb:

Try this one - C, B, Bb, A, G:

And another one - G, F, Eb, D, Db:

Naturals

A natural note is one which hasn't been sharpened or flattened. We only need to use a natural sign if it's previously been sharpened or flattened. This is because all accidental symbols apply to all the same notes in the bar.

Here is a natural sign:

Now look at this melody closely. The first F has been sharpened, but the second F is natural - at the "normal" pitch.

If we write the same melody but without the natural sign, like this, the second F is now also actually an F sharp - because the sharp sign on the first F carries over.

This time, we've drawn a barline between the two Fs. Barlines cancel out sharps and flats, so the second F is an F natural in this case.

Singing Practice

Now try to sing these melodies, paying special attention to the accidentals.

(You can use the tuning fork widget on the leftside of the page if you want to hear an A.)

(Note, in the above melody, the A natural in the third bar is not strictly necessary, but often naturals are added into the score to remind you which note to sing!)

There are twelve individual notes in each octave, when we count the in-between notes. If you sing all the notes, it's called a chromatic scale. 

Here's the same scale, but using flats and going downwards: