Flat (music)
Flat (music)
In music, 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, flat means "lower in pitch by one semitone (half step)", notated using the symbol ♭ which is derived from a stylised lowercase 'b'. [1][2] For instance, the music below has a key signature with three flats (indicating either E♭ major or C minor) and the note, D♭, has a flat accidental.
The Unicode character ♭ (U+266D) can be found in the block Miscellaneous Symbols; its HTML entity is ♭.
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, 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.[3]
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 signatures of
F major / D minor (B♭)
B♭ major / G minor (adds E♭)
E♭ major / C minor (adds A♭)
A♭ major / F minor (adds D♭)
D♭ major / B♭ minor (adds G♭)
G♭ major / E♭ minor (adds C♭)
C♭ major / A♭ minor (adds F♭)
The order of flats in the key signatures of music notation, following the circle of fifths, is B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭ and F♭ (mnemonics 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 [[INLINE_IMAGE|//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Doubleflat.svg/8px-Doubleflat.svg.png|//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Doubleflat.svg/12px-Doubleflat.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Doubleflat.svg/16px-Doubleflat.svg.png 2x|double flat|h12|w8]] (similar to two flats, ♭♭) and lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. The Unicode character 𝄫 (U+1D12B) in the Musical Symbols block represents the double-flat sign.
A quarter-tone flat or half flat, indicating the use of quarter tones, may be marked with various symbols including a flat with a slash ([[INLINE_IMAGE|//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Arabic_music_notation_half_flat.svg/6px-Arabic_music_notation_half_flat.svg.png|//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Arabic_music_notation_half_flat.svg/10px-Arabic_music_notation_half_flat.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Arabic_music_notation_half_flat.svg/13px-Arabic_music_notation_half_flat.svg.png 2x|flat stroke|h12|w6]]) or a reversed flat sign ([[INLINE_IMAGE|//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Llpd-%C2%BD.svg/4px-Llpd-%C2%BD.svg.png|//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Llpd-%C2%BD.svg/7px-Llpd-%C2%BD.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Llpd-%C2%BD.svg/9px-Llpd-%C2%BD.svg.png 2x|half flat|h12|w4]]). A three-quarter-tone flat, flat and a half or sesquiflat, is represented by a half flat and a regular flat ([[INLINE_IMAGE|//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Three_quarter_flat.svg/10px-Three_quarter_flat.svg.png|//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Three_quarter_flat.svg/15px-Three_quarter_flat.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Three_quarter_flat.svg/20px-Three_quarter_flat.svg.png 2x|three quarter flat|h12|w10]]).
Although very uncommon, a triple flat ([[INLINE_IMAGE|//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Llpd-3.svg/12px-Llpd-3.svg.png|//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Llpd-3.svg/18px-Llpd-3.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Llpd-3.svg/24px-Llpd-3.svg.png 2x|triple flat|h12|w12]]) can sometimes be found.[4] It lowers a note three semitones.
See also
Electronic tuner