Accidentals

Now we know how to identify the white keys on the keyboard, let's talk about the black keys! But before that, we'll learn what Accidentals are.

Up above we have listed the three most common accidentals. Each of these symbols are specific directions that are applied to notes in music like so:

When a note is sharp, that means the individual note is played up a single Half Step. So! What is a Half Step? A half step is when (On a keyboard) you move from the note you play up to the very next note:

Now if we start at Middle C, and we go up a Half Step, we find ourselves at C# (C Sharp). Now if we were to start at the note of "D" and go down a half step:

And this is what we call D♭ or D flat. Note: D flat and C Sharp are the same note! The term for the same note written in different ways is called Enharmonic. Now when a sharp is added to a note (Say F) it carries throughout the entire measure!

So in our second measure shown above. The first Half note is F-Sharp. And since Accidentals carry throughout the entire measure, the second Half note is also F-Sharp. But what if we wanted the second note to be F and not F-Sharp? That is where our third and final symbol comes into play. The Accidental is a Natural sign. This negates any effects of a Sharp or Flat sign and returns the note to it's original sound. A Natural sign can be found in the photo above on measure 4.

Now we have covered the main ideas of Accidentals! Now I'll touch up on one strange idea that stifled me as a young musician. If you look at a keyboard, you will find that there are two places where there is not a single black key to fit in between the white ones. You'll find this situation between E-F and B-C. That is simply because the note "F" is one Half Step above E and vice versa! This can be confusing when music writers write in accidentals such as F-flat or B-Sharp. They must simply be looked at as instructions to go from the listed note, up a half step. So for all the readers out there: B-sharp is simply "C" and F-flat is simply "E". Till next time!