Natural (music)

In Western musical notation, musical notes are are written as dots on a staff or stave.

By default, the notes written are the "natural" notes - the white keys on a piano. Notes that are not "natural" are sometimes called "accidental[s]".

The key signature tells the players (I include singers, guitarists, cellists etc. here) which notes are to be played as sharp of flat (usually the black keys on a piano). If the composer wishes players to play the note differently - as a sharp, flat, or natural note (or indeed, double or triple sharp or flat), symbols are used before the note to indicate this.

If the notes are preceded by a sharp symbol (♯), it means they should be played a semitone higher. This continues until the end of the bar or a change to the key signature.

If the notes are preceded by a flat symbol (♭), it means they should be played a semitone lower. This continues until the end of the bar or a change to the key signature.

If the note would be played as an accidental, a natural symbol (♮) may be used to indicate that it should be played as a natural note. The Unicode character MUSIC NATURAL SIGN '♮' (U+266E) should display as a natural sign. Its HTML entity is ♮ . Again, this continues until the end of the bar or a change to the key signature.

Related pages

• Key signature
• Scale (music)
• Musical note
• Sharp (music)
• Flat (music)
• Bar (music)