Tag: accidental meaning

B4. Accidentals Etiquette: How And When To Use Accidentals

This post is one of a growing series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here. Please feel welcome to make a comment or ask a question.

Note: Students who solely use text notation can skip this lesson. Text notation seldom uses key signatures so sharps and flats are written after every instance of a note. In text notation, accidentals are indistinguishable from notes in the key which have a sharp or flat.

What Is An Accidental?

The term accidental has two meanings.

  1. An accidental is a general term for a sign affecting the pitch of a note, such as a sharp, flat or natural sign.
  2. Within a key, an accidental is the term for a note that has been sharpened or flattened, so that it’s no longer part of the key. Sharps or flats that are part of the key signature are not considered to be accidentals.
    The following refers to how accidentals are used within the context of a key signature.

Unlike key signatures, accidentals only last within a bar and they are only applicable to the same octave: if the same note is used more than once in a bar, at the same octave, the accidental is only written for the first one.

The exception to this is that accidentals aren’t used in the middle of a tie, even if the tie crosses a barline. This is because tied notes are considered to be a single, longer note.

  1. An accidental only lasts till the next barline.
  2. An accidental only applies to a single note pitch. The same note at another octave requires it’s own accidental.
  3. An accidental lasts the full length of a note, including tied notes. No accidental is used within a tie, even if it crosses a barline.

Courtesy Accidentals

An accidental lasts until the end of a bar. In the next bar, the note automatically reverts back to the key signature. As a reminder, this can be indicated by a courtesy accidental.

An example of this is the descending 7th and 6th notes in the melodic minor examples from the previous lesson, B3. Melodic And Harmonic Minor.

Courtesy accidentals, also known as cautionary accidentals, are sometimes written in parentheses () to indicate that each is only a reminder that a note is restored to the key signature.

Although not strictly necessary, it’s common practice to include courtesy accidentals. Whether or not you use parentheses is a matter of personal choice.

Example

The example below is in G melodic minor, requiring E natural and F# as accidentals when the melody ascends.

  1. Accidental is only used at the beginning of a tied note, even if it crosses a bar.
  2. Courtesy accidental because there is an F# in the previous bar, even though, as the end of a tied note, it is not written (see point 1).
  3. Accidental is used for the first instance of each octave of a note within a bar.
  4. Accidental is only used for the first instance of a note within a bar.
  5. Courtesy accidental even though it’s in the key signature, because it was sharpened in the previous bar.

Ties And Slurs

  • A tie is a curved line that joins 2 notes of the same pitch to produce one longer note. It is placed adjacent to the notehead, opposite the stem.
  • A slur is a curved line that joins 2 (or more) notes of different pitches to indicate legato; full-length notes that are not articulated separately within the slur. It is placed adjacent to the notehead, opposite the stem.

Ties and slurs look the same. The only difference between a tie and a slur over 2 notes is the pitch.

Note: if the tied note is within a slur, the tie is always written closest to the notehead.

What if we wanted a slur to join a sharpened note at the end of a bar with its un-sharpened version at the start of the next bar? How can we distinguish this from a sharpened note tied over the barline?

In this case, the slurred note would receive a courtesy accidental, whereas there’s never an accidental within a tie.

Try These…

In the short melodies below, every note that’s sharpened is written with an accidental. Cross out any accidentals that shouldn’t be written and add any courtesy accidentals (or if you prefer, rewrite the exercises with the correct use of accidentals).

For example,

The answers, at the end of this post, show courtesy accidentals in parentheses. Parentheses are optional.

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NEXT LESSON: B5. Inversions Of Intervals

PART 2 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

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Answers to Try These…