Flat (music)

In music, flat means lower in pitch. The flat symbol, ♭, indicates that the note to which it is applied is played one chromatic semitone lower. The opposite of flat is sharp, indicating a raising of pitch.

The flat symbol (♭) appears in key signatures to indicate which notes are flat throughout a section of music, and also in front of individual notes as an accidental, indicating that the note is flat until the next bar line.

The symbol ♭ is a stylised lowercase b, derived from Italian be molle for "soft B" and German blatt for "planar, dull". It indicates that the note to which it is applied is played one chromatic semitone lower. In the standard modern tuning system, 12-tone equal temperament, this corresponds to 100 cents.^[1][2]

The difference in pitch indicated by a sharp or flat varies across different tuning systems. In tuning systems from the 16th and 17th century, and in modern microtonal tunings, the difference is normally smaller than a standard semitone. The change in pitch in the old quarter-comma meantone system would be 76.05 cents, in just intonation it would be 70.57 cents, and in Pythagorean tuning 113.7 cents. In well temperaments, the change in pitch indicated by a sharp or flat can vary.

Intricate systems of microtuning may replace the standard flat or sharp with different symbols for raising and lowering pitch. In 53 equal temperament tuning sharps and flats have two or three different sub-levels, and notation for flattening notes varies, but usually involves several different symbols; one of the sets of 53 tet flat symbols is ♭ (67.9 cents), (45.3 cents), and ↓ (22.6 cents), used both separately and in combinations.

A double flat () lowers a note by two chromatic semitones (a whole step in 12-tone equal temperament).

A quarter-tone flat, half flat or demiflat indicates the use of quarter tones; it may be marked with various symbols including a flat with a slash (), a flat with a 4 (𝄳 ),o unsigno de bemol invertido (). Un bemol de tres cuartos de tono , un bemol y medio o un sesquibeto se representa con un demiflat y un bemol entero (). Los símbolos - , ↓ ,, entre otros, representan un bemol de coma o un bemol de octavo de tono. ^{[ a ]}

Un triple bemol ( ) es muy raro. Como era de esperar, baja una nota tres semitonos cromáticos (un tono entero y un semitono en el temperamento igual de 12 tonos ). ^{[ 3 ]} (Por ejemplo, B es enarmónico con A ♭ .) ^{[ 4 ]}

^{[ 3 ] [ 4 ]}

Si bien este sistema permite múltiplos mayores de bemoles, solo hay unos pocos ejemplos de triples bemoles en la literatura. Sin embargo, en algunos sistemas de afinación no estándar, como el temperamento igual de 53 , pueden ser necesarios cuádruples bemoles o más . Un cuádruple bemol se indicaría con el símbolo .

El orden de los bemoles en las armaduras de clave es

Si♭, Mi♭, La♭, Re♭, Sol♭, Do♭, Fa♭

El orden correspondiente de las tonalidades también sigue la secuencia del círculo de quintas :

Fa, Si♭, Mi♭, La♭, Re♭, Sol♭, Do♭

Comenzando sin bemoles ni sostenidos (Do mayor), agregar el primer bemol (Si♭) indica Fa  mayor ; agregar el siguiente (Mi♭) indica Si♭ mayor, y así sucesivamente, hacia atrás a través del círculo de quintas.

Algunas tonalidades (como Do bemol mayor con siete bemoles) pueden escribirse como una tonalidad enarmónicamente equivalente (Si mayor con cinco sostenidos en este caso). En raras ocasiones, las tonalidades con bemoles pueden extenderse aún más:

F♭ → B → E → A → D → G → C

requiring double flats in the key signature. These are generally avoided as impractical, and the simpler enharmonic key signature is used instead. This principle applies similarly to the sharp keys.

The staff below shows a key signature with three flats (E♭ major or its relative minorC minor), followed by a note with a flat preceding it: The flat symbol placed on the note indicates that it is a D♭.

In standard 12 tone equal temperament tuning, lowering a note's pitch by a semitone results in a note that is enharmonically equivalent to the adjacent named note. In this system, B♭ and A♯ are considered to be equivalent. In other, non-standard tuning systems, however, this is not the case.

Accidentals are placed to the left of the note head.

They apply to the note on which they are placed and to subsequent similar notes in the same measure and octave. In modern notation they do not apply to notes in other octaves, but this was not always the convention. To cancel an accidental later in the same measure and octave, another accidental such as a natural (♮) or a sharp (♯) may be used.

• Historically, raising a double flat to a single flat could be notated using a natural sign and a flat sign (♮♭) or vice-versa (♭♮). Modern notation often simply uses a single flat. The combination ♮♭ can be used when changing a sharp to a flat.

  

• In environments where the symbol is not supported, or in specific text notation, a double flat can be written with two single flat signs (♭♭), two lower-case b's (bb), etc. Likewise, a triple flat can also be written as ♭♭♭, etc.
• In environments where the or 𝄳 symbol is not supported, or in specific text notation, a half flat can be written as a lower-case d. Likewise, a flat and a half can be written as d♭ or db.
• To allow extended just intonation, composer Ben Johnston uses a flat as an accidental to indicate a note is lowered 70.6 cents.^[5]

The Unicode character ♭ (U+266D) can be found in the blockMiscellaneous Symbols; its HTML entity is ♭. Other assigned flat signs can be found in the Musical Symbols block and are as follows:

• U+1D12B𝄫MUSICAL SYMBOL DOUBLE FLAT
• U+1D12C𝄬MUSICAL SYMBOL FLAT UP
• U+1D12D𝄭MUSICAL SYMBOL FLAT DOWN
• U+1D133𝄳MUSICAL SYMBOL QUARTER TONE FLAT

• Afinador electrónico : dispositivo utilizado para afinar instrumentos musicales. 

• Contenido multimedia relacionado con Flats (música) en Wikimedia Commons