Accidental (music) Accidental (music) In music, an accidental is a note of a pitch (or pitch class) that is not a member of the scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the sharp (), flat (), and natural () symbols, among others, mark such notes—and those symbols are also called accidentals. In the measure (bar) where it appears, an accidental sign raises or lowers the immediately following note (and any repetition of it in the bar) from its normal pitch, overriding sharps or flats in the key signature. A note is usually raised or lowered
Key signature musical "Seussical" by Flaherty and Ahrens also has several songs written in these extreme keys. Key signatures can be further extended through double sharps and double flats (for example, a piece in the key of G major can be expressed with a double sharp on F and six sharps on the other six pitches). As with the seven-sharp and seven-flat examples, it is rarely necessary to express music in such keys when simpler enharmonic examples can instead be used (in the case of G, the same passage could be expressed in A with only four flats). The key signature may