Sharp

From AudioLexic

In music, sharp means higher in pitch. More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means "higher in pitch by a semitone (half step)," and has an associated symbol #, which looks somewhat like a "#" . The Unicode character '#' may display as a sharp sign on some computers, and unicode𝄪 may display as a double sharp.

Under twelve tone equal temperament, B sharp for instance is the same as, or enharmonically equivalent to, C natural, and G sharp is the same as A flat. Note that in any other tuning system, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist.

Double sharps also exist, which look like X and raise a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Less often (in for instance microtonal music notation) one will encounter half, or three-quarter, or otherwise modified, sharps.

The note C sharp is shown in musical notation in Figure 1, together with C double sharp.

In tuning, sharp can also mean "slightly higher in pitch". If two simultaneous notes are slightly out of tune, the higher-pitched one (assuming the lower one is properly pitched) is said to be sharp with respect to the other.

[edit] See also

• Accidental
• Flat

This article was started using a Wikipedia article