Sharp (music)
musical sign (accidental) raising the pitch of a note by one chromatic semitone (factor 2^(1/12))
In music, sharp – eqv. dièse (from French) or diesis (Greek: δίεσις) – means higher in pitch. The sharp symbol, ♯, indicates that the note to which the symbol is applied is played one chromatic semitone higher. The opposite of sharp is flat, indicating a lowering of pitch. The symbol derives from a square form of the letter b.
Examples
The sharp symbol is used in key signatures or as an accidental applied to a single note. Below is a staff with a key signature containing three sharps (A major or F♯ minor) and a sharp symbol placed on the note, indicating that it is an A♯ instead of an A♮.
In twelve-tone equal temperament tuning (the predominant system of tuning in Western music), raising a note's pitch by a semitone results in a note that is enharmonically equivalent to another named note. For example, E♯ and F would be equivalent. This is not the case in most non-standard tuning systems.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sharp (music)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.