Flat (music)

In music, flat, or Bemolle, means "lower in pitch." In music notation, flat means "lower in pitch by a semitone (half step)," and has the symbol (♭). The Unicode character '♭' (U+266D) is the flat sign. Its HTML entity is ♭.

The note E-flat on the treble clef and bass clef

Under twelve tone equal temperament, C flat is the same as, or enharmonically equivalent to, B natural, and G flat is the same as F sharp.

Double flats also exist, which look like and lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Sometimes you will encounter half or three-quarter flats. The Unicode character '𝄫' 𝄫 (U+1D12B) represents the double flat sign.

A triple flat can be found, but it is very rare. It lowers a note three semitones.

The note A flat is shown in musical notation in Figure 1, together with A double flat. An A and an A flat 

In tuning, flat can also mean "slightly lower in pitch". If the same note is played on two instruments at the same time, the lower-pitched one is flat compared to the higher-pitched one.

A half flat, showing quarter tones, is sometimes shown with a flat with a slash () or a reversed flat sign. A three-quarter flat is represented by a half flat and a regular flat.

Related pages

• Accidental
• Sharp
• Natural symbol (music)
• Electronic tuner