Sharps, Flats And Semitones On The Piano - Do Re Mi Studios

In western music, we use the first seven letters of the alphabet. In addition, there are sharps and flats in between all notes except between B and C and E and F. Below is a simplification of the note system used in western music.

When you play piano, sharps and flats are the black notes as shown below. For example, the black key between note C and note D is called C# (C sharp) or Db (D flat).

What is a sharp?

A sharp is a sign used to raise the pitch (the sound) of a note by one semitone. The picture below shows you what a sharp looks like.

What is a flat?

A flat is a sign used to lower the pitch of a note by one semitone. The picture below shows you what a flat looks like.

Notice in the piano keyboard above that note C# and note Db are the same note (same key). Likewise, the black key between notes D and E is called D# or Eb. It too, is the same note/key. The same can also be said for the remaining black notes. That is, they each have 2 names but are the same note. Musical notes that have two different names but are the same note are called enharmonic notes.

What is a semitone?

A semitone or half step is the smallest interval between two notes. In the example below, the distance from note F to note F# is a semitone. This is because there is no other note in between these two notes. Likewise, the distance from note B to note C (see example below) is also a semitone. Once again, there is no other note in between these two notes.

What is a tone?

As “semi” means half, that means the word semitone means half a tone. Therefore, the word tone means the distance of two semitones. For example, the distance from note A to note B (see example below) is a tone. Likewise, the distance from note E to F# is also a tone as shown below. 

In music notation, we write the sharp on the staff in front of the note. The example below illustrates this. We wrote the sharp first and then the note D. However, we call this note D sharp not sharp D. Yep I know! It is a bit odd.Likewise, we first have to write the flat on the staff and then the note itself. The example below again illustrates this. We wrote the flat first and then the note G. However, we call this note G flat.

The distance between note C to the next note C (up or down in pitch) is called an octave (see below). An octave consists of 12 semitones.

The twelve semitones that make up the octave from note C (on the left of the diagram above) to the next note C higher (on the right) are shown below:

1. C to C#/Db
2. C#/Db to D
3. D to D#/Eb
4. D#/Eb to E
5. E to F
6. F to F#/Gb
7. F#/Gb to G
8. G to G#/Ab
9. G#/Ab to A
10. A to A#/Bb
11. A#/Bb to B
12. B to C