Flat
From Open Encyclopedia
- For other uses of "Flat", see Flat (disambiguation).
In music, flat means "lower in pitch." More specifically, in music notation, flat means "lower in pitch by a semitone," and has an associated symbol (<math>\flat</math>), which looks like a lowercase "b"; the note A flat is shown in musical notation in Figure 1. The Unicode character '♭' (U+266D) can be used to display a flat sign.
Under equal temperament, C flat is the same as, or enharmonically equivalent to, B and F flat is the same as E. There also exist double-flats, which look like <math>\flat\flat</math> and lower a note by two semitones. Less often one will encounter half, three-quarter, or otherwise altered flats.
In musical tuning, flat can also mean "very slightly lower in pitch." If two strings are slightly out of tune, the lower-pitched one is said to be flat with respect to the other.
See also
fr:Bémol gl:Bemol it:Bemolle he:במול ka:ბემოლი nl:Mol (muziek) pl:Bemol pt:Bemol ru:Бемоль th:แฟลต (โน้ตดนตรี)
