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In music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, sharp means higher in pitch. More specifically, in musical notation
Musical notation

Music notation or musical notation is any system which represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written Modern musical symbols....
, sharp means "higher in pitch
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
 by a semitone
Semitone

A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone,Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and others use "half tone".One source says that step is "chiefly US", and that half-tone is "chiefly N....
 (half step)," and has an associated symbol , which is often confused with the number (hash) sign
Number sign

'Number sign' is a name for the symbol '#'; it is the preferred Unicode name for the code point associated with that glyph. The symbol is similar to the musical symbol called Sharp ....
 (#).

Under twelve-tone equal temperament
Equal temperament

Equal temperament is a musical temperament, or a system of Musical tuning in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratios....
, B sharp, for instance, sounds the same as, or is enharmonic
Enharmonic

In modern music and musical notation, an enharmonic equivalent is a note , interval , or key signature which is equivalence to some other note, interval, or key signature, but "spelled", or named, differently....
ally equivalent to, C natural
Natural sign

In musical notation, a natural sign is an accidental sign used to cancel a Flat or Sharp from either a preceding note or the key signature....
, and G sharp is enharmonically equivalent to A flat.






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C Sharp
In music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, sharp means higher in pitch. More specifically, in musical notation
Musical notation

Music notation or musical notation is any system which represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written Modern musical symbols....
, sharp means "higher in pitch
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
 by a semitone
Semitone

A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone,Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and others use "half tone".One source says that step is "chiefly US", and that half-tone is "chiefly N....
 (half step)," and has an associated symbol , which is often confused with the number (hash) sign
Number sign

'Number sign' is a name for the symbol '#'; it is the preferred Unicode name for the code point associated with that glyph. The symbol is similar to the musical symbol called Sharp ....
 (#).

Under twelve-tone equal temperament
Equal temperament

Equal temperament is a musical temperament, or a system of Musical tuning in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratios....
, B sharp, for instance, sounds the same as, or is enharmonic
Enharmonic

In modern music and musical notation, an enharmonic equivalent is a note , interval , or key signature which is equivalence to some other note, interval, or key signature, but "spelled", or named, differently....
ally equivalent to, C natural
Natural sign

In musical notation, a natural sign is an accidental sign used to cancel a Flat or Sharp from either a preceding note or the key signature....
, and G sharp is enharmonically equivalent to A flat. In other tuning system
Musical tuning

In music, there are two common meanings for tuning:* #Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice.* #Tuning systems, the various systems of Pitch used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical basis....
s, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist.

Double sharps also exist; these have the symbol and raise a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Less often (in for instance microtonal music
Microtonal music

Microtonal music is music using microtones ? musical interval of less than an Equal Temperament semitone.Microtonal music can also refer to music which uses intervals not found in the Western system of 12 equal intervals to the octave....
 notation
Accidental (music)

In music, an accidental is a note whose Pitch is not a member of a Musical scale or Musical mode indicated by the Modulation key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, Sharp , Flat , and Natural sign , may also be called accidentals....
) one will encounter half, or three-quarter, or otherwise modified, sharps.

Although very uncommon and used only in modern classical music, a triple sharp can sometimes be found. This raises a note by three semitones.

Two mnemonics for the order of sharps
Key signature

In musical notation, a key signature is a series of Sharp or Flat symbols placed on the staff , designating note s that are to be consistently played one semitone higher or lower than the equivalent natural sign notes unless otherwise altered with an Accidental ....
 are: Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle and Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds. When read backwards, the previous sentences display the order of flats.

In tuning
Musical tuning

In music, there are two common meanings for tuning:* #Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice.* #Tuning systems, the various systems of Pitch used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical basis....
, sharp can also mean "slightly higher in pitch" (by some unspecified amount). 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.

In Unicode
Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate Character expressed in most of the world's writing systems....
, the sharp symbol is at code point U+266F. The double sharp symbol is at U+1D12A. These characters may not display correctly in all fonts.

A quarter sharp, indicating the use of quarter tone
Quarter tone

A quarter tone is an interval about half as wide as a semitone, which is half a whole tone.Many composers are known for having written music including quarter tones or the quarter tone scale, first proposed by 19th-century music theorist Mikha'il Mishaqah , including: Pierre Boulez, Juli?n Carrillo, Mildred Couper, Alberto Ginas...
s, may be marked with various symbols including: .

See also

  • Accidental
    Accidental (music)

    In music, an accidental is a note whose Pitch is not a member of a Musical scale or Musical mode indicated by the Modulation key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, Sharp , Flat , and Natural sign , may also be called accidentals....
  • Flat
  • Electronic tuner
    Electronic tuner

    An electronic tuner is a device used by musicians to detect and display the Pitch of notes played on musical instruments. The simplest tuners use LED lights or a needle to indicate approximately whether the pitch of the note played is lower, higher, or approximately equal to the desired pitch....