Accidental (Sharp, Flat, etc.)

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Accidental (Sharp, Flat, etc.)

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Musician automatically determines the spellings of notes, based on the key signature and surrounding harmony. Musician usually makes the correct decision about spelling a note as, for example, Db versus C#. In some cases, however, Musician may make a mistake, or you may have a different opinion about the correct spelling. In such cases, you can change the enharmonic spelling of a note, which raises or lowers the position of the note on the staff by a half-space, but leaves the pitch unchanged.

 

prcarrow To change the enharmonic spelling of a note:

1.Enter Select Mode.
2.Select the note by clicking it with the mouse.
3.In the Enharmonic Spelling submenu of the Note menu, choose the Raise or Lower command.

-- OR --

Type E+UpArrowKey (or E+DownArrowKey) to raise (or lower) the enharmonic ("E") spelling. To "raise" the enharmonic spelling means to "move the note up one step on the staff". For example, Db is the raised enharmonic spelling for C#, because D is one step higher on the staff than C.

The following table illustrates the Raise and Lower Enharmonic Spelling commands:

Original

Spelling

Raise Enharmonic

Spelling

Lower Enharmonic

Spelling

C

Dbb

B#

C#

Db

B##

Db

not available

C#

D#

Eb

not available

F

Gbb

E#

A "courtesy accidental" is an accidental that does not need to be displayed because it is already implied by the key signature or a preceding identical accidental in the same measure. The courtesy accidental is displayed to help the performer avoid possibly overlooking the accidental, or to assure the performer that the accidental is intended by the composer. A courtesy accidental is displayed in parentheses, as illustrated below:

CourtesyAccidental

prcarrow To add a courtesy accidental:

1.Select the note for which you wish to add the courtesy accidental.
2.Type the parenthesis character '('.

-- OR --

Type "ca" for courtesy accidental.

Musician will add the implied accidental with parentheses around it, as illustrated above.

prcarrow To remove a courtesy accidental:

1.Select the note that has a courtesy accidental (with parentheses around it).
2.Type "rc" for remove courtesy accidental.