## Accidental

An accidental is any sharp, flat or natural written in front of a note, changing its pitch for the rest of that measure.

Accidentals are local. They last until the next bar line and apply only to the exact pitch they were written on — a sharp on the middle-C-line F does not sharpen the F an octave up.


## How To Spot Accidental

A ♯, ♭ or ♮ sitting immediately before a note head, rather than in the group after the clef.


## Find It In Thirty Seconds

Find an accidental, then check whether the same note appears again later in that measure. If it does, it is still altered — that is the rule people miss most often.

Open any piece of sheet music on this site and do it now. Reading is a recognition skill, and recognition is built by finding things, not by reading about them.