Sharp (music)

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The notes C sharp and C double sharp on the treble clef.
The notes C sharp and C double sharp on the treble clef.

In music, sharp means higher in pitch. More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means "higher in pitch by a semitone (half step)," and has an associated symbol (), which is often confused with the number (hash) sign (#).

Under twelve-tone equal temperament, B sharp, for instance, sounds the same as, or is enharmonically equivalent to, C natural, and G sharp is enharmonically equivalent to A flat. In other tuning systems, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist.

Double sharps also exist; these have the symbol double sharp and raise a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Less often (in for instance microtonal music notation) one will encounter half, or three-quarter, or otherwise modified, sharps.

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

A mnemonic for the order of sharps is: Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle. When read backwards, the previous sentence displays the order of flats.

In tuning, 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, 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.

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