Sharps/flats in musical notation

[OnlyJerry]

G'day,

I'm working on Ed's Bass Method books, and I'm getting a bit confused on the point of sharp/flat notations in the sheet music.

Pretty early in the book it was stated that if a note is sharpened/flattened it would carry on to the rest of the notes in that bar. Is that right, according to this image?



Thanks

[renobassman]

It means that the same note will be sharp/flat through the bar. If the F is sharp, than the rest of the F's in that bar will be sharp. It does not apply to the other notes. Hope that makes sense.

[jtapp2556]

G and A would be correct. The F# would carry through the rest of the BAR if there were more F's but there are not. Say the last two notes were F's as well, there would not be a # sign because the 2nd F has the # sign. Therefore, the F continues to be sharp until the end of that particular bar. make sense? The next bar the F would be normal unless specified with another # symbol.

[Fergie Fulton]

Originally Posted by OnlyJerry

G'day,

I'm working on Ed's Bass Method books, and I'm getting a bit confused on the point of sharp/flat notations in the sheet music.

Pretty early in the book it was stated that if a note is sharpened/flattened it would carry on to the rest of the notes in that bar. Is that right, according to this image?



Thanks

It is only the line or space that has the #/b added to it in front of the note that is affected to the end of the bar.

In your example any note on the 4 line, so that is an F, will become F# after the accidental has been used.
No other note around it will be affected.
The original Key sig. still applies as denoted at the start.
The same also applies to the naturalization of a note. The removal of the #/b only applies to that line or space on that bar.

[JTE]

Originally Posted by Fergie Fulton

It is only the line or space that has the #/b added to it in front of the note that is affected to the end of the bar.

In your example any note on the 4 line, so that is an F, will become F# after the accidental has been used.
No other note around it will be affected.
The original Key sig. still applies as denoted at the start.
The same also applies to the naturalization of a note. The removal of the #/b only applies to that line or space on that bar.

Actually ANY F, no matter the octave will be raised a half step, so it's not really limited to the line or space the accidental first appears at.

John

[OnlyJerry]

Perfect explanations, guys. I understand it now. Thanks to everyone who replied

[Fergie Fulton]

Originally Posted by JTE

Actually ANY F, no matter the octave will be raised a half step, so it's not really limited to the line or space the accidental first appears at.

John

Thanks John, in my endevour to simplify it i underestimated that points importance?

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by JTE

Actually ANY F, no matter the octave will be raised a half step, so it's not really limited to the line or space the accidental first appears at.

John

Respectfully, I must say that it's a wrong statement (and a common misconception). It works that way for flats/sharps from key signature, but for accidentals (alterations different from those on the key signature), only that specific pitch within a measure is raised/lowered:



Should be understood as...



Then, a C major arpeggio in the key of D major should be notated like this:



EDIT: Here's an external source supporting my claim (just in case).

[germ_77]

Also just to point out sometimes near the beginning of the book he will add the natural symbol to notes that were sharps or flats in the next bar after.

He does it just to make sure you realize the notes are natural in the bar after even though it is not needed.

[bassybill]

I started typing out a response and then noticed Alvaro had beaten me to it. His post is spot on correct. So, I'l just link this for extra info:

Accidental (music) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)