Flat

For other uses, see Flat (disambiguation)}}}.

In music, flat means "lower in pitch." More specifically, in music notation, flat means "lower in pitch by a semitone (half step)," and has an associated symbol ( ), which looks like a lowercase "b"; the note A flat is shown in musical notation in Figure 1. The Unicode character '♭' (U+266D) can be used to display a flat sign.

Under equal temperament, C flat is the same as, or enharmonically equivalent to, B and F flat is the same as E. There also exist double-flats, which look like

and lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Less often one will encounter half, three-quarter, or otherwise altered flats.

In tuning, flat can also mean "slightly lower in pitch". If two simultaneous notes are slightly out of tune, the lower-pitched one (assuming the higher one is properly pitched) is said to be flat with respect to the other.

[Play an A and an A flat] ([Media helphelp]·[info])

Flat

See also