Natural (music)

In modern Western music notation, a natural (♮) is a musical symbol that cancels a previous sharp or flat on a note in the written music. The natural indicates that the note is at its unaltered pitch.^[1]

♮
Natural (music)
In Unicode	U+266E (HTML : &#9838)

The natural symbol can be used as an accidental to cancel sharps or flats on an individual note. It may also be shown in a key signature to indicate that sharps or flats in a previous key signature are cancelled.

A note is referred to as 'natural' when the letter-name note (A, B, C, D, E, F, or G) is not modified by a flat or sharp (either from a key signature or an accidental). These notes correspond to the white keys on the keyboard of a piano. A key signature with no sharps or flats generally indicates A minor or C major, using all natural notes with no sharps or flats.

The natural sign is derived from a square b used to denote B♮ in medieval music (in contrast with the round b denoting B♭, which became the flat symbol).

Usage

Like all accidental markings, the natural symbol is written to the left of the note head and applies to subsequent notes of the same pitch through the remainder of the measure.

A note marked with a natural sign can be changed to a flat or sharp by simply applying the new accidental.

A natural sign (♮) cancels a flat or sharp from a previous note or key signature.

Sometimes these cancelling naturals at a key change are omitted, but they must be used if the new key has no sharps or flats.

Double natural

A double natural is a symbol that has two naturals (♮♮). It may be used to cancel a double flat or double sharp, but in modern notation a single natural sign (♮) is acceptable.^[2]

Similarly, a double flat or double sharp can been changed to a single flat or sharp with a simple ♭ or ♯, but older notation may use ♮♭, ♭♮, ♮♯ or ♯♮ instead. Triple sharps and triple flats are extremely rare, but may be canceled using the same notation options.^[3] When changing a flat to a sharp or vice-versa, the combined symbols ♮♯ or ♮♭ can be used.^[4]

Music notation software

In the music notation program Lilypond, naturals are used at a key signature change to cancel a flat or sharp from the previous key signature, but are not shown when the flat or sharp changes to double flat or double sharp. The following shows key changes from A flat major to F flat major to G flat major in Lilypond.

In the music notation editing program MuseScore, a software bug causes a new key signature to not display naturals when changing from a key that the user has created, even if the new key has no flats or sharps. The following example shows G-sharp major changing to C-major.^[5]

Unicode

The Unicode character MUSIC NATURAL SIGN '♮' (U+266E) should display as a natural sign. Its HTML entity is ♮. Other assigned natural signs are as follows:

• U+1D12E 𝄮 MUSICAL SYMBOL NATURAL UP
• U+1D12F 𝄯 MUSICAL SYMBOL NATURAL DOWN

See also

• Flat (music)
• Sharp (music)
• Accidental (music)
• Key signature