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Note: New users are sometimes confused about accidentals and key signatures. In LilyPond, note names are the raw input; key signatures and clefs determine how this raw input is displayed. An unaltered note like c
means ‘C natural’, regardless of the key signature or clef. For more information, see Accidentals and key signatures.
A sharp pitch is made by adding is
to the note name,
and a flat pitch by adding es
. As you might expect,
a double sharp or double flat is made by adding
isis
or eses
. This syntax is derived from Dutch note
naming conventions. To use other names for accidentals, see
Note names in other languages.
ais1 aes aisis aeses
A natural will cancel the effect of an accidental or key signature. However, naturals are not encoded into the note name syntax with a suffix; a natural pitch is shown as a simple note name:
a4 aes a2
Quarter tones may be added; the following is a series of Cs with increasing pitches
ceseh1 ces ceh c cih cis cisih
Normally accidentals are printed automatically, but you may also
print them manually. A reminder accidental can be forced by
adding an exclamation mark !
after the pitch. A
cautionary accidental (i.e., an accidental within parentheses) can
be obtained by adding the question mark ?
after the
pitch. These extra accidentals can also be used to produce
natural signs.
cis cis cis! cis? c c c! c?
Accidentals on tied notes are only printed at the beginning of a new system:
cis1 ~ cis ~ \break cis
In accordance with standard typesetting rules, a natural sign is printed before a sharp or flat if a previous accidental on the same note needs to be canceled. To change this behavior, set the extraNatural property to "false" in the Staff context.
\relative { aeses'4 aes ais a \set Staff.extraNatural = ##f aeses4 aes ais a }
Music Glossary: sharp, flat, double sharp, double flat, Pitch names, quarter-tone.
Learning Manual: Accidentals and key signatures.
Notation Reference: Automatic accidentals, Musica ficta accidentals, Note names in other languages.
Snippets: Pitches .
There are no generally accepted standards for denoting
quarter-tone accidentals, so LilyPond's symbol does not conform to
any standard.
Next: Note names in other languages, Previous: Relative octave entry, Up: Writing pitches
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