Sharp
A sharp raises a note by a half step (a semitone). F sharp is the note a half step above F.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The sharp sign is written just before a note, on the same line or space, or in a group at the start of the staff as part of the key signature. A double sharp raises the note by two half steps, a whole step. A Natural cancels a sharp.
In the key signature or beside a note
Sharps and flats grouped at the start of each staff are the key signature: they apply to every note on those lines and spaces, in every octave, until the key changes. One written just before a note is an accidental. It applies to that note and to later notes on the same line or space until the next barline.
Raising a line, not a note
Gehrkens (1914) made a point of this: the sharp doesn’t raise anything. It makes a line or space of the staff stand for a pitch a half step higher than it otherwise would, so F sharp is a different note from F, as C is from B.
Look-alikes
The Natural also has two vertical strokes and two slanted bars, but its strokes are offset and don’t cross the bars into a grid.
More music symbols
Sources
- Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom: Accidentals, Robert Hutchinson, section 1.4, University of Puget Sound, Section 1.4
- Music Notation and Terminology, Karl W. Gehrkens, 1914, A. S. Barnes Company (Project Gutenberg), Chapter II, §18; Chapter III, §22, §24
- Primer of Facts about Music, M. G. Evans, 1909, Theodore Presser Co. (Internet Archive, University of Toronto), Q. 24–26
- Stainer and Barrett's Dictionary of Musical Terms, John Stainer and W. A. Barrett, new and revised edition, 1898, Novello (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library), Sharp
Last reviewed September 26, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research