This applies through the end of the piece or until another key signature is indicated. The order of flats in the key signatures of music notation, following the circle of fifths, is B ♭, E ♭, A ♭, D ♭, G ♭, C ♭ and F ♭ ( mnemonics for which include Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father and Before Eating A Doughnut Get Coffee First).ĭouble flats also exist, which look like (similar to two flats, ♭ ♭) and lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. In a key signature, a sharp or flat symbol on a line or space of the staff indicates that the note represented by that line or space is to be played a semitone higher (sharp) or lower (flat) than it would otherwise be played.

Furthermore, the verb flatten means to lower the pitch of a note, typically by a small musical interval.

If two simultaneous notes are slightly out-of-tune, the lower-pitched one (assuming the higher one is properly pitched) is 'flat' with respect to the other. The order of flats is the reverse of the order of sharps: B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, G flat, C flat, F flat. In intonation, flat can also mean 'slightly lower in pitch' (by some unspecified amount). To allow extended just intonation, composer Ben Johnston uses a sharp as an accidental to indicate a note is raised 70.6 cents (ratio 25:24), and a flat to indicate a note is lowered 70.6 cents. In any other tuning system, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist. Under twelve-tone equal temperament, D ♭ for instance is enharmonically equivalent to C ♯, and G ♭ is equivalent to F ♯.

What is the order of the flats?