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 is a stylised lowercase "b" [1]. The Unicode character '♭' (U+266D) is the flat sign. Its HTML entity is ♭.
Under twelve tone equal temperament, C flat for instance is the same as, or enharmonically equivalent to, B natural, and G flat is the same as F sharp. Note that in any other tuning system, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist.
Double flats also exist, which look like 
and lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Less often (in for instance microtonal music notation) one will encounter half, or three-quarter, or otherwise altered flats. The Unicode character '𝄫' (U+1D12B) represents the double flat sign.
Although very uncommon and only used in modern classical music, a triple flat can sometimes be found. It lowers a note three semitones.
The note A flat is shown in musical notation in Figure 1, together with A double flat.
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.
An mnemonic that can be used to remember the order of the flats (B,E,A,D,G,C,F) is by taking the first letter of each word in the following sentences:
- Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father
- BEAD Gave Charlie Food
- Blanket Exploded And Dad Got Cold Feet.
- Big Enchiladas Always Drip Gooey Cheese First.
The same mnemonic can be used backwards for the order of sharps: Fat Cows Go Down And Eat Breakfast
Play an A and an A flat (help·info)
A quarter flat, indicating the use of quarter tones, may be marked with various symbols including a flat with a slash (
) or a reversed flat sign.
See also
References
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