Music Fundamentals A Balanced Approach

Enharmonic Spellings

All notes have at least two letter names called enharmonic spellings. Enharmonic pitches sound the same but
have different names. Enharmonics may be compared to homonyms in English, words that sound the same, but
have different meaning and spelling. For example, the words “ate” and “eight” are homonyms: the two words
are pronounced the same, but have different meaning and spelling.
Two examples of enharmonic pitches are given below.

• F sharp and G flat are enharmonic names for the same black key.


• B sharp and C are enharmonic names for the same white key.


• Later in this module we will discuss all possible “spellings” and their uses.

Theory Trainer

Exercise 4bFind white/black keys on the keyboard.

Exercise 4

Write the enharmonic spellings for the keys in the boxes below. The first answer is given.

92

1.

8.

3. 6.5.

2. 4. 7.

#

Db

C

MODULE 4

F G B B

C

F

G

b

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