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Hi

I was working on the Piece "Air on G String" and I notice notation errors that confuse me. On the third bar there is a natural sign on C# cancelling the # for that bar. Why do you use a natural sign again on the same bar? On the forth bar is the same, Why do you use a natural sign on D if it wasn't a sharp one. Same happen between the third and fourth bass bars. D is sharpen and when you go to the fourth bar a natural sign is used, why? you already change bars the sharp doesn't apply to the D anymore because of the fact that the bar is another.

It's seems that the accidentals that are not in the scale are applied through all the bars and that is wrong.

Please correct those errors because now all the song is confusing. I don't know how the sharps are used

Thanks

Dear Cpeniche,

Thank you for your message and inquiry. These are "courtesy accidentals". They are not there in error.

Courtesy accidentals

Although a barline is nowadays understood to cancel the effect of an accidental (except for a tied note), often publishers will use a courtesy accidental (also referred to as a cautionary accidental or a reminder accidental) as a reminder of the correct pitch if the same note occurs in the following measure. This usage varies, although a few situations are construed to require a courtesy accidental, such as

when the first note of a measure had an accidental applied to it in the previous measure
after a tie carries an accidental across a barline, when the same note appears again in the subsequent measure.

Other uses are inconsistently applied.

Courtesy accidentals are sometimes enclosed in parentheses to emphasize their nature as reminders.

Please see more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accide...esy_accidentals

Sincerely,

__________________
Julie Morrissey
customer support
Virtual Sheet Music, Inc.
http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com