Accidental (music) - Courtesy Accidentals

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.

Publishers of jazz music and some atonal music sometimes eschew all courtesy accidentals.