Template:Music/doc

Music renders Western music notation of various types into Wikipedia and improves cross-browser support for music symbols. Per Manual of Style (music), this template (or the terms "flat", etc.) should be used in preference to the lowercase letter "b" and the number sign (#).

The images used here are categorized at commons:Category:Template:Music, so if you change an image used please try to remember to update the categorization.

Accidentals
The template correctly renders Unicode sharps (♯), flats (♭), and natural signs (♮) in Internet Explorer which would otherwise display empty squares unless a full Unicode font is chosen in its Preferences. The choice of fonts also improves the rendering in other browsers on Microsoft Windows such as Mozilla Firefox. See the tables below to compare the results in your current browser. The template makes use of SVG to display double flat (𝄫), double sharp (𝄪), and microtonal signs since the corresponding Unicode characters are not widely supported.

The C♯ crops up very early in Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E♭.
 * Sample text

Notes and rests
Some browsers and typefaces support  (&#x2669;) and   (&#x266a;) for quarter and eighth notes, as well as   (&#x266b;) and   (&#x266c;) for beamed eighth-note and sixteenth-note pairs respectively, but since the display of these characters does not match any of the other (non-supported) notes and rests, this template does not use these characters.

In place of the single whole note, Chopin writes  ♩ , completely changing the profile of the music.
 * Sample text

Clefs
Note that there is no graphical distinction between treble clef and G-clef; alto clef, tenor clef and C-clef; bass clef and F-clef. The names preserve a difference in meaning and make the caption text (for screen readers) different.

Time signatures
For a general time signature, use. This makes use of Template:Time signature, which should not be used on its own.

Scale degrees
Scale degrees are often represented as Arabic numerals with a hat on them and thus the root of a scale is undefined.

A descending tetrachord could be written as undefined-undefined-undefined-undefined.
 * Sample text

Chord symbols

 * Sample text:
 * vii7 becomes vii7 in B♭ minor by raising the G♭ to G♮.


 * III becomes III in G♯ minor by raising the F♯ to F.


 * The F♯7 is used to great effect in the last measure of the piece.

Key signatures
Key signatures must be typed in using the names of the articles themselves on keys. Note that there is no visual difference between the major and minor key signatures, but the alt text is different.

Changing the size
Most symbols generated by this template, including double flats and sharps, notes, rests and key signatures, use images, as corresponding Unicode characters either don't exist or are not supported by all browsers. Unlike characters, images don't scale along with the surrounding text. To change the size of an image, to match the font size of the text in which it is placed, use the size parameter. Example:
 * &rarr; G𝄫