For the rest of us, like myself, awareness of music concepts leads to creativity and some nice chops. If you are a natural and you have the “feel”, then you don’t need to know anything in this article or any music theory for that matter.

As a guitar player, you may think this is academic stuff not worth your time, but being aware of these concepts & techniques can only make you a better player. There are a lot of different music symbols and abbreviations that communicate how to play a song or composition. I cover 70+ music symbols and their meanings grouped by category: general, directions, time & rhythm, dynamics, and guitar chords and techniques, and ornamentation. If you have set up the AutoCorrect but you actually want to type “-flat,” “-sharp,” or “-natural” and override the automatic change, type what you want and then press Ctrl-Z (Undo) to change the symbol back into text.Understanding music symbols enables you to read all forms of music notation, but more importantly, makes you aware of concepts to incorporate into your playing and songwriting. Plus, it’s a good idea to just get in the habit of typing “F-sharp” so if you’re using a system that doesn’t have your special AutoCorrect set up, you will be left with that more correct version instead of a pound sign or letter b.

The problem with doing it that way is that you will have to create a separate AutoCorrect entry for each note (Ab, Bb, Cb, etc.). You might be tempted to set up your AutoCorrect to correct those. If you are in the habit of using the pound sign (#) and lowercase b for sharp and flat signs, shame on you for your unprofessional documents. In step 2, use “266f” for sharp and “266e” for natural, and in step 4 use “-sharp” and “-natural.”

Repeat steps 2-3 for the sharp and natural signs.Next to “With:,” make sure “Plain text” is selected. On the “AutoCorrect” tab, make sure “Replace text as you type” is checked. Click the “File” tab, then “Options.” A dialog box appears click “Proofing” at its left-hand side. The “266d” should turn into a flat symbol. Open up a new Microsoft Word 2016 document.No, the web version of Office doesn’t currently (2019) support this feature. How it will work Type this (plus space bar) Thanks to Ariel Detwiler for calling my attention to the need for an update. Here’s an update for Word 2016 on Windows 10. Ten years ago in 2009 I wrote a blog post about how to set up auto-complete sharp, flat, and natural symbols in Microsoft Word 2007 running on Windows Vista.

Music flat symbol