Final answer:
In music theory, a natural sign is a symbol used to cancel previous accidentals or to denote a note as neither sharp nor flat. It 'resets' the note to its natural, original pitch.
Step-by-step explanation:
In music notation, a natural sign is a symbol used to cancel a previous accidental, or to explicitly denote a note as neither sharp nor flat. It essentially 'resets' the note to its natural, or original, pitch.
If a note has been marked as sharp (raised half a step) or flat (lowered half a step) in a piece of music, the natural sign informs the musician to play the note at its original pitch for that instance, overriding any previous accidental.
For example, let's say we're in the key of C Major. If a G# is indicated earlier in the measure and the composer wants you to play a natural G (not sharp or flat) later in the same measure, they would place a natural sign in front of the note. The natural sign only impacts the note it directly precedes within the same measure and does not carry into following measures.
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