TRIAL LESSONUncategorized
A Complete Guide on Key Signatures
Jul
One of the most important things when starting to read music is to understand key signatures. Learn how they work and how to play key signatures on the piano with this tutorial.
What are scales and key signatures on piano
For understanding a key signature guide, first, we need to comprehend what are scales and key signatures. The collection of piano sharps and flats marked at the beginning of the piece and applied to that staff is called ‘key signature’. Every key signature corresponds to one major and one minor Scale.
That means that every Major Scale has a unique set of flats or sharps, which only shares with one Minor Scale. These pairs of keys are called ‘Relative Keys‘.
How to Identify the Key Signature
There are more than one ways to find the key signature.
The obvious is to read every accidental at the beginning of the piece. They are typically located on the right of the clef. However, a more practical way is to understand the logic of the ‘series of piano sharps and flats’.
What is the order of Piano Sharps and Flats?
The order in which the accidentals appear in the Key Signature is always the same.
The order of the sharps is: #F-C-G-D-A-E-B
The order of flats is: ♭B-E-A-D-G-C-F
(notice that they are the same backwards)
This means that when the Key Signature has only one sharp, it will always be F#, when it has two, F# C#, a key with 3 flats will be #F, C#, G#, and so on.
How To Work Out Key Signatures
There is a simple trick to know how to work out key signatures, which is the following mnemonic:
For the Sharps:
#Father-Charles-Goes-Down-And-Ends-Battle
And for the Flats:
♭Battle-Ends-And-Down-Goes-Charles’-Father
So, which key signature is pictured here?
We see three flats. So, Battle-Ends-And or ♭B-E-A!
How to find the Major Scale from the Key Signature
Now that we can recognize the key signatures, we can recognize the Major Scale that they indicate.
SHARPS:
The last sharp of this Key Signature is the ‘Leading Note‘ of the key.
The Leading Note is the 7th note of every Scale and it is always one semitone under the ‘Tonic‘, the first note of the key.
So for a C major, B is the Leading Note, and for G major, F#, etc.
Example:
Which major Scale has three sharps?
Three sharps: Father-Charles-Goes (#F-C-G), G# is the leading note of A major. So A major has three sharps!
FLATS:
Now, the penultimate flat in the key signature would be the key.
Example:
Which major Scale has two flats?
Two flats: Battle-Ends (♭B-E), B ♭ major is the Scale!
One exception to this rule is the single-flat key signature (B♭), which belongs to F major.
How to find the Key Signature from the Major Scale
To find the key signature of a scale, you will have to invert the method.
SHARPS:
All major scales that do not start on a flat have sharps in the key signature (except F major).
To find the Key Signature: locate the Leading Note and include all sharps of the Series up to that one.
Example:
What is the Key Signature of B major?
In the picture above, the leading Note is A#, so the key signature includes all the sharps up to that:
Father-Charles-Goes-Down-And
B major has a key signature of five sharps (#F-C-G-D-A)
FLATS:
All the scales that start with a flat (plus F major) have flats in the Key Signature.
To find the Key Signature: add a flat, after you locate the key in the Series.
Example:
What is the Key Signature of D♭ major?
We should locate D♭ and add one more flat, that way Battle-Ends-And-DOWN-Goes.
So D♭ major has a key signature of five flats (♭B-E-A-D-G)
For Minor Scales:
As we said above, every Key Signature corresponds to two ‘relative keys’.
In order to be able to find the relative minor, you need to go a minor third down (3 semitones) from the Relative Major.
C major – A minor, G major – E minor, B♭ major – G minor and so on.
How to find the Minor Scale that a Key Signature belongs to
You need to, first, find the relative major and then move down a minor third to the relative minor.
For example:
Which minor key has three flats?
3 flats: Battle-Ends-And, E♭ is the penultimate flat and our Major Scale.
One minor third down from E♭, it is C. Therefore, C minor has three flats (♭B-E-A)
How to find the Key Signature of a Minor Scale
We must make the trip backwards.
First, we must find the relative major, one minor third above.
Then, depending on the relative major, we will look for either flats or sharps.
For example: Which is the key signature of F minor?
F minor is relative to A♭ major, which has flats. Following the method, we find that both scales have keys with four flats (♭B-E-A-D).
Be Careful!
The additional accidentals that appear in Harmonic and Melodic Minor scales do not appear in the key signature, but rather during the piece.
So how many Key Signatures are there?
There are twelve different keys. Therefore we would expect twelve different key signatures.
But there is a catch! We use three Major Scales (and their relative minors) with two different names.
These Scales are B/C♭ major, F#/G♭ major and C#/D♭ major. They are considered to be Enharmonically identical, but they are notated differently.
We, therefore, have fifteen different key signatures, 7 sharps, 7 flats and one with none.
What is the pattern?
Looking at the Series of Sharps, we notice that every sharp is one fifth higher than the previous.
Looking at the Series of flats, we notice that every sharp is one fifth lower than the previous.
Similarly, the Scales themselves appear in that pattern. This creates what we call the Circle of Fifths.
In this famous clock-like representation, you can see all the Scales.
SUMMARY OF Key Signatures
To summarize the key points of the article on understanding key signatures and scales on the piano, the tutorial begins by defining what key signatures are and how they function. A key signature, comprised of sharps or flats, is placed at the beginning of a musical staff and affects all notes on that staff unless otherwise altered by accidentals (notes that deviate from the key signature). Each key signature correlates with a major and a minor scale, known as “relative keys,” which share the same set of accidentals.
Identifying Key Signatures: There are two primary ways to identify key signatures. First, by directly observing the flats or sharps at the beginning of the musical piece. Second, by recognizing the pattern and order in which these accidentals appear in all key signatures.
For sharps, the order is F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#. For flats, the order is B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭, F♭. Interestingly, the order of sharps and flats is a reverse mirror of each other. This knowledge helps in quickly determining how many sharps or flats a particular key signature has.
Mnemonics for Sharps and Flats: To remember these orders, mnemonics such as “Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle” for sharps and “Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles’ Father” for flats are useful. These help musicians easily recall the order of sharps or flats when encountering different key signatures.
Finding Major and Minor Scales: One key concept is the relationship between major scales and their key signatures. For sharps, the last sharp in the key signature is the “leading note,” which is one semitone below the tonic (the first note of the scale). For example, in G major (which has one sharp, F#), F# is the leading note, and G is the tonic.
For flats, the second-to-last flat in the key signature indicates the major scale. If a key signature has two flats (B♭ and E♭), the major scale is B♭ major.
There is an exception when there is only one flat (B♭) in the key signature, which represents F major.
Determining the Key Signature from the Scale: To determine the key signature of a specific major scale, musicians can reverse the process. For scales with sharps, the leading note is used to find how many sharps are in the key signature. For example, the leading note in B major is A#, so the key signature will have five sharps (F#, C#, G#, D#, A#). For scales with flats, adding a flat to the series identifies the key signature. For instance, the key signature for D♭ major will include five flats (B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭).
Relative Minors: Each major key signature corresponds to a relative minor, which is found by moving down a minor third (or three semitones) from the tonic of the major scale. For example, C major and A minor share the same key signature (no sharps or flats), and G major’s relative minor is E minor (one sharp).
Working Backwards from a Minor Scale: To find the key signature of a minor scale, it’s important to identify the relative major by moving up a minor third. Once the relative major is identified, the key signature of the major scale will correspond to that of the minor. For instance, F minor is relative to A♭ major, which has four flats in its key signature (B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭).
Exceptions for Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales: Harmonic and melodic minor scales introduce accidentals within a piece that do not appear in the key signature itself, as these accidentals are specific to how the minor scale is modified in these variations.
Total Key Signatures and Enharmonic Equivalents: There are fifteen key signatures in total, representing twelve unique keys. This is due to three pairs of enharmonic equivalents—B major and C♭ major, F# major and G♭ major, and C# major and D♭ major—where the keys sound identical but are written differently. This means that while there are twelve distinct keys, enharmonic notation brings the total number of key signatures to fifteen, with seven sharps, seven flats, and one key with no sharps or flats (C major and A minor).
The Circle of Fifths: Finally, the Circle of Fifths is introduced as a visual representation of key signatures. This clock-like diagram helps musicians see the relationship between different keys. Each step clockwise on the Circle of Fifths represents moving up by a fifth (for sharps), and each step counterclockwise represents moving down by a fifth (for flats). The pattern is crucial for understanding how key signatures evolve and relate to one another.
In summary, mastering key signatures and their associated scales is foundational for reading and playing music on the piano. By using patterns, such as the order of sharps and flats and the Circle of Fifths, musicians can quickly identify both major and minor key signatures, allowing them to perform and compose more effectively.