KEY SIGNATURES

WHY USE KEY SIGNATURES?

Key Signatures

When we're writing pieces of music using scales that have lots of sharps or flats, the music can get messy very quickly, and it can be easy to accidentally miss an accidental out and make a mistake.

It's much easier to use a key signature, which tells the musician to play in a particular key (in other words use a particular major scale). Key signatures are usually written at the start of a piece of music, and apply to the whole piece of music (or until a new key signature is introduced).

Look at the examples below. In the key of G Major, the key signature tells the musician to play every 'F' as an 'F Sharp'. There's no need to write in the accidental every time.

In F Major, the key signature tells the musician to play every B as a B-Flat.

G MAJOR

D MAJOR

F MAJOR

Bb Major

HOW KEY SIGNATURES WORK

It's a really good idea to learn how all of the major key signatures, and learn to identify them quickly and easily. Key Signatures give us a useful short-hand for how to write (and play) every major scale, and knowing your major scales is the secret to music theory. They are also really useful for sight-singing, sight-reading and a variety of other important musical skills. For a useful overview on key signatures, watch this video!

In summary, there are a total of fifteen key signatures; Seven Sharp keys, Seven Flat keys and C Major (no sharps or flats) the flats and sharps always get added to a key sign. To learn them all, you just need to remember the order in which sharps and flats are added to a key signature.

The order of the sharps are: F C G D A E B (Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle)

The order of the flats are: B E A D G C F (Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father)

If a key signature has three sharps, those sharps will be F, C and G (the first three sharps)

If a key signature has four flats, those flats will be B, E, A and D (The first four flats)

To work out how many sharps or flats there are in a particular major key, draw a line to the right of the C

F C I G D A E B

B E A D G C I F

Then add accidentals to the left of the line

F# C# I G D A E B

Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb I F

Next, starting to the right of the line, number each note from 1 to 7. When you get to the end, loop back to the beginning:

SHARPS:

F# C# I G D A E B

6 7 I 1 2 3 4 5

FLATS:

Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb I F

2 3 4 5 6 7 I 1

Using this method, you can quickly work out that the key of Eb has three flats, and that those flats are Bb, Eb, and Ab. The key of E has four sharps; F#, C#, G# and D#.

Here is a diagram with all of the possible key signatures: You can use this as a guide to help you complete the worksheets below.

WORKSHEET 1

WORKSHEET 2

DrawingMajorKeySignaturesWorksheet1.pdf

WORKSHEET 3

MajorScalesandKeySignatures.pdf

WORKSHEET 4

NEXT LESSON: MAJOR TRIADS

Page updated

Report abuse