Key Signatures:

What are key signatures?: In Western music we use 12 different notes/pitches that are played across various octaves but musicians tend not to use all of them in a musical piece. Musicians use key signatures to show other musicians what notes to include during the music.

Key signatures are represented by sharps and flats and by reading it musicians can tell what notes should be used in the piece to create a constant harmony and also what the piece is going to sound like.

How to read a key signature: In order to understand how key signatures work a musician must familiarize themselves with the circle of fifths. This diagram (shown on the left) contains the number of sharps and flats in a major key and it's minor counterpart.

Major and Minor Keys: Every major key has a minor counterpart. This can be worked out by count down three semitones from the major tonic. For example C major has the relative minor of A as A is three semitones down from C (the tonic).

Which accidentals are in which key?: The order of sharps and flats in a key signature can be remembered with two mnemonics.

Sharps: Father Christmas Gave Dad An Electric Blanket

Flats: Blanket Explodes And Dad Gets Cold Feet

Each word represents the accidental and by counting from left to right you can easily determine which accidentals are going to be used. Because of this musicians don't write down that accidnetals on the music as it says in the key signature that they are to be played instead of their natural counter part. For example if we are in the key of G major we have 1 sharp which is F sharp. Any F's that are written on the music will be F sharps unless indicated by the use of the natural symbol (see Unit 1 Lesson 7).

Example:

Here is the opening section of I'm Still Standing by Elton John. The key signature has been highlighted.

In order to determine the key signature we have to look at the number of flats. We have 5 flats in the key signature meaning that we are either in D flat major or B flat minor.

The five flats are B, E, A, D and G.

In order to determine whether we are in a major or a minor key we have to look at the first note/chord (remember that the accidentals are already written in).

As you can see the first chord is a B flat minor meaning that we are in B flat minor.

Why do we need key signatures?:

Key signatures are important for musicians to identify what notes they can use whilst they are playing to make constant harmony. It also allows for musicians to easily read the music without having to constantly check for accidentals. It also helps the musician know whether they are in a major or a minor tonality and can help influence their playing. Without key signatures music would be full of accidnetals and it would be very confusing to read. On the other hand it would be easier to read music without remember which notes are accidentals.