Lesson 5, Topic 1
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KEY-SIGNATURES- Major Keys

Orchville June 24, 2023
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Imagine you have a big treasure chest filled with colorful musical notes. Each note has its own special sound, and they all work together to make beautiful music. But sometimes, we need a way to organize these notes and make it easier to play music. That’s where key signatures come in!

Key signatures are like secret codes that tell us which musical notes to use when playing a song. They help us understand the special “key” or musical flavor of a piece of music. Just like a treasure map, key signatures guide us on our musical journey.

Let’s imagine we have a song in the key of C major. This means that the treasure chest of musical notes is centered around the note C. We call this note the “tonic” or home note of the key. All the other notes in the C major key sound happy and bright when played together with C.

Key signatures are symbols placed at the beginning of each staff, indicating the sharps or flats that define the key of a piece of music.

The purpose of a key signature is to provide a visual reminder to the performer of which sharps or flats are consistently present in the scale or key of the composition. By including the key signature, composers and arrangers avoid the need to notate sharps or flats individually throughout the piece whenever they occur.

With the exception of C major and A minor, all other keys require the use of sharps or flats in their key signatures to establish their tonality.

In total, there are 15 major key signatures. The key of C major stands apart as it has no sharps or flats in its key signature. The remaining 14 key signatures can encompass a range of 1 to 7 sharps or flats, providing a distinct tonal identity for each major key.

Major Key Signatures using Sharps

Major Key Signatures using Flats

You need to memorize the order of sharps and flats with regards to key signatures in music notation.

The sequence of sharps follows a specific order: F, C, G, D, A, E, B. A helpful mnemonic to remember this order is “Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle.” This phrase can assist in recalling the sequence of sharps easily.

On the other hand, the order of flats is the reverse of the order of sharps: B, E, A, D, G, C, F. A reversed mnemonic of the former works for this as “Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles’ Father.”

Another approach is by noting that the first four letters spell out “BEAD,” while we commonly associate the last three letters, G, C, and F, with the term “Greatest Common Factor” in elementary math education.

The circle of fifth approach

To aid in learning the relationship between the order of keys, sharps, and flats, the concept of the circle of fifths can be employed. Moving clockwise along the circle, each key signature ascends by one sharp, representing an increase of a fifth interval (e.g., C to G: C=1, D=2, E=3, F=4, and G=5 ). Conversely, moving counterclockwise along the circle, each key signature descends by one flat, representing a decrease of a fifth interval. Understanding the circle of fifths can provide a useful visual reference for grasping the connection between key signatures and the order of sharps and flats.

Recognizing Key Signatures

Although it is recommended to memorize key signatures, you can utilize the following approach to identify major key signatures based on the presence of sharps or flats in the key signature.

  1. For key signatures with sharps: Ascend a half step from the last sharp to determine the key. For example, if the key signature has the sharps F♯, C♯, and G♯, you would go up a half step from the last sharp (G♯) to find that the key is A major.
  2. For key signatures with flats: The second-to-last flat corresponds to the key. For instance, if the key signature contains the flats Bâ™­, Eâ™­, and Aâ™­, the second-to-last flat (Eâ™­) indicates that the key is Eâ™­ major.