Shortcut to Keys and Key Signature
KEY SIGNATURES are derived from the flats or sharps found in a scale and each scale produces a unique combination of sharps or flats as its key signature.
It depicts the pattern and number of sharps or flats that each major or minor key contains.
As a musician, it’s highly important to study and understand how to derive the key based on Key signature from a written piece of music, and what is the key signature of different keys.
The good thing is that there are a number of easy ways to identify and remember this.
That’s because Sharps and Flats occur in a particular sequence for Major Scales, and once you know how to identify the key signature for major scale, or identify the key based on the key signature of a major scale, you can easily translate it to understanding the relative natural minor scale.
I’m assuming that you must be already familiar with the concept of what Keys are. If not, then the simplest way to think of it is like the Home base for any song or piece of Music. I’m also assuming that you are familiar with the concept of major scales and how to build it from any given note. Also that you have a basic understanding of reading music from a staff.
If you are not familiar with any of this information, then I recommend you approach a highly skilled and experienced guitar teacher or musician to help you understand, apply and easily use this information to your advantage in any musical situation.
We’ll move further towards understanding how these things are applied in music, and along the way, strengthen our understanding of key signatures.
You must be knowing that applying the below formula (Pattern of distances between notes in a scale) to the various Naturals and Accidentals help to create Major Scales starting from each of these notes.
E.g. The C Major Scale built using the formula:
Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Whole-Half
gives us the notes C D E F G A B C whereas, if we apply the same formula to the note E we get the notes E F# G# A B C# D# E.
Although some notes like E A and B are common to both scales, but the Natural notes F G C and D are raised by one half step in the key of E major.
Now I want you to pick up the Guitar or whatever instrument you play, and play the two scales anywhere on the Neck, one after the other. You’ll observe that the C Major Scale makes you feel complete only when you end it on the note C, whereas the E major scale would sound complete only when it ends on the note E.
You can also refer the audio examples below.
Ex 1: C Major Scale that starts and ends on the note C
It depicts the pattern and number of sharps or flats that each major or minor key contains.
As a musician, it’s highly important to study and understand how to derive the key based on Key signature from a written piece of music, and what is the key signature of different keys.
The good thing is that there are a number of easy ways to identify and remember this.
That’s because Sharps and Flats occur in a particular sequence for Major Scales, and once you know how to identify the key signature for major scale, or identify the key based on the key signature of a major scale, you can easily translate it to understanding the relative natural minor scale.
I’m assuming that you must be already familiar with the concept of what Keys are. If not, then the simplest way to think of it is like the Home base for any song or piece of Music. I’m also assuming that you are familiar with the concept of major scales and how to build it from any given note. Also that you have a basic understanding of reading music from a staff.
If you are not familiar with any of this information, then I recommend you approach a highly skilled and experienced guitar teacher or musician to help you understand, apply and easily use this information to your advantage in any musical situation.
We’ll move further towards understanding how these things are applied in music, and along the way, strengthen our understanding of key signatures.
You must be knowing that applying the below formula (Pattern of distances between notes in a scale) to the various Naturals and Accidentals help to create Major Scales starting from each of these notes.
E.g. The C Major Scale built using the formula:
Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Whole-Half
gives us the notes C D E F G A B C whereas, if we apply the same formula to the note E we get the notes E F# G# A B C# D# E.
Although some notes like E A and B are common to both scales, but the Natural notes F G C and D are raised by one half step in the key of E major.
Now I want you to pick up the Guitar or whatever instrument you play, and play the two scales anywhere on the Neck, one after the other. You’ll observe that the C Major Scale makes you feel complete only when you end it on the note C, whereas the E major scale would sound complete only when it ends on the note E.
You can also refer the audio examples below.
Ex 1: C Major Scale that starts and ends on the note C
Ex: 2 E Major Scale that starts and ends on the note E
If you listen carefully, you’ll realize that you felt like the music had reached its climax.
It felt like you came back home when you hear the last notes in both the examples.
Now lets interchange the Last notes of both the Major Scales and see the difference.
Ex 3: C Major Scale ending on the note E
It felt like you came back home when you hear the last notes in both the examples.
Now lets interchange the Last notes of both the Major Scales and see the difference.
Ex 3: C Major Scale ending on the note E
Ex 3, you’ll not feel that the last note is out of place. That’s because the Note E is part of the C Major Scale.
But you also don’t feel like the Music has reached the climax. It feels like there’s more to come.
Ex 4: E Major Scale ending on the note C
But you also don’t feel like the Music has reached the climax. It feels like there’s more to come.
Ex 4: E Major Scale ending on the note C
In Ex 4, not only does it not sound like reaching a musical climax, but also the last note sounds completely out of place, and you guessed it right. That’s because the note C doesn’t appear in the E Major scale, the correct note from the E Major scale is one half step above C i.e. C#
So simply put, the Key Center or the Key Signature is derived from the Sharps and Flats that occur in a particular piece of Music.
Just like multiplication tables need to be memorized, major and minor scales and key signatures that they generate have to be memorized.
A key signature will never have both sharps and flats in it simultaneously.
The order of sharps and flats in a key signature comes in a predictable sequence. The key signature order of sharps is F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#
If you remember this order, then determining the Key of the music becomes easier. The simplest trick to use is below.
For Keys with Sharps :
Starting from the Key of C major, the order of the natural and sharp keys in the circle of fifths would be: C, G, D, A, E, B and F# and the order of sharps would be as below.
Key
No of Sharps
What are the sharps?
C Major/A minor
0 #s and 0 bs
NA
G Major/E minor
1 #
F#
D Major/B minor
2 #s
F#, C#
A Major/F# minor
3 #s
F#, C#, G#
E Major/C# minor
4 #s
F#, C#, G#, D#
B Major/G# minor
5 #s
F#, C#, G#, D#, A#
F# Major/D# minor
6 #s
F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#
In written Music, the key signature is located at the start of the Musical Staff next to the Clef sign, like below is the Key Signature for A Major or F# minor.
So simply put, the Key Center or the Key Signature is derived from the Sharps and Flats that occur in a particular piece of Music.
Just like multiplication tables need to be memorized, major and minor scales and key signatures that they generate have to be memorized.
A key signature will never have both sharps and flats in it simultaneously.
The order of sharps and flats in a key signature comes in a predictable sequence. The key signature order of sharps is F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#
If you remember this order, then determining the Key of the music becomes easier. The simplest trick to use is below.
For Keys with Sharps :
Starting from the Key of C major, the order of the natural and sharp keys in the circle of fifths would be: C, G, D, A, E, B and F# and the order of sharps would be as below.
Key
No of Sharps
What are the sharps?
C Major/A minor
0 #s and 0 bs
NA
G Major/E minor
1 #
F#
D Major/B minor
2 #s
F#, C#
A Major/F# minor
3 #s
F#, C#, G#
E Major/C# minor
4 #s
F#, C#, G#, D#
B Major/G# minor
5 #s
F#, C#, G#, D#, A#
F# Major/D# minor
6 #s
F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#
In written Music, the key signature is located at the start of the Musical Staff next to the Clef sign, like below is the Key Signature for A Major or F# minor.
See how it shows 3 sharps, F#, C# and G#.
The Key of the music based on the key signature for a sharp Key, is one half-step above the last sharp in the key signature. (The sharp that is farthest to the right on the staff)
For example, if the key signature is F#, C#, G#, then the last sharp is G#. And a half-step up from G# is A. So the key of the Music is A.
For Keys with Flats:
Starting from the Key of Gb major, the order of the flat keys in the circle of fifths would be:
Gb, Db, Ab, Eb, Bb, and F
The order of flats in these keys would be:
Key
No of Flats
What are the flats?
Gb Major/Eb minor
6
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb
Db Major/Bb minor
5
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb
Ab Major/F minor
4
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db
Eb Major/C minor
3
Bb, Eb, Ab
Bb Major/G minor
2
Bb, Eb
F Major/D minor
1
Bb
Pay attention to how the order of sharps keeps increasing and the order of flats decreases in number chronologically when following the circle of fifths.
Also, the new flat key in the circle of fifths, is the new flat that appeared in the previous key if we look at the order of increasing flats. E.g. Bb is the flat that appears in the Key of F Major, and it also is our new flat key in the order of increasing flats along the circle of fifths. Understanding this information will help you remember the which key contains how many flats and what are they.
For identifying the key based on the key signature, look at the flat sign on the staff that is 2nd from the far right, which is the key of the music.
Look at the below key signature that contains 5 flats.
The Key of the music based on the key signature for a sharp Key, is one half-step above the last sharp in the key signature. (The sharp that is farthest to the right on the staff)
For example, if the key signature is F#, C#, G#, then the last sharp is G#. And a half-step up from G# is A. So the key of the Music is A.
For Keys with Flats:
Starting from the Key of Gb major, the order of the flat keys in the circle of fifths would be:
Gb, Db, Ab, Eb, Bb, and F
The order of flats in these keys would be:
Key
No of Flats
What are the flats?
Gb Major/Eb minor
6
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb
Db Major/Bb minor
5
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb
Ab Major/F minor
4
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db
Eb Major/C minor
3
Bb, Eb, Ab
Bb Major/G minor
2
Bb, Eb
F Major/D minor
1
Bb
Pay attention to how the order of sharps keeps increasing and the order of flats decreases in number chronologically when following the circle of fifths.
Also, the new flat key in the circle of fifths, is the new flat that appeared in the previous key if we look at the order of increasing flats. E.g. Bb is the flat that appears in the Key of F Major, and it also is our new flat key in the order of increasing flats along the circle of fifths. Understanding this information will help you remember the which key contains how many flats and what are they.
For identifying the key based on the key signature, look at the flat sign on the staff that is 2nd from the far right, which is the key of the music.
Look at the below key signature that contains 5 flats.
The flat that’s 2nd from the right is a Db, and hence the key of the music is either Db Major or Bb minor.
You can verify from our above table, that the key that contains 5 flats is Db Major or Bb Minor
What should you do with this information ?
Important:
Don’t assume that you are done by reading through once, this information is critical for becoming a highly skilled musician and you need to be knowing this like the back of your hand.Do the assignments mentioned here as many number of times as possible and you’ll begin to see massive progress in your musical knowledge and understanding. You can practice the assignments anywhere and you don’t need your instrument for this.
About The Author:Dhanesh Sarangadharan is a certified guitar teacher in Pune, Maharashtra India, who is passionate about helping students progress faster towards their guitar playing and musical ambitions.
You can verify from our above table, that the key that contains 5 flats is Db Major or Bb Minor
What should you do with this information ?
- Memorize the pattern of Sharps and Flats in Music along the circle of fifths. Refer the tables in this article for help.
- Write down the Major Scales of the following Keys in the below order. C G D A E B F# Gb Db Ab Eb Bb F and note down how many sharps are there in each Key and what are they. Do this as many times as possible.
- Memorize how to find out the Key that you are in by looking at the Sharps or flats in the piece of Music.
- Create small cards using card paper, on 1 side you right the Key’s like C G D A E B F# and on the other side write the no of sharps or flats and what they are. This will be handy reference material for you. Just doing the exercise will benefit a lot.
Important:
Don’t assume that you are done by reading through once, this information is critical for becoming a highly skilled musician and you need to be knowing this like the back of your hand.Do the assignments mentioned here as many number of times as possible and you’ll begin to see massive progress in your musical knowledge and understanding. You can practice the assignments anywhere and you don’t need your instrument for this.
About The Author:Dhanesh Sarangadharan is a certified guitar teacher in Pune, Maharashtra India, who is passionate about helping students progress faster towards their guitar playing and musical ambitions.