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All About
Key Signatures
A key signature tells us what key we're in. Key signatures are made up of sharps and flats and naturals. They appear at the beginning of the music, but can also appear in other parts of the music. You can see key signatures between the clef sign and the time signature.
When a sharp or flat appears in a key signature, all the notes on that line or space and all other notes with the same letter name are to be played sharp or flat. In this example a B flat appears in the key signature.
All three B's that
Sometimes different key signatures appear in different parts of the same piece of music. Composers like to change the key to make the music sound more interesting. A piece might start out in the key of G and end up in the key of B flat. A key signature creates a tonal center. That means your ear is drawn to certain notes in the key. In the key of F, your ear wants you to go to the note F. In the key of G sharp, your ear leads you to G sharp. Think of baseball when you think of a tonal center. The batter begins at home plate. His job is to go around all the basses and return to home plate to score. The tonal center of music is like home plate; we want the music to return to its tonal center. Returning to the tonal center gives us the feeling that our musical journey has ended. Sharps and flats that appear in a key signature must be written in order. Here's an easy way to remember the order of the flats and sharps: B, E, A, D, G, C, F are the order of the flats. The first four flats spell BEAD. That's easy to remember. F, C, G, D, A, E, B are the order of the sharps. Try this memory trick to remember the order of the sharps:: Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds. Did you notice that the order of flats is exactly the same as the sharps, except backwards? Memorize this pattern of letters backwards and forwards to remember the order of the flats and sharps.
It is rare that you will see key signatures with lots of sharps or flats. That's because music with few flats or sharps is easier to play and write than music with lots of sharps or flats. Here are the flat key signatures, in order:
Here are the sharp key signatures, in order::
Did you notice that every key signature had two different names? Every major key has a relative minor key. Music written in minor keys are often thought to sound sad or scary. Music written in a major key usually sounds happier than music in a minor key. But this is not always true. Music in a minor key can also sound happy and music in a major key can sound sad or scary. It takes practice to tell if the music you hear is written in a major or minor key. The more you listen to music, the better you will become at identifying major and minor keys. Listen to In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg. Is it in a major or minor key? Listen to Funeral March by Frederic Chopin. Is it in a major or minor key? Listen to Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream by Mendelssohn. Is it in a major or minor key? Listen to Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy by Tchaikovsky. It is in a major or minor key? All of these pieces began in the minor key. Did you hear that sometimes the music you just heard changed from the minor to the major key and back to the minor key? It happened in Scherzo. Listen to Scherzo again and try to identify the passages in the major key. Check back a bit later to hear examples of music in major keys. Accidentals are flats, sharps,
and naturals that are written to the left of the note.
Accidentals and key signatures are alike because they both use flats, sharps, and naturals. Keys signatures last the entire song. Accidentals last only one measure. Key signature flats, sharps, and naturals are written at the beginning of the music. Accidental flats, sharps, and naturals are written next to the note, on the left side. Now you know the difference between key signatures and accidentals. Back to top |
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Capistrano Elementary School |
Capistrano School
This
is a sharp. It raises the pitch of a note by 1/2 step.
This
is a flat. It lowers the pitch of a note by 1/2 step.
This is a
natural. It cancels the sharp or flat and returns the note to its
original pitch.
appear on the staff are played as B flat.
In this
example the second note is an accidental. The note G is
changed to a G sharp. The last note is also a G sharp even
though it does not have a sharp written to the left of it. All the G's
that come after the first accidental in this measure that are on the same place
on the staff are played as G sharp.