This lesson teacheskey signatures, which are "automatic sharps
and flats" in written music. You will need these to read any music that's not
in the key of C major.
The sharps and flats in the different major scales follow
patterns which can help you remember them.
First, to review Lesson 17: Major Scale 1-8, here are the notes in
the different major scales, with the scales listed in "pitch order".
Ordered this way, the patterns of sharps and flats aren't easy to see:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
A♭
B♭
C
D♭
E♭
F
G
A♭
A
B
C♯
D
E
F♯
G♯
A
B♭
C
D
E♭
F
G
A
B♭
B
C♯
D♯
E
F♯
G♯
A♯
B
C
D
E
F
G
A
B
C
D♭
E♭
F
G♭
A♭
B♭
C
D♭
D
E
F♯
G
A
B
C♯
D
E♭
F
G
A♭
B♭
C
D
E♭
E
F♯
G♯
A
B
C♯
D♯
E
F
G
A
B♭
C
D
E
F
F♯
G♯
A♯
B
C♯
D♯
E♯
F♯
G♭
A♭
B♭
C♭
D♭
E♭
F
G♭
G
A
B
C
D
E
F♯
G
Next, below, is the list of major scales again, but with some changes to show
the patterns of sharps and flats:
We remove the "plain natural" notes to show just the sharps and flats;
We order the list of scales by how many sharps or flats they
have;
We order the sharps and flats in each scale to show how each scale
starts with the same sharps or flats as the scale above it, and
adds one new sharp or flat.
Scale
Sharps or Flats
C major
G major
F♯
D major
F♯
C♯
A major
F♯
C♯
G♯
E major
F♯
C♯
G♯
D♯
B major
F♯
C♯
G♯
D♯
A♯
F♯ major
F♯
C♯
G♯
D♯
A♯
E♯
F major
B♭
B♭ major
B♭
E♭
E♭ major
B♭
E♭
A♭
A♭ major
B♭
E♭
A♭
D♭
D♭ major
B♭
E♭
A♭
D♭
G♭
G♭ major
B♭
E♭
A♭
D♭
G♭
C♭
The sharps and flats in the above list are the sharps and flats in each key
signature! Next, we'll see how key signatures show these sharps and flats.
Key Signatures
A key signature is a set of sharps or flats placed on the
musical staff, and it means that certain notes should be
automatically sharped or flatted. The key signature is written at
the beginning of every line in traditional sheet music; but in jazz
charts, it's often only written at the beginning of the song.
Here's an example of a key signature, the one with one sharp
(F♯):
That single sharp is on the staff's F line. This tells you two things:
Any time you see an F note on this staff, it's actually an
F♯.
It also tells you the song's key:
What major scale has just this one sharp, F♯? The G major
scale.
What natural minor scale has that same single sharp? The
E natural minor scale (the relative minor of G major).
So, this key signature says that the song is either in the key of G
majoror the key of E minor.
Note, the key signature alone doesn't tell you which of these two
keys the song is in; you have to look at the actual notes and chords to
decide that.
Now, here's a key signature with an actual note:
The note above looks like an F, but it's actually an F♯
because of that key signature. Note that that single F♯ in the key
signature tells you to sharp all the F notes in the music, not just the
notes on that particular staff line.
Table of Key Signatures
There are only about 12 different key signatures. The sharps or flats are
always added in the same order, and on the same staff lines or spaces. Here
are the common key signatures, and the major and minor keys they go with:
