Key Signatures
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1music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush
Key Signatures
b
b
A
B E A D
#
if you start writing major
f c g
scales and pay attention to
A
the accidentals that occur,
you are going to start
b
b
noticing a pattern...
B E
b
#
for example look at the flat
b
f c g d a
keys, starting with the key
that has one flat, all the
way through the key with
b
b
seven flats: the flats accrue
c
B E A D G C F
in a specific order.
same with the sharp keys!
n
c
so if you look for a key that
has only a d flat, you won’t
#
#
find it: if a key has a d flat,
f c g d a e b
c
it must also have a b flat,
an e flat and an a flat!
b
b
d
B E A D G
since writing an entire piece in
c sharp major would have
#
been a sure-fire way to get
f c
d
carpal tunnel syndrome with
all the sharps involved,
b
composers pretty quickly came
b
up with a way to simplify things:
B E A
e
key signatures.
#
a key signature is a group of
accidentals placed at the
f c g d
e
beginning of every line of music,
just to the right of the clef,
b
that instructs the performer
to apply those accidentals to
f
B
every corresponding note in
the piece unless specified
#
#
otherwise.
f c g d a e
f
for example, this key
signature indicates that
every f, c, and g in the
b
b
piece should be sharped,
regardless of octave!
g
B E A D G C
#
oh, and another thing: the
accidentals have to be placed
g
f
in the correct order, and
they need to follow a
particular pattern of
placement that varies slightly
depending on the clef being used!
if you deviate from this, you, as
a composer, will be mocked!
tenor clef sharps! what’s
your problem? you need to
conform!
ha ha... never!
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