you might want to understand how to read music in keys other than C major.
in order to do this you’ve got to be able to identify key signatures.
key signature is…(from wikipedia)
In musical notation, a key signature is a series of sharp or flat symbols placed on the staff, designating notes that are to be consistently played one semitone higher or lower than the equivalent natural notes unless otherwise altered with anaccidental. Key signatures are generally written immediately after the clef at the beginning of a line of musical notation, although they can appear in other parts of a score, notably after a double bar.
and now my guide to reading, writing, and understanding key signatures:
READING AND WRITING KEY SIGNATURES
why this is important –
if you want to read music,
you’ll need to know how to determine the key of the song, based on the key signature
if you want to write music,
you’ll need to know how to write a key signature, based on the sharps or flats in that key.
keep this in mind, because if you are not able to read and write key signatures by the end of this lesson,
you have missed the point.
what is an accidental?
when it comes to reading and writing key signatures,
an accidental is a note with a Flat (b) or a Sharp (#),
technically there is also an accidental known as a natural
but don’t worry about that for this lesson.
question:
but what do accidentals mean on a key signature?
and where are they added if you want to write music that requires a key signature?
answer: the accidental furthest to the right on any given key signature will be the determining factor
in what key is indicated in the key signature
BEFORE GETTING TO THE QUICK AND EASY WAY TO Read and Write Key Signatures,
you’ve got to memorize one pattern that you’ll see recurring in this lesson.
What is the Pattern? the order of sharps and flats:
the Order of Sharps and Flats
memorize this:
the pattern of BEAD.GCF (for FLATS)
and
it’s reflection FCG.DAEB (for SHARPS)
it’s the one thing you want to memorize to make sense out of all of this.
here’s why you want to memorize BEAD.GCF,
look at the following chart,
it is each Flat -and- Sharp note in the order that it is added.
[you'll notice that the BEAD.GCF pattern runs from top to bottom with Flats
and the pattern runs from bottom to top with the Sharps]:
FLATS number of accidentals added SHARPS
|
n/a |
0 (the key of C has no sharps or flats) |
n/a |
|
Bb |
1 |
F# |
|
Eb |
2 |
C# |
|
Ab |
3 |
G# |
|
Db |
4 |
D# |
|
Gb |
5 |
A# |
|
Cb |
6 |
E# |
|
Fb |
7 |
B# |
before delving into to the background of all of this information: let’s learn
The quickest route to determining (reading) the key signature:
this diagram shows two different keys:
the one on the left is the key of C# and the one to the right is Cb
how do i know this?
here’s the quick/easy rule:
-for the Sharps (on the left there), fret or play that last sharp that you see,
in this case you’ve got B# (which is actually the same as C),
if you go up one pitch higher on the fretboard or a keyboard, you’d get the pitch C#,
every time you see a key signature with any amount of Sharps in it,
just play the note above it and you’ve got your key
-for the Flats (on the right in the diagram), just look on the key signature itself,
in the case of the Flat key above, Fb is the last flat indicated, so look to the left of that flat
to determine the key, it is Cb.
the only exception is that if Bb was the last flat indicated,
you’d look to the left and find nothing, so just remember that that key would be ‘F’
take a look at the other keys to make sure that this concept makes sense:
*side note*
the advantage that a guitar player has in reading music is that, once you memorize the major scale,
you can treat the notes as distances from each other, and just pretend you are playing in the key of C
how to Write key signatures:
here’s the quick/easy rule:
WRITING a FLAT KEY’s Key Signature…write in
all of the flats up through and including the name of the key you are writing your song in,
in the BEAD.GCF order
-plus-
also write in the one flat that comes AFTER they key of your song in the BEAD.GCF order.
for example, if you are writing a song in the key of Cb, then you’ve got:
all of the flats up through and including your key (in this case, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb)
and then the one that comes after it, Fb
WRITING a SHARP KEY’s Key Signature…think about what key you want to write your song in,
and go down one note from that note, write in that sharp and all sharps that come before it,
in the reverse of BEAD.GCF, which would be FCG.DAEB
for example, if your song is in the key of C#, you are going to write in
the sharp one fret below that note (which would be B#)
and all of the sharps that come before it in the order of sharps
(which would be F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, along with the B#) in that order on the staff.
and now that you know the quick and easy way to read and write the key signatures,
time to get back to understanding how to Write and understand key signatures:
Let’s fill in that chart from earlier to make more sense of it
by adding in the names of those keys in the middle column,
and a little tip about which accidentals (flats and sharps) are being added (further explanation is located under the chart):
FLATS the key of the song and number of accidentals added SHARPS
|
n/a |
0 (the key of C has no sharps or flats) |
n/a |
|
Bb (Bb is the 1st flat and is the only flat in the key of F) |
(the key of F has 1 flats) 1 (the key of G has 1 sharp) |
F# (F# is the 1st sharp and is the only sharp in the key of G) |
|
Eb (and the above flat) |
(the key of Bb has 2 flats) 2 (the key of D has 2 sharps) |
C# (and the above sharp) |
|
Ab (and the above flats) |
(the key of Eb has 3 flats) 3 (the key of A has 3 sharps) |
G# (and the above sharps) |
|
Db (and the above flats) |
(the key of Ab has 4 flats) 4 (the key of E has 4 sharps) |
D# (and the above sharps) |
|
Gb (and the above flats) |
(the key of Db has 5 flats) 5 (the key of B has 5 sharps) |
A# (and the above sharps) |
|
Cb (and the above flats) |
(the key of Gb has 6 flats) 6 (the key of F# has 5 sharps) |
E# (and the above sharps) |
|
Fb (and the above flats) |
(the key of Cb has 7 flats) 7 (the key of C# has 7 sharps) |
B# (and the above sharps) |
in other words, the key of C has no sharps or flats,
the key of G has 1 sharp, the key of F has 1 flat
the key of D has 2 sharps, the key of Bb has 2 flats
which FLAT or SHARP do we add?
again,
notice that with FLATs, the BEAD.GCF pattern runs from top to bottom
and with the SHARPS, the BEAD.GCF pattern runs from bottom to top
for the FLATs,
just refer to the note above that Flat in the above chart,
for example the key of Eb, has an Eb and a Bb
the key of Ab has an Eb, and a Bb as well,
the key of Fb has Fb, Cb, Gb, Db, Ab, Eb, and Bb
the only exception is the key of F which has the 1st flat, which is Bb
-and-
for the SHARPS,
as with flats you will also refer to the Sharps above it in the chart,
for example, the key of D has C#, and F#
the key of A has G#, C#, and F#
and the key of C# has the B#, E#, A#, D#, G#, C#, F#
review of the order of Flats and Sharps:
so, the order of Flats is: Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, Fb
and the order of Sharps is: F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#
the corresponding keys are:
for least amount of flats to most: F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, Fb
for least amount of sharps to most: G, D, A, E, B, F#, C#
now you may see a bit of that BEAD.GCF pattern in there,
but to use that pattern to try and memorize which keys have the least or most accidentals,
would only be beneficial to a point.
so just to drive the point home so that you can see how many flats and sharps each key has here are two final charts,
one for the Flat keys and one for the Sharp keys.
the FLAT keys how many flats it has which Flats they are
|
C |
0 flats |
n/a |
|
F |
1 flat |
Bb |
|
Bb |
2 flats |
Bb, Eb |
|
Eb |
3 flats |
Bb, Eb, Ab |
|
Ab |
4 flats |
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db |
|
Db |
5 flats |
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb |
|
Gb |
6 flats |
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb |
|
Cb |
7 flats |
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Eb, Cb, Fb |
the SHARP keys how many sharps it has which Sharps they are
|
C |
0 sharps |
n/a |
|
G |
1 sharps |
F# |
|
D |
2 sharps |
F#, C# |
|
A |
3 sharps |
F#, C#, G# |
|
E |
4 sharps |
F#, C#, G#, D# |
|
B |
5 sharps |
F#, C#, G#, D#, A# |
|
F# |
6 sharps |
F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E# |
|
C# |
7 sharps |
F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B# |
in other words, the key of C has no sharps or flats,
the key of G has 1 sharp, the key of F has 1 flat
the key of D has 2 sharps, the key of Bb has 2 flats
which accidental is added in what order?
the thing to remember is
BEAD.GCF for the flats
FCG.DAEB for the sharps
now hopefully you know how to quickly and easily identify and create key signatures
and understand why the pattern of BEAD.GCF is so important.
summary:
a key signature will either have Flats -or- Sharps -or- no accidentals at all.
the key of C is the only key with no sharps or flats,
all of the other keys require this lesson.
to determine the key from the key signature, look at the last couple of accidentals on the right;
to determine a key by reading the key signatures for a key with Flats:
just look at the flat that is 2nd from the right,
the only exception: if there is only the one flat (Bb), the key is F
to determine a key by reading the key signature for a key with Sharps:
go up one pitch from the last sharp on the right.
to create key signatures, remember BEAD.GCF and it’s reflection FCG.DAEB;
to create a key signature that has Flats:
write in all of the flats up through and including the name of the key you are writing your song in,
in the BEAD.GCF order -plus- the one flat that comes AFTER they key of your song in the BEAD.GCF order.
to create a key signature that has Sharps: write in the sharp that is below the note of the key of your song and all the sharps that come before it in the order of Sharps (FCG.DAEB).
MOVE ON TO LESSON 7: ESSENTIALS FOR THE FIRST 6 MONTHS
