This post will be in english (referring to my last post), but the plan is to switch it up time to time.
Key Signatures are how to tell which key you are in by the number of sharps or flats in the musical staff. It should be noted this is for major keys but all major keys relate to a minor key
Ground Work (You can skip this if you want)
- There’s 88 keys on your typical keyboard
- Each key on the piano (or note) is given a letter
- There’s only 7 keys then it repeats (ABCDEFG or often seen CDEFGAB – C major)
- Going left to right is ascending (ABCDEFG) up the piano
- Going right to left is descending
Side Note 1: The repetition is based on each note on a keyboard producing a frequency that is roughly a multiple of other notes with same letter. For example, one of the A’s on the keyboard has a frequency of 440 Hertz(Hz). The A below has a frequency of 220 Hz and the on above it is 880 Hz
Intervals:
This is going from 1 note to another. From 1 note (initial note) to the same note is called unison. From 1 note to the next we have a 2nd. From 1 note to the 3rd note we have a third. Make sense yet? (4th, 5th 6th, 7th, octave, 9th, 10th…)
Note names:
The white notes are – A B C D E F G — repeated ie. ABCEDFGABCDEFGABCDEFG….
The black keys are just those letters with a sharp (#) or flat (b) (ie. A#, Bb). Sharp means black key to the right. Flat means black key to the left. We can ignore that fact for now. In my opinion it’s easier to ignore for now and have it come naturally.
Going through notes by 3rd intervals (skipping the 2nd) you get:
– A C E G B D F -> repeat (ie. ACEGBDFACEG)
Side note 2: with this pattern above we create our basic cords (triads)
- A= ACE B=BDF C=CEG D=DFA E=EGB F=FAC G=GBD
By 5ths you get: (skipping 2nd, 3rd, and 4th)
– A E B G F C G D – rearranged to –> F C G D A E B
You can rearrange since you can start on any letter and the patterns repeat. Choosing this arrange helps in two ways you will see.
Now if you were to create that string/list of notes using 4th intervals you actually get the 5th in reverse order.
Arranged ascending (up the keyboard) 4ths
– B E A D G C F (One reason this is better to me is that it’s easier to remember)
The second reason this is better applies to main purpose of this post and the circle of fifths – which initially had me think about all this.
Ground work done
Here is all you need to remember:
B5 E4 A3 D2 for sharps(#)
That’s pretty much it. B major has 5 sharps, E has 4 and so on.
Even just remembering BEAD (which is hopefully an easy word to remember) and that B is 5 sharps, you can figure the rest out with a little work by knowing to subtract 1 for each letter in the word BEAD. B5#
Other important things to remember:
- This is for major keys
- F has one flat and G has one sharp.
- C has no sharps or flats
- For the chords with flats (Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb) do 7 minus the number for sharps for the same Letter/key. ie. Bb has 7- 5 = 2 flats
- Count back 3 notes (including black keys) for the relative minor
How useful is this? I don’t really know. But I find it interesting. It took me time to figure it out. I think if I had of known early it would have been a good shortcut. In the end I feel pianists have these memorized, but I believe steppingstones to the right answer make memorization easier. Having finished writing it I don’t think it’ll take me long to know the key of piece after looking at it’s signature. Remembering which keys/notes in key signature are sharp or flat while playing is another story.
But as a bonus once you know the number of keys that are sharp or flat all you can use this:
F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#
and
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, Fb
As the order in which you add sharps or flats and you go up. For example, G major has 1 sharp and its F#. D major has 2 sharps and its F# and C#. A has 3 sharps and they’re F#, C# and G# and so on (this is where knowing the ‘ground work’ comes in handy’)
