Transcription
[Music] hi I'm Dan branic the creator of Music Theory lesson.net and I just wanted to personally welcome you to my website.
I started music theory lesson.net because I absolutely love music and one of the reasons I do is because I understand music theory. When I was younger, I may have been in the same situation as you: not progressing on my instrument, not able to play without music very well, and not really grasping why I was playing the notes I was playing. I would always ask myself, "What makes notes and the chords I play sound nice?" or "How do I make less mistakes in my playing?" There were also many skills I wanted to accomplish but had no idea about how to learn them. I also wanted to be able to sit down at the piano and just play a piece of music from the chords. I wanted to be able to play play music by ear. I wanted to be able to take requests and just have a great time playing the instrument.
Well, I ended up learning that lesson, and it took a long time. The main reason it took so long is that I didn't know the questions to ask, necessarily, and I didn't know how to get to where I wanted to be. I would ask, "What's enough music theory to just be a great player?" or "Do I really need to know that?" Well, I wasn't going to let other people go through all that waste of time too, trying to find the answers like I did. That's why I want to help you get started on some of the basics on this free three-part video course. It's really important for me to know that I'm helping you. So, if you're learning and things are clicking, you're going to learn a lot from this website, I promise.
Let's get started. Today is all about key signatures, and we're about to unlock the confusion surrounding them. To start, a key refers to a specific major or a minor scale to be played in a piece of music. To be clear, we are not playing that scale up and down repeatedly. I just mean we'll be using the notes found in that scale. Oh, don't worry about the term "minor"; we'll cover that in another video. So, a key signature is a symbol to let you know what major or minor scale the music is using. Does that make sense? I hope it does.
There really are two types of keys: one with sharps and one with flats. In a sharp key signature, sharps are added according to an order, which we call the order of sharps. I want you to know that this order is not arbitrary, but to explain it would require you to know more theory, and it doesn't really matter that you know why the order is the way it is, and it will have no effect on your application of it. The order of sharps is memorized by the acronym: Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battles. To which we can extrapolate the sharp placement order as F, C, G, D, A, E, and B. The placement of these sharps are permanently as you see them: F# on the top line, C# in the third space, G# in the space above the staff, D# on the fourth line, A# in the second space, E# in the fourth space, and B# on the third line. Key signatures always start from the beginning of the order and work their way through towards the end. So, if we have a key signature with two sharps, it will always be the first two sharps: F and C#.
I understand that this has been somewhat of a long-winded explanation, but identifying them is much simpler. I'm going to teach you a technique that will decode whatever key signature you're looking at. But just know in the back of your mind that there are always going to be two exception keys: C major, which has no sharps or flats (it's a blank key signature), and F, which has one B flat in its key signature. If you remember these images, we'll come back to them in a minute, and it will all make sense.
Okay, the sharp key signatures can be interpreted by applying this technique. The first step is to find the last sharp in the key signature and name it as if it were a note. The next step requires you to move up a diatonic semitone from that letter name. Remember, diatonic means different letter name. If we were to name the key signature with two sharps, step one would have us name the last sharp as if it were a note, so C#. Then, step two would have us go up a diatonic semitone to D. The third step is to proclaim that this key signature is D major. Pretty easy, right?
Here's a question for you: What if I wanted you to draw the key signature for D major? Would you be able to figure out how many sharps to draw? Of course, you would. You would just reverse the steps. If we know that the key is D major, then reversing step two would be to go down a diatonic semitone from D, bringing us to C. Reversing step one means that C# is the last sharp in our key signature. All we have to do is look at the order of sharps, and it's quite clear that C is the second sharp, so we can confidently say that D major has two sharps. See, I knew you could do it.
Let's try identifying a couple more. This key signature has five sharps. Step one has us name the last sharp. That's easy: A#. Step two has us move up a diatonic semitone. That's easy: B. So, the key signature is B major. Next key signature, please. All right, this key signature has six sharps. Step one has us name the last sharp. It's easy: E#. Where's E located on the piano? It shares the same key as F; they're enharmonic notes of each other. Step two has us go up a diatonic semitone. Well, that's easy: F. So, the key signature is F major.
Okay, here's a reverse order question: How many sharps in C major? Well, let's work backwards. We already have the key, so step two would have us move a diatonic semitone down to B#. You were thinking C, weren't you? Remember, we've already used the letter C in the key for C major, and a diatonic semitone means we must use a different letter name. If that didn't trick you, you are really getting this. Okay, now step one would tell us that B# is the last sharp. If we look at our order of sharps, it is clear that B# is the seventh sharp. Therefore, C major has seven sharps.
At this point, I would encourage you to pause this video and take a minute to head over to the material section and practice, practice your key signatures. Only on the sharps setting. Applying your knowledge right after you learn it is the best way to absorb new things.
All right, let's move to the flat key signatures. I've left flat key signatures last because they really are the easiest to identify. There is only one step. Flat key signatures also have an order called the order of flats, and it happens to be the exact opposite of the order of sharps. It can also be memorized by saying the acronym of sharps just in reverse: Battles End And Down Goes Charles' Father. As with sharps, the flats are permanently fixed to these locations: B flat on the third line, E flat in the fourth space, A flat in the second space, D flat on the fourth line, G flat on the second line, C flat on the third space, and F flat in the first space.
Step one: Find the second last flat and name it as if it were a flatted note. In the example of three flats, the second last flat is E flat. Therefore, your key signature is E flat major. Pretty simple stuff. But what if I ask you to tell me how many flats were in the key of E flat major? Well, you would just apply the reverse technique. Since we have the key of E flat major, step one would tell us that E flat has to be the second last flat in the key signature. If we look at our order of flats, we can see that we need to draw up to the third flat, A flat, to make E flat the second last. Therefore, E flat has three flats.
For simplicity, we are working with the treble clef, but there are also key signatures written in the bass clef. Here's the order of flats and sharps in the bass clef. I would personally recommend that you modify your key signatures exercise that's in the material section to include bass clef as well as treble clef so you are more well-rounded.
To wrap up, let's try a few flat keys. This flat key has one flat. At this point, you should have red-flagged this key signature as an exception because there is no second last flat. We can just label this key as the exception key: F major. Let's do another one. Okay, this key signature has five flats. Step one would have us name the second last flat, so D flat. That's our key: D flat major. And finally, a reverse order question: How many flats are there in the key of G flat major? Well, reversing step one tells us that G flat must be the second last flat. So, looking at the order of flats, we can clearly see that we need to draw up to C flat, so our G flat is the second last. Therefore, G flat has six flats in its key signature.
If you were able to follow along, well done. If not, just replay the video and keep working on the exercises. I promise it will sink in and you will get it in no time. That's all there is to learning your key signatures. We'll see you in the next video.