F
{{For|use in cryptography|Key signature (cryptography)}}
In musical notationMusic notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...
, a key signature is a series of sharpIn music, sharp, dièse , or diesis means higher in pitch and the sharp symbol raises a note by a half tone. Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously...
or flat symbols placed on the staffIn standard Western musical notation, the staff, or stave, is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch—or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments. Appropriate music symbols, depending upon the intended effect,...
, designating notes that are to be consistently played one semitoneA semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically....
higher or lower than the equivalent natural notes unless otherwise altered with an accidentalIn music, an accidental is a note whose pitch is not a member of a scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, sharps , flats , and naturals , may also be called accidentals...
. Key signatures are generally written immediately after the clefA clef is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the staff...
at the beginning of a line of musical notation, although they can appear in other parts of a score, notably after a double barIn musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
.
Key signatures are generally used in a score to avoid the complication of having sharp or flat symbols on every instance of certain notes. Each majorIn music theory, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, ", the "Do" in the parenthesis at...
and minorA minor scale in Western music theory includes any scale that contains, in its tonic triad, at least three essential scale degrees: 1) the tonic , 2) a minor-third, or an interval of a minor third above the tonic, and 3) a perfect-fifth, or an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic, altogether...
keyIn music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
has an associated key signature that sharpens or flattens the notes which are used in its scale. However, it is not uncommon for a piece to be written with a key signature that does not match its key, for example, in some Baroque pieces, or in transcriptions of traditional modal folk tunes.
Conventions
In principle, any piece can be written with any key signature, using accidentals to correct any notes where it shouldn't apply. The purpose of the key signature is to minimize the number of such accidentals required to notate the music. The sequence of sharps or flats in key signatures is generally rigid in modern music notation. For example, if a key signature has only one sharp, it must be an F sharp.
The effect of a key signature continues throughout a piece or movement, unless explicitly cancelled by another key signature. For example, if a five-sharp key signature is placed at the beginning of a piece, every A in the piece in any octaveIn music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
will be played as A sharp, unless preceded by an accidentalIn music, an accidental is a note whose pitch is not a member of a scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, sharps , flats , and naturals , may also be called accidentals...
(for instance, the A in the above scale — the next-to-last note — is played as an A{{music|♯}} even though the A{{music|♯}} in the key signature is written an octave lower).
In a score containing more than one instrument, all the instruments are usually written with the same key signature. Exceptions include:
- If an instrument is a transposing instrument
A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which written notes are read at a pitch different from the corresponding concert pitch, which a non-transposing instrument, such as a piano, would play. Playing a written C on a transposing instrument will produce a note other than concert C...
- If an instrument is a percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
with indeterminate pitch
- Composers may omit the key signature for horn
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
and occasionally trumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
parts. This is perhaps reminiscent of the early days of brass instruments, when crooksA crook, also sometimes called a shank, is an exchangeable segment of tubing in a natural horn which is used to change the length of the pipe, altering the fundamental pitch and harmonic series which the instrument can sound, and thus the key in which it plays.-Master crook and coupler...
would be added to them, in order to change the length of the tubing and allow playing in different keys. {{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}
Notational conventions
The convention for the notation of key signatures follows the circle of fifthsIn music theory, the circle of fifths shows the relationships among the 12 tones of the chromatic scale, their corresponding key signatures, and the associated major and minor keys...
. Starting from C major (or equivalently A minor) which has no sharps or flats, successively raising the key by a fifth adds a sharp, going clockwise round the circle of fifths. The new sharp is placed on the new key's leading note (seventh degree) for major keys or supertonicIn music or music theory, the supertonic is the second degree or note of a diatonic scale, one step above the tonic. In music theory, the supertonic chord is symbolized by the Roman numeral ii in a major scale, indicating that the chord is a minor chord , or ii in a natural minor scale, indicating...
(second degree) for minor keys. Thus G major (E minor) has one sharp which is on the F; then D major (B minor) has two sharps (on F and C) and so on.
Similarly successively lowering the key by a fifth adds a flat, going counter-clockwise round the circle of fifths. The new flat is placed on the subdominantIn music, the subdominant is the technical name for the fourth tonal degree of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance "below" the tonic as the dominant is above the tonic - in other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdominant. It is also the note immediately...
(fourth degree) for major keys or submediantIn music, the submediant is the sixth scale degree of the diatonic scale, the 'lower mediant' halfway between the tonic and the subdominant or 'lower dominant'...
(sixth degree) for minor keys. Thus F major (D minor) has one flat which is on the B; then B{{music|flat}} major (G minor) has two flats (on B and E) and so on.
Put another way: for key signatures with sharps, the first sharp is placed on F line with subsequent sharps on C, G, D, A, E and B; for key signatures with flats, the first flat is placed on B with subsequent flats on E, A, D, G, C and F. There are thus 15 conventional key signatures, with up to seven sharps or flats and including the empty signature of C major (A minor).
Corollaries:
- Starting from a key with flats in its key signature: raising by fifths successively reduces the flats to zero at C major (A minor). Further such raising adds sharps as described above.
- Starting from a key with sharps: lowering by fifths successively reduces those sharps to zero. Further such lowering adds flats as described above.
- When the process of raising by a fifth (adding a sharp) produces more than five or six sharps, successive such raising generally involves changing to the enharmonic equivalent key using a flat-based signature. Typically this is at F{{music|sharp}} = G{{music|flat}}, but may also be at C{{music|sharp}} = D{{music|flat}} or B = C{{music|flat}}. The same principle applies to the process of successive lowering by a fifth.
The relative minor is a minor thirdIn classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. The minor quality specification identifies it as being the smallest of the two: the minor third spans three semitones, the major...
down from the major, regardless of whether it is a flat or a sharp key signature.
The key signatures with seven flats and seven sharps are rarely used because they have simpler enharmonic equivalents. For example, the key of C{{music|#}} major (seven sharps) is more simply represented as D{{music|♭}} major (five flats). For modern practical purposes these keys are (in twelve tone equal temperamentAn equal temperament is a musical temperament, or a system of tuning, in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratio. As pitch is perceived roughly as the logarithm of frequency, this means that the perceived "distance" from every note to its nearest neighbor is the same for...
) the same, because C{{music|#}} and D{{music|b}} are enharmonically the same note. Pieces are written in these extreme sharp or flat keys, however: for example, BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Prelude and Fugue No. 3 from Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier The Well-Tempered Clavier , BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach...
BWV 848 is in C{{music|♯}} major. The modern musical Seussical is a musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty based on the books of Dr. Seuss that debuted on Broadway in 2000. The play's story is a rather complex amalgamation of many of Seuss's most famous books. After a Broadway run, the production spawned two US national tours and a UK tour...
by FlahertyStephen Flaherty is an American composer of musical theatre. He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/bookwriter Lynn Ahrens...
and AhrensLynn Ahrens is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years...
also has several songs written in these extreme keys.
Major scale structure
Except for C major, key signatures appear in two varieties, "sharp key signatures" ("sharp keys") and "flat key signatures" ("flat keys"), so called because they contain only one or other.
Scales with sharp key signatures
{{manual|section|date=March 2010}}
Sharp key signatures consist of a number of sharps between one and seven, applied in this order: F C G D A E B. A mnemonic device often used to remember this is "Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle." Another is "Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds." The key note or tonicIn music, the tonic is the first scale degree of the diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone. The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord...
of a piece in a major key is immediately above the last sharp in the signature. For example, one sharp (F{{music|sharp}}) in the key signature of a piece in a major key indicates the key of G major, the next note above F{{music|sharp}}. (Six sharps, the last one being E{{music|sharp}} (an enharmonicIn modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note , interval , or key signature which is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature, but "spelled", or named, differently...
spelling of F{{music|natural}}) indicate the key of F{{music|sharp}} major, since F has already been sharped in the key signature.)
| Key | Number of sharps | Sharp notes |
C majorC major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
|
0 |
|
G majorG major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp, F; in treble-clef key signatures, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom...
|
1 |
F{{music|sharp}} |
D majorD major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
|
2 |
F{{music|sharp}}, C{{music|sharp}} |
A majorA major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...
|
3 |
F{{music|sharp}}, C{{music|sharp}}, G{{music|sharp}} |
E majorE major is a major scale based on E, with the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps .Its relative minor is C-sharp minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....
|
4 |
F{{music|sharp}}, C{{music|sharp}}, G{{music|sharp}}, D{{music|sharp}} |
B majorIn music theory, B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps....
|
5 |
F{{music|sharp}}, C{{music|sharp}}, G{{music|sharp}}, D{{music|sharp}}, A{{music|sharp}} |
F
{{For|use in cryptography|Key signature (cryptography)}}
In musical notationMusic notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...
, a key signature is a series of sharpIn music, sharp, dièse , or diesis means higher in pitch and the sharp symbol raises a note by a half tone. Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously...
or flat symbols placed on the staffIn standard Western musical notation, the staff, or stave, is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch—or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments. Appropriate music symbols, depending upon the intended effect,...
, designating notes that are to be consistently played one semitoneA semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically....
higher or lower than the equivalent natural notes unless otherwise altered with an accidentalIn music, an accidental is a note whose pitch is not a member of a scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, sharps , flats , and naturals , may also be called accidentals...
. Key signatures are generally written immediately after the clefA clef is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the staff...
at the beginning of a line of musical notation, although they can appear in other parts of a score, notably after a double barIn musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
.
Key signatures are generally used in a score to avoid the complication of having sharp or flat symbols on every instance of certain notes. Each majorIn music theory, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, ", the "Do" in the parenthesis at...
and minorA minor scale in Western music theory includes any scale that contains, in its tonic triad, at least three essential scale degrees: 1) the tonic , 2) a minor-third, or an interval of a minor third above the tonic, and 3) a perfect-fifth, or an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic, altogether...
keyIn music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
has an associated key signature that sharpens or flattens the notes which are used in its scale. However, it is not uncommon for a piece to be written with a key signature that does not match its key, for example, in some Baroque pieces, or in transcriptions of traditional modal folk tunes.
Conventions
In principle, any piece can be written with any key signature, using accidentals to correct any notes where it shouldn't apply. The purpose of the key signature is to minimize the number of such accidentals required to notate the music. The sequence of sharps or flats in key signatures is generally rigid in modern music notation. For example, if a key signature has only one sharp, it must be an F sharp.
The effect of a key signature continues throughout a piece or movement, unless explicitly cancelled by another key signature. For example, if a five-sharp key signature is placed at the beginning of a piece, every A in the piece in any octaveIn music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
will be played as A sharp, unless preceded by an accidentalIn music, an accidental is a note whose pitch is not a member of a scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, sharps , flats , and naturals , may also be called accidentals...
(for instance, the A in the above scale — the next-to-last note — is played as an A{{music|♯}} even though the A{{music|♯}} in the key signature is written an octave lower).
In a score containing more than one instrument, all the instruments are usually written with the same key signature. Exceptions include:
- If an instrument is a transposing instrument
A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which written notes are read at a pitch different from the corresponding concert pitch, which a non-transposing instrument, such as a piano, would play. Playing a written C on a transposing instrument will produce a note other than concert C...
- If an instrument is a percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
with indeterminate pitch
- Composers may omit the key signature for horn
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
and occasionally trumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
parts. This is perhaps reminiscent of the early days of brass instruments, when crooksA crook, also sometimes called a shank, is an exchangeable segment of tubing in a natural horn which is used to change the length of the pipe, altering the fundamental pitch and harmonic series which the instrument can sound, and thus the key in which it plays.-Master crook and coupler...
would be added to them, in order to change the length of the tubing and allow playing in different keys. {{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}
Notational conventions
The convention for the notation of key signatures follows the circle of fifthsIn music theory, the circle of fifths shows the relationships among the 12 tones of the chromatic scale, their corresponding key signatures, and the associated major and minor keys...
. Starting from C major (or equivalently A minor) which has no sharps or flats, successively raising the key by a fifth adds a sharp, going clockwise round the circle of fifths. The new sharp is placed on the new key's leading note (seventh degree) for major keys or supertonicIn music or music theory, the supertonic is the second degree or note of a diatonic scale, one step above the tonic. In music theory, the supertonic chord is symbolized by the Roman numeral ii in a major scale, indicating that the chord is a minor chord , or ii in a natural minor scale, indicating...
(second degree) for minor keys. Thus G major (E minor) has one sharp which is on the F; then D major (B minor) has two sharps (on F and C) and so on.
Similarly successively lowering the key by a fifth adds a flat, going counter-clockwise round the circle of fifths. The new flat is placed on the subdominantIn music, the subdominant is the technical name for the fourth tonal degree of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance "below" the tonic as the dominant is above the tonic - in other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdominant. It is also the note immediately...
(fourth degree) for major keys or submediantIn music, the submediant is the sixth scale degree of the diatonic scale, the 'lower mediant' halfway between the tonic and the subdominant or 'lower dominant'...
(sixth degree) for minor keys. Thus F major (D minor) has one flat which is on the B; then B{{music|flat}} major (G minor) has two flats (on B and E) and so on.
Put another way: for key signatures with sharps, the first sharp is placed on F line with subsequent sharps on C, G, D, A, E and B; for key signatures with flats, the first flat is placed on B with subsequent flats on E, A, D, G, C and F. There are thus 15 conventional key signatures, with up to seven sharps or flats and including the empty signature of C major (A minor).
Corollaries:
- Starting from a key with flats in its key signature: raising by fifths successively reduces the flats to zero at C major (A minor). Further such raising adds sharps as described above.
- Starting from a key with sharps: lowering by fifths successively reduces those sharps to zero. Further such lowering adds flats as described above.
- When the process of raising by a fifth (adding a sharp) produces more than five or six sharps, successive such raising generally involves changing to the enharmonic equivalent key using a flat-based signature. Typically this is at F{{music|sharp}} = G{{music|flat}}, but may also be at C{{music|sharp}} = D{{music|flat}} or B = C{{music|flat}}. The same principle applies to the process of successive lowering by a fifth.
The relative minor is a minor thirdIn classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. The minor quality specification identifies it as being the smallest of the two: the minor third spans three semitones, the major...
down from the major, regardless of whether it is a flat or a sharp key signature.
The key signatures with seven flats and seven sharps are rarely used because they have simpler enharmonic equivalents. For example, the key of C{{music|#}} major (seven sharps) is more simply represented as D{{music|♭}} major (five flats). For modern practical purposes these keys are (in twelve tone equal temperamentAn equal temperament is a musical temperament, or a system of tuning, in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratio. As pitch is perceived roughly as the logarithm of frequency, this means that the perceived "distance" from every note to its nearest neighbor is the same for...
) the same, because C{{music|#}} and D{{music|b}} are enharmonically the same note. Pieces are written in these extreme sharp or flat keys, however: for example, BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Prelude and Fugue No. 3 from Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier The Well-Tempered Clavier , BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach...
BWV 848 is in C{{music|♯}} major. The modern musical Seussical is a musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty based on the books of Dr. Seuss that debuted on Broadway in 2000. The play's story is a rather complex amalgamation of many of Seuss's most famous books. After a Broadway run, the production spawned two US national tours and a UK tour...
by FlahertyStephen Flaherty is an American composer of musical theatre. He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/bookwriter Lynn Ahrens...
and AhrensLynn Ahrens is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years...
also has several songs written in these extreme keys.
Major scale structure
Except for C major, key signatures appear in two varieties, "sharp key signatures" ("sharp keys") and "flat key signatures" ("flat keys"), so called because they contain only one or other.
Scales with sharp key signatures
{{manual|section|date=March 2010}}
Sharp key signatures consist of a number of sharps between one and seven, applied in this order: F C G D A E B. A mnemonic device often used to remember this is "Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle." Another is "Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds." The key note or tonicIn music, the tonic is the first scale degree of the diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone. The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord...
of a piece in a major key is immediately above the last sharp in the signature. For example, one sharp (F{{music|sharp}}) in the key signature of a piece in a major key indicates the key of G major, the next note above F{{music|sharp}}. (Six sharps, the last one being E{{music|sharp}} (an enharmonicIn modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note , interval , or key signature which is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature, but "spelled", or named, differently...
spelling of F{{music|natural}}) indicate the key of F{{music|sharp}} major, since F has already been sharped in the key signature.)
| Key | Number of sharps | Sharp notes |
C majorC major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
|
0 |
|
G majorG major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp, F; in treble-clef key signatures, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom...
|
1 |
F{{music|sharp}} |
D majorD major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
|
2 |
F{{music|sharp}}, C{{music|sharp}} |
A majorA major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...
|
3 |
F{{music|sharp}}, C{{music|sharp}}, G{{music|sharp}} |
E majorE major is a major scale based on E, with the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps .Its relative minor is C-sharp minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....
|
4 |
F{{music|sharp}}, C{{music|sharp}}, G{{music|sharp}}, D{{music|sharp}} |
B majorIn music theory, B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps....
|
5 |
F{{music|sharp}}, C{{music|sharp}}, G{{music|sharp}}, D{{music|sharp}}, A{{music|sharp}} |
| F{{music |
6 |
F{{music|sharp}}, C{{music|sharp}}, G{{music|sharp}}, D{{music|sharp}}, A{{music|sharp}}, E{{music|sharp}} |
| C{{music |
7 |
F{{music|sharp}}, C{{music|sharp}}, G{{music|sharp}}, D{{music|sharp}}, A{{music|sharp}}, E{{music|sharp}}, B{{music|sharp}} |
This table shows that each scale starting on the fifthIn classical music from Western culture, a fifth is a musical interval encompassing five staff positions , and the perfect fifth is a fifth spanning seven semitones, or in meantone, four diatonic semitones and three chromatic semitones...
scale degree of the previous scale has one new sharp, added in the order given above.
Scales with flat key signatures
{{manual|section|date=March 2010}}
"Flat key signatures" consist of one to seven flats, applied as: B E A D G C F (same as the order of sharps, but reversed.) The mnemonic device is then reversed for use in the flat keys: "Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles's Father". The major scale with one flat is F major. In all other "flat major scales", the tonic or key note of a piece in a major key is four notes below the last flat, which is the same as the second-to-last flat in the signature. In the major key with four flats (B{{music|flat}} E{{music|flat}} A{{music|flat}} D{{music|flat}}), for example, the penultimate flat is A{{music|flat}}, indicating a key of A{{music|flat}} major.
| Key | Number of flats | Flat notes |
C majorC major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
|
0 |
|
F majorF major is a musical major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat . It is by far the oldest key signature with an accidental, predating the others by hundreds of years...
|
1 |
B{{music|flat}} |
| B{{music |
2 |
B{{music|flat}}, E{{music|flat}} |
| E{{music |
3 |
B{{music|flat}}, E{{music|flat}}, A{{music|flat}} |
| A{{music |
4 |
B{{music|flat}}, E{{music|flat}}, A{{music|flat}}, D{{music|flat}} |
| D{{music |
5 |
B{{music|flat}}, E{{music|flat}}, A{{music|flat}}, D{{music|flat}}, G{{music|flat}} |
| G{{music |
6 |
B{{music|flat}}, E{{music|flat}}, A{{music|flat}}, D{{music|flat}}, G{{music|flat}}, C{{music|flat}} |
| C{{music |
7 |
B{{music|flat}}, E{{music|flat}}, A{{music|flat}}, D{{music|flat}}, G{{music|flat}}, C{{music|flat}}, F{{music|flat}} |
In this case each new scale starts a fifth below (or a fourthIn classical music from Western culture, a fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions , and the perfect fourth is a fourth spanning five semitones. For example, the ascending interval from C to the next F is a perfect fourth, as the note F lies five semitones above C, and there...
above) the previous one.
Relationship between key signature and key
A key signature is not the same as a keyIn music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
; key signatures are merely notational devices. They are convenient principally for diatonic or tonalTonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
music. Some pieces that change key (modulateIn music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...
) insert a new key signature on the staff partway, while others use accidentals: natural signs to neutralize the key signature and other sharpIn music, sharp, dièse , or diesis means higher in pitch and the sharp symbol raises a note by a half tone. Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously...
s or flats for the new key.
For a given musical modeIn the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...
the key signature defines the diatonic scaleIn music theory, a diatonic scale is a seven note, octave-repeating musical scale comprising five whole steps and two half steps for each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole steps...
that a piece of music uses. Most scales require that some notes be consistently sharped or flatted. For example, the only sharp in the G major scaleIn music theory, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, ", the "Do" in the parenthesis at...
is F sharp, so the key signature associated with the G major key is the one-sharp key signature. However, the connection is not absolute; a piece with a one-sharp key signature is not necessarily in the key of G major, and likewise, a piece in G major may not always be written with a one-sharp key signature. This is particularly true of minor keys. Keys which are associated with the same key signature are called relative keys.
The Dorian Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538, is an organ piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. Like the better-known BWV 565, BWV 538 also bears the title Toccata and Fugue in D minor, although it is often referred to by the nickname Dorian - a reference to the fact that the piece is written with a key...
by BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
has no key signature, which accords with its Dorian mode status (empty signature on D) in preference to its minor key status (which would have a single B{{music|flat}} signature). The B{{music|flat}}s that occurs in the piece are written with accidentals.
When musical modeIn the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...
s, such as LydianThe Lydian musical scale is a rising pattern of pitches comprising three whole tones, a semitone, two more whole tones, and a final semitone. This sequence of pitches roughly describes the fifth of the eight Gregorian modes, known as Mode V or the authentic mode on F, theoretically using B but in...
or DorianDue to historical confusion, Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different musical modes or diatonic scales, the Greek, the medieval, and the modern.- Greek Dorian mode :...
, are written using key signatures, they are called transposed modes.
Exceptions
Exceptions to common practice period use may be found in KlezmerKlezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...
scales, such as Freygish (Phrygian)In music, the altered Phrygian scale or Freygish scale , featuring an unusual key signature and a distinctive augmented second interval, is the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale, the fifth being the dominant...
. In the 20th century, composers such as BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
and RzewskiFrederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
(see below) began experimenting with unusual key signatures that departed from the standard orderIn the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...
.
In 15th-century scores, partial signatures are quite common, in which different voices will have different key signatures; however, this is derived from the different hexachordIn music, a hexachord is a collection of six pitch classes including six-note segments of a scale or tone row. The term was adopted in the Middle Ages and adapted in the twentieth-century in Milton Babbitt's serial theory.-Middle Ages:...
s in which the parts were implicitly written, and the use of the term key signature can be misleading for music of this and earlier periods.
Because of the limitations of the traditional highland bagpipeThe Great Highland Bagpipe is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland. It has achieved widespread recognition through its usage in the British military and in pipe bands throughout the world. It is closely related to the Great Irish Warpipes....
scale, key signatures are often omitted from written pipe music, which otherwise would be written with two sharps, the usual
F{{music|#}} and C{{music|#}}.
Unusual signatures
The above key signatures only express diatonic scaleIn music theory, a diatonic scale is a seven note, octave-repeating musical scale comprising five whole steps and two half steps for each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole steps...
s and are therefore sometimes called standard key signatures. Other scales are written either with a standard key signature and use accidentalIn music, an accidental is a note whose pitch is not a member of a scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, sharps , flats , and naturals , may also be called accidentals...
s as required, or with a non-standard key signature. Examples of the latter include the E{{music|b}} (right hand) and F{{music|b}} & G{{music|b}} (left hand) used for the E{{music|b}} diminished (E{{music|b}} octatonicAn octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. Among the most famous of these is a scale in which the notes ascend in alternating intervals of a whole step and a half step, creating a symmetric scale...
) scale in BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
's Crossed Hands (no. 99, vol. 4, Mikrokosmos), or the B{{music|b}}, E{{music|b}} & F{{music|#}} used for the D Phrygian dominant scaleIn music, the altered Phrygian scale or Freygish scale , featuring an unusual key signature and a distinctive augmented second interval, is the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale, the fifth being the dominant...
in Frederic RzewskiFrederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
's God to a Hungry Child.
The absence of a key signature does not always mean that the music is in the key of C majorC major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
/ A minorA minor is a minor scale based on A, consisting of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The harmonic minor scale raises the G to G...
as each accidental may be notated explicitly as required, or the piece may be modalIn the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...
or atonalAtonality in its broadest sense describes music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality in this sense usually describes compositions written from about 1908 to the present day where a hierarchy of pitches focusing on a single, central tone is not used, and the notes of the chromatic scale...
.
The common practice period conventions are so firmly established that some musical notation programsA scorewriter, or music notation program, is software used for creating sheet music.A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text.-Comparison with multitrack sequencer software:...
have been unable to show non-standard key signatures until recently.
History
The use of a one-flat signature developed in the MedievalMedieval music is Western music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century...
period, but signatures with more than one flat did not appear until the 16th century, and signatures with sharps not until the mid-17th century.
When signatures with multiple flats first came in, the order of the flats was not standardized, and often a flat appeared in two different octaves, as shown at right. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, it was common for different voice parts in the same composition to have different signatures, a situation called a partial signature or conflicting signature. This was actually more common than complete signatures in the 15th century. The 16th-century motet Absolon fili mi attributed to Josquin des PrezJosquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance...
features two voice parts with two flats, one part with three flats, and one part with four flats.
Baroque musicBaroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
written in minor keys often was written with a key signature with fewer flats than we now associate with their keys; for example, movements in C minor often had only two flats (because the A{{music|♭}} would frequently have to be sharpened to A{{music|natural}} in the ascending melodic minor scaleA minor scale in Western music theory includes any scale that contains, in its tonic triad, at least three essential scale degrees: 1) the tonic , 2) a minor-third, or an interval of a minor third above the tonic, and 3) a perfect-fifth, or an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic, altogether...
, as would the B{{music|♭}}).
Table
| Key Signature |
Major Key |
Minor Key |
no sharps or flats |
C majorC major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
|
A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, consisting of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The harmonic minor scale raises the G to G...
|
|
| Key Signature |
sharp}} |
Major Key |
Minor Key |
Key Signature |
flat}} |
Major Key |
Minor Key |
1 sharp |
F{{music|sharp}} |
G majorG major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp, F; in treble-clef key signatures, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom...
|
E minor E minor is a minor scale based on the note E. The E natural minor scale consists of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. The E harmonic minor scale contains the natural 7, D, rather than the flatted 7, D – to align with the major dominant chord, B7 .Its key signature has one sharp, F .Its...
|
1 flat |
B{{music|flat}} |
F majorF major is a musical major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat . It is by far the oldest key signature with an accidental, predating the others by hundreds of years...
|
D minorD minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. In the harmonic minor, the C is raised to C. Its key signature has one flat ....
|
2 sharps |
C{{music|sharp}} |
D majorD major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
|
B minorB minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. The harmonic minor raises the A to A. Its key signature has two sharps .Its relative major is D major, and its parallel major is B major....
|
2 flats |
E{{music|flat}} |
B{{music |
G minorG minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. For the harmonic minor scale, the F is raised to F. Its relative major is B-flat major, and its parallel major is G major....
|
3 sharps |
G{{music|sharp}} |
A majorA major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...
|
F{{music |
3 flats |
A{{music|flat}} |
E{{music |
C minorC minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The harmonic minor raises the B to B. Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with naturals and accidentals as necessary.Its key signature consists of three flats...
|
4 sharps |
D{{music|sharp}} |
E majorE major is a major scale based on E, with the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps .Its relative minor is C-sharp minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....
|
C{{music |
4 flats |
D{{music|flat}} |
A{{music |
F minorF minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. The harmonic minor raises the E to E. Its key signature has four flats ....
|
5 sharps |
A{{music|sharp}} |
B majorIn music theory, B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps....
|
G{{music |
5 flats |
G{{music|flat}} |
D{{music |
B{{music |
6 sharps |
E{{music|sharp}} |
F{{music |
D{{music |
6 flats |
C{{music|flat}} |
G{{music |
E{{music |
7 sharps |
B{{music|sharp}} |
C{{music |
A{{music |
7 flats |
F{{music|flat}} |
C{{music |
A{{music |
|
See also
- Key signature names and translations
When a particular musical key or key signature is not described in the English language, there are two main systems that are used instead:# Fixed do solmization - used in Italian, French , Spanish and Russian key references....
- Major and minor
In Western music, the adjectives major and minor can describe a musical composition, movement, section, scale, key, chord, or interval.Major and minor are frequently referred to in the titles of classical compositions, especially in reference to the key of a piece.-Intervals and chords:With regard...
- Parallel key
In music, parallel keys are the major and minor scales that have the same tonic. A major and minor scale sharing the same tonic are said to be in a parallel relationship...
- Relative key
In music, relative keys are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures. A major and minor scale sharing the same key signature are said to be in a relative relationship...
- Universal key
The universal key or universal scale is a concept employed in music theory in which specific notes or chord symbols in a key signature are replaced with numbers or Roman numerals, allowing for a discussion describing relationships between notes or chords that can be universally applied to all key...
| |