“You Are the Sunshine of My Life” (Stevie Wonder) in E Major using accidentals
In the second example, there are many sharps drawn in the music because E major has four sharps in the
scale. In order to avoid having to draw these sharps in front of every F, C, G, and D, a composer uses a key
signature.Notice:
- The key signature is placed after the clef sign at the beginning of each line of music and lists all of the sharps
or flats that occur in the scale of a piece. The sharps or flats are always placed in a specific order. - The sharps or flats in a key signatureapply to all notes, regardless of the octave; in contrast, an accidental
written outside of the key signature applies only to the note in that octave. - The sharps and flats in a key signature apply to the entire line of music; accidentals apply only to the
measure in which they are placed.
“You Are the Sunshine of My Life” (Stevie Wonder) in E Major using a key signature
The circled notes above are pitches that will be sharped because of the key signature. Compare this version with
the previous example using accidentals.
Composers decide to write in different keys for a variety of reasons: (1) to accommodate the range of the
singer or instrument; (2) the key of a particular instrument may lend itself to certain scales (for example, a
performer on an alto sax in E flat, or a trumpet in B flat may be more accustomed to playing in a key with flats);
(3) a particular key may have a “brighter” sound, another may be “darker”; or (4) because the composer is able
to and wants to use a particular key, as when J.S. Bach composed 48 Preludes and Fugues for the keyboard
because a new tuning system enabled him to do so.
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MODULE 7
Key signature