22: Unlock the Secret of Key Signatures
Key Signatures
Any piece of music has a certain feel which comes from several things,
like the meter, the types of notes used, and the key signature. The key
signature is a device which contains sharps and flats and tells the
performer many things: the type of scale the piece is based on, the most
likely starting and ending notes. If there is improvising in the song
(spontaneously making the melody), the key signature will tell the
performer which notes can be used. If a song is too high for a singer, the
whole song can be lowered, and this will give you a different key
signature.
Just like time signatures, key signatures come at the beginning of a piece
of music. The key signature fits between the clef and the time signature. I
have included a time signature in all of the examples so you can see
where the key signature should be placed. Most of the time signatures
will be familiar, but some are odd, so don’t let that throw you.
A key signature is a device that tells you which notes have flats or sharps
for an entire piece of music. This saves the composer from having to
write in all the accidentals for an entire piece. The good news is that a
key signature will never have mixed sharps and flats. It will be either all
sharps, all flats, or no accidentals at all.
Another piece of good news is that the order of the flats and the order of
the sharps will always be the same. That is, if you have only one sharp in
a key signature, as long as you’ve memorized the order of sharps, you’ll
know what that sharp is. If you have seven flats in a key signature, as
long as you’ve memorized the order of flats you’ll know exactly which
seven flats to use and what order to put them in.
More good news. The order of the sharps is the reverse order of the flats,
or vice versa, so you only have to memorize them one way.Why Key Signatures?
When you constructed major scales in the last chapter, you had to alter
some of the notes with sharps or flats to make the whole and half step
pattern correct. Each key signature is also the name of the major scale of
the same name. For example, the key signature of G will give you the
correct accidentals for the G Major scale. A key signature at the