Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music

Basic Music Theory

beginning of a song affects all the notes throughout the song, so the

composer doesn’t have to write out all the accidentals for every single

note in the song. They key signature takes care of it.

Flat Key Signatures

There are only seven flats, and they’ll always be in the same order in a

key signature. This is one of the few rules that has no exceptions.

More Mnemonics

The order of flats is B-E-A-D-G-C-F. An easy way to remember this is

the word BEAD followed by Greatest Common Factor. Or you can make

up your own saying which uses all the letters in the proper order.

Something like, “Being Ethereal After Death, Ghosts Can Fly.”

As with other mnemonic devices, if you make up your own and make it

silly or funny or weird, you’ll be more likely to remember it.

Here is a key signature with all of the flats in it. Notice the order (from

left to right) and where the flats are placed on the staff.

Example 22.1 A key signature in both treble and bass clef with all seven flats.

Find the Name of a Flat Key

If you’re faced with a piece of music with a bunch of flats in the key

signature, there is an easy way to find out what key it’s in. The name of

the key is the same name as the second-to-last flat in the key signature.

An example will show this better than words can: