The Key Signature

1. The Key Signature Classical Voice Conservatory- Theory I

2. Epic Music Quote of the Day! “When I am travelling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly.” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756-1791

3. Key Signatures • Before we can really start to understand the concept of the key signature, let’s review scale construction.

4. Scale Structure • Recall that a scale is a diatonic progression from one to the same note an octave (8 notes) higher or lower. • You can also view it as two tetrachords joined together by a whole step. Whole Step G Tetrachord C Tetrachord

5. Because scales are defined by their half step whole step pattern, it is necessary to add accidentals, depending on which tonic you start the scale. • You can have up to seven sharps in a scale, or up to seven flats. You will never see both in a major scale.

6. Scales in Composition

7. Tonal Center and the Key • In Western music tradition, a scale helps establish a tonal “home base,” if you will. • Because of the musical culture we have grown up in, our ears like hearing music that starts on a tonic and ends on the same tonic. (There are a bunch of exceptions to this rule, but that is the general practice. • What makes the music exciting is the harmonic journey from the first note to the final resolution ending on the tonic. • As you work on your compositions, it is important for you to understand this. • 99% of Western Music is based on some form of a scale or tonal center. Because of this, it is extremely important to know scales really well. • The word “key” refers to what scale or tonal center a composition is based on.

8. Key Signature

9. Accidentals in Scales • In order for a major scale to maintain its quality, all necessary accidentals must be added. • For instance, if E Major (which has 4 notes that are sharp) was missing a sharp, would it still be E Major?

10. No! :P

11. Therefore, when composing a work that is in a key other than C Major, it is necessary to write in those accidentals. • However, that can be super annoying. Hence the development of the key signature. • You may ooh and aah now. :D

12. A Key Signature is located in between the clef sign and the Time Signature. • Musicians can identify what key they are in just by looking at the key signature.

13. The Order of Flats

14. Order in the Key Signature • When writing in a key signature, you do not get to add the accidentals all higgledy-piggledy! • Accidentals in the key signature must be added in a SPECIFIC ORDER IN A VERY SPECIFIC WAY! • Let’s start with the order of flats!

15. Order of Flats • The order of flats are as follows:

16. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit’s ACRONYM TIME! :D

17. One way to remember the Order of Flats is to use the following acronym: • The first four letters spell the word “bead.” • The last three letters represent different sweets: Gum, Candy, Fudge. • BEADGCF • If you have your own acronym, that works too.

18. Drawing Flat Key Signatures • When actually drawing the Order of Flats on an actual staff, you MUST START WITH B ON THE THIRD LINE!

19. Then you proceed to draw the rest in an up/down pattern. • So after B, you go up and add E on the fourth space:

20. Then you go down and add A on the second space:

21. So you keep going up and down until you have them all filled! • Please keep in mind that this is for the TREBLE CLEF ONLY!

22. To place the Order of Flats in the Bass Clef, you start on B on the SECOND LINE! Place flat on SECOND LINE!

23. Then you proceed adding the other flats in an up/down pattern until you have all 7 of them! • Keep in mind that you only need to add as many flats as the scale you are composing in has. So for instance, if you are composing in A flat Major, you need only add 4 flats. Key of A flat Major Order of flats on Bass Clef

24. Sometimes you may see 1 sharp or flat. Potentially, you could see 7 sharps or flats. • You will never see a combination of sharps and flats in a key signature. And if you do, then some modern composer invented a new key. • If you don’t see any sharps or flats where the key signature should be, it is kind of safe to assume that you are in C Major (or a minor, but that’s another conversation for later).

25. Sometimes composers will put one key in the key signature and add extra accidentals in the actual score, so you may think you’re in one key but may actually be in another. • I personally feel composers did that to torture musicians, but that’s just me. Nevertheless, it’s important to study a music score thoroughly because you never know what surprises lay in wait!

26. WARNING: • Just because sharps and flats will never be combined in a key signature DOESN’T MEAN THAT THERE WON’T BE A COMBINATION OF THEM IN THE ACTUAL SCORE!

27. Fun Fact! • When looking at a new piece that has flats in the key signature, the second to last flat is the name of the key the piece is in. :D

28. Order of Sharps

29. The Order of Sharps • The Order of Sharps is just like the Order of Flats…. but with sharps. • It is essentially the Order of Flats in REVERSE! :O

30. Constructing the Order of Sharps • Much like the Order of Flats, the Order of Sharps is also written in a specific way on the staff.

31. To draw it in Treble Clef, you first begin with F# on the FIFTH LINE OF THE STAFF!

32. Now this is where it changes: Instead of going UP, you go DOWN to the THIRD SPACE C:

33. Then you go back UP to G ABOVE THE STAFF!

34. Now here’ where it gets tricky: The pattern slightly alters. • Instead of going DOWN UP, you go DOWN DOWN! • So let’s add D and A to our growing key signature:

35. Now we resume a regular patter, so we go UP to E on the fourth space, then DOWN to B on the third line. Ta Da! :D

36. For the Bass Clef. we are going to be starting on the Fourth Line and then follow the same pattern: DOWN UP DOWN DOWN UP DOWN.

37. The idea in constructing key signatures in this order is to keep everything on the actual staff as much as possible. • So if you’re adding ledger lines to your key signatures, something is very wrong. :P

38. Fun Fact! • In order to easily identify the key of a piece with sharps in the key signature, simply look at the very last sharp, go a half step up from that, and you will find your tonic! :D

39. So this is what the Order of Sharps and the Order of Flats looks like in the key signature:

40. Questions?