When a piece of music is written it is certainly written in a particular key, whether that be the key of Bb or maybe even E. By looking at the beginning of the score you can see what flats or sharps will be used and can determine then which scale has been used to write the song.
There is a key signature in all pieces of music. It is signified just after the clef (the staff) and includes symbols for flats (b) and sharps (#). When you take a careful look at the start of each of the lines in the music you will surely recognize a grouping of flats or sharps (never both at once). They appear either on a space or on a line of the music staff and are put there to signify the notes that will be affected by them. To say it a different way, if the #, or sharp, is placed on the top of a music staff, the F note will be played as F#. This means that anytime the note F is played, no matter if it is in the staff’s first space, on top of the staff, or below or above the staff (this will be signified by the ledger lines) it will be played as F#.
When the note that has the flat or sharp signified in the key signature needs to be played as a neutral then an accidental will be put in front of the individual note. In other words, if the music requires the playing of an F (neutral) in the G key, there must be an accidental put in front of it so that the person that is playing the music will not play it as an F#.
The main purpose of the key signature is to limit the number of flats or sharps noted in the music. In other words, rather than placing a # by the note F every time it occurs in the music, it’s much easier to indicate to the musician that all Fs are to be played as F#s. Without key signatures, written music would be cluttered with sharps and flats making it very difficult to read.
Here are some common key signatures and the notes they affect:
Key of C: No flats or sharps
Key of G: One designated sharp (F#)
Key of D: Two designated sharps (C# and F#)
Key of A: Three designated sharps (C#, G# and F#)
Key of E: Four designated sharps (D#, F#, C# and G#)
Key of F: One designated flat (Bb)
Key of Bb: Two designated flats (Eb and Bb)
Key of Eb: Three designated flats (Ab, Bb, and Eb)
There is also a relative minor for each key. The similarities of the relative minor and the major are nearly all the same (though started in a different place, the scales are the same) they are not thought of as the same. The note that is found a minor third down from the major (key) is considered to be the relative minor. It is also known as the sixth note in the major scale. The A note is the six note of the C major scale, for example. This means that the relative minor to the C scale is an A minor. It is extremely common for music to use a particular key’s relative minor so if you know about them it makes understanding the chord progression in a song much easier to comprehend.
Here are some keys and their relative minors (keys).
A minor is the relative minor C
B minor is the relative minor for D
F# minor is the relative minor for A
G minor is the relative minor for Bb
When a musician that is experienced plays in a setting that is not formal (without written music) all they need to know is what the key is to the song that they will be playing and they will immediately know the sales, or melodies, as well as the chords that are necessary to play it well.
Last of all, it is very common for a song to change keys before the end of the song. Musicians that are newer to the musical industry may find this very challenging.
Ryan Edward is a pianist and blogger. If you would like to learn piano or make rap beats, then visit his website today.