Lesson 12: Key Signatures

Key Signatures:

Learning to play the guitar in all the commonly used musical keys will make you a more versatile guitar player.

It will be easier for you to sit in sessions with other players who are sight reading written musical compositions.

Learning the different music key signatures will also be beneficial to you in writing your own music.

This page to be updated soon. Check back soon to view the on line video and added written text lesson.

In Lesson 12, you will learn two ways to learn and remember the different key signatures in music.

Method one is to memorize two short acronyms.

Method two is by constructing different key signature scales using tetrachords from the scales in other keys.

Method two sounds complicated, but it is easy to learn and will give you a firm foundation of understanding of 1)what are the different key signatures and 2) why are there different key signatures?

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Image of the C Major Scale:

c-scale-with-lower-and-upper-tetrachords1 ********************************************************************************************* Image of the G Major Scale: The major scale shown in figure 2 is shown divided into two halves, each with the same pattern of intervals: Tone-Tone-Semitone.

Each half of the scale is called a tetrachord.

The two tetrachords are joined by an interval of a tone.

We will discuss how these tetrachords can be located in front of or behind other adjacent tetrachords in order to form the different key signatures in modern music.

How to learn the key signatures if you do not want to learn any music theory about it:

1. There are twelve keys in music, one key for each note of the chromatic scale. So there are twelve key signatures, one for each different key.

2. Key signatures are shown by the use of sharps or flats. (Or no sharps or flats to show the key of “C”).

3. For sharps, memorize this acronym: G D A E B. These are the keys in the order of the number of sharps in their key signature. (G = 1 sharp, D = 2 sharps, A = 3 sharps, E = 4 sharps, B = 5 sharps).

4. For flats, memorize the acronym: F B E A D G.

These are the letter names of the keys in the order of the number of flats in their key signature.

I omitted the “flat” symbol after the letters BEAD and G, so it is easier for you to see the acronym, but those keys are referred to as F, B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat and G flat.

(F = 1 flat, B flat = 2 flats, E flat = 3 flats, A flat = 4 flats, D flat = 5 flats and G flat = 6 flats.

Being able to identify the key signatures on a piece of written music will help you to be able to know what chords and notes to play with that music.

Watch for the video coming soon that explains the music theory of how the tetrachords are used to build the 12 different music keys. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

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Image of the F Major Scale:

A capo can be used to play the guitar in different keys of music using the finger patterns and chords used of the first position on the higher frets of the finger board where the capo is placed.

Image of a Capo: