Posts Tagged ‘G Major’

Key Signature

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

A Key signature is shown to the right of the clef symbol and will show a series sharp symbols or flat symbols which can be interpreted to deduce which key the piece is written in.

The Key of a piece means that when playing a piece of music, certain notes may be sharpened or flattened by the pieces key signature unless overridden by a natural symbol or an extra sharp/flat symbol. Therefore, on a Key Signature such as D Major, where the sharps are F# and C# each C note you see on the notation is played as C# and not C natural.

The word / term Sharp means to increase the pitch of a note by a semi-tone.
The word / term Flat or Flatten means to decrease the pitch of a note by a semi-tone.

The Table Below outlines the various Key Signatures you may encounter. There are many others but these are simply the basic or most common key signatures.

Common Key Signatures
Key Description Key Signature
C Major No Flats keysig-CMaj
D Major Two Sharps keysig-DMaj
E Major Four Sharps keysig-EMaj
F Major One Flat keysig-FMaj
G Major One Sharp keysig-GMaj
A Major Three Sharps keysig-AMaj
B Flat Major Two Flats keysig-BFlatMaj
B Major Five Sharps keysig-BMaj

Time Signatures

A Time Signature indicates how many beats there are in each bar and which note is to be used as a beat. This basic introduction to time signatures will assume that the crotchet is to be used as the one beat measure – therefore all times will be something:4 time. Certain time signatures lend themselves to certain styles of songs, e.g. most waltzes are written in 3:4 time, and the majority of rock songs would be based around 4:4 time.

Time Signatures Symbol
4:4 Time 4-4-time
3:4 Time 3-4-time
6:4 Time 6-4-time

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Music Learning | Comments Off


  • Looking for music themed pub quiz questions? Choose Quiz Knight!
  • Best links