Kaii had combined several piano/keyboard method books and her life long music learning books to create this sequential music theory study for this website. This page is about the understanding of the Key Signatures. By clicking on the other colored links at the bottom of this page, the other music theory topics can be found easily.

For more information, please contact Kaii directly: kaii@kafm.net

Unlike Time Signatures that mainly deal with the rhythm portion of any music, the Key Signatures are the very important part of any melodic lines. To understand how a Key Signature works, one must understand how to read music notations on staff lines first. The following sections on this page will mainly use Whole Notes to show positions for clarification purposes. Therefore, there are no rhythmic patterns on this page.

Staff | Clefs | Sharps | Flats | Circle of Fifths | Other Music Theory Topics

For music notation, the staff is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch, or in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments. When counting the lines and spaces, start from the bottom. See the sample below.

Line Notes	Space Notes
Percussion Staff

Music pitches have a wide variety of frequencies that require more than the five staff lines and four spaces can offer. The Ledger Lines are designed to add more positions as needed. The ledger lines can be added both above and below the staff. It is best to add no more than five ledger lines to the staff in either direction.

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The Staff Lines usually have a Music Clef on the left side at the beginning of any song to indicate the approximate pitches on those staff lines. The different clefs indicate specific pitches. Normally, they last throughout the music, but can be changed in the middle of a music phrase or section. See the clefs below.

The Grad Staff is the most commonly used staff for keyboard music. It covers a wide variety of pitches. However, it is not limited to one Treble and one Bass clefs as seen below. Both staves can be written with Treble Clefs only, or Bass Clefs only, depends on the song's pitches. The G-clef is the treble clef, with the G-clef placed on the second treble staff line. This is the most common clef in use and is generally the first clef learned by music students. The treble clef was historically used to mark a treble, or high voice part in vocal music. The F-clef is the bass clef, with the clef placed on the fourth bass staff line. Traditionally, the F-clef is used to mark a bass, or low voice part in vocal music.

	The Grand Staff is made available to notate for all the keys represented in the graph of a piano keyboard above.

Many musical instruments use the treble clef, such as violin, flute, piccolo, oboe, English Horn, recorders, harmonicas, clarinets, saxophones, French Horn, trumpet, cornet, vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel, mandolin, banjo, guitar, and bagpipe.

The bass clef is used for the cello, double bass/string bass, electric bass, bassoon, contrabassoon, bass recorder, trombone, tuba, timpani and vocal parts of the baritone and bass. It is also used to show low pitches in music for keyboard instruments, harp, and marimba.

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The music symbols between the Clef and the Time Signature is called the Key Signature. It indicates the Key, or Tonality, of the song. When a note requires a raised tone, a Sharp is used as an indication for the entire piece of music, when used as a Key Signature. See the sample below.

C Major	G Major	D Major	A Major	E Major	B Major	F-Sharp Major	C-Sharp Major

The order of the use of sharps is: F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, and B#. To find the name of the key signature with sharp(s), 1.) go to the last Sharp, 2.) move up one half step to the next key, 3.) the name of that key is the name of the key signature. The following chart can help the memorization of the Sharp Key Signatures.

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Similar to the Sharps, when a note requires a lowered tone, a Flat is used as an indication for the entire piece of music when used as a Key Signature. See the sample below.

C Major	F Major	B-Flat Major	E-Flat Major	A-Flat Major	D-Flat Major	G-Flat Major	C-Flat Major

The order of the use of sharps is: Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, and Fb. To find the name of the key signature with flats(s), 1.) Memorize F major has one flat, 2.) look for the second to the last flats in the key signature, 3.) the name of that flat is the name of the key signature. The following chart can help the memorization of the Flat Key Signatures.

With the sharps and flats added to the Key Signature, musicians can learn from a simple wheel of the music keys. It is called the "Circle of Fifths" from the intervals between the key names. The following example shows both "Major" and "Minor" key signatures. The making of any scales will be discussed on the next Music Theory Topic page, "Scales."

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The next topic in this Music Theory site is all about the "Scales." Thank you for reading!

Music Theory that every musician could use and should know
The Basics	Math in Music	More Math and Signs	Music Forms
Time Signatures	Intervals	Modulations	Homophonic Style
			Polyphonic Style
	Diatonic & Chromatic Steps	Transposition	Contrapuntal Techniques
Key Signatures	Triads & Inversions		Binary Form
	Primary Triads	Augmented Sixth Chords	Ternary Form
	Secondary Triads	Traditional Compositional Tools	Dance Suites
Scales	Seventh Chords	Contemporary Compositional Tools	Prelude & Fugue
	Secondary Dominant	Musical Signs	Sonata Form
	Cadences		Rondo Form
Modes	Chord Progressions	Musical Terms	Theme & Variations
	Figured Bass & Basso Continuo		Serialism

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