I know this is music 101 but I learned long ago not to assume that everyone in the class is on equal footing. You can’t learn the order of sharps in music unless you’re very familiar with the notes on the staff. But, all 7 lettered notes must be present within the key in order for it to be consistent with the music theory, (yea I hate that term also) you can’t skip a lettered note or have the same one twice. That means no matter of the number of sharps or flats, you’ll always have A,B,C,D,E,F and G contained within every key of music.ĭepending upon the key in which you’re in, any one of those lettered notes may have a flat or sharp to accompany it. Just know that each sharp has a different color to distinguish it from one another.Īs you probably know, the first 7 letters of the alphabet are represented in every key of music, regardless of whether it is a Major or a minor key. You don’t have to understand how Color Score works in order to understand this article. These colors are just simple tools used in the Color Score Visual Chord System. As you can see, each sharp is represented with a different color. But before we do, I just need to briefly explain how I’m presenting these sharps on our staff. Today we’re going to cover the order of sharps in music. Whenever you have a specific number of sharps in a song, they’re actually the same ones in the same order every time. So let me reiterate, all sharps in the key signature progress in the same order. Having a key signature is not very useful if it stops you in your tracks from playing the right notes in a song. One thing that can make reading lead sheets or other written music difficult, is not having a solid knowledge of the order of sharps. You will of course play more sharped notes as more sharps appear in the key signature. For example, if there’s an F sharp in the key signature, every time an F comes across the page, you’re to play that note up one half a step. In other words, whenever you come across those specific notes that are listed in the key signature, you’ll play them sharp or flat as the key signature dictates. I’ll cover more on the alphabetic representation of notes in just a moment. So, what does a key signature actually do? It tells us throughout the music whether one or more of the alphabetic notes in music are to be raised or lowered (depending whether there are sharps or flats in the key signature). The reason for not doing so is just a matter maintaining consistency in your understanding of music and avoiding confusion when communicating with other musicians. It’s either specificallysharps or specifically flats period.Īs a side note, it’s very important to understand that you never mix sharps or flats as it refers to a key of music. They never contain a mix of sharps and flats. Regardless of whether they contain sharps or flats, they’re always in the same order and maintain the exact same sharps or flats always without exception. Especially in the context of reading a simple lead sheet as many professional musicians do.Ī key signature is a specific sequence of sharps or flats placed on a musical staff to the very right of the treble clef. So what exactly does this mean in terms of musical information in respect to a specific key? It wouldn’t be very useful without a key signature. One semi-tone is also referred to as a half step. To sharp a note means to raise it higher in pitch by one semi-tone. But for our purposes, it’s simply referred to as a sharp. This can mean an accidental or a very small musical interval. Sharps are known in western music as a “diesis” a Greek term which means difference in music. To memorize the order of sharps and flats, you can use a mnemonic where the first letter of each word is the note that is added as a sharp or flat depending on the direction you’re going around the circle.Let’s talk about how to learn the order of sharps in music. This shows the different ‘key signatures.’įor example, C Major has zero sharps or flats (C D E F G A B) G Major has 1 sharp (A B C D E F♯ G), and D Major has 2 sharps (D E F♯ G A B C♯). You’ll also notice that the number of sharps (♯) or flats (♭) increase or decrease as you move around the circle. These scale degrees create the most tension back to the tonic and are very useful to know (and memorize!) at a glance. This arrangement allows you to quickly identify the fifth and fourth scale degrees of your key. Moving counterclockwise, each key is separated by a Perfect 4th interval (i.e. Moving clockwise around the circle, each key is separated by a Perfect 5th interval (i.e C Major & G Major). A way to remember these key signatures is by using the Circle of Fifths (also known as the Cycle of Fourths).
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