order of sharps and flats circle of fifths

When I say fifths, I am speaking of the note in a scale. The circle of fifths is a symbol diagram which shows you the standard progression of keys if you were to move on intervals of fifths. You can see below how this will look on the staff. We would write this key signature as a symbol (#) on the F line of the staff. Again, this means that you can play any natural note except for F, which you need to play as F sharp. We would write the key of F as shown below, with a flat symbol (looks like a lower case 'b') over the B line on the staff.Īnother key that is very common is the key of G, in which there is only one sharp, F sharp.

This means that you can play any natural (white key) note except for B, which you need to play as B flat instead and you will remain in the key of F. Since the key of C doesn't have any sharps or flats, there is nothing to write on the key signature.Īnother common key is the key of F. This is because the key of C doesn't have any sharps or flats (sharps or flats mean a note is changed, such as F sharp or B flat). Common Key Signaturesīy far the most common key signature is the key of 'C'.

There are a total of 12 different keys that a song can be in, each one has different notes, though some of the notes overlap with different keys.

Musical Keys are made up of certain notes that sound good together. This means what pitch range the entire song will take place in and it also tells the musician what notes sound good and what notes sound not so good, especially when improvising. The key signature tells the musician what key the music is played in. Like time signatures, key signatures tell you important information about a piece of music.

Order of sharps and flats circle of fifths