The Circle of Fifths
This is the easiest way to learn all the Key Signatures. Don't let the fancy name frighten you, it is very simple. When you are reading a piece of music, you look at the Key signature, and look for how many sharps, or flats it has in it (# or b). If there are neither, this tells you the song is in the Key of C Major, because C Major has no sharps or flats. For those of you who want to get technical, it could also be the key of A Minor, but I don't want to get to into this as it's a beginner course really.
Now if we move a perfect 5th up, we land up on G. If you play or know the G Major Scale, you will see that it has 1 sharp in it. If we move a perfect 5th up again we land up on D. D has 2 Sharps in it, and so on until you land up F# which is the end of that circle so to speak. The same works in the opposite direction (counter clockwise). IF we start on C, and move DOWN a perfect 5th, we land up on F. The F Major scale has 1 flat in it. IF we move another perfect 5th down, we get Bb. The Bb Major scale has 2 flats in it, and so on until you end up on Gb (same as F# when moving up from C)
They can of course overlap (enharmonic notes) but that's not really necessary to know, because you will still end up with all 12 keys.
Now how does this information help you? Very simple. When you look at a piece of music, you see 1 sharp sign, you know that the Key is G. You see one Flat sign, you know that the key is F etc....
Hope this helps ?
This is the easiest way to learn all the Key Signatures. Don't let the fancy name frighten you, it is very simple. When you are reading a piece of music, you look at the Key signature, and look for how many sharps, or flats it has in it (# or b). If there are neither, this tells you the song is in the Key of C Major, because C Major has no sharps or flats. For those of you who want to get technical, it could also be the key of A Minor, but I don't want to get to into this as it's a beginner course really.
Now if we move a perfect 5th up, we land up on G. If you play or know the G Major Scale, you will see that it has 1 sharp in it. If we move a perfect 5th up again we land up on D. D has 2 Sharps in it, and so on until you land up F# which is the end of that circle so to speak. The same works in the opposite direction (counter clockwise). IF we start on C, and move DOWN a perfect 5th, we land up on F. The F Major scale has 1 flat in it. IF we move another perfect 5th down, we get Bb. The Bb Major scale has 2 flats in it, and so on until you end up on Gb (same as F# when moving up from C)
They can of course overlap (enharmonic notes) but that's not really necessary to know, because you will still end up with all 12 keys.
Now how does this information help you? Very simple. When you look at a piece of music, you see 1 sharp sign, you know that the Key is G. You see one Flat sign, you know that the key is F etc....
Hope this helps ?