Key Signatures – What’s The Point? Guitar Lessons in Aberdeen

A key signature is presented at the beginning of a piece of music. It is there to tell you what scale the song has been derived from. This is helpful for a number of reasons which I will go into a bit later.

The first thing to note is what a key signature looks like. You will either be presented with sharps (#) or flats (b) at the beginning of a piece of music. It’s important to remember that you’ll never be presented with both, key signatures can only be written in sharps of flats. If there is no key signature at the beginning of the piece of music it can mean one of a few things. There is only one key signature in modern western music that has no sharps or flats – C Major (A Minor). It is the only key signature in music that doesn’t contain any sharps or flats – we call it a natural scale. However, it’s important to remember that with modern transcriptions, available online it is more common than you’d think for the key signature to be missed out altogether. Clear signs of this are numerous sharps or flats throughout the music notation. These are called accidentals but are required if the key signature has been missed.

So what’s the point of knowing the scale that the song has been derived from? Within my student’s guitar lessons with Fresh Music Aberdeen I teach my students the freedom knowing the key signature can make. The key signature in terms of music notation is to tell you what notes are to be played as either sharps or flats. It makes writing the music easier as you no longer need to show each sharp or flat within the piece anytime there is a note to be played with either one. From an improvisation/playing by ear point of view the key signature can give us all we need to know to get playing without reading the music any further, let me explain.

Knowing a key signature will not only give you the scale the song was derived from and therefore the scale you can use for improvisation – it also gives you the notes to which the majority of chords have been built on. I say majority as we can borrow notes/chords from other keys but more about that in another blog! If you know chord progression from a scale – Major, Minor, Minor, Major, Major, Minor, Diminished (in triad form) then you are on the path to being able to work out the chords being played by ear. Yes, there may be some alterations and extensions to these basic triads but it’s a good start either way.

Knowing the key is vital and I love working with my students within their guitar lessons on the importance of knowing a key signature.

Now for those more advanced players you may be asking the question – what about modes or the wrong against right? Yes, these are things that we need to be aware of when looking at a key signature and analysing a piece. But if you’re new to key signatures this isn’t something you have to worry about yet – focus on the simple stuff and let the rest build from there.

As a music school in Aberdeen it’s so important to make each guitar player who receives guitar lessons here as independent in their playing as possible. If a player doesn’t eventually become competent in what I’ve mentioned above, I’m doing my job as a guitar teacher in Aberdeen incorrectly.

There is an easy way to learn and work out key signatures by only knowing the chromatic scale and a rule for working out keys – I’ll leave it below. There is also the circle of 5ths but I prefer this method below personally – enjoy!