Help!, Memorizing Major and minor key signatures Options

[opera_luvr]

Does anyone know an easy way to memorize the Major and minor key signatures? I am so bad at them! Thanks!

[StuMac]

Does anyone know an easy way to memorize the Major and minor key signatures? I am so bad at them! Thanks!

Order of sharps

Fish Can Go Down And Eat Bait

You're always sharpening the 7th, so the key signature is the note that come after the last sharp. (i.e. F# : Gmajor; F#, C#, G#: A major).

Flats come in the reverse order

British European Airways Do Good Cheap Flights (for people old enogh to remember BEA!)

You're always flattening the note that is a 5th below the key note, so this means that the key signature is always the second last flat (Bflat, Eflat, Aflat and Dflat: Aflat major; B flat, Eflat: Bflat major). You have to remember that one flat is Fmajor yourself!

Major keys share their key signatures with the minor scale that starts a third lower. This is called the relative minor. C major goes with A minor; Eflat major with C minor, A major goes with F# minor, etc. etc.)

[Charlies Aunt]

Does anyone know an easy way to memorize the Major and minor key signatures? I am so bad at them! Thanks!

Hello
The minor keys do not have a key signature as such- they are related to the major that shares the same key signature; for example A minor is related to C major because neither scale has a key signature.

To find the related minor key, you count three semitones below the major key (tonic note) therefore three semitones from C is A. You do this with all major keys. As you may know there are two types of minor scale- the melodic and harmonic. To play the harmonic, you raise the 7th degree by a semitone both ascending and descending. So A minor harmonic= A,B,C,D,E,F,G#,A. To play the melodic, you raise the 6th and 7th degrees by a semitone ascending, then play according to the RELATED MAJOR KEY SIGNATURE descending So A,B,C,D,E,F#, G#, A ascending and A,G(natural), F(natural), E,D,C,B,A descending.

A good neumonic for the key signatures is Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle. This relates to the order of sharps in the key signature (F,C,G,D,A,E,(IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) then for the key signatures with flats, you can say the same thing in reverse- Battle Ends And Down Goes Father Charles (B,E,A,D,G,F,C). Key signatures are always in this order.

Hope this is clear!! PM me if you need any more advise. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[sneekymum]

Thanks for that! (both posts above) - I printed it out.

Yesterday my music teacher gave me her Theory Exam advice which she tells everyone and has been thanked many times for. The world should hear it too...

Sneeky's music teacher says, "Spend the first five minutes of the exam writing out all the key signatures on the scrap paper before you do anything else. You only need to think about it once then."

And so that is what I shall do.

[Charlies Aunt]

Thanks for that! (both posts above) - I printed it out.

Yesterday my music teacher gave me her Theory Exam advice which she tells everyone and has been thanked many times for. The world should hear it too...

Sneeky's music teacher says, "Spend the first five minutes of the exam writing out all the key signatures on the scrap paper before you do anything else. You only need to think about it once then."

And so that is what I shall do.

Sorry, just noticed in the Father Carles bit- the flat key signature order of notes is B,E,A,D,G,C,F (Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father). And I don't know where that smiley with the sun specs on came from. It's supposed to be a B!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[sneekymum]

Sorry, just noticed in the Father Carles bit- the flat key signature order of notes is B,E,A,D,G,C,F (Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father). And I don't know where that smiley with the sun specs on came from. It's supposed to be a B!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

thanks - my are notes amended

[lizbun]

I have to learn it sometime. I can do most of it if I'm in the thinking mood

[diapason]

[quote name='StuMac' date='Sep 26 2006, 02:49 PM' post='397030']

British European Airways Do Good Cheap Flights (for people old enogh to remember BEA!)

That's exactly how I remembered them in the 60's - I lived on the perimeter of London Airport (Heathrow) and I was reminded of it every few minutes!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[cellocase]

Another mneumonic (or however you spell them!)
Sharps:
Father Christmas Gave Dad An Electric Blanket
Flats:
Blanket Exploded And Dad Got Cold Feet

[lizbun]

Another mneumonic (or however you spell them!)
Sharps:
Father Christmas Gave Dad An Electric Blanket
Flats:
Blanket Exploded And Dad Got Cold Feet

good one

[Glass Mountain]

Another mneumonic (or however you spell them!)
Sharps:
Father Christmas Gave Dad An Electric Blanket
Flats:
Blanket Exploded And Dad Got Cold Feet

good one

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) BRILLIANT!! I'm going to use this one from now. I use the Father Charles ........ but when it's said backwards for the flats, the pupils get muddled up with the ending, just like someone else did earlier! THANKS A LOT!!

[sbhoa]

Had an interesting lesson with a year 10 student of mine this week.
They'd been doing minor keys but the teacher was teaching it by the 'go down 3 semitones from the major' method rather than explaining first that to find the relative minor you start on the 6th note of the major scale.
They were also being taught mnemonics for key signatures before being taught to recognise the pattern of sharps and flats.
I prefer to start with teaching understanding how things work then use memory aids if needed after. Quite often if someone understands how things work they don't actually need the memory aid as they can easily work it out.
I wouldn't teach note names with FACE and All Cows Eat Grass until someone understood how the notes go up the stave like a ladder.

[ShArOn_StAr92]

if you have noticed, the order of sharps is F#,C#,G#,D#,A#,E#,B#... the order of the sharps are all simply going up 5 letter names or going down 4 letter names... to find the major scale of any of the sharps, just simply do this: raise a semitone of the kep singature eg. F# raise a semitone, thus it will be g major. C# raise a semitone will be D major thus D major will have F# and C#...

the order of flats is Bb,Eb,Ab,Db,Gb,Cb,Fb... the order of the flats are simply going 4 letter names up or 5 letter names down... to find the major scale of any of the flats, do this eg, to find the key singature for Eb major, look up the order of flats and you see Ab. key singature for Eb major is thus Bb,Eb,Ab. to find the key singature of Db major, look up the order of flats and you see Gb, so the key singatures for Db major are Bb,Eb,Ab,Db,Gb...

to find the minor key eg, which minor key have no key singatures? look at the major key and see which one has no key singatures... so it will be C major have no key singatures.. from C, count down 3 semitones and it ill be A... thus the minor key that have no key singatures will be A minor... eg, which minor key have 4 flats? look at the major key and see which one have 4 flats... the ans is Ab major... count down 3 semitones and it will be F... therefore the minor key that have 4 flats will be F minor...

hope this make sense and hope you understand what i'm writing...


ShArOn

[Cyrilla]

Solfa makes relative minors so easy - just find the 'la' (as sbhoa says, the 6th note of the major scale). For example, in C major C is 'do' and A is 'la' so the relative minor of C major is A minor. (In solfa, la is the tonic in the minor).

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)