Did you know that there are up to 30 key signatures to memorize for music tests? Fortunately, there is a way to calculate all of them knowing only seven. These are the major keys of the seven notes of the musical alphabet ABCDEFG and to help us do this we give these keys numerical values.

The order of the flats is: B, E, A, D, G, C, F. The first four flats form BEAD. i used to remember B.British meEuropean HASwould you go D.oh GRAMOkay againstcontinental Flights that used to be true but BEA are no more.

British European Airways does good continental flights

F, C, G, D, A, E, B are the order of sharps. Try to remember a phrase like this for the order of sharps: Fmade againstats GRAMoh D.own self HASalleys meDated B.kids

Fat cats go through the alleys eating birds.

Even more helpful tips!

Have you noticed that the order of the sharps is the same as that of the flats, only in reverse?

BEADGCF – FCGDAEB

Look at the piano keyboard and notice how the order of the flat keys (F-Bb-Eb-Ab, etc.) move down from middle C in perfect intervals of fifths, while the sharp keys do the same but ascending. (GDAE, etc.) This is the Circle of 5ths.

Sharps and flats do exactly the same thing.

MINOR KEYS

To calculate minor key signatures, first think of the tonic or parallel major and subtract 3. Let’s assume you need to know C minor. First think in C major. C major has a value of 0. Subtract 3. Your result is -3. Minus 3 means three floors. So C minor has three flats. Now remember the BEA command. So C minor has Bb, Eb, and Ab.

If you need to solve a harder minor key, say F# minor, for example, start with F major. Add 7. -1 +7 = 6 so that F# major has 6 sharps. Then subtract 3 (ending with F# minor = 3 sharps)

Did you know that there are up to 30 key signatures to memorize for music tests? Fortunately, there is a way to calculate all of them knowing only seven. These are the major keys of the seven notes of the musical alphabet ABCDEFG and to help us do this we give these keys numerical values.

A (major) has 3 sharps (sharps are positive), so the numerical value of A is [3] (gold +3)

B has 5 sharps so we remember B as [5] (+5)

C does not have sharps or flats so we will call C [0] (zero)

D has 2 sharps so remember D as [2] (plus 2)

E has 4 sharps so E becomes [4]

F has a flat and since the flats are negative we call F [-1] (Minus 1)

G contains 1 sharp so G will be [1]

Now, here’s the clever part… So you know the key signature of C major, but you want to figure out Cb major. The trick is to subtract 7 from the number of the key you know. For example, C major is 0 (zero), so subtract 7 and we arrive at -7 (minus seven). The minus sign means flats, so Cb major has 7 flats. GET IT!

If you want to know C# (major), since C# is higher than C major (sharper), we add 7 to get to seven sharps (which is the key signature of C# major)

If you want to know Eb, solve it from the next closest key signature you know of with the same letter name. That’s E major which has 4 sharps. Now, since Eb is lower (flatter) than E, then we subtract 7 giving a result of -3. So Eb has three flats.

Isn’t that child’s play?

I’ll have to rest now… I think I’ve worn out my brains! SORRY!