Reading key signatures

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Tonal centres and signatures

A key signature establishes default sharps or flats, subject to local accidentals. The conventional sharp order is F–C–G–D–A–E–B; flats reverse it. This pattern helps reading but does not uniquely establish a tonal centre.

Relative major and minor keys share signatures. Listen to cadences, bass and harmony to identify the context. An empty signature neither guarantees C major nor prevents accidentals from appearing inside the piece. Separate the written defaults from the musical centre inferred from the passage.

Example

Two sharps alter F and C; D major and B minor share that signature.

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Which note is altered by a one-flat signature?

Related topics

References

Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom

Subject-expert review pending.