The Key Signature, Part I

I get so many questions about the key signature, I am going to spend some time on it here. This is actually music theory, but it is very relevant to playing the piano.

The key signature is the sharp(s) (#) or flat(s) (b) at the beginning of the staff. It appears on both the upper and lower staff. If there are no sharps or flats, that is a key signature, too. It indicates the key of C major or A minor. Later you'll see why the key signature indicates two keys.

The sharps and flats are always shown in the same order. The hole in the middle of the (#) or (b) surrounds a line or space which indicates the note that is sharp or flat in that key. Here is the order for the sharps:
F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#
The order for the flats is:
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, Fb

Now we just need to look at one more aspect of the keys, and then we can look at how this ordering of sharps and flats comes about. What follows is very detailed, but if you understand it, you will see how the major and minor keys are laid out on the piano keyboard.

Most music we hear is based on one of two scales: the major scale or the minor scale. There are many other kinds of scales, but that is a different article. I will just talk about these two very common scales.

All major scales follow a certain pattern of whole and half steps. A whole step is "two notes" in size, for instance, from C to D, or from E to F#, or from Bb to C, or from Gb to Ab. A half step is just "one note" in size, for instance, C to C#, E to F, or Ab to A. Look at a piano to see how whole and half steps look.

Using 'W' for Whole Step and 'H' for Half Step, the pattern of whole and half steps for the major scale is: W W H W W W H

The pattern for the minor scale is: W H W W H W W

You'll have to go to a piano to try these out. You can play a scale starting on any note. If you start on F and follow the pattern for the major scale, you get:
F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, F
Note that one of the notes comes up flat - the Bb. The key signature for F major is one flat, Bb.

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