MusicGameStudio

An Easy Way to Identify a Key and Remember Sharps & Flats ๐ŸŽน

A piano keyboard octave, numbered by the order sharps / flats are added to a key signature. Turn on "Trick Order" to watch C# and D# slide inward, into the trio of black keys โ€” so all the numbers line up in sequence.

Normal PositionTrick Order
Order of sharps (up to the 5th sharp in the key signature):
๐Ÿ’ก The order of flats is exactly the reverse of the order of sharps โ€” remember one, and you get the other, backwards.

How can you identify the key from its accidentals?

Keys with sharps: Find the last sharp in the key signature. A semitone above it is the major key; a whole tone below it is the relative minor key.

For example, the last sharp in G major is Fโ™ฏ: a semitone above is G major, and a whole tone below is E minor.

Each move to a new major key on the sharp side adds one sharp. The newly sharpened note is scale degree seven of the new key โ€” the leading tone that points to its tonic.

Keys with flats: Start with F major, which has one flat: Bโ™ญ. The flat you see points to the name of the next major key: after F major comes Bโ™ญ major. Its newly added flat is Eโ™ญ, so Eโ™ญ major comes next.

This gives the rule: with two or more flats, the second-to-last flat names the current major key. To find its relative minor, move down a minor third (three semitones) from that major tonic.

For example, Bโ™ญ major has two flats: Bโ™ญ and Eโ™ญ. The second-to-last flat is Bโ™ญ, so it names the major key. A minor third below Bโ™ญ is G minor.

How do you move around the circle of fifths? Start at C major, with no sharps or flats.

Toward the sharps: C โ†’ G โ†’ D โ†’ A. Each step goes up a perfect fifth and adds one sharp.

Toward the flats: C โ†’ F โ†’ Bโ™ญ โ†’ Eโ™ญ. Each step goes up a perfect fourth and adds one flat.

For example, from C to F you can go up a fourth or down a fifth to a lower F. That is why perfect fourths and fifths are inversions of each other.

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