The reading courseLesson 7 of 13 · Level 4
Key signatures, one at a time
Read one and two sharps or flats in the key signature, and sharps, flats and naturals in the music.
What's new on the page
The four new key signatures on the treble staff, and a sharp and a flat written in the music.
A sharp (♯) raises a note to the very next key up, often a black key; a flat (♭) lowers it to the next key down. Written right after the clef, at the start of every line, they are the key signature: each one holds for every note of its letter, in every octave, all through the piece.
One sharp is F♯: G major or E minor. One flat is B♭: F major or D minor. Two sharps are F♯ and C♯ (D major or B minor), two flats B♭ and E♭ (B♭ major or G minor). Look at the signature before the first note, and keep it in mind: the F on the page is played as F♯ all the way through.
A sign written in the music, just before a note, is an accidental. It lasts until the bar line, for that line or space only. A natural (♮) cancels a sharp or flat, the key signature's or an earlier one's, and gives back the white key.
The guides that go further: How to read key signatures and accidentals and Piano scales and the circle of fifths.
Pieces this lesson opens
Pieces in the library that read as ready once you know everything up to this lesson, and didn't before it.
- It's Me, O LordTraditionallevel 4
- Valses poéticos No. 5Enrique Granadoslevel 4
- The New Doll, Op. 39 No. 9Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskylevel 4