Sharp Major Scale Key Signatures Chart
| Key Signature | Number of Sharps | Sharp Notes | Minor key |
| C major | 0 | None | A minor |
| G major | 1 | F♯ | E minor |
| D major | 2 | F♯ C♯ | B minor |
| A major | 3 | F♯ C♯ G♯ | F♯ minor |
D♯ (D-sharp) or re dièse is the fourth semitone of the solfège. It lies a chromatic semitone above D and a diatonic semitone below E, thus being enharmonic to mi bémol or E♭. However, in some temperaments, it is not the same as E♭.
What is key signature contains F sharp and C sharp?
- If a flat is in the name of the key (like, here, Cb!), use flats
- If a sharp is in the name, use sharps
- If a natural note is in the name, use sharps, with the exception of F major (1 flat) and C major (no sharps or flats!).
What are the first four sharps in a key signature?
What Are The First Four Sharps In A Key Signature? There are 5 categories of sharpness: F-degree sharpness, C-degree sharpness, G-degree sharpness, D-degree sharpness, A-degree sharpness, and E-degree sharpness. There are six types of flats: B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, D-flat, G-flat, C-flat, and F-flat according to height.
What is an F minor key?
F-sharp minor is a minor scale based on F ♯, consisting of the pitches F ♯, G ♯, A, B, C ♯, D, and E.Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative major is ...
What is the key signature of a minor?
Minor key signatures are derived from the diatonic version of the minor scale. Minor key signatures look just like major key signatures and follow the same pattern and placement on the staff. Minor keys can be closely related to major keys in several different ways. Parallel keys —C major and C minor, for example—share the same tonic.
What is the F sharp minor scale?
F-sharp minor is a minor scale based on F ♯, consisting of the pitches F ♯, G ♯, A, B, C ♯, D, and E. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative major is A major and its parallel major is F-sharp major (or enharmonically G-flat major ).
What minor is Haydn's Farewell Symphony in?
In addition to the Farewell Symphony, Haydn's Piano Trio No. 40 (Hob. XV:26) and String Quartet Op. 50, No. 4 are in F-sharp minor.
Which composer wrote a symphony in the key of "Farewell"?
Very few symphonies are written in this key, Haydn 's Farewell Symphony being one famous example. George Frederick Bristow and Dora Pejačević also wrote symphonies in this key.
What key is the Toccata BWV 910 in?
Handel set the sixth of his eight harpsichord suites of 1720 in F-sharp minor. Aside from a prelude and fugue from each of the two books of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Bach 's only other work in F-sharp minor is the Toccata BWV 910. Mozart 's only composition in this key is the second movement to his Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major.
What key signature is used for harmonic minor?
However, harmonic minor key signatures use the natural minor key signature of the same key (in this case - F# natural minor key signature) next to the treble clef, and then the differences between the two scales are shown as adjustments next to the note names on the staff. Firstly, in this step, the harmonic minor scale is shown on a piano keyboard.
How many sharps are in the F minor scale?
To understand why the F-sharp harmonic minor scale has 4 sharps, have a look at the F# harmonic minor scale page, which shows the music theory rules for identifying the note positions and names for this scale.
What is the harmonic minor scale?
This harmonic minor scale is based on the natural minor scale with the same key / tonic note - F# natural minor scale. Since the natural minor key is itself on the Circle of 5ths - F# minor on circle of 5ths, this means that this is a commonly used harmonic minor scale key.
How many sharps does F# have?
The F# natural minor key signature has 3 sharps, which is different to the harmonic minor scale above.
How many halftones does the 7th note of the natural minor scale need?
The 7th note of the natural minor scale needs to be raised by one half-tone / semitone, which will result in adjustment action on the existing natural minor note name.
Which key signature does not reflect raised notes?
However, the harmonic minor key signature next to the bass or treble clef will not reflect this raised note, as explained in the next step.
What is the accidental name of every white key?
Every white or black key could have a flat (b) or sharp (#) accidental name, depending on how that note is used. In a later step, if sharp or flat notes are used, the exact accidental names will be chosen.
What is a Key Signature?
Have you ever noticed that at the beginning of some pieces of music, there is often a group of sharps or flats before the music even starts like this?
How to find the key signature of a scale?
The Circle of Fifths is the way these key signatures are organized. It is based around the principle that each key signature is the interval of a perfect fifth away from the next. For example, if C major scale has no sharps and flats, then if you move up by a perfect 5th, you should find the scale that has one sharp. That would be G major. If you go up by another perfect 5th, you will find the scale that has two sharps. That would be D major. For the flat scales, you start with C major and go down a perfect 5th to find the scale with one flat. That would be F major. Here is a diagram of what the Circle of 5ths looks like:
Why is it important to know what the Key Signature is for a song?
Not only does the key signature help you understand which sharps and flats to use in a song, it can also help you to understand what chords you might encounter while playing the song. Since each “key” or “scale” has certain sharps or flats associated with it, there are certain chords that are also associated with each scale. For example, C major scale doesn’t have any sharps or flats in it. So when you are playing chords for a song in C major, the chords won’t have any sharps or flats either.
Where does the Key Signature come from?
A major scale sounds like it does (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do) because it is built of a pattern of tones (T) and semitones (S). This pattern operates kind of like a recipe. If you follow the recipe of tones and semitones, any scale you build will sound like a major scale. A semitone is the smallest space between two notes. On the guitar, each fret is one semitone. On the piano, a semitone is a space from one note to its next closest neighbour (either a white note or a black note). A tone is simply two semitones put together. Here is the C major scale as it looks on the piano.
How many sharps are in C major?
Start counting your sharps on the word “Charles” to represent 0 sharps for C major. Now add one sharp as you continue through the words until you come back to Charles, which represents C♯ (C sharp) major and its 7 sharps. Another handy trick is the saying “C is all or nothing”. C♯ (C sharp) major has all the sharps and C major has nothing.
What chords are in C major?
They are labeled by a number based on what note of the C major scale they start on. When playing pop songs, we often will see these chords labeled like this: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim. In other words, if you are playing a song in C major (which has no sharps and flats) and you see a chord labeled “Dm”, you can easily figure out how to play it on the piano by building a chord with D on the bottom and simply playing only the white notes on the piano. This is one of the reasons why knowing your key signatures is so important.
What does a major scale sound like?
A major scale sounds like it does (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do) because it is built of a pattern of tones (T) and semitones (S). This pattern operates kind of like a recipe. If you follow the recipe of tones and semitones, any scale you build will sound like a major scale. A semitone is the smallest space between two notes. On the guitar, each fret is one semitone. On the piano, a semitone is a space from one note to its next closest neighbour (either a white note or a black note). A tone is simply two semitones put together. Here is the C major scale as it looks on the piano.
What is the key signature that has both a major and a minor key?
Remember that each key signature has both a major and minor key. The key signatures that share the same key signature are known as relative keys.
How to find the minor key?
Once you know which major key signature you’re in, you can find it’s relative minor key in seconds! To determine the minor key, simply go down a minor third from the major key. You can think of a minor third as 1.5 steps, three half steps, or one whole-step and one half-step.
How many flats does F major have?
Since the key of F Major only has one flat, it’s impossible to locate the second flat from the right in that key signature. So just like you’ll have to wire C Major and A Minor into your brain with no extra help, you’ll have to do the same for F Major. F Major only has one flat: B-flat.
Sharp Key Signature Symbol Order
Sharp Key Signature Relationships
- The other interesting thing about this phrase / pattern is that given any sharp symbol in the key signature, the symbols beforethat symbol will always exist. For example, if a key signature has note B# (last phrase word / symbol), then it will alwayshave the other 6 symbols before it. Another example - if a key signature has note D# (4th word / symbol), then it will alwayshave the first 3 s…
Difference Between Treble and Bass Clef Key Signature
- For both the treble and bass clef, all key signature rules on this page are identical. The only difference between them is that the bass clef symbols are shifted down to the next line or space (and of course the note pitches are lower on the bass clef). This is to reflect the fact that all note positions on the bass clef are one line or space lower than the treble clef. For example, on the tr…
A Key Signature Symbol Covers The Note on Many Octaves
- The above staff diagrams show only onepossible staff position for each note letter A to G, on each clef. The specific note positions used to identify each note A..G above are just a convention used to group the key signature symbols neatly around the centre of the staff, but any symbol actually applies to that note in alloctaves on a given clef. This means that for the first symbol, F#, althoug…
Overview
F-sharp minor is a minor scale based on F♯, consisting of the pitches F♯, G♯, A, B, C♯, D, and E. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative major is A major and its parallel major is F-sharp major (or enharmonically G-flat major).
The F-sharp natural minor scale is:
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Music in F-sharp minor
Very few symphonies are written in this key, Haydn's Farewell Symphony being one famous example. George Frederick Bristow and Dora Pejačević also wrote symphonies in this key.
The few concerti written in this key are usually written for the composer himself to play, including Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1, Scriabin's Piano Concerto, Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 1, Vieuxtemps's Violin Concerto No. 2, and Koussevitzky's Double Bass Concerto.
Notable classical compositions in F-sharp minor
• Charles-Valentin Alkan: Concerto for Solo Piano: Allegretto alla barbaresca
• Johannes Brahms
• Frédéric Chopin
• Ernst von Dohnányi: Suite in F-sharp minor
Further reading
• Anthony Morris, "Symphonies, Numbers and Keys" in Bob's Poetry Magazine, III.3, March 2006.
External links
• Media related to F-sharp minor at Wikimedia Commons