Musical Keys

Most of the music written in the Western world is based on major keys. Most of the time, music that is written in a major key has a more cheerful and inspiring tone associated with it than its minor complement.

All music is written in a key. The key is the formula by which all of the notes in the song are to subscribe in order to sound appropriate when worked together. The notes are all listed in the scale that is associated with that key. When played together, the scale will create a harmonious sound that we attribute to the major key. The scale itself is created of seven notes where the eighth one is a full octave higher than the original note. For example, in the C major scale, the first note will be a C and the last, eighth note will also be a C.

Major Sharps

C major is the easiest scale on a piano and is the only one that never hits the “black keys” on the keyboard. For this reason, it is often the first scale that students will learn in their music theory classes. The other scales have either a sharp or a flat, depending on how the musical score is written. They are broken down as follows:

C major = 0 sharps

G major = 1 sharp (F#)

D major = 2 sharps (F#, C#)

A major = 3 sharps (F#, C#, G#)

E major = 4 sharps (F#, C#, G#, D#)

B major = 5 sharps (F#, C#, G#, D#)

F# major = 6 sharps (F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#)

C# major = 7 sharps (F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#)

As you can see, the major scales are built and applied in the above order based on their number of sharps. In the later cases, it might seem that the major key is based more on sharps than on the regular notes themselves.

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Major Flats

The major scales with flats consist of the following:

C major = 0 flats

F major = 1 flat (B♭)

B♭major = 2 flats (B♭, E♭)

E♭major = 3 flats (B♭, E♭, A♭)

A♭major = 4 flats (B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭)

D♭major = 5 flats (B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭,G♭)

G♭major = 6 flats (B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭)

C♭major = 7 flats (B♭,E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, F♭)

You will notice that while the sharp major keys scales end with a B#, the flat major keys begin with a B♭and work backwards from there. Each of the major scales starts a fifth below (or a fourth above) the previous one that was just played.