Look on the circle of fifths, the first 2 letters going clockwise from that line are F and C.Įxample #2: You are writing the key signature for A-flat. The first sharp goes on F and the second goes on C. The letters are the lines/spaces you would write the sharp/flats on when you are writing the key signature.Įxample #1: You are writing the key of D. Here is how you can use the Circle of Fifths to learn the order of sharps and flats in key signaturesĭraw an imaginary line between F and B-flat on the circle of fifths. Once you’ve found the right most sharp/flat, you will have a good indication of what key the piece of music is in.Order of Sharps and Flats in Key Signatures Look at all of the notes and find the right most sharp/flat from the mnemonic series in this lesson. You can apply a similar method to melodies to work out the key. This method involves a little bit of working out, but it’s very helpful when working from chord charts in the absence of written notation. Chord VI of a major key is always a minor chord (see table above) so this would fit within the key of G major.

The Em chord would be chord VI in the key of G major.

The only key that contains these 3 major chords is the key of G major. There are 3 major chords in the harmonic progression G, C and D.The E natural tells us that it cannot be written in a key with more than one flat, because Eb is the second flat in the sequence of flats.The C natural tells us that it cannot be written in a key with more than one sharp, because C# is the second sharp in the sequence of sharps (see mnemonic method above).There are a few clues which help us to figure out what key this harmonic progression is in. Let’s analyse the following harmonic progression and work out what key it’s in: | chord I is always major, chord II is always minor etc.

This is because the major, minor and half diminished chord will always be in the same position in every key. Chord numbers are depicted by roman numerals: Iīecause the structure of chord types remains the same in every key, it is possible to work out the key of a piece of music by looking at the chords. For now though, here is the order of chord types in every major key. The reasons and theory behind this will be discussed in a future lesson. This is because the chords are defined by the notes in the key. Just as a key has a set formula, the chords in any given key also follow a set pattern.

Order of sharps and flats worksheet