Introducing the key signature

Sometimes when we want our music to sound a certain way, we need to use a combination of white keys and black keys. Notes that are written on a staff are always white keys by default. So how do we fix this?

We can show which black keys we want played by putting accidentals like sharps or flats in front of those notes that we want to move to the higher or lower black key.

But if there are more than a few sharps or flats in a song, the music can start looking really crowded and messy, and it can become more difficult to read the music.

This is why we use a key signature to mark our black keys, while keeping our music clean.

A key signature is a collection of sharps or flats at the beginning of a piece of music that tells us which notes are going to be black keys throughout the whole song. For example, this sharp on the F line tells us that every single F in this piece is supposed to be played as an F# instead.

(This includes F’s on the top line of the treble clef, but it also includes F’s on the bottom space of the treble clef.)

This way of notating our black and white keys takes a little while to get used to, but is way neater and easier to read!

If you’re just starting to play with a key signature, you may find it helpful to go through your piece and circle all the notes that are going to be black keys. The key signature can be hard to remember at first, but over time you really get used to them and you won’t have to mark them at all!

If you’d like to learn more about key signatures, check out my next post in this series on major vs. minor key signatures.