Channel: New Secret Guitar Teacher

Category: Music

Tags: guitar music theorysignaturekey (music)key signaturesecret guitar teachermusic keysharpssharpwhat keymusic theorynick minnionmajor scalemusic theory for guitarmusical keyflatsflatsecretguitarteacherformulakey signatureskeyunderstanding music

Description: Nick explains what key signatures are and what their purpose is. He goes on to demonstrate some of the ways that understanding key signatures can help you as a guitar player. This is the fifth part of the 'Powering Your Way Up the Pyramid' mini series which outlines the different levels of guitar music theory as taught in detail on the Secret Guitar Teacher site's Guitar Music Theory Course. Catch up with the previous lessons here! youtu.be/Y857EfuxCyE -- Find hundreds more lessons, videos and tutorials at the Secret Guitar Teacher site! Sign up now for a free 30 day trial secretguitarteacher.com -- Abridged Script: Why are some keys easier to play in than others? Why do we have sharps and flats? Is there a quick and simply way to know what notes belong to a given key? Is there a simple way to know what key a song is in? These are just a few of the questions answered on this level of music theory. But first, let’s answer the most important questions – what exactly is a key signature and what’s its purpose in life? Well here are two ways we can look at the answer to this. If we take a stave and place a random set of notes on it – these notes are effectively in the key either of C major or A minor – because these are the only keys that have neither sharps nor flats in their key signature. If I play these notes followed by a C chord or by an Am chord …I think you can hear they kind of fit nicely without any sense of tension. I can change the feel of this random musical phrase without altering the actual placement of notes on the stave, simply by adding sharp or flat signs at the start of the line. In this case I have added two sharps. The red coloured sharp sign is placed on the line where the note F is found and the green coloured sharp sign on the space where the note C is found. This acts as an instruction to play every F note in this following passage of music as an F# and every C note as a C#. Because I know that this key signature (two sharps) belongs to the key of D major or B minor I can predict that the phrase will now sound more fitting if I follow it with the chords D or Bm. To help explain how this works let’s take another view: Picking a random note to start on (B in this case) I write out the musical alphabet starting and ending with that note. Applying a trick taught on the theory course, I can then add a key signature one sharp sign at a time in the order given by the strange sounding mnemonic: Father.. Charles… Goes… Down… And… …Stopping the process as soon as I arrive at the seventh note in the scale. If I then check the intervals, the gaps between each note, in the scale, I find I have created a perfect MAJOR scale according to the formula as taught on the fourth level of the pyramid – TTSTTTS So, in essence that is precisely what a key signature does – it automatically turns any consecutive series of musical letter names into a Major scale. The notes of the Major scale are the notes of the major key. By starting on the sixth step of any major scale I can also find the notes of the Natural Minor scale. Studying this level requires understanding a hidden connection between # key signatures and the circle of fifths and flat key signatures and the circle of fourths. Which we learn to see as two ways of looking at the same elegant musical construction – the Full Circle of Musical Keys. One of the practical outcomes of understanding this level of music theory is the ability to instantly know the key of any piece of written music. You may have noticed that most songs start with their key chord, but this is not always the case. Understanding key signatures quickly helps you be certain of the right key. It also enables you quickly to jot down the notes of any Major or Natural Minor scale – a very useful prerequisite to analysing chords. Sometimes you find something that sounds nice but you can’t hear exactly what chord type it is. By writing down the notes I am playing and then comparing them against possible key scales I gain the satisfaction of being able to name the chord correctly. So, this is a vital level of music theory with all kinds of immediate practical benefits to be derived from learning to understand it. It is also absolutely critical to master this part of the subject if you wish to push on up the pyramid and explore the subject of chord formulas and harmonised scales. We’ll take a close look at those next in this mini-series.