#Understanding music keys how to#

A major key and its relative minor key make use of the same scale. The relative minor for F major is D minor. For instance, the relative minor key for C major is A minor. Major keys all have a relative minor key. They make it so much easier to read music. Key signatures help to reduce on the number of accidentals that would be in a piece of music if they were not present. So every time the note B appears, the note B flat is played instead. Notice the flat sign over the B line in both the treble and bass clef?

This means that every time the note F appears, it will be raised by a semitone to F sharp.Īnother example is the key of F Major or D minor. Notice that the sharp sign is over the F line in the treble clef as well as the bass clef. My #1 Recommendation: Go here to learn about the BEST piano/keyboard course I’ve seen online.įor instance, let’s take a look at the signature for the key of G or E minor. The only times they don’t affect a note are when there’s a natural sign on that note or when there’s a key change. These sharps and flats (accidentals) affect every note on the line or space they represent throughout the entire composition. I will also go over examples of pitch, time signatures and other goodies at the piano keyboard so you can make sure you understand these aspects in your own playing.Music key signatures are sharps and flats immediately following the clef sign.

#Understanding music keys how to#

In the following video I share a great online resource with a key signature chart and go over it at the piano showing you how to learn your scales and key signatures at the same time. Learning key signatures is the other important task to accomplish to be able to recognize what key a piece is in and what notes are in that key. 4/4 time means that there are four quarter notes in each measure, since the bottom 4 represents a quarter note * *Remember that the top note in a time signature tells us how many beats are in a measure and the bottom note tells us what kind of note gets the beat. In order to process these three aspects of music theory into your piano playing, you should learn basic time signatures, such as 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, & 6/8 and should also know note values such as how many beats whole notes, half notes, quarter notes & eighth notes get to understand how to count a time signature. In music the key is represented by the key signature. Keys will always have natural notes in them and either sharps or flats it will not have a combination of sharps and flats, however. Each key has its own unique set of notes where some are sharp or natural or sharp. Keys tell us what notes are sharp, flat or natural and let us know exactly what pitch we are to play in the piece. In music rhythm is represented by the time signature which tells us how many beats are in each measure and what kind of note gets the count/beat. On the staff, rhythm is read left to right just as the notes are written on the sheet music. It organizes all the pitches into a larger picture that make up the piece of music it gives form to the pitches. Rhythm is the timing of how you are playing the pitches in the piece and in each measure. Notes can move up and down in consecutive order or they can skip notes while still going to the same direction. On the music staff, pitch goes up and down, not across like the notes do.

Typically, higher notes are played with our right hand on the piano keyboard and lower notes are played with our left hand. Pitch is easy to understand if you simply think about how high or low the notes go. These three important elements of music theory are pitch, rhythm, and keys. Today we are going to go over the most important basics that you should know because they are the foundation of all the music theory applications that you will be learning as you advance in your piano playing. These things tell us what notes to play and how many of them we play in each measure. When we first start a new piece, we learn what the key signature is and what the time signature is. While we are learning where Middle C is on the piano (usually the first note that we learn) we are also learning what C sounds like and how it relates to the key/note next to it which is D. We start learning music theory as soon as we start learning how to play the piano…we just do not realize that. There are many different aspects of music theory that tell us these things, such as rhythm, tempo, note values/duration, key signatures, and more. It tells us how long to play a note, what note to play, how fast to play it, and how it connects to all the other notes around it. Music theory is basically how music is put together…the mechanics of it all.