What is tonality in music, learn to identify and change tonality. Why fifths and why circle? Key marks in B minor

How to build the A major scale

Determining the number of signs on the circle of quarto-fifths

Other keys

Major keys

Minor keys

Parallel keys

Enharmonically equal tonalities

Enharmonically equal tonalities are tonalities that are the same in sound, but different in name.

Comments:

03/29/2015 at 14:02 Oleg spoke out:

I did not see a table with all the signs in the key in all POSSIBLE keys. There is a table, but what is needed is not there!

04/05/2015 at 23:54 Svetlana spoke out:

Hello. Write specifically what tonality you are interested in, I will answer you.

01/21/2016 at 16:06 Julia spoke out:

Keys missing from the table are G-dur and e-moll

01/21/2016 at 16:17 Svetlana spoke out:

Fixed, thanks!

02/19/2016 at 18:59 Maksim spoke out:

I'm interested in C flat major. And could you make a separate article where different chords are built in different keys?

02/19/2016 at 22:25 Svetlana spoke out:

Hello, Maxim. There are seven flats in C-flat major. I recommend that you replace it with the key of B major, they are enharmonically equal, and there will be fewer signs - 5 sharps.

There are no immediate plans to write such an article.

08/30/2017 at 04:52 I need to build d7 with appeals in 24 keys, but for some reason I find 30 keys everywhere on the Internet. Why? spoke out:

I accidentally wrote my question in my name.

04/25/2018 at 14:25 Peter spoke out:

Guys, in fact, all of the above is very useful, and necessary for application in practice. I just don’t understand those who, due to insufficient understanding of the topic, leave bad reviews.

08.10.2018 at 17:36 Julia spoke out:

Good afternoon,

The child was given a pre-task: signs in keys up to 3 with # and b.

Unfortunately, this is already the 4th solfeggio teacher in 3 years, the material is given in pieces. My daughter doesn’t understand at all what it is and what they want from her.

Please tell me.

01/02/2019 at 21:33 morozalex2018 spoke out:

G-dur and e-moll are in the table, look carefully

02/09/2019 at 09:16 Eve spoke out:

Thank you! Very useful article, saved it👏🏻👍🏻

04/16/2019 at 19:33 Lida spoke out:

What are the signs in F flat minor?

04/21/2019 at 23:48 Oleg spoke out:

Useful advice

04/21/2019 at 23:49 Oleg spoke out:

Helpful information

04/21/2019 at 23:55 Oleg spoke out:

Let's look at the key of F flat minor. So, in the key of F minor there are 4 flats, and in F flat minor there are 7 more flats, that is, 4+7=11b. Some may say that this cannot happen. The answer is - maybe!! In F flat minor there are 4 double flats: these are -bbb, mibb, abb and rebb. And also saltb, dob and fab.

04/22/2019 at 00:05 Oleg spoke out:

Tonality with a large (more than six) number of key characters can be replaced by a tonality with a smaller number of characters. The main thing is that the sum of the original and replaced characters is equal to 12, and also that they are opposite. For example, if you have 8 flats, then we do: 12-8b = 4# (F flat major 8b. A E major - 4#). Such tonalities are called enharmonically equal, that is, equal in sound. But in terms of name and notation of notes (scales), they are different.

This article will talk about how to remember keys and their key signs. Everyone remembers differently: some try to remember the number of signs, others try to memorize the names of keys with their key signs, others come up with something else. In fact, everything is much simpler and you only need to remember two things, the rest will be remembered automatically.

Key signs - what are they?

People who are advanced in their music lessons, probably not only know how to read music, but also know what tonality is, and that to indicate tonality, composers put key signs in notes. What are these key signs? These are sharps and flats, which are written on each line of notes next to the key and remain in effect throughout the entire piece or until they are canceled.

The order of sharps and the order of flats - you need to know this!

As you may know, key signs are not displayed randomly, but in a specific order. Sharp order: fa, do, sol, re, la, mi, si . Flat order th – reverse: si, mi, la, re, salt, do, fa . This is what it looks like in musical notation:

In these rows, in both cases, all seven basic steps are used, which are well known to everyone: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si – only they are specially arranged in a certain sequence. We will work with these two orders in order to learn how to identify key signs in a particular key easily and correctly. Look again and remember the order:

How many keys are used in music?

Now let's move directly to tonalities. In total, 30 keys are used in music - 15 major and 15 parallel minor ones. Parallel keys These keys are called those that have the same key signs, therefore, the same scale, but differ in their tonic and their mode (let me remind you that the tonic and mode determine the name of the tonality).

Of these 30 keys:

2 unsigned(This C major And La Minor– we just remember them);
14 sharp(7 – major keys and 7 – minor keys parallel to them);
14 flat(also 7 major and 7 minor).

Thus, to indicate the key, you may need from 0 to 7 key signs (sharps or flats). Remember that there are no signs in C major and A minor? Remember also that in C sharp major(And A sharp minor) and in C flat major(and parallel A-flat minor) respectively, 7 sharps and flats.

What rules can be used to determine key signs in keys?

To determine the signs in all other keys, we will use the order of sharps that we already know or, if necessary, the order of flats. We will focus only on major keys, that is, in order to determine the key signs of a minor key, you must first find a major tonic parallel to it, which is located a minor third above the original minor tonic.

In order to determine key signs in a sharp major key , we act according to the rule: the last sharp is a note below the tonic . That is, we simply list all the sharps in order until we get to the one that is one note lower than the tonic.

For example, in order to determine the key signs in B major, we list the sharps in order: F, C, G, D, A - we stop at A, since A is a note lower than B.

Signs of flat major keys we define it as follows: we list the order of the flats and stop at the next flat after we have named the tonic. That is, the rule here is: the last flat covers the major tonic (as if protecting from the wind) (that is, it is next after the tonic). To find the signs for a flat minor key, you must first determine its parallel major key.

For example, let's define the signs for B-flat minor. First, we find the parallelism, this will be the key of D-flat major, then we name the order of the flats: B, E, A, D, G. D is the tonic, so we stop at the next note - salt.

I think the principle is clear. For one of the flat keys - F major– this principle works with one caveat: we take the first tonic as if from nowhere. The point is that in F major the only sign on the key is B-flat, from which the order of flats begins, so to determine the key we take a step back and get the original key - F major.

How do you know which signs to put on the key - sharps or flats?

The question that naturally You may be wondering, “How do you know which keys are sharp and which are flat?” Most major keys with tonics from white keys (except do and fa) – sharp. Flat major keys are those whose tonics are in the order of flats (i.e. B flat major, E flat major etc.). This issue will be discussed in more detail in an article devoted to a whole system of tonalities, called the circle of quarto-fifths.

Conclusion

Let's summarize. Now you can correctly identify key signs in any key. Let me remind you that to do this you need to use the order of sharps or the order of flats and act according to the rules: “the last sharp is a note below the tonic” and “the last flat covers the tonic» . We focus only on major keys; in order to determine the signs in minor keys, we first find its parallel.

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The defining tonic is the first note of the first degree. If you take the key of C major, the root note is C. For clarity, you can consider an example of tonality. The first step is G-A, move from the note G in the indicated order upward:

Sola-la - tone
La-si - tone
Si-do – semitone
Do-re - tone
Re-mi - tone
Mi-fa# – tone
F# – G – semitone

So, you got the tonality of G major with one sign (sharp - #) in a key with the following scale: G - A - B - C - D - E - F# - G.

If you start building keys in this way, moving up by fifths, you will get 6 more keys:

1. D major – 2 #
2. A major – 3 #
3. E major – 4 #
4. B major – 5 #
5. F sharp major – 6 #
6. Up to - 7 #

However, to determine the number of characters in a key in a particular key, you do not need to constantly build a scale in accordance with the rule of seven degrees; it is enough to remember the order of sharps, which never changes:

1. Fa#
2. To#
3. Salt#
4. Re#
5. A#
6. Mi#
7. C#

So, if you take a key with three sharps, it would be F#, C# and G#. If with two, then fa# and do#. Another important rule is that the tonic in major scale The next highest note after the last sharp in the key is considered. If you have three sharps - F#, C# and G#, then the tonic note will be A, and the key, respectively, will be . Thus, when you need to determine the number of characters in the key of any key, it is enough to take the sharp note that is previous in descending order in the octave and determine its serial number in the series of sharps. For example, you are asked to determine the number of sharps in the key of E major. The previous note is D#. In the series of sharps, it occupies fourth place, which means that there are four signs in the key - D#, G#, C# and F#.

Minor scale

Remember the correspondence between major and minor keys not necessarily, over time it will settle down in your head on its own. But it’s worth learning the order of flats to determine the signs and their number in the key.
So, the order of the flats is as follows:

1. C
2. Mi
3. A
4. Re
5. Salt
6. Before
7. Fa

Flats are counted similarly to the method of counting in major keys, only the tonic rule is different here. The major tonic is not the next note, but the penultimate flat note given in the key. That is, if you take a key with four flats (B, E, A, D), then the third of them (also the penultimate) - A - will be the tonic. This gives you the key of A flat major. Using the “three flats” rule, you get the minor tonic of F and the key of F minor.

This is only due to the fact that a similar major is a scale that is not used due to its initial complexity in terms of key signs, which will be discussed a little later.

G-sharp minor scale

With the minor scale everything is quite simple. According to the principle of determining tonalities (the circle of fifths), it is a parallel minor to the B major scale and contains five key signs that extend across the entire scale. These are sharp marks fa/do/sol/d/a (standard sequence).

As expected in this case, from the note G-sharp three main minor modes: natural, harmonic and melodic minor. In accordance with the rules of solfeggio and music harmony, the seventh degree is raised by a semitone (F# (F-sharp) to the double-sharp of the same name (F##)). In a melodic minor, when playing a scale upward, the sixth and seventh degrees are raised by a semitone (for E this is a regular sharp (E#), for F - a double (double) sharp (F##)), and when passing a scale downward, the increases by a semitone are canceled.

G-sharp major scale

WITH major key the matter is not so simple. The fact is that, as mentioned above, this one is practically not used and is replaced by an enharmonic one (equal in sound).

In this case it is a regular A-flat major. Everything is simpler in it and with signs.

But let us dwell specifically on the major scale, built from the note G-sharp. In principle, it can be compared to the usual G major, in which all notes are raised by a semitone.

Following the rule of adding sharps or determining the tonality by the signs at the key, it would be possible to determine the sharp order as follows: the usual order from F to B, and then again increasing by a semitone, but this time F sharp. Thus, it turns out that the key must contain F-double-sharp.

It is clear that double-sharps are used extremely rarely in the key. Nevertheless, speaking about such a complex scale, the signs of the key can be constructed in the following order: F-double-sharp, and then the usual sequence from note C to note B. As you can see, there are quite a lot of problems with signs. That is why it is much easier to use an enharmonic flat major, because the notes G-sharp and A-flat are absolutely equivalent in sound.

The same goes for parallel E-sharp minor. It is found almost only in the theoretical solfeggio course.

Triads of the main stages

As for the main triads of scales, which are built on the I, III and IV degrees of the scale, for a minor the tonic triad is a sequence of raised and pure notes: salt (G#) / pure B (H) / D (D#), subdominant - C (C# )/pure E (E)/sol (G#), dominant - re (D#)/fa (F##)/A (A#).

For major scale, built from G-sharp, the tonic triad contains the following notes with sharps raised by a semitone: G (G#) / B (H#) / D (D#), subdominant - C (C#) / E (E#) / G (G#) , dominant - D (D#) / once again raised F (F##) / A (A#).

Bottom line

In conclusion, it remains to add that if difficulties arise in identifying the signs in the key for such complex keys as G-sharp major, do not be alarmed. You just need to apply a clear rule of following the sharps in the key one after another. That's all. And those who claim that the key cannot contain double-sharps are wrong. Examples with the presence of such signs can be found simply great amount. Another thing is that such tonalities remain unclaimed and are almost never used when writing musical works.