1. A sheet music ‘cheat code’ for beginners: How to easily identify pitches on common staves<\/h2>\n
If you\u2019re an absolute beginner at reading sheet music, one of the first things you need to learn is how pitches are organized on a staff. If you\u2019re a producer or guitarist, you\u2019re likely to be already familiar with the names of pitches (C, G, F#, Db, etc). However, identifying them on the staff might take you a second \u2013 here\u2019s a trick that can help speed things up for you:<\/p>\n
FACE<\/strong><\/p>\n As you can see, the white spaces on the treble clef conveniently spell out the word, \u201cFACE\u201d (with bass clef, the position of FACE simply drops down by a space on the staff). This trick is helpful for anyone first starting out because with it, any pitch you need to identify on the staff is at most a letter away. If you know where A and C are on the staff, then you can quickly identify that the pitch on the line between them is a B. If you see a pitch below the space you know is E, then it\u2019s a D \u2013 it\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n Of course, the ultimate goal is to be able to identify a pitch immediately without thinking of the pitches that surround it, but this is a great trick to hit the ground running.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re able to read basic pitches and rhythms, the next step to sheet music fluency is identifying the key by looking at a key signature<\/strong>. When first approaching this, you might think it\u2019s just a matter of rote learning. However, there\u2019s actually a trick to easily deciphering a key, just by taking a glance at its key signature. The technique differs between keys with sharps and keys with flats, so let\u2019s look at them separately.<\/p>\n How to identify keys with sharps<\/strong><\/p>\n To easily identify a key with sharps, we\u2019re going to look at the rightmost sharp symbol<\/strong> noted in the key signature. Let\u2019s start with this key, which only has one sharp:<\/p>\n Using FACE, we can identify that the sole sharp for this key is applied to the pitch of F, causing it to become an F#. To identify the major key, we simply raise this pitch by a half step<\/strong> \u2013 therefore, this key signature represents the key of G major<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s your turn: what key is denoted by the following key signature?<\/p>\n If you said B major<\/strong>, you\u2019re absolutely correct! Remember, all we have to do is look at the rightmost sharp symbol \u2013 we can ignore all of the other sharps. The rightmost sharp is A#, which we raise by a half step to get our answer, B. As you may have realized, the rightmost sharp symbol happens to always be the leading tone<\/strong> in the key.<\/p>\n How to identify keys with flats<\/strong><\/p>\n Keys with flats have a similar trick, but it\u2019s not exactly the same \u2013 instead, we\u2019re going to look one flat left to the rightmost flat\u2026 and that\u2019s it!<\/strong> There\u2019s no need to raise the pitch like we did for sharps. Rather, the second-to-rightmost flat directly corresponds to our major key.<\/p>\n For example, let\u2019s look at this key:<\/p>\n The rightmost flat is Eb, and the flat immediately to the left of it is Bb. Therefore, our key is Bb major<\/strong>. Not too hard, right?<\/p>\n We quickly see that an ostensibly \u2018complicated\u2019 key really isn\u2019t that complicated:<\/p>\n Applying the exact same rule, we can immediately identify that this key is Cb major<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The only caveat to this trick is that we need to know that the key with one flat is F major<\/strong>, since there\u2019s no second-to-rightmost flat that we can rely on.<\/p>\n While our previous trick covers recognition, recall generally tends to be a harder task. For example, we were just able to identify the key of Cb major by looking at the key signature. However, what if we had to write out the same key signature ourselves, given only the name of the key? This could pose more of a challenge because for recognition, we ignored all of the other accidentals aside from the one that was meaningful to us.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s overview a practical method to go about this task, as well as a more advanced method that reveals a powerful relationship between keys that even seasoned musicians may not be aware of.<\/p>\n The practical method: mnemonic devices<\/b><\/p>\n The most practical way to notate a key signature is to realize that the sharps and flats are always written in a specific order. For flats, the order is B-E-A-D-G-C-F<\/strong>, while sharps is the reverse, F-C-G-D-A-E-B<\/strong>. Unfortunately, you do<\/em> have to memorize this, but there\u2019s a plethora of mnemonic devices you can use to help you out: B<\/strong>read E<\/strong>ating A<\/strong>fter D<\/strong>inner G<\/strong>ets C<\/strong>ats F<\/strong>at, B<\/strong>attle E<\/strong>nds A<\/strong>nd D<\/strong>own G<\/strong>oes C<\/strong>harles’ F<\/strong>ather, F<\/strong>at C<\/strong>ats G<\/strong>et D<\/strong>inner A<\/strong>fter E<\/strong>ating B<\/strong>read, and F<\/strong>ather C<\/strong>harles G<\/strong>oes D<\/strong>own A<\/strong>nd E<\/strong>nds B<\/strong>attle are some examples.<\/p>\n Once you have the order down, all you have to do is recall our previous trick for notating your key; if we\u2019re writing the key signature for our previously mentioned B major, for example, we\u2019ll place sharps next to the clef following the order of F-C-G-D-A-E-B. We\u2019ll do so until we reach A, which we\u2019ll make the rightmost accidental because A# is the leading tone for B.<\/p>\n Similarly, if we were to notate the key signature for Cb major, then we would write flats next to the clef in the order of B-E-A-D-G-C-F until we hit C, and then add one more so that C is the second-to-rightmost flat.<\/strong><\/p>\n The advanced method: adding to seven<\/strong><\/p>\n This method requires that you\u2019ve familiarized yourself with some key signatures already, but once you have, it offers a lightning-fast and deep understanding of key notation. The overall concept is that a key and its flattened version have a number of accidentals that always adds to seven.<\/strong><\/p>\n This is best communicated with an example. Let\u2019s revisit B major \u2013 it has five sharps, as we\u2019ve now identified twice. Then how many flats does Bb major have? Two, simply because five and two add to seven. It\u2019s that easy \u2013 no long acronyms or other mental acrobatics needed. If C major has no sharps, how many flats does Cb have? As we already know, seven, because zero and seven add to seven.<\/p>\n If your mind hasn\u2019t been blown yet, there\u2019s another extension to this trick \u2013 we can even identify which pitches in a key are sharp \/ flat<\/strong>. We found that B major has the sharps of F#, C#, G#, D#, and A#. Can you guess which pitches the flats in Bb major are attached to? The flats are on E and B, the two notes that were left natural in the key of B major. Whoa.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s anything to take away from all of this, it\u2019s that neither sheet music or the theory associated with it are random or complicated. Rather, they\u2019re beautifully mathematical, systematic, and simple. For this reason, just knowing a few key rules and tricks can allow you to command a massive amount of musical material. Hopefully you learned something new from this article that you can use in your journey towards sheet music fluency!<\/p>\n\n\n Explore royalty-free melodies, chord progressions, and grooves by key, BPM, genre, and more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"reading-sheet-music-cheat-codes-in-post-01\"](\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Screen-Shot-2020-02-06-at-5.41.32-PM.png\")
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<\/p>\n2. A ‘cheat code’ for intermediate musicians: How to easily identify the key from a key signature<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n3. A ‘cheat code’ for advanced musicians: How to easily notate any key signature<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nThe big picture<\/h2>\n
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