Developing Musicality, part 3: Key Signatures

In part 1 and part 2 of Developing Musicality, we got into the basics of rhythm and tone.

Without going into the wilds of music theory, I want to present some very basic concepts here around key signatures.

There are some specific things to be aware of that are particularly empowering if your goal is to play with others, as well as if you want to take the role of facilitating musical experiences for others, like music therapists do.

Whether it’s you or someone else, you want to set people up for musical success at their current skill level and there are a couple of tricks that really help.

I do want to say that you can also be fully musical without any awareness of what notes you’re playing or what key you’re in. There’s no value difference in knowing the note names & key signatures or not, but it can help with communicating with other musicians and getting on the same page quickly. It can help you, as the facilitator, feel more confident about your ability to offer musical containers and spaces for others to play around in.

So here we go.

The most important thing to understand about the tonal aspect of music is that music is structured mathematically and physically by nature in such a way that there are 12 key signatures, and each key signature has a set of 7 distinct tones that belong to that key (at least, this is how Western music has described the physical phenomena of music). This is like saying, these notes go together well and want to be together.

We are always only working with 12 notes: C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, and B, which can also be called C, Dflat, D, Eflat, E, F, Gflat, G, Aflat, A, Bflat, and B. But which 7 notes of those 12, as well as how they are combined together, is different for every key.

It is nice to know by heart which notes belong in each key signature (or at least know how to find out/remember quickly enough). Knowing this restricts the field of possible notes you can play to a song (as long as it stays in the same key signature) from 12 to 7, ruling out 5 notes which would be, strictly speaking “wrong” (there are some exceptions which you don’t need to worry about at this moment).

Here is a wonderful, interactive tool for finding out which notes as well as which chords belong in each key signature and in each of their modes: https://www.randscullard.com/CircleOfFifths/

For example, when you are in the key of C major, and you know it, you can feel free to play any notes from the C scale and they should be in the ballpark and sound all right.

If I play a song in the key of C, you know that you can play C, D, E, F, G, A and B along with me, in any order, and it will sound good enough.

Because there are only 7 notes that will ever be inside the C scale, that means that the chords of the key of C are also only made up of those 7 notes. See for yourself:

C major chord: C E G

d minor chord: D F A

e minor chord: E G B

F major chord: F A C

G major chord: G B D

a minor chord: A C E

B diminished chord: B D F

My first invitation to you: Play with C scale and key of C chords over the tone C

To try it out, here is a C tone played repeatedly for a few minutes. See what happens if you play or sing the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B one at a time as individual notes over the tone. (This is a little like playing over a drone, like we did in Developing Musicality, part 2: Tone.) In reverse, you could say, try singing anything, and if you land on a tone that seems to sound really nice together with this C, you are likely singing one of the above-named pitches, though there are a few others that will sound nice with C too. Test it on the chromatic tuner: https://chromatic-tuner.com/ or by checking the note you’re singing on an instrument.

Why is this useful?

C is essentially the “easiest” scale to play and remember because there are no sharps or flats in the key signature.

Because of how the piano is structured, the white notes are all in the key of C. Anytime there’s a keyboard involved, therefore, the key of C will be very easy to play around in.

If someone tells you, or you can see/hear it, that they are playing a song in the key of C, then you know you can play any white notes on a keyboard, and that you should skip the black notes (those are the 5 tones that don’t belong in C).

Here is a fictional example of a therapist holding the C tone, while a client feels free to express herself, as she is told she can play any of the white notes over it.

This also means that you can give a client any instrument that is tuned to a specific key signature, and they can play around & you, as the therapist/accompanist know what notes & chords that you can play to join them that will make them sound good.

Here is an example where the client has started on a kalimba, which the therapist knows is tuned to the key of C, and the therapist even though not highly competent on piano (we’re talking about me here, heh) feels comfortable joining in using the white notes. Another way to think about this is to say that the therapist knows that she can play any chords from the key of C (this could happen on another instrument too, but on the piano the key of C is easy peasy).

Finally, without getting into why, it’s good to know that in addition to the C tone (1st tone of the 7 scale tones), you can also play any of the other 6 scale tones underneath the C scale notes in the same way, and you will still be able to play the white notes, (or the notes from the C scale on another instrument) over it. Find out for yourself by playing white notes, or the notes of the C major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A and B) over any of the following).

(For those of you counting, I did not use the 7th tone, which would facilitate modal play in the Locrian mode, simply because it’s less commonly used than the others, for a reason. But certainly feel free to play around, yourself, over any 7th tone in a scale, in the Key of C this is B, and see what you think yourself).

To illustrate the utility of this, I will share a few examples where the client/improviser is still using the same set of notes (white notes or scale tones of C D E F G A and B), but the feeling is very different due to the base note held by the therapist.

In all of the above examples, neither therapist nor client needs to play any other notes than the 7 scale tones in the C scale.

Just to take this idea a little further, let’s look at another way into key signatures which can be helpful, specifically if you have a keyboard to play with.

What about the black keys on a keyboard?

The black keys all belong to a different key signature, the key of F# major. Specifically, they are the pentatonic scale notes of F#.

Pentatonic scales remove the 4th and the 7th tones, like this:

C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C is shortened to C-D-E-G-A to get the pentatonic scale.

Pentatonic scales are even more useful, because they will fit with any triad that another could possibly play in a key signature, whereas sometimes the 4th and the 7th don’t fit perfectly. That’s why lead guitar players often play pentatonic scales over the chords being played by the rhythm guitarist.

Since we are talking about F# major, let’s look at the F# major scale:

F# G# A# B#/C C# D# E#/F and F#

removing the 4th (B#/C) and the 7th (E#/F), then we get just the keyboard black notes, which happen to be the F# Major Pentatonic scale:

F# G# A# C# and D#

Let me illustrate how this can be used. When a client is given the frame, “play any of the black notes on this keyboard, but none of the white notes” then the therapist can join in playing chords from the key of F# major on any instrument and the client will sound pretty fantastic, like they really know what they’re doing, like so:

If you are not a therapist or facilitator, this is still a nice skill to have for playing with someone else. If they can tell you, or you can see/hear, which key they are playing in, you will know exactly how you can join them where they’re at, and at least find a couple of tones and offer them.

My second invitation to you to play around with Key Signatures:

Using the 12 cello drones found here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVI_GbJ5havUqteuAGuEcbQ, experiment with singing and playing instruments to find the notes and the chords that belong with each key. (You can also use the single note tracks above, but those are only 6 of the 12 available).

Look for the level here that challenges you but is not so hard that it’s discouraging.

Again, if you want to use voice, sing around until you find a tone that feels good, and then use a chromatic tuner: https://chromatic-tuner.com/ to identify the note name for the pitch you are singing.

Using instruments you can do the same, or perhaps you know which notes you are playing.

However you get in there, it will be perfect for where you’re at right now.

Here are the notes that go with each key signature:

Key of C:

C D E F G A B

Key of G:

G A B C D E F#

Key of D:

D E F# G A B C#

Key of A:

A B C# D E F# G#

Key of E:

E F# G# A B C# D#

Key of B:

B C# D# E F# G# A#

Key of F#:

F# G# A# B#/C C# D# F

Key of Dflat:

Dflat Eflat F Gflat Aflat Bflat C

Key of Aflat:

Aflat Bflat C Dflat Eflat F G Aflat

Key of Eflat:

Eflat F G Aflat Bflat C D

Key of Bflat:

Bflat C D Eflat F G A

Key of F:

F G A Bflat C D E

Have fun!

This post concludes my series on developing some basic musicality for the purposes of being able to play together at all kinds of skill levels. I hope you have found something helpful for your own musical journey in these pages. Thank you for reading!