MAJOR SCALES

THE TRICK TO FINDING THE MAJOR KEY SIGNATURES:

If the key signature contains sharps:

Reading from left to right (not top to bottom!), take the last sharp in the key signature.  Go up half a step from that sharp.  That will be the key! (That will be ‘Do’)

If the key signature contains flats:

Go to the second-to-last flat in the key signature.  That is your key!  These keys all contain the word ‘flat’ after the letter name. Except for F.

There is one tricky one, though: When there is only 1 flat in the key signature, it Fails the test.  It is F major!

MINOR SCALES

THE TRICK TO FINDING THE MINOR KEY SIGNATURES:

Find the major key signature then go down a third. (from a space to the next space underneath or from the line to the next line underneath)  You should always look at the first and last notes in the phrase to see if they start on “La”.  “La” becomes “Do” in the minor key!

ACCIDENTALS:

When sharp , flat or natural signs are used and NOT in the key signature, they are called accidentals.  The solfeggio syllables are still used, but are modified according to the accidental.  Each accidental will have two names (like d sharp is the same as e flat).

DO ^DI/RA   RE ^RI/ME  MI   FA ^FI/SE   SOL ^SI/LE   LA ^LI/TE   TI   DO

Notice that there are no syllables between ‘Mi’ and ‘Fa’ because the distance between these syllables is already a half step (the smallest distance between notes).  The same goes for ‘Ti’ and ‘Do’