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In a key signature, a sharp or flat symbol on a line or space of the staff indicates that the note represented by that line or space is to be played a semitone higher (sharp) or lower (flat) than it would otherwise be played. This applies through the rest of the piece or until another key signature appears.
(Such key signatures are used for so-called theoretical keys which are almost never encountered outside music-theoretical exercises.) [b] Keys with 6 flats and 6 sharps, [c] with 7 flats and 5 sharps [d] and with 5 flats and 7 sharps [e] are enharmonic to one another. Composers will, in most (though not all) cases, choose only one key from each ...
Flat The flat symbol lowers the pitch of a note by one semitone. Sharp The sharp symbol raises the pitch of a note by one semitone. Natural A natural cancels a sharp or flat. This sharp or flat may have been indicated as an accidental or defined by the key signature. Double flat A double flat lowers the pitch of a note by two semitones. Double ...
C-flat major is the home key of the harp, with all its pedals in the top position, and it is considered the most resonant key for the instrument.Thus, in Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben, the first cue for the harps is written in C-flat major even though the rest of the orchestra, having previously played in E-flat major, retains a 3-flat key signature and is now playing in B major, marked ...
More often, pieces in a minor mode that have A-flat's pitch as tonic are notated in the enharmonic key, G-sharp minor, because that key has just five sharps as opposed to the seven flats of A-flat minor. In some scores, the A-flat minor key signature in the bass clef is written with the flat for the F on the second line from the top. [nb 1]
Though the key of a piece may be named in the title (e.g., Symphony in C major), or inferred from the key signature, the establishment of key is brought about via functional harmony, a sequence of chords leading to one or more cadences, and/or melodic motion (such as movement from the leading-tone to the tonic).
The staff below has a key signature with three sharps (A major or its relative minor, F ♯ minor). The sharp symbol placed on the note indicates that it is an A ♯ instead of an A ♮ . In twelve-tone equal temperament tuning (the predominant system of tuning in Western music), raising a note's pitch by a semitone results in a note that is ...
For example, F major and D minor both have one flat in their key signature at B♭; therefore, D minor is the relative minor of F major, and conversely F major is the relative major of D minor. The tonic of the relative minor is the sixth scale degree of the major scale, while the tonic of the relative major is the third degree of the minor ...