My latest YouTube video shows you how to easily work out any major or minor key signature from a piece of music, using the guitar. Once you understand this method, you will never forget a key signature.

You will need to watch the video for the actual method as this is easier to watch rather than to read, although a transcript from the video's introduction is included below. This text explains some of the more fundamental key signature 'rules'.

The method I will show you to work out key signatures tells you which major key the piece of music is in. If you want to know the minor key, you can work out the major key and count three frets back on your guitar fretboard.

If the key signature has one sharp for instance, the method I am going to show you tells you this key signature is for the key of G major. Count back three frets back from any G note on your guitar fretboard and you will land on an E note. One sharp at the beginning of a piece of music therefore also indicates the key of E minor.

The Key Of C Major, Raising And Lowering

The method does not directly tell you the key signature for the key of C major. You will see later that if you continue the pattern I will show you, you can work out the key of C major from the system, although for now, just remember that the key of C major contains no flat or sharp notes.

This is also the case for the keys of C# major and Cb major. You don’t really need to use the system to work out these key signatures and their relative minor key signatures as it is easy.

There are no sharps or flats in the key of C major and as with any major scale, it contains seven notes. Move any C major scale pattern up one fret on the guitar fretboard and you will be in the key of C# major. All notes have been raised, so the key of C# major must contain seven sharp notes.

Similarly, if you move any C major scale pattern down one fret, all notes will be flattened. The key of Cb major, therefore, contains seven flats.

This system doesn’t tell you which notes have been sharpened or flattened in any key although this does not matter for what you are trying to achieve. Once you have identified the major key, play a major scale pattern starting from the root note of that key and all notes that require flattening or sharpening in that key have been magically moved for you. This is one of the many great things about the visual nature of the guitar fretboard.

The following video starts from the point at which the method to work out major keys and minor keys is explained:

I hope you found this video helpful. If you have any questions or would like me to make more videos on anything to do with similar sight reading topics, please leave a comment and I will create more content.

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