Key Signature: Jazz Guitar Improvisation

Video Transcript

"CASEY CORMIER: Now, if we have a total of this many sharps, seven sharps, this is as many sharps as we can possibly have. One sharp above D sharp or B sharp here rather will be a half step above B sharp is C sharp and this would be the key of C sharp major. Remember, C major has all naturals so C sharp major having all sharps makes sense. Everything has to be sharped to change it. Let's look at flats, okay? You just have to memorize that one flat indicates we're in the key of F major, there's that B flat in F major and everything else is natural. Okay, now we can use the rule. The second from the last flat is the key signature so if we have two flats, the first flat is B flat, our key is B flat. We have three flats, the second from the last, furthest out is E flat, our key is E flat. We have our--as many as we can seven flats, then this is our flat, this is our key signature, okay? This is F, A, C, C flat, and it makes sense once again that we would have this all flats in the key of C flat because C has naturals. So, this is your way of determining your flats and sharps. If you look down here, if we had a key signature such as G major, remember F sharp once that has G major. Well, any F in here is going to be implied to be in a sharp, unless there is a sign like this in front of it which makes it natural. So, this is E, F sharp, F, E, it will sound like [PLAYS NOTES] so these two Fs are different but when we go back to here, if there is not a natural written in front of here after a measure change, it is implied that this is now back to an F sharp, so get used to these little things, those little features of naturals and reading key signatures. Practice."