How to Read Key Signatures in Sheet Music

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m Katie and I’m here on behalf of expertvillage.com to discuss with you key signatures. Before you begin to play you need to be aware of the key signature and the key signature is situated between the clef and the time signature; it basically shows you what accidentals if any will appear in the key, so an accidental is a sharp or flat. Here you see that the key signature contains two sharps and you can tell which two sharps if you look where they’re situated at on the staff, so here we have an F-sharp and a C-sharp, that means that every time you see a written C or a written F you automatically put a sharp on them. Down here we see another example of a key signature, here we see thee flats B-flat, E-flat and A-flat, every time I see a B, an E or an A I will now that they’re actually suppose to be played as a B-flat, E-flat and A-flat, so always keep an eye out for key signatures."