Notes Played In All Major Keys Chord Forming Table Important Chords In Major Keys Chord Progressions More Chord Progressions

We start by copying Table 1, which started with C and went through the thirteenth note. Let’s leave in only the first twelve notes. Put them in the first row of Table 2. Put the corresponding numbers from Table 1 in the appropriate row of Table 2 -- root, second, third, etc. Notes separated in pitch by only half a step (B and C; E and F) are indicated in red in Table 2. Recall that half a step is a # (sharp) or a b (flat), it is one fret right or left. Create the next key (of C# = Db) by increasing the pitch of each note by half a step. So C becomes C# (or Db), D becomes D# or Eb, E becomes E# (same as F), etc. We see that we end up with five flats in that row (Ab, Bb, Db, Eb, Gb). We create the next row, half a step higher in pitch than the previous, in a similar fashion. Db becomes D, Eb becomes E, F becomes F#, etc. This gives us the key of D, which has 2 sharps (C# and F#).

We can go on down the table, constructing keys in the same way. In the next key, Eb, there are three flats - Ab, Bb, and Eb. The most common keys are C, D, F, and G (in white) -- not necessarily in that order. The set of keys in Table 2 is called the set of major keys - there are others but we won't bother with them now. Now you probably wonder, in the key of D, why do we say "two sharps - C# and F#" -- and not "2 flats -- Db and Gb?"; Well, there is already a D, and a G, in that row. In the musical score for a key, it’s standard procedure to put the flats and sharps (listed in the last column of the Table 2, in the first part of the score. If a G is shown as a Gb, all G notes, regardless of octave, are played as a Gb, unless specified otherwise in that measure. Any flats, sharps, or naturals within a measure apply to the entire measure; once the measure ends the notes are played as before. So, in the key of D, Gb will be confused with G. But if we put F# in the first part of the score, it won’t be confused with F, since there is no F in the key. Likewise, there is no C, so using C# will not be confused with C. So this is how we determine whether to put flats or sharps in the musical score. Note that in the key of Db, if we had used F#, rather than Gb, the F# could be confused with F. There is an F in that key, but no G, so using Gb is better than using F#. The one key where this approach gets us in trouble is the key of F#/Gb. There are five sharps there. If we use flats, A# becomes Bb, which can be confused with B. If we use sharps, Gb becomes F#, which can be confused with F. So we’re stuck, either way. We can denote the flats and sharps either way we wish, and we just have to specify, with natural symbols, any notes that might be confused. Notice that the key of B, and the key of Db, have the same flats (or sharps) as the key of F# (they all have five). But they are not the same keys. Db contains F and C, while B contains B and E, and F# contains B and F. All of the other notes in those three keys are the same. In all the other major keys, the set of flats or sharps is unique to that key -- it’s not shared with any other key. And five flats (or sharps) is the maximum number any key can have. Since there are only seven natural (natural means no flats or sharps) notes -- A, B, C, D, E, F, G -- it would seem there can be seven flats or sharps. But two are not allowed (since B# = C and E# = F). So that leaves five as the maximum. Table 2A contains the same information as Table 2, but the keys are arranged so that the key of C, with no flats or sharps, is in the middle row. As you move to rows below C, the number of sharps increases. As you move to row above C, the number of flats increases. This is explained in the Circle Of Fifths. That is also a way to remember which keys have which flats and sharps. As you can see, when the keys are listed this way, the common keys of F, C, G and D are adjacent, towards the middle rows of the Table. But first I will go into the next part of the theory of chords.