The absence of a key signature always indicates the C Major scale.Īll Major scales apart from C Major have at least one sharp or flat (and most of them have several) but there are no Major keys which have both sharps and flats in their key signature. The following shows how the note sequence E, F, F#, G is written in the key of G.įirst the natural symbol is used as an accidental, to override the sharp of the key signature, and then the F needs to be 'resharpened' afterwards, with a sharp accidental.Įvery key has a different key signature, as we will see shortly.

In fact, F natural is now the accidental, because it does not belong. The note F# would be called an accidental in the C Major scale, but not in this case, because it rightfully belongs to the G Major scale. The same three octaves of the G Major scale shown above can now shown more simply as follows. Only one F line on each clef is marked in this way, even though the treble clef, for example, also has an F in the space between the bottom two lines. This is known as the key signature of the G Major scale.

All scales are infinite they go on forever in both directions. Instead, a sharp can be placed at the start of every staff, to indicate that all F notes are to be played sharp. Here’s how it looks, spanning one octave (shown with note names): Here it is with scale degree numbers: Notice the unique major scale pattern: Whole, whole, half whole, whole, whole, half. We can fit three octaves of G Major within the paired staff lines.Įvery time a note appears on the F lines, the sharp (#) symbol is put before it as an accidental, to show that it is really F#.īecause F always means F# in the G Major scale, it is inconvenient to do this every time the note is used. The notes of the G Major scale appear on staff lines as shown below.

C flat major scale g flat major scale