Key signatures: do we teach them "backside-to-the-front"? - article examines techniques in music education

American Music Teacher, Dec, 2002 by Ann Cogswell

When I was a teenager in the 1950s, it was the style for girls to wear cardigan sweaters buttoned in back from top to bottom--the buttons running down the spine, and the "back" of the sweater would then conform to the contours in front, much like today's baseball caps--worn backwards. My mother used to say I was wearing my sweater "backside-to-the-front." And, of course, I was, but because I did not want to break from teen conformity, I wore my sweaters in this uncomfortable, yet socially acceptable, style of the time. The back neck piece curved around my throat and I felt choked most of the time, but that was okay because everyone was doing it.

It occurs to me that we often teach key signatures "backside-to-the front." The key signatures are neatly printed out before us--in a composition, or on a page in a theory book that explains the concept of key. The teacher's introduction usually is something like this: "Look at the last sharp on the right of the group of sharps...." "Look at the next-to-the-last flat.... "And so it goes. The explanations lack depth because they do not help students realize that what is printed on the page to identify key is the result of a never-changing melodic pattern. No matter what key or pitch we start with, if we use the same pattern of intervals, the resulting scale sound will be the same--the principle of transposition. The tonality of the piece and the printed signature result from the scale or mode the composer has used during composition.

When introducing key signatures, I suggest first playing an ascending major scale on the piano, using the visual topography of the black and white keys. Sing along as you play, using any syllables of your choice, and listen for the placement of the steps and half steps. Use the piano, even if the student studies another instrument. The topography of the black and white keys is a familiar sight to all music students. Remind the student that in major keys, the half steps will occur between degrees three and four and degrees seven and eight. A scale is a tune, and the tune does not change. It is always the same, no matter where we begin.

"Do-re-mi" is the tune everyone recognizes. Jane Bastien uses the little tune "stepping up so high" for the first five tones of the major scale. If we like that approach, we might add "to the sky" to complete the major scale pattern. Use whatever words make sense to the student. Sometimes I have a student make up his or her own words to scales. One nine-year-old boy who introduced me to his new puppy right after Christmas used the words, "This brown dog is my little friend." This was his song, and it showed him he could use these words for every key on the keyboard and then accurately write the resulting key signature.

To utilize the circle of fifths, begin with the key of C major. Sing

or play the scale--watch and listen. Again, it is handy to watch the keyboard so the physical placement of steps and half steps becomes visual as well as aural. Just poke it out with the pointer finger for non-pianists, or use a traditional scale fingering. Count up five letters in the alphabet--watch and listen again. Is the melody the same? Again, count up five letters in the alphabet, and you will find yourself in D, with the sharps falling in sequence. Play the tune again, using the same pattern of steps--listen and watch how the steps fall on the keyboard and in the voice. Every time you count up five letters, you will have to add a sharp (or subtract a fiat) for the tune to remain the same. The student soon realizes that key signatures with the resulting sharps or fiats are the consequence of a consistent melodic sequence contained within a scale pattern. The flats and sharps are placed on the printed page accordingly. This principle comes as a surprise to beginning theory students, including adults. The student begins to understand the origins of key and tonality, rather than memorizing the order of flats and sharps.

One of my students, a beautiful singer with no interest in playing the piano, took up the subject of key signatures upon my insistence. Studying theory was part of her course as a voice student, and she knew that when she came to my studio. As we began working with the keys in which her songs were written, she simply poked around on the piano with her pointer finger, singing the scales with her lovely lyric voice. Upon realizing the consistent pattern evolving from the study of the circle of fifths, she looked at me and said (shaking her head), "Ann, it's cool. This stuff is really cool." And it is.

Minor key signatures are realized in the same way. Beginning with A minor, go around the circle again, recognizing a different melody contained within the scale, Using the natural form. As with major keys, notice where the half steps occur--between degrees two and three and degrees five and six. When the student plays or sings the scale, listen and watch how the steps fall on the keyboard. When you count up five letters in the alphabet, you must place a sharp or a fiat, depending on where you are in the circle. The tune and the pattern never change--they stay the same. This is a good time to remind the student that the altered tone, (the raised seventh degree) in the harmonic form, came about because, over time, the human ear came to prefer the sound of the semitone occurring between degrees seven and eight, but minor key signatures do not reflect the altered seventh tone.