How To Tell The Key Of A Song With Flat Key Signatures

To tell what key a song is in when it has flats in the key signature, locate the 2nd to the last flat, and that IS the key. For example, if there are four flats in the key signature, they are BEAD. The second to the last flat is Ab, so that is the key - based on the scale of Ab which has four flats - BEAD.

For complete info please go to Flat Key Signatures

The key signature at the beginning of a piece of music announces which sharps or flats (or neither) are in the piece, determining the key of the song. And just as the flats always occur in the same order in a key signature, so the sharps do also. Not many people realize (except musicians, of course) that the sharps and the flats are just backward to each other: in other words, the order of the flats is just reverse to the order of the sharps. Watch this 5-minute video:

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I’m constantly amazed at how many beginning and even intermediate musicians don’t realize that the flats in any key signature always proceed in the same order: BEADGCF. Once they grasp that, the light bulb comes on in their mind and key signatures make sense to them. (By the way — don’t confuse flats in the key signatures with accidentals — they are different animals!)

Please watch this short video and you will forever know the order of the flats (if you don’t already):

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The key signature at the start of a line of printed music announces both what sharps or flats are being used in the song, as well as what key the song is in. If there is just one flat in the key signature, the flat is always Bb. Two flats in the key signature are always Bb and Eb. 3 flats in the key signature would be Bb, Eb, and Ab. 4 flats would be Bb, Eb, Ab, and Db. Then comes Gb, Cb, and Fb. You can easily remember the order of the flats by spelling the word “BEAD” and then recall the phrase “Go Catch Fish.”
The sharps in a key signature are just reverse from the flats; instead of BEADGCF, the order of the sharps is FCGDAEB. So one sharp in the key signature is F#, 2 sharps in the key signature would be F# and C#, and so on.