Minor keys in sheet music...

[ssiowi]

Hi all:

How are minor keys written in sheet music? I understand that one can add a half step to the far right sharp (i.e., #) and find the keynote. Further, I get that one can check the next to last flat (i.e, b) on the staff and infer that keynote. Something is though missing, right?

What's missing in the above for one to describe a minor key in sheet music? Reading through my copy of the great, "The Complete Guitarist", I find nothing that leads me to the answer.

Thanks from Portland,

David

[cyberfret]

There is no trick to figuring out the minor key signatures that I know of, other than just determining the relative minor of the major key.

And for that the magic number is 3. You know how to find the major key. Go down 3 frets from that note and you have the minor key.

Key of A ....down 3 frets is F#.... so the minor key is F# minor

Why isn't it Gb minor? Again the magic number is 3. Start on the major key and count backwards in the musical alphabet

A G F
1 2 3

So the note you are looking for is some sort of F....in this case F#

--------

Here is another one. The key of B. Go down 3 frets. The note is Ab or G#...but, for the relative minor the correct answer is G#.

B A G
1 2 3

So the answer has to be G#.

This is just an easy way to find the answer at first. The more you learn about music theory, intervals and keys....you will just learn what the minor key signatures are. Same with the major, you will no longer need that little trick of going up a half step from the last sharp.

--Shawn