How to memorize key signatures easily using mnemonics?

This guide is teaching you on how to memorize key signatures very easily using mnemonics. Mnemonics are memory aid and should help you to memorize items faster and even in a longer period of time.

There are two common key signatures used in music, these are:

a. Sharp major key signatures with their corresponding sharp minor key signatures
b. Flat major key signatures with its equivalent flat minor keys also.

All in all, there are 2 major key signatures (# and b) and 2 equivalent minors.

If you are a songwriter, musician and a singer, then memorizing these sorts of things can be definitely helpful in your music career.

So if you asked me, what are the things that need to be memorized? You need at least to memorize the following:

Check item 1. The complete names of the # (sharp) major key signatures.
Check item 2. The complete names of the b (flat) major key signatures.
Check item 3. The equivalent list of # (sharp) minor key signatures.
Check item 4. The equivalent list of b (flat) minor key signatures.
Check item 5. The notes affected of the # (sharp) key signatures (major and minor)
Check item 6. The notes affected of the b (flat) key signatures (major and minor also).
Check item 7. The triads of the both major # and minor key signatures
Check item 8. The triads of both major b and minor key signatures.

All in all there are 8 check items to be memorized! If you are music major, you should memorize all of these within the first year of college.

Let’s discuss these items one by one, so as not to drown you with too much information in a limited amount of time. I highly recommend self-evaluating yourself using the 8 above checklist above and compare your answers in this blog to see if you made some progress.

If you are ready lets get started:

Check Item 1 &2: The complete names of the # (sharp) major key signatures and b (flat) major key signatures.

This is already been discussed here: http://becomeasinger.blogspot.com/2010/07/music-theory-for-singers-part1-piano.html, kindly look at Step 2 on that post.

Check Item 3 & 4: The complete names of the # (sharp) minor key signatures and b (flat) minor key signatures.

This is also discussed in the music theory for singers. You can read that in Step 3 of that post.

The complete screenshot guide are shown below:

The rest of the check items will be discussed in the future tutorials.

Get the timing right when singing

How many times did you experienced singing without proper timing or having seen one? It will not sound good. It is because you are singing “off the beat” and violates the music rhythm.

So how one can you avoid off beat singing and improves timing during any vocal performance? The following tips below will be surely helpful:

Step1: Get a metronome. Metronome is a musical device that will be very helpful for singers or even musicians (like guitarists, violinist, pianists, etc) to have their performance in timing or synchronization with music.

Step2: If you do not know what is a metronome and you have a personal computer. You can try many online solutions for metronome, they are free such as here: http://www.metronomeonline.com/

Step3: Check the “on” button of the metronome and it will start playing ticks.The default I think starts with 92 beats per minute.

Step4: Now get your music that you would like to sing in timing. Play the music and determine the number of beats per minute of the song: http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-the-Beats-Per-Minute-%28BPM%29-of-a-Song

Step5: Once you have calculated the number of beats per minute, adjust the metronome to provide that clicking sound tempo.

Step6: Using your multi-player, adjust the music so that it will fit directly with the beats of the song. Example if your music drum hits, you need to synchronize the beats of the drum with the metronome beats.

You also need to pay attention to the vocals to see if it fits with sense with the metronome beat.

Step7: Once you have get the exact metronome tempo after some adjustments. Turn off the music and let the metronome to play only.

Step8: Sing acapella with the metronome ticks in the background.

Step9: If you are singing acapella previously and also be criticized for being an out of timing singer. It is now your time to improve because you will most likely correct those timing difficulty with a metronome.

Hint and more tips:

If you are reading or interpreting a song directly from a music sheet. They already include the beat per minute or any information relating to the song tempo (placed on the top portion fo the music sheet, page 1)

So this means, you can directly adjust the metronome to play the desired tempo without following the procedures stated on Step 4 of this tutorial.

You might as well search the music sheet of the song in Google like "name of the song" "music sheet" keywords. Good luck!