Key Signatures: Advanced Higher

Remember the 4 keys you needed to recognise at N5?
Fantastic news guys. 

You still need to know them. And their Relative Minors!

C major/A minor: No flats or sharps.
How did you spot an A minor? - the presence of G sharp accidentals in the music.

F major: Key signature contained one flat: B♭
The relative minor to F major is D minor

G major: Key signature contained one sharp: F#
The relative minor to G major is E minor

And one wee extra one for luck.

The key signature of B♭ major.
This one consists of 2 flat notes: B♭ and E♭
The Relative Minor of this key is G minor...

This diagram is known as the "Cycle of Fifths"


It demonstrated the Key signatures for each Key, both Major and Relative Minor.

You'll notice that a relative minor shares the key signature of the major key, and that is because the scale pattern would follow a natural minor scale if it was to start on the root note of the relative minor (eg if you started a scale on G and followed the key signature of B♭ major you would have a series of 8 notes that sounded minor in their tonality).

More on the difference between a major and minor scale in another post.