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Summary: Read key signatures at the beginning of the piece on a bass guitar; learn how from a professional bass guitar player and teacher in this free music instruction video.
Views: 317 | Tags: bass, guitar, scales, theory, jazz, folk, guitarlessons, guitars, bass guitar, music theory
About the Expert
Ryan Larson Ryan Larson is a young jazz composer whose teaching technique focuses on the basics of music theory in all twelve keys. When applying his 12 key technique to ... read more
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Questions & AnswersOkay, so we've learned to read rhythmically and everything like that, and we know how to read notes, pretty well, we know our tricks and everything like that. But an important aspect is also the key signature. The key signature will be at the beginning of the piece, before the time signature even. It's the most important. It really tells us what key we're in and what notes are going to be sharp or flat. So let's look at some examples of the key signature here. And some tricks. Okay, so say we have flats. On this first line, this is how flats work. The first flat we'll see, in order, will be a B flat right here. Remember good boys. B flat, it's right here. That means every other note here is naturally unless otherwise stated, but there's a B flat right there. Now, this key actually is the key of F major. Unfortunately, you just kind of have to recognize that one because the trick doesn't work for this. There's a circle of fifths thing if you want to get deeper into theory. I would look up the circle of fifths to help, but, just for now, looking at this, this is the next key of flats. And this is when we can actually tell what flat key we're dealing with. Look, the first flat, the second to last flat from the end, this is the flat at the end, the second to last one is the key signature. So B flat is the key if you have two flats.
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