Key signatures can be a tricky concept to teach to a child. In the past, I simply explained that the sharp sign (#) you see on the high F line means that all F’s are sharp. There wasn’t much more to my explanation.
When does Mrs. Curwen introduce key signatures?
She introduces them when a student is given a piece of music with key signatures. The first time a student is handed a piece of music with a F sharp or B flat, they should be offered a simple yet thorough explanation on key signatures.
How does Mrs. Curwen teach key signatures?
Remember, Mrs. Curwen always draws upon the known to teach the unknown. What does the child know?
The child knows the Sol-fa scale. The child usually can hear and sing doh, ray, me, fah, soh, lah, te, doh. They know what that should sound like. Let them choose a starting sound on the piano (a middle pitch that works for their range) and sing the scale.
Find a few different pitches and let the child sing yet again. The child will likely sing the tune of the scale correctly multiple times.
Let the student then play from middle C up to the next C. This should be simple. Just use one finger and move by step from C to C on the white keys. This will match the Sol-fa scale the student just sang.
Now ask the child to start on G. Just choose one finger and go from G to G by step. Hmmm. Something doesn’t sound right.
What about D? Start on D and move to next D using only the white keys again. Does it sound correct?
Let’s try A. Something is wrong too.
Let the child discover that if we are limited to only the white keys of the piano, we can only play the scale from middle C to the next C. This is called playing in the key of C. We only use the white keys.
Now’s a good time to illustrate this if you have a simple song to play in the key of C.
Let’s find the 5th sound in the C scale. Start on C with doh and sing until you reach G or sol. Let’s begin our Sol-fa scale on G. Listen carefully and see if we can figure out which of the sounds is wrong.
Hopefully you can come to the conclusion that te is wrong.
(I have had a student who cannot always hear what is wrong. If I go back to a C major scale and we sing it repeatedly again and then move back to the incorrect scale starting on G, the child can usually begin to hear the difference.)
We’ve determined that the te sound or the F sound is wrong when we start our scale on G. Where are we going to find the correct sound? The black key right beside the F key will solve our problem.
But now, there is no other place on the staff for another note!
If we want to play a song in the key of G and play any F’s at all, we have to sharpen all the F’s or te sound.
“If we want to write a tune in key G, and that tune has a great many te‘s in it, we should have to sharpen the F line or space every time we wanted to use the sound te. This would be very troublesome; so musicians hit on the plan of writing the new te once for all at the beginning of the piece.” (page 175, 31st edition.)
Show the student a piece of music written in the key of G. Because of this little sharp sign at the beginning of the piece, the piano player
“has to imagine that all the F sounds have disappeared from the staff, and in their place we have F#.”
“The sharp written at the beginning is the distinguishing sound of the key. It is called the KEY SIGNATURE, and it tells us at once what the key is; because, if F is te, G must be doh.”
Now is a good time to draw a picture of an eleven line staff, add the clefs, and draw a key signature of the key of G.
Nicely explained.
Thanks Mike. Are you familiar with Mrs. Curwen’s philosophy?