Visual Characteristics | The Key to Learning Keys of Music

If there's any one aspect of learning to play the piano that stunts an aspiring piano players progress, it's not knowing Major keys of music. The Major key of music is the most important to know and understand because all other keys are derivatives of them.

All Major keys of music have visual characteristics that differentiate them from other Major keys. When you consciously recognize these characteristics, it makes them easier to learn. This is what we'll focus on in this article.

We'll start with the key of C Major. This is the only key of music that has all white keys with no accidentals (sharps & flats on black keys). It's the easiest key to visualize.The key of F Major has six white keys with one black key as the 4th tone in the key.The key of B flat has five white keys with two black keys as the 1st, and 4th tones in the key.The key of E flat has four white keys with three black keys as the 1st, 4th, and 5th tones in the key.

The Key of A flat has three white keys with four black keys as the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th tones in the key.The Key of D flat has two white keys with five black keys as the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th tones in the key. Enharmonic keys have the same notes but named differently. C sharp Major is an enharmonic key with D flat Major so I won't cover it. Just be aware it's visually identical to it.The Key of G flat has two white keys with five black keys as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th tones in the key. F sharp Major is an enharmonic key with G flat Major so it has the same shape.

The key of G Major has six white keys with one black key as the 7th tone in the key.The key of D Major has five white keys with two black keys as the 3rd and the 7th tone in the key.The key of A Major has four white keys with three black keys as the 3rd, 6th and 7th tones in the key.The Key of E Major has three white keys with four black keys as the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th tones in the key.