My Color Music

If you’ve been alive for more than five minutes, then you know about symbols. The dictionary defines a symbol as a “letter, figure, or other sign used to represent something else.” For example, check out the following images. Do you know what each one stands for?

We see these kinds of symbols all the time … on anything from t-shirts, bumper stickers, and street signs to TV, jewelry, and cards. In fact, we’re surrounded by thousands of symbols every single day.

But if you stop and think about it … none of these symbols are very obvious. I mean, try to imagine seeing these symbols for the first time. Would you know what they stand for? Is there anything about a skull and crossbones that means “poison”? And how do we really know that a circle with lines means “peace”? The truth is, we know what these symbols mean only through practice. Which means we have to see these symbols a few times to understand what they represent.

And this is where it gets interesting. You see, musical symbols are like this, too.

Sure, some people get all intimidated when they see them. But there’s nothing special about the symbols that musicians use. Just like any other symbols, musical signs are used to tell us different things. And they communicate information quickly. For example, check out this sample of common musical symbols:

We already know what a few of these mean … like the treble clef, bass clef, and key signature. And we’ll learn about many other symbols going forward. So, by the time we’re done, we’ll know a whole new language of really cool—and very simple—symbols. Watch out … because it only gets better from here.

After playing through each major scale, you may have noticed that some of the keys have a lot of sharp (#) symbols … while others have a lot of flat (b) symbols. For example, check out the B major scale, which has a total of five (count ‘em … 5) sharp symbols:

Seriously, can you imagine playing an entire song in the key of B? With all those extra symbols—which are called “accidentals”—cluttering up the staves, music notation would start to look a little scary. And, honestly, that would be a problem.

So, to work around this issue, musicians came up with a little something they call “key signatures” … which basically keep the staves tidy by listing all the sharp or flat symbols once—next to the clef signs. For example, the key signature for the key of B simply lists all five sharps (#) of the major scale before the notes … so we can focus on the notes themselves.

It’s pretty basic, really. And the nice thing is—all key signatures work in this same way. For example, the C major scale doesn’t have any sharps or flats … so its key signature is empty. But the key signature for G has one sharp (F#) … while the key of D has two sharps (F# and C#) … and the key of A has three sharps (F#, C#, and G#) … and so on. Every key signature simply lists the sharps or flats of a given major scale.

By listing all these symbols next to the clef, we can clean up the staves and keep the sharps and flats out of the way. So anytime we need to play a sharp or flat note, we already know about it by looking to the key signature at the beginning of the staff.

Of course, with Color Music, we can easily tell which note is which—even without any sharps or flats. So, for us, key signatures are useful … but really just for knowing which key to play. In other words, key signatures give us a heads up on which notes we’ll come across in a song or melody.

To get a feel for how the key signatures work, try playing through each major scale below. Only this time, we’ll use key signatures. Nothing has changed about these 12 note patterns. It’s just that everything looks simpler now … like we’ve swept all those extra symbols to the side so we can really focus on the notes.

Holy cow. It’s been a minute since we stopped and listened to a little music. And that’s why we’re here, right? To make and hear some music. So, let’s lean back and take a short break … at least for today. Then we can get back to strolling through the musical landscape. Or better yet, we could try moonwalking to the next post. Because, believe me, it’s really that smooth.

Anyway, speaking of the smooth, I heard that Billie Jean’s kid was this guy’s son….