NotePlayMusicGrade 2: Keys and Scales Practice
Practise A and B flat major signatures, E flat major scales and degrees, and identifying F major and E harmonic minor from short melodies.
Build a key signature, then check the scale and its degrees
A major scale follows the tone pattern tone–tone–semitone–tone–tone–tone–semitone. Its key signature collects the sharps or flats that recur: A major has F sharp, C sharp and G sharp; B flat major has B flat and E flat. E flat major has B flat, E flat and A flat, and the same three flats apply when its scale descends.
A minor melody needs more than a signature to identify its key. E minor shares the one-sharp signature of G major, but a melody centred on E and using a raised D sharp leading note points toward E harmonic minor. That raised seventh is usually written as an accidental, not added to the key signature.
How to work it out
- For a signature or scale, name the tonic, list the required altered letters, and read every written note in the correct direction.
- For a scale degree, count the tonic as one and keep each accidental: in E flat major the fifth note is B flat.
- For a melody key, check its tonal centre and characteristic altered notes, not just the shared signature of relative major and minor.
Worked example
What pitches are degrees 4 and 5 of E flat major?
Count E flat (1), F (2), G (3), A flat (4), B flat (5). Both notes retain their flats even if the melody is descending.
Watch for this mistake
A key signature does not by itself prove a minor key. D sharp in an E-minor melody is the raised seventh; a one-sharp signature alone could also belong to G major.
Why does F major have a B♭?
Hear the major scale pattern, watch it break when you start on F, and see why one flat in the key signature fixes it.
Learning objectives
- Identify A major and B flat major key signatures.
- Recognize F major and E harmonic minor from melodic evidence.
- Read the E flat major scale and its fifth degree.
Worksheet
Select the correctly written key signature of A major.
Answer: ______________________
Select the correctly written key signature of B flat major.
Answer: ______________________
Select the correct key of the melody. A minor E minor G major D major
Answer: ______________________
Select the correct key of the melody. F major C major B flat major A minor
Answer: ______________________
Select TRUE or FALSE for the statement: This is the 5th degree of the scale of E flat major TRUE FALSE
Answer: ______________________
Select the correctly written scale of E flat major, descending.
Answer: ______________________
Answer Key
- option 1 — A major has three sharps: F sharp, C sharp and G sharp.
- option 1 — B flat major has two flats: B flat and E flat.
- E minor — The melody centres on E and explicitly raises F to F sharp and D to D sharp. D sharp is the raised seventh of E harmonic minor; this example writes both sharps as accidentals rather than in the key signature.
- F major — The melody uses B flat and no sharps, and settles on F — the key is F major.
- TRUE — The note is B flat. The fifth degree of E flat major (E flat, F, G, A flat, B flat) is indeed B flat, so the statement is true.
- option 1 — E flat major descending is E flat, D, C, B flat, A flat, G, F, E flat. The other options leave out a flat (A natural or B natural).