Name the major key of the lit signature, then its relative minor.
Key Signature Identification
Name Date
Which major key has this signature?
1 of 7
More options
Write the name of each numbered key signature, then its minor.Answer key
C major · A minor
G major · E minor
D major · B minor
A major · F-sharp minor
E major · C-sharp minor
B major · G-sharp minor
F-sharp major · D-sharp minor
C-sharp major · A-sharp minor
F major · D minor
B-flat major · G minor
E-flat major · C minor
A-flat major · F minor
D-flat major · B-flat minor
G-flat major · E-flat minor
C-flat major · A-flat minor
C major · A minor
G major · E minor
D major · B minor
A major · F-sharp minor
E major · C-sharp minor
B major · G-sharp minor
F-sharp major · D-sharp minor
C-sharp major · A-sharp minor
F major · D minor
B-flat major · G minor
E-flat major · C minor
A-flat major · F minor
D-flat major · B-flat minor
G-flat major · E-flat minor
C-flat major · A-flat minor
Drawn for this site on 2026-09-29 from plain curves: clefs, sharps and flats are own work, placed on the standard lines and spaces. Licence: own work.
Each key signature is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a key signature is answered.
How this list was compiled: The fifteen major key signatures, the order of sharps (F C G D A E B) and of flats (B E A D G C F) and each relative minor: Robert Hutchinson, Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom, sections 2.3 Major Key Signatures (figures 2.3.2 and 2.3.3 for the treble clef positions) and 3.2 Minor Key Signatures, https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/mt21c/MajorKeySignatures.html and MinorKeySignatures.html, read 2026-09-29; checked against Wikipedia, Key signature (text: order of sharps and flats, the tonic a semitone above the last sharp, the second-to-last flat names the key, the bass A-sharp in the lowest space) and its figure Positions of sharp and flat in key signatures in 4 clefs (Wikimedia Commons) for the bass clef positions, read 2026-09-29. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-29 from plain curves: clefs, sharps and flats are own work, placed on the standard lines and spaces; no font and nothing traced. Licence: own work
How it works
Each staff shows one of the fifteen major key signatures, in the treble clef first and the bass clef under it. Name the major key, then its relative minor, which shares the signature.
Read the full guide
Read a signature in three steps
Sharps: find the last sharp on the right and go up a half step. Three sharps end on G-sharp, so the key is A major. Flats: the second-to-last flat names the key; four flats end B, E, A, D, so it is A-flat major. One flat is F major, and none is C major. For the relative minor, go down three half steps from the major: A major gives F-sharp minor.
Sharps come in the order F C G D A E B; flats run the same letters backward.
The bass clef uses the same shapes as the treble, two steps lower: the seventh flat, F-flat, sits below the staff.
Questions and answers
How do you identify a key signature?
Count the sharps or flats after the clef. With sharps, the major key is a half step above the last sharp. With flats, it is the second-to-last flat. One flat is F major; no sharps or flats is C major.
How do you find the minor key from a key signature?
Find the major key first, then go down three half steps: that note is the relative minor, and it has the same signature. E-flat major and C minor both have three flats.
What is the order of sharps and flats?
Sharps always appear in the order F, C, G, D, A, E, B. Flats appear in the reverse order: B, E, A, D, G, C, F. A signature never skips one: two sharps are always F-sharp and C-sharp.
Which key signatures sound the same?
Three pairs are written differently but sound the same on a piano: B major and C-flat major, F-sharp major and G-flat major, and C-sharp major and D-flat major.