theory question......plz help

ok so i finally decided to take some music theory classes and we're learnin key signatures right now...the professor puts this chart up...thats supposed to help us figure out the key signature of a certain note/letter/chord what ever its supposed to be called...
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Major- C G D A E B F C
#
Minor- A E B F C G D A
---------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Major- F B E A D G C
b
Minor- D G C F B E A


now he'll say whats the key signature for Eb?

can someone as if you were speakin' to an 8 year old explain the process used to figure this out?

thanks

aww.....well the chart didn't come out like it supposed to...but hopefully somebody'll know what it means....those numbers supposed to sit on top of the letters...

:-)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Major- C G D A E B F C
#
Minor- A E B F C G D A
---------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Major- F B E A D G C
b
Minor- D G C F B E A

well what i understand from this is first row number of sharps so C - 0 sharpes , G , one , D two sharps , etc and for the minor ones the same
and then for the flats major/minor also the same F one flat , B two flats etc.. you better check out the circle of fifths it makes more sense i think , well it looks much like the way your teacher is trying to teach it to you , well just check it out , hope this helps somehow cuz not much ppl is responding this :-/
http://www.casano.com/music/circle_of_fifths.png

I understand how the circle of fifths works. But my teacher is trying to teach us a method on how to find key signatures without having the circle of fifths in front of you. Thus the chart. Using the chart, there's some sort of method used to help figure out the key signature.

for example whats the key signature for G? by looking at the chart we know that it has 1 sharp because of the number laid on top of the letters. But how do we know that the F is the sharp note using the chart? Any help is greatly appreciated.

--#---------
------------ on the treble clef
------------
------------
------------

when i had violin lessons a long long time ago, i was told that you go one note up from the (last) sharp you're given in the key signiture. for example F# means its in G major. F# and C# means its in D major. For flats, its the 2nd to last flat. For example, Bb, Eb and Ab is E flat major. If there's just one flat (Bb), then the key is F major, and that is the only exception to the rule. This only works for major keys. If there's one sharp F# then its in the key of G major OR E minor, cos Em is the relative minor of G maj. same for the other keys.

And, if you haven't worked it out already, to find the relative minor of any major key you simply go down 3 half-steps from the major. So, for G major, down 1=F#, down 2=F, down 3=E......E minor.

To answer your earlier question admtav, the order in which sharps occur in a key signature is F# C# G# D# A# E# B#. The order in which flats occur is the opposite direction. You can remember this with a simple 'memory trick', for sharps: Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle. For flats: Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father.

So, using your chart above, G has one sharp in it which is F#, because this is ALWAYS the first sharp to appear in a key signature.

Likewise for flat key sigs, the chart tells you that Eb has three flats, and using the memory trick you know that these will be Bb, Eb and Ab, because these are ALWAYS the first three b's in a key signature. Hope this helps !

thanks guys....i think i got it now....

perfect timing too....we are being quizzed in about 2 hrs...

thanks!