Key signature key signatures showing sharps or flats on both octaves for notes which fall within the staff. An accidental is an exception to the key signature, applying only to the measure and octave in which it appears. Although a key signature may be written using any combination of sharp and flat symbols, the most common series of thirteen homogeneous key signatures—ranging from six flats to six sharps, with each successive flat or sharp placed on the note a perfect fifth below or above, respectively, the previous one—is assumed in much of this article. A piece scored using a single diatonic key
Key signature names and translations is invariably assumed to be major. In the German notation scheme, a hyphen is added between the pitch and the alteration ("D-Dur"). Minor key signatures are written with a lower case letter ("d-Moll"). For example, to describe Bach's Mass in B minor one could use: Key signature names and translations When a musical key or key signature is referred to in a language other than English, that language may use the usual notation used in English (namely the letters A to G, along with translations of the words "sharp", "flat", "major" and "minor" in that language): languages which use the