Key signature A minor as each accidental may be notated explicitly as required, or the piece may be modal or atonal. An example is Bartók's Piano Sonata, which has no fixed key and is highly chromatic. If not bound by common practice conventions, microtones can also be notated in a key signature; which microtonal symbols are used depends on the system. The common practice period conventions are so firmly established that some musical notation programs have been unable to show nonstandard key signatures until recently. The use of a one-flat signature developed in the Medieval period, but signatures with more than one
Key signature names and translations if those are the systems used locally. For example recent French scores or books may use the English system (this is especially common for chord symbols), but French users would read out that notation according to the Fixed Do system. Similarly a Dutch musician may refer to a written F orally as Fis. This article is concerned with written usage. To form a key designation, locate the note name in the pitch translation table and add the major/minor qualifier from the lower table as needed. Note that the 'major' alteration is usually superfluous, as a key description missing an alteration