Key signature sometimes called "standard key signatures". Other scales are written either with a standard key signature and use accidental as required, or with a nonstandard key signature. Examples of the latter include the E (right hand), and F and G (left hand) used for the E diminished (E octatonic) scale in Bartók's "Crossed Hands" (no. 99, vol. 4, "Mikrokosmos"), or the B, E and F used for the D Phrygian dominant scale in Frederic Rzewski's "God to a Hungry Child". The absence of a key signature does not always mean that the music is in the key of C major /
Shape note followed (ascending) by Sol, La, etc. The first note of a minor key is always La, followed by Mi, Fa, etc. The first three notes of any major scale – fa, sol, la – are each a tone apart. The fourth to sixth notes are also a tone apart and are also fa, sol, la. The seventh and eighth notes, being separated by a semitone, are indicated mi-fa. This means that just four shapenotes can adequately reflect the "feeling" of the whole scale. The system illustrated above is a "four-shape" system; six of the notes of the scale are grouped