good to know in case you're playing in D and you wonder why someone's got two fingers up at you!!
Since we have players at all levels on the list, I'd like to direct the first part of this newsletter to the less advanced players and explain how we communicate key signatures with hand signals when we're on a stage and the noise level is so high we can't all hear the key called out, especially if you're half deaf like most of us from years of playing.
Actually what started me back using the circle of fifths was a bass player. So I had to go back and refresh my memory on it. For example, he would start turning his hand up and just show four fingers to represent the key, which in this case was the key of E. He said I'm going to start using this to tell you what key we're in because nobody could hear on the loud stage. He was closest to the singer so he could hear the key the singer was in when no one else could hear.
Let me break this down for you. This goes back to the importance of knowing your circle of fourths and fifths. If you ever saw it on a church hymnal on the top where it shows the key signature where it has for example four sharps (#).
Our hand signals consist of a fist for the key of C because there are no sharps or flats. We use fingers up for sharps and fingers down for flats. One finger up is G, two fingers up is D, three fingers up is A, four fingers up is E, five fingers up is B and six fingers up is F#.
For the flat keys, one finger down is F, two fingers down is Bb, three fingers down is Eb, four fingers down is Ab, five fingers down is Db and six fingers down is Gb.
At first I related this to bass guitar because it was not as overwhelming. If you're on the third string, third fret, C note it's very easy to get to the fifth note of the key by going to the fourth string, third fret which is the G note which helps you remember that one finger up is the key of G. To get to the fifth of the G, take that pattern and move up two frets and the name of the note will equal the number of sharps in the scale and the numbers of fingers being held up. The fifth fret gives you D and A (two and three fingers up), the seventh fret gives you E and B (four and five fingers up) and finally the ninth fret gives you F# (six fingers down).
To remember the flat keys, start at the fourth string, eighth fret, C note. Move down one string to the F which is one finger down. Repeat the same pattern a whole step down and that covers the circle of fourths. The eights fret gives you C to F (zero and one finger down), the sixth fret gives you Bb and Eb (two and three fingers down), the fourth fret gives you Ab and Db (four and five fingers down) and finally the second fret, fourth string gives you Gb (six fingers down).
