Help! Utter confusion over piano keys

[CatherineMorland]

My DD has been given a piece to play in “D minor”. It says “key signature is 1 B flat”.

However we can’t see any B notes in the entire piece and are utterly baffled as to how this works.

If any musicians can explain, we would be so so grateful. I don’t want to ask her teacher as I have a suspicion she has explained but DD wasn’t listening!

@Buggerthebotox,

As am I…

Regular b minor, the kind you first learn doing grades.

Also, to work out the relative major/minor you count up/down four notes.

So D minor's relative major is F because D -> D# -> E -> F

C major's relative minor would be A because C -> B -> Bb -> A

I don't know if that helps, but at least it explains how you can tell they're related!

Buy your daughter a scales and arpeggios book.

But really your misunderstanding is just that there don't happen to be any B notes in the piece. If there were they would be played flat with no flat symbol in front of it to remind you. It's just the rule set down by the key signature.

The key signature is the same as F major (D minor is the relative minor to F major). If there are any Cs in the piece you will probably notice they are sharpened. This is because the 7th note in the most common type of minor scale is always sharpened. However in the minor scales the sharp/flat symbol isn't shown in the key signature it is written on the music. You never get a mixture of sharps and flats in the key signature.

C major relative minor is A minor. No sharps or flats in key signature (as with C major) but the G (7th note) will be sharp if it appears in the manuscript.

G major relative minor is E minor. 1 Fsharp in key signature (same as for G major) but the D (7th note) will be sharp if it appears in the manuscript.

And so on and so on for about eleventy billions scales (well sometimes it feels like that!)

Noooooo! Don't confuse the OP further, @TheReluctantPhoenix!

The D natural minor scale is:
D E F G A B flat C D

The key signature for minor keys indicates the natural minor.

The D harmonic minor scale is:
D E F G A B flat C sharp D

That is because some of the chords in the key (for the harmony) require a C sharp to make them minor rather than major chords.

The D melodic minor scale is:
D E F G A B C sharp D ascending
D C B flat A G F E D descending

It makes the melody flow better to use either the ascending or descending melodic minor scale.

Because the C could be either a C or a C sharp in a piece of music, they are denoted by accidentals (sharp or flat signs) in the music.

The scales that you are asked to perform in exams are the harmonic or melodic minor.

This is a slightly less over-simplified explanation:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_scale

I mean:

Because the C could be either a C or a C sharp in a piece of music in D minor, they are denoted by accidentals (sharp or flat signs) in the music.

The blitz music theory books are really good and you can download the answers online so helpful if you don't know yourself. You could learn together!