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B major

Relative key	G♯ minor
Parallel key	B minor
Component pitches
B, C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G♯, A♯, B

B major is a major scale based on B, with the pitches B, C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G♯, and A♯. Its key signature has five sharps.

B major's relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and its enharmonic equivalent is C-flat major.

The key signature for B major is the least sharp key signature with three "lines" of sharps. In the treble clef, putting the sharp for A on its expected position relative to the sharp for G would require a ledger line. In the bass clef it would be possible to do this, but because in piano music this would result in a dissimilarity between the two staves that might throw off sight-reading, this is not usually done. However, it is occasionally found, resulting in the A-sharp in the bass-clef key signature appearing on the top line. In the alto clef, which occurs in string quartets and orchestral music, the B major key signature is usually written in just two "lines" of sharps.^{[citation needed]}

Although B major is usually thought of as a remote key (due to its distance from C major in the circle of fifths and its fairly large number of sharps), Frédéric Chopin regarded its scale as the easiest of all to play, as its black notes fit the natural positions of the fingers well; as a consequence he often assigned it first to beginning piano students, leaving the scale of C major till last because he considered it the hardest of all scales to play completely evenly (because of its complete lack of black notes).^{[citation needed]}

While B major is workable on keyboard instruments and guitar, the key of C-flat major is preferred for works written on the harp, as it is that instrument's home key.

Ascending and descending B-major scale.

Note that in German and most Central and Northern European languages, the pitch B is called "H" while B♭ is called "B". This includes Nordic, Baltic, Western and Southern Slavic (except Bulgarian) languages as well as Hungarian.

[edit] List of songs in this key

• A Thousand Miles - Vanessa Carlton
• Another Day - Dream Theater
• California Girls - The Beach Boys
• Close To Me - The Cure
• Dancing in the Dark - Bruce Springsteen
• Drift Away - Dobie Gray and Uncle Kracker
• Drive - The Cars
• Faith - George Michael
• Faithfully - Journey (band)
• Flowers on the Wall - Statler Brothers
• I Feel Lucky - Mary Chapin Carpenter
• Ironic - Alanis Morissette
• Listen - Beyoncé
• Monkey Wrench - Foo Fighters
• Penny Lane - The Beatles (choruses in A major)
• Prepare Ye - from Godspell
• Run - Collective Soul
• Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel
• Take A Chance On Me - ABBA
• Touch of Grey - Grateful Dead
• True Blue - Madonna
• When You Were Young - The Killers
• You're In My Heart - Rod Stewart
• (You're My) Soul and Inspiration - Righteous Brothers
• "Final" from The Firebird-1919 Re-orchestration - Igor Stravinsky

v • d • e Diatonic Scales and Keys
	Flats Sharps Major minor Major minor 0 C, a 1 F d G e 2 B♭ g D b 3 E♭ c A f♯ 4 A♭ f E c♯ 5 D♭ b♭ B g♯ 6 G♭ e♭ F♯ d♯ 7 C♭ a♭ C♯ a♯ 8 F♭ d♭ G♯ e♯
The table indicates the number of sharps or flats in each scale. Minor scales are written in lower case.

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