Thank you Richard! That explanation makes complete sense.
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I like the sign for the āNaturalā (ā®) note notation. It looks like it has a little bit of the sharp symbol ā#ā and the flat symbol ābā.
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So sorry, but this video has several mistakes. The most glaring one are Justin referring to flats as sharps when he is discussing flats.
Go Down And Eat Breakfast For Charlie. Sharps
Fat Boys Eat Apple Dumplings Girls Donāt. Flats
Easy peasy
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@reblark
Ralph, Justin acknowledges a spoken error by writing the correction in the lesson content:
Iām not sure what other error you detect.
But what puzzled me was: why toss up this sharps and flats salad instead of simply printing the key name?
I donāt think the answer is in the video, but I may have got distracted and missed it.
Anyway, I did find the answer elsewhere: for those who do read and use sheet music, the sharps and flats are there to indicate all notes on a specific line are played as sharps or flats. Which means you donāt need to have sharps and flats printed in front of every note on that line across the sheet.
Obviously, us guitar people canāt expect the wider music community to change a well-working system just for our convenience so weāre happy to have nifty little tricks like the one Justin is showing us.
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My personal favourite in a pneumonic for sharps and flats has the benefit of being reversible.
Order of sharps:
Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle (now reverse the pneumonic)
Order of Flats:
Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father
A further benefit with Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father is that the distance between each represented note in this pneumonic is a 4th (same as standard tuning), so it also gives you much of the layout of the actual notes on the fretboard for different strings.
Two rules to remember:
1 Moving from string 4 to 5 is a 3rd not a 4th, so move one fret higher to compensate.
2 On reaching the end of the pneumonic (Father) you need to move one fret higher before starting the pneumonic again.
Eg. Fret 2 on A String (string 2) is a B (Battle), next string down is E (Ends), next string down is A (And), next string is a third (g-b) so move up to fret 3 and continue the pneumonic, D (Down), next string is G (Goes).
Now you can easily find notes B E A D and G on frets 2 and 3.
Works all over the neck.
Fret 5 strings 6-1 A D G C (And Down Goes Charles). Charles is string 4 so F (Father) compensates up one fret on string 5. Strings 1 and 6 are the same note ie both Aās (And). Fret 5 string 5 ? Simple. Itās E (Ends And) or one semitone/fret up from F (Father). E comes before A (Ends And).
Donāt forget to double compensate at fret 10. Father is on string 4 . Down one fret for Father and one more to compensate for string 4 to 5.
Lay it out on a fretboard diagram to see how useful it can be.
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Yep, in classical music thereās much more going on harmonically and melodically than in your regular 3 chord campfire ditty. Iām not a sight reading genius by any means, but as I slowly get familiar with standard notation, the conventions start to make more sense.
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Here is my āpracticalā strayegy to remember the order of flats or sharps when I want to write the key signature on a staff: you are supposed to know your notes on your fretboard for the thickest 2 strings at this point, and as long as you can visualize a fretboard in your head you re good to go 
FGAB (low E)
_CDE (A string)
For the flats: B E - A D - G C - F
For the sharps (itās reversed starting from the F): F - C G - D A - E B
Another tip: if you want to get sure if you didnāt forget a sharp/flat while writing or practicing your scale in general, remember this:
For the major scale
C 0
D +2
E +4
F -1
G +1
A +3
B +5
A positive number = number of sharpsāļø
A negative number = number of flatsāļø
If you want to move from a natural to a sharp in the major scale, you add 7
Examples:
C contains 0 sharps, C# major scale (0+7=+7) contains 7 sharps
F contains 1 flat, F# major scale (-1+7=+6) contains 6 sharps
From a natural to a flat in the major scale, you remove 7
Examples:
Cb contains 7 flats since 0-7=-7
B contains 5 sharps, Bb major scale contains 2 flats because 5-7=-2
There are some cases, when the addition or the soustraction gives us more than 7 (sharps or flats) , it gets tricky because double flats and sharps are used in that major scale.
An example to illustrate this:
G major scale contains 1 sharp, but G# major scale contains 1+7 = 8 sharps (in reality there 6 sharps + 1 double sharp)
The scale in this key is theoretical, and it s better to use the enharmonic equivalent of G# which is Ab (3-7=-4 there are 4 flats in the Ab major scale)
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Itās so cool when you discover patterns and regularities like that on your own.
Another tool that helps with the number and order of sharps and flats is the circle of fifths. Have you encountered it already?
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Nooo not yet, but from the look of it on google image, it looks waaaay more easier for someone who is accustomed to the circle.
I have just started studying theory recently, and since I find it hard to memorize mnemonic sentences, I prefered to apply what was taught previously and use what I already know on new stuff.
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If those work for you then great, thanks for sharing some tips.
They are non conventional and look like they require a fair bit of memorisation or brain work.
@Jozsef mentions the circle of fifths.
It has all the information you need in one easy to view reference guide.
It takes a little time to become familiar with it.
Allow me to introduce you to it here: The Circle of Fifths Part 1 - where does it come from?
I hope that helps.
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Moderator
Hereās a mnemonic for the order of sharps:
Four Children Gave Dad An English Breakfast (FCGDAEB)
This is from an American who loves England
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I was doing just dandy right until here. āHuh?ā
I donāt see where āThe order of sharpsā (or flats) tells me anything related to key?
If I look at this, I understand that certain keys have a specific number of sharps or flats.
But what does "The Order of (sharp / flat) tell me if Iāve memorized the what sharp and flat notes are in a key? Yeah - Iām now officially confused.
Bedtime - my head hurts.
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If you learn the order of sharps/flats and you know that the key you play in has e.g. 4 sharps/flats in the key signature, then youāll know you play in [insert the tonic] major and that the accidentals (sharps or flats) are on notes x, y, z, etc.
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The goal is to āimmediatelyā know the notes/chords in a major key. This is possible if you know:
- how many sharps / flats there are in a key
- the order of the sharps / flats
- which chords in a key are major (1-4-5), minor (2-3-6) and diminished (7)
Letās apply this to the key of B major. Itās a less common key, so chances are that you have to think about the chords in that key.
-
You have memorized that B major has 5 sharps.
-
You have memorized the order of the sharps, so you know that those 5 sharps are F#, C#, G#, D# and A#. The other notes are natural notes. So now we know the notes of the B major scale: B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#
-
Now you just need to apply the chord quality to each note and youāll have your 7 diatonic chords: B major, C# minor, D# minor, E major, F# major, G# minor, A# diminished
I hope this makes things a bit more clear to you.
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That helps. Thanks.
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Doh! Next lesson clarifies using Mr. Catoās Slick Trick.
Dang! That is a slick trick. I can memorize and use that. Iām not ready to deep-dive notation, and may never be.
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Holy Leaping Lizards Batman!
Iām having an epiphany moment. Sorta off topic but Iām watching the Power Chord video in PMT Grade 3. Power chords: R and the 5th.
So me - looks at Circle of Fifths to find the Root and the 5th.
And then - it hits me while looking at the COF.
There it is - The Cato Key Diagrams in a circle minus the Cb and Fb)
The Relative Minors are offset (theory I donāt understand yet) but now that I see it - I canāt āunseeā it.
Wow! Cool. I can construct the Circle of Fifths using memonics.
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