Key profile · major key
A♭ Major: Scale, Key Signature and Chords
A♭ major has four flats. Scale: A♭ B♭ C D♭ E♭ F G. Chords, staff, sound and real-song counts: 86 of 1,462 art songs, 8th of 24 keys.
Short answer
A♭ major has four flats (B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭). Its scale is A♭ – B♭ – C – D♭ – E♭ – F – G. Its relative minor, F minor, uses the same key signature; its parallel minor, A♭ minor, starts on the same note. In the 1,462 art songs of the OpenScore Lieder corpus, 86 are in A♭ major (5.9% of the corpus), which makes it the 8th most common of the 24 keys.
- A♭1
- B♭2
- C3
- D♭4
- E♭5
- F6
- G7
- 4♭key signature: B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭
- 86of 1,462 Lieder songs are in A♭ major (8th of 24 keys)
- 38of 1,974 Mutopia scores (14th of 24)
Counts come from open datasets: OpenScore Lieder is a library of mostly 19th-century European art songs, so the statistics describe that repertoire (plus the Mutopia scores and the catalogues named below), not music in general. Major or minor is an estimate for the Lieder; the key signatures are read exactly. Details are under “How this was counted”.
The A♭ major scale, its notes and its chords
The major scale is built from the steps whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. In A♭ major the two half steps fall between the 3rd and 4th degrees (C and D♭) and between the 7th and 8th degrees (G and A♭); every other neighbouring pair is a whole step.
Every chord is built from the notes of the scale by stacking thirds, so the spellings follow the key signature.
| Degree | Note | Name | Chord on it | Triad notes | Seventh chord |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A♭ | Tonic | I (A♭) | A♭ – C – E♭ | A♭maj7 (A♭ – C – E♭ – G) |
| 2 | B♭ | Supertonic | ii (B♭m) | B♭ – D♭ – F | B♭m7 (B♭ – D♭ – F – A♭) |
| 3 | C | Mediant | iii (Cm) | C – E♭ – G | Cm7 (C – E♭ – G – B♭) |
| 4 | D♭ | Subdominant | IV (D♭) | D♭ – F – A♭ | D♭maj7 (D♭ – F – A♭ – C) |
| 5 | E♭ | Dominant | V (E♭) | E♭ – G – B♭ | E♭7 (E♭ – G – B♭ – D♭) |
| 6 | F | Submediant | vi (Fm) | F – A♭ – C | Fm7 (F – A♭ – C – E♭) |
| 7 | G | Leading tone | vii° (Gdim) | G – B♭ – D♭ | Gm7♭5 (G – B♭ – D♭ – F) |
The key signature of A♭ major
The key signature of A♭ major is four flats: B♭, E♭, A♭ and D♭. Sharps are added to a signature in the order F, C, G, D, A, E, B and flats in the order B, E, A, D, G, C, F; A♭ major takes the first four flats. The same signature belongs to F minor, so a piece with this signature can be in either key; the last chord and the notes the melody leans on decide which. The key signature chart shows all 15 signatures.
A♭ major on the staff, and how it sounds
The staves show the scale one octave from A♭. The buttons play the scale, the tonic chord (A♭) and the cadence I–IV–V–I, which in this key is A♭ → D♭ → E♭ → A♭. Sound is made in your browser; nothing is downloaded. Without scripts the notes are listed under each staff.
A♭ B♭ C D♭ E♭ F G A♭
A♭ G F E♭ D♭ C B♭ A♭
Tonic chord: A♭ = A♭ – C – E♭. Cadence I–IV–V–I: A♭ (A♭ – C – E♭) → D♭ (D♭ – F – A♭) → E♭ (E♭ – G – B♭) → A♭.
musictheoryprint.com/keys/a-flat-major/ — A♭ major, four flats
A♭ major in real scores
Everything below was counted from open collections of real music, not written from memory. The Lieder are the main source because their key signatures are read directly from the notation.
Art songs. The OpenScore Lieder corpus holds 1,462 songs, nearly all from the 19th century. 86 of them are in A♭ major: 5.9% of the corpus and 8.5% of the 1,006 songs estimated to be major, which makes it the 8th most common of the 24 keys by song count. Of the 128 songs whose key signature is four flats, 86 were estimated to be in A♭ major and 42 in F minor.
Free scores. The Mutopia Project has 1,974 scores with a readable key; 38 are in A♭ major (1.9%, 14th of 24 keys). Most of them are for piano (28), voice or choir (20) and harpsichord / clavichord (2), and the styles listed in the library are mainly romantic (23), classical (4) and hymn (4).
Keys are merged by sound, so F♯ major and G♭ major are one key here. An even split over 24 keys would be 4.2% each. Rank 1 is the key with the most items in that dataset.
| Dataset | What is counted | In this key | Share | Rank of 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenScore Lieder | art songs; key signature plus estimated mode | 86 | 5.9% | 8th |
| Mutopia Project | free scores; key from MIDI or LilyPond source | 38 | 1.9% | 14th |
| MusicBrainz, Key attribute | catalogued works; key entered by editors | 198 | 1.4% | 16th |
| MusicBrainz, key in title | catalogued works; key read from the English title | 66 | 1.2% | 17th |
| Open Opus | works by 77 composers; key read from the work title | 46 | 1.3% | 16th |
| AcousticBrainz | recordings; machine-estimated key (strength 0.6 or more) | 1,663 | 2.6% | 17th |
The corpus has no composition dates, so songs are grouped by the composer’s birth year. The group where A♭ major takes the largest share is born 1810–1839 (7.3%).
| Composer group | Songs in the corpus | In A♭ major | Share of the group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Composers born before 1770 | 64 | 2 | 3.1% |
| Born 1770–1809 | 224 | 12 | 5.4% |
| Born 1810–1839 | 509 | 37 | 7.3% |
| Born 1840–1869 | 499 | 29 | 5.8% |
| Born 1870 or later | 159 | 6 | 3.8% |
Songs written in A♭ major
The line under each song gives its time signature, its length, the lowest and highest note of the vocal line and how the melody begins and ends. Song titles are the corpus’s own; the composer names link to the composer pages of this site.
8 songs written in A♭ major
- An ein Bild Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)from 9 Lieder und Gesänge, Op.634/4 · 59 bars · voice D4–A♭5 · melody begins on the 1st (A♭), ends on the 1st (A♭)
- Das Fischermädchen Franz Schubert (1797–1828)from Schwanengesang, D.9576/8 · 72 bars · voice C4–G♭5 · melody begins on the 5th (E♭), ends on the 1st (A♭)
- Chanson Lointaine Augusta Mary Anne Holmès (1847–1903)from 20 Mélodies3/4 · 84 bars · voice C4–F5 · melody begins on the 1st (A♭), ends on the 1st (A♭)
- Ruhethal Josephine Lang (1815–1880)from 6 Deutsche Lieder, Op.114/4 · 18 bars · voice A♭3–D♭5 · melody begins on the 5th (E♭), ends on the 1st (A♭)
- Vöglein, wohin so schnell? Robert Franz (1815–1892)from 12 Gesänge, Op.13/4 · 38 bars · voice E♭4–G5 · melody begins on the 3rd (C), ends on the 1st (A♭)
- An Luna Johanna Kinkel (1810–1858)from 6 Lieder, Op. 64/4 · 32 bars · voice B3–C5 · melody begins on the 5th (E♭), ends on the 1st (A♭)
- Bitte Fanny Hensel (Mendelssohn) (1805–1847)from 6 Lieder, Op.76/8 · 21 bars · voice E♭4–E5 · melody begins on the 3rd (C), ends on the 5th (E♭)
- Veilchen Peter Cornelius (1824–1874)from 6 Lieder, Op.13/4 · 9 bars · voice E♭4–F5 · melody begins on the 3rd (C), ends on the 1st (A♭)
Chosen from 86 songs in A♭ major by a fixed rule: songs where the automatic chord analysis agrees with the estimated mode and whose signature never changes come first, then composers with a page on this site, then the composers best represented in the corpus, one song per composer.
What the songs in A♭ major do
The 86 songs in A♭ major were looked at as a group: how they end, how their melodies begin and end and how high and low the voice goes. The chord analysis covers 62 of them (it exists for 1,156 of the 1,462 songs in the whole corpus).
64.8% of the 54 songs in A♭ major close with a perfect authentic cadence, V→I with both chords in root position; over all analysed songs the figure is 57.6%, so A♭ major is above the corpus average. 94.4% of the endings land on a tonic chord (I or i). The chord labels are software output, and a “cadence” here is just the last pair of chords: no phrase structure is detected.
The number of songs that contain the progression at least once in a major-key passage (the analysis labels each passage with its own key, so a song that visits another major key adds to the count). Chords are Roman numerals; sevenths and inversions count as the same chord.
| Chord progression | Songs in A♭ major | Share of its 62 analysed songs | Share over all 1,156 analysed songs |
|---|---|---|---|
| V–I | 62 | 100% | 87% |
| I–V–I | 56 | 90% | 72% |
| IV–V–I | 23 | 37% | 29% |
| I–IV–V–I | 11 | 18% | 17% |
| ii–V–I | 34 | 55% | 43% |
| I–IV–V | 16 | 26% | 21% |
In 21% of these 58 songs the analysis finds a section of at least 8 bars in some other key; with a 4-bar threshold the figure is 60%. The result depends strongly on the threshold, so treat it as a rough picture rather than a measurement.
The vocal line of the median song in A♭ major runs from E♭4 up to G♭5 (86 songs measured); across all 1,458 songs the medians are D4 and G♭5. A singer’s voice, not the key, mostly decides the range: editors and composers chose the key to fit it, so this tells you what these songs asked of the voice, not what the key demands.
A♭ major in catalogues and recordings
MusicBrainz. Editors have entered a key for 13,669 catalogued works (parts and arrangements excluded); 198 of them are in A♭ major, 1.4% of those works and 16th of 24 keys. Reading the key from the English work title instead (“… in A♭ major”) finds 66 of 5,340 titles in A♭ major (17th of 24).
Open Opus. 46 of the 3,587 Open Opus work titles that name a key are in A♭ major (16th of 24 keys). Of the works that the editors flagged as popular, 1 are in A♭ major; of the works they recommend, 3.
Recordings. Software that estimates the key of commercial recordings (AcousticBrainz, high-confidence estimates only) puts 1,663 of 63,124 recordings in A♭ major (17th of 24 keys). Estimates like this are known to lean to some keys, so use the figure only as a rough comparison with the written music.
Among the 49 best-catalogued composers; shown when A♭ major is one of the eight commonest keys in that composer’s keyed works. Six at most, most works first.
| Composer | Works with a key | In A♭ major | Share | Rank of the composer’s keys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fryderyk Chopin | 75 | 11 | 14.7% | 1st |
| Louis Moreau Gottschalk | 49 | 8 | 16.3% | 2nd |
| Александр Николаевич Скрябин | 55 | 7 | 12.7% | 1st |
| Ferdinand Ries | 55 | 4 | 7.3% | 4th |
| John Field | 49 | 4 | 8.2% | 6th |
| Gabriel Fauré | 48 | 3 | 6.2% | 3rd |
What Wikipedia says about A♭ major
Excerpts from the English Wikipedia articles, quoted unchanged (references, tables and images removed). Statements about the character or history of the key are Wikipedia’s, not this site’s; follow the article links for the full text and its authors.
A-flat major
A-flat major is a major scale based on A♭, with the pitches A♭, B♭, C, D♭, E♭, F, and G. Its key signature has four flats.
Its relative minor is F minor. Its parallel minor, A-flat minor, would require seven flats and is usually written as the enharmonic key of G-sharp minor instead, with five sharps.
In tuning systems where the number of notes per octave is not a multiple of 12, notes such as G♯ and A♭ are not enharmonically equivalent, nor are the corresponding key signatures. These tunings can produce keys with no analogue in 12-tone equal temperament, possibly requiring double sharps, double flats, or microtonal alterations in key signatures.
Compositions in A-flat major
Beethoven chose A-flat major as the key of the slow movement for most of his C minor works, a practice which Anton Bruckner imitated in his first two C minor symphonies and also Antonín Dvořák in his only C minor symphony. The second movement of Haydn's 43rd symphony in E-flat major is in A-flat major. Frédéric Chopin used this key in many of his works, particularly in his waltzes.
Since A-flat major was rarely chosen as the main key for orchestral works of the 18th century, passages or movements in the key often retained the timpani settings of the preceding movement. For example, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 has the timpani set to C and G for the first movement. With hand-tuned timpani, there is no time to re-tune the timpani to A-flat and E-flat for the slow second movement in A-flat major; accordingly, the timpani in this movement are reserved for the passages in C major. In Bruckner's Symphony No. 1 in C minor, however, the timpani are re-tuned between the first movement in C minor and the following in A-flat major.
Charles-Marie Widor considered A-flat major to be the second best key for flute music.
A-flat major was the flattest major key to be used as the home key for the keyboard and piano sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, with each of them using the key for two sonatas: Scarlatti's K. 127 and K. 130, Haydn's Hob XVI 43 and 46, and Beethoven's Op. 26 and Op. 110, while Franz Schubert used it for one piano sonata. It was also the flattest major key to be used for the preludes and fugues in Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, as flatter major keys were notated as their enharmonic equivalents.
Source: Wikipedia, “A-flat major” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-06-23.
Relative key
In music theory, relative keys are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures (enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all of the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps.
Source: Wikipedia, “Relative key” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-06-11.
Closely related keys
The five keys closest to A♭ major share most of its notes: they are the keys on the other degrees of the scale whose chords are major or minor, and they differ from A♭ major by at most one sharp or flat. The sixth entry is the parallel key, which starts on the same note but has a different key signature. Counts are Lieder songs in each key.
- E♭ major Up a fifth (V, the dominant key) 3♭ · 1 step sharper on the circle 127 Lieder songs
- D♭ major Down a fifth (IV, the subdominant key) 5♭ · 1 step flatter on the circle 49 Lieder songs
- F minor Relative minor (vi) 4♭ · same signature as this key 42 Lieder songs
- B♭ minor Supertonic minor (ii) 5♭ · 1 step flatter on the circle 10 Lieder songs
- C minor Mediant minor (iii) 3♭ · 1 step sharper on the circle 44 Lieder songs
- A♭ minor Parallel minor (same tonic) 7♭ · 3 steps flatter on the circle 6 Lieder songs · A♭ minor sounds the same as G♯ minor; the link goes to that page
Bach’s prelude in this key
In The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, Bach wrote one prelude and fugue in each of the 24 keys. For A♭ major it is No. 17: Prelude and Fugue in A♭ major, BWV 862. The prelude’s time signature is 3/4; the fugue has 4 voices.
Played by Kimiko Ishizaka, a free (CC0) recording; small mono mp3, nothing loads until you press play. Hear the fugue and see all 24 keys · About the recordings
How this was counted
- Note names. Computed by a script from the step pattern of the scale with the rule “one letter name per degree”, then checked against the circle-of-fifths formula for the key signature, the pitch pattern and the chord qualities. Nothing is copied from a table.
- Lieder. The key signature is the first key signature of the melody part, read directly from the MusicXML. The corpus does not record major or minor, so the mode is estimated with the Krumhansl–Schmuckler method on the notes under the opening signature; where an automatic harmonic analysis exists, the two agree on 977 of 1,023 songs (95.5%).
- Same sound, one key. Spellings are merged by pitch: F♯ major and G♭ major, D♭ major and C♯ major, E♭ minor and D♯ minor and so on are counted together, in every dataset, as on the page Most common keys in music.
- Chord analysis. Endings, progressions and key changes come from the automatic Roman-numeral analyses (AugmentedNet v1.9.1) of 1,156 of the songs. The analyses have not been corrected by people; the ending is the last pair of different chords, and a key change is a section of at least 8 bars (4 bars where stated).
- Melody and range. The first vocal line of each song whose key signature never changes; the first and last sounding notes, named relative to the tonic of the key. The lowest and highest notes are the extremes of the vocal line.
- Other datasets. Mutopia: the first key signature of the MIDI made from the LilyPond source, or the first
\keyin the source. MusicBrainz: the editor-entered Key attribute, and keys parsed from English titles. Open Opus: keys named in work titles. AcousticBrainz: machine estimates with a key strength of 0.6 or more, totals only. - Samples. A statistics block appears only when at least 30 songs back it; the sample size is printed with every block.
Data used
- OpenScore Lieder Corpus — 1,462 art songs, mostly 19th-century and European, transcribed to MusicXML by volunteers. CC0 1.0
- The Mutopia Project — 2,129 free scores (LilyPond sources and MIDI); only counts are shown. per piece: public domain, CC BY or CC BY-SA
- MusicBrainz (core data) — The open music database; counts of works by key. CC0 1.0
- Open Opus — A catalogue of 13,014 works by 77 composers. public domain (project README)
- AcousticBrainz — Machine key estimates for commercial recordings; totals only, no titles or artists. CC0 1.0
- Wikipedia — Excerpts of the key articles, quoted unchanged. CC BY-SA 4.0
What these numbers cannot tell you
- The Lieder are 19th-century-centred European art songs transcribed by volunteers, not a sample of all music. Nothing here measures pop, rock, jazz, film music or music from other traditions.
- A count of keys in scores and catalogues is not a count of listening: it does not say how often people hear each key.
- Major or minor in the Lieder is an estimate; the key signature (the number of sharps or flats) is exact. A piece with a given signature can be in the major or the relative minor.
- The MusicBrainz key field is filled in by volunteers for the works they care about, and leans to Baroque, Classical and Romantic instrumental music. Titles that spell the key in another language (for example “C-Dur”) are not read.
- AcousticBrainz keys are machine estimates and known to favour some keys; they are shown only for rough comparison.
- Chord analyses were produced by software and not checked by people; key changes depend strongly on the length threshold.
Checks run each time this page is rebuilt (15)
- scale spelling checked: seven different letter names in order, every note agrees with the key signature (four flats)
- the scale has seven notes
- songs in A♭ major (86) equal the merged byKey counts of lieder-keys.json
- all 1,462 songs are assigned to one of the 24 keys
- Lieder share equals keys-across-corpora.json (5.88235294117647 vs 5.88)
- spelling variants add up to the key total
- Mutopia pieces in A♭ major (38) equal the merged key counts of mutopia-keys-meter.json
- composer birth groups do not exceed the number of songs
- songs with a chord analysis (62) do not exceed the songs in the key (86)
- ending types add up to the 54 songs with a readable ending
- progression song counts do not exceed the analysed songs
- first and last note counts add up to the 71 songs analysed
- Wikipedia excerpts contain only allowed tags and no markup residue
- title is at most 60 characters (44)
- the page’s own text (short answer, introductions and paragraphs; no Wikipedia, captions, tables or method) is at least 400 words (1111)
Data: OpenScore Lieder Corpus (CC0 1.0); The Mutopia Project (per-piece licences; counts only); MusicBrainz (CC0 1.0); Open Opus (public domain); AcousticBrainz (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (excerpts) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Computed for this site on 2026-10-03; the numbers are counts or shares from the datasets named above, not estimates for music in general. Licences and credits for everything used on this site are on the credits page.