F♯ major
The major key with F♯ as its tonic. It has six sharps and lies at the bottom of the circle of fifths, directly opposite C major. It sounds the same on the piano as G♭ major with six flats; depending on context it is written with sharps or with flats.
- Tonic
- F♯
- Key signature
- 6 ♯ (F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯)
- Tonic chord
- F♯–A♯–C♯
- Dominant
- C♯ major, C♯–E♯–G♯
- Subdominant
- B major, B–D♯–F♯
- Relative key
- D♯ minor
- Enharmonically the same
- G♭ major
Six sharps
The sharps in F♯ major follow the fixed series F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯. On the page Key Signatures the rule is: sharps follow the series F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯, B♯. If you know the first six, you have the key signature of F♯ major. The exercise page advises automating the common keys first: G, D, F, B♭ and E♭ major cover most of the literature for guitar, piano and choir. F♯ major may take longer, because it occurs more rarely.
F♯ major scale
Seven of the eight notes carry a sharp. Only B is a natural note. The last sharp is E♯, the note that sounds like F on the piano. It is written E♯ because in every major scale each letter occurs once.
On the piano this scale contains all five black keys, plus the white keys B and F, the latter written as E♯.
F♯ major or G♭ major?
At the lower edge of the circle of fifths the pairs of keys describe the same notes. The page Circle of fifths names F♯ major with six sharps and G♭ major with six flats as one of the three pairs. On the exercise page for the circle of fifths it says: both are right, which one you write depends on the context.
That also holds for chords. The exercise Build Chords warns of a mistake in remote keys: F♯ major consists of F♯, A♯ and C♯, not of F♯, B♭ and D♭. The sound would be the same, the spelling wrong. More on the background: enharmonic equivalence.
The chords of F♯ major
On every degree of the scale a triad arises from two stacked thirds. In F♯ major the degrees I, IV and V are major chords: F♯, B and C♯. The degrees ii, iii and vi are minor chords, the seventh degree carries a diminished triad. The pattern is the same as in any other major key. The derivation is on the page Diatonic chords.
| Degree | Chord | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| I | F♯ | F♯–A♯–C♯ |
| ii | G♯m | G♯–B–D♯ |
| iii | A♯m | A♯–C♯–E♯ |
| IV | B | B–D♯–F♯ |
| V | C♯ | C♯–E♯–G♯ |
| vi | D♯m | D♯–F♯–A♯ |
| vii° | E♯° | E♯–G♯–B |
F♯ – B – C♯ – F♯ is the simplest cadence of the key. Further closing formulas are on the page Cadences.
A long way from C major
On the circle of fifths F♯ major lies directly opposite C major. The page Circle of fifths explains what follows from that: a jump from C major to G major sounds more familiar than to F♯ major, because C and G lie only a fifth apart. Wide modulations such as from C major to F♯ major are unusual, because the two keys have hardly any notes in common. According to the page Schubert and Wagner used this distance for dramatic, almost otherworldly effects.
The relative key D♯ minor has the same key signature but the tonic D♯. The two neighbours B major with five and C♯ major with seven sharps differ from F♯ major in exactly one note.
Common mistakes
- Writing the E♯ as F: On the piano it sounds the same, but in F♯ major the seventh note is called E♯. Otherwise the letter E does not occur in the scale.
- Putting the sharps in the wrong order: The series is F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯. With six sharps you use the first six.
- Mixing F♯ major with G♭ major: A key is written either with sharps or with flats, not mixed.
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Related terms
G♭ majorB majorC♯ majorRelative keyMajorTonicDominantSubdominantDiatonic chordCircle of fifthsKeyAccidentalSharp keyEnharmonic equivalence
Editor: Maik Krohm · reviewed on 3 October 2026
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