2 Sharps: D Major / B Minor
Two sharps is D major, or B minor. The sharps are F sharp and C sharp, always written in that order, and the last of them — C sharp — sits a semitone below D, which is the rule that names the key.
2 sharps
D major / B minor
The last sharp written is C♯. Go up one semitone from it and you have the major key: D major.
D major scale
D E F♯ G A B C♯
B minor scale (relative minor)
B C♯ D E F♯ G A
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D major scale
D E F♯ G A B C♯
B minor scale
B C♯ D E F♯ G A
Reading it
Sharps are added in a fixed order that never varies: F, C, G, D, A, E, B. Two sharps therefore means F sharp and C sharp, with no choice about which two. A semitone above the last one, C sharp, is D, so the major key is D and the relative minor a minor third below it is B minor.
The fixed order is why you can identify a signature from a glance at its last symbol rather than by reading all of them. It is also why a two-sharp signature can never contain, say, F sharp and G sharp: the order is a consequence of stacking fifths, and skipping a step in that stack would produce a scale that is not major.
The violin's key
A violin, viola, cello and double bass are all tuned in a way that makes some keys ring and others go dull, and D major is at the top of the ringing list for the violin family's upper instruments. The violin's open strings are G, D, A and E. In D major, three of those four — D, A and E — are scale degrees one, five and two, and the D and A in particular can be used as open drones under a melody.
The effect is not subtle. An open string on a bowed instrument resonates far more freely than a stopped one, and a key that lets several of them sound produces an audibly bigger tone. Composers writing for strings have always known this, which is why so much violin repertoire sits in D, A and G rather than in the flat keys.
B minor, and the awkwardness on guitar
B minor shares this signature and is a different proposition on a guitar. Its tonic has no open-string form: the standard shape is a barre at the second fret, and the beginner who has been enjoying G, E minor and D major typically hits B minor as the first chord in the sequence that requires real hand strength.
This is worth knowing because it explains a common experience — a player comfortable in the one-sharp and two-sharp keys suddenly finding a tune hard when it turns out to be in the relative minor rather than the major. The signature has not changed. The chord shapes available have.
What the two sharps actually change
D major is D E F sharp G A B C sharp. Compared with the notes of C major, two have moved: the F and the C have each been raised a semitone. Those two raised notes are what keep the pattern of tones and semitones in the right places when the scale starts on D instead of on C.
The diatonic chords follow: D, E minor, F sharp minor, G, A, B minor and C sharp diminished. The A chord is the fifth degree, and it is major because the C sharp in the signature is its third — one of the two sharps is doing the work that gives the key its cadence.
The seven chords of D major
Every major key produces the same pattern of chord qualities — major on the first, fourth and fifth degrees, minor on the second, third and sixth, diminished on the seventh. Only the names change.
Questions people ask about this signature
- Two sharps is what key?
- D major, or B minor. The two sharps are F sharp and C sharp; the order is fixed and never changes.
- Why is D major so common in fiddle music?
- Because a violin's open strings are G, D, A and E, and D major puts three of them on strong scale degrees. Open strings ring more than stopped ones, so the key sounds louder and fuller on the instrument.
- Can a two-sharp signature ever have different sharps?
- No. Sharps are always added in the order F, C, G, D, A, E, B, so a signature with two sharps always has F sharp and C sharp specifically.