6 Sharps: F Sharp Major / D Sharp Minor
Six sharps is F sharp major, or D sharp minor. This is the one position on the circle where the two spellings tie exactly: G flat major needs six flats, F sharp major needs six sharps, and neither is simpler than the other.
6 sharps
F♯ major / D♯ minor
The last sharp written is E♯. Go up one semitone from it and you have the major key: F♯ major.
F♯ major scale
F♯ G♯ A♯ B C♯ D♯ E♯
D♯ minor scale (relative minor)
D♯ E♯ F♯ G♯ A♯ B C♯
This one has two names
F♯ major and G♭ major are the same twelve pitches written two different ways: 6 sharps versus 6 flats. Neither is simpler — six of each — so both spellings are in genuine use and the choice comes down to what the surrounding music is doing.
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F♯ major scale
F♯ G♯ A♯ B C♯ D♯ E♯
D♯ minor scale
D♯ E♯ F♯ G♯ A♯ B C♯
The genuine tie
Every other enharmonic pair has a winner. B major (five sharps) beats C flat major (seven flats); D flat major (five flats) beats C sharp major (seven sharps). Here the count is six against six, and there is no arithmetic argument either way.
So both spellings are in real use, and the choice is made by context rather than by rule. Music arriving from the sharp side of the circle — a piece in B major modulating up a fifth — stays in sharps and writes F sharp. Music arriving from the flat side, or written for instruments whose parts are already in flats, writes G flat. Encountering the same sounding key spelled both ways in different scores is not an inconsistency; it is what a tie looks like.
The sixth sharp is E sharp
The order of sharps is F, C, G, D, A, E, B, so the sixth is E sharp — a note that reads at first like an error, because E sharp sounds identical to F.
It is not an error, and the reason is the rule that a seven-note scale uses each letter A to G exactly once. F sharp major is F sharp, G sharp, A sharp, B, C sharp, D sharp, E sharp. The letter F is already taken by the tonic. If the seventh degree were written F natural, the scale would contain two F's and no E, and the key signature would have to put two accidentals on the same staff line while leaving another line untouched. Writing it as E sharp keeps one accidental per letter, which is the whole design of a key signature.
D sharp minor, and why E flat minor is usually written instead
The relative minor of F sharp major is D sharp minor, with the same six sharps. Its flat-side twin is E flat minor, with six flats, and here the practical preference does lean one way: E flat minor turns up considerably more often in written music than D sharp minor does.
The reason is the same context argument as above, weighted by repertoire. Minor keys at this pitch level are most often reached from flat-side material — from A flat minor, B flat minor or G flat major — and a copyist keeps the piece in the accidental family it is already using. D sharp minor appears mainly as a passing key inside sharp-side music.
Playing in it
On a piano this key is genuinely comfortable, which surprises people who judge difficulty by counting accidentals. F sharp major uses five black keys and two white ones — B and E sharp, the latter played as the F key — so the hand sits high on the keyboard with the long fingers naturally placed.
On a guitar it is a barre key with no open-string tonic, and most players in this key will either capo at the second fret and play in E shapes, or capo at the first and play in F shapes. On transposing instruments the sharp spelling almost never survives contact with the part-copying process: a B flat instrument reading concert F sharp would see G sharp, and would be given the part in A flat instead.
The seven chords of F♯ 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
- Six sharps is what key?
- F sharp major, or D sharp minor. It is also, note for note, G flat major or E flat minor written with six flats instead.
- Why is there an E sharp in F sharp major?
- Because a major scale uses each letter name once. The tonic already uses the letter F, so the seventh degree must be a kind of E — and the one that sounds correct is E sharp.
- Should I write F sharp major or G flat major?
- Whichever matches the surrounding music. They need the same number of accidentals, so the only real argument is consistency with what came before and what the players' parts are already written in.