G-sharp major

G-sharp major is a musical key based on G♯, consisting of the pitches G♯, A♯, B♯, C♯, D♯, E♯, and F. Its key signature has eight sharps, requiring one double sharp and six single sharps.^[1] Because the same pitches can be indicated by the enharmonically equivalent key of A-flat major (with four flats), a G-sharp major key signature is extremely rare.

Relative keyE-sharp minor
→enharmonic: F minor

Parallel keyG-sharp minor

Dominant keyD-sharp major
→enharmonic: E-flat major

Subdominant keyC-sharp major

Quick facts Relative key, Parallel key ...

G-sharp major

Alternative notations

Relative key	E-sharp minor →enharmonic: F minor
Parallel key	G-sharp minor
Dominant key	D-sharp major →enharmonic: E-flat major
Subdominant key	C-sharp major
Enharmonic key	A-flat major
Component pitches
G♯, A♯, B♯, C♯, D♯, E♯, F

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Its relative minor is E-sharp minor, which would be replaced by F minor. Its parallel minor is G-sharp minor.

The G-sharp major scale is:

Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The G-sharp harmonic major and melodic major scales are:

Although the enharmonic key of A-flat major is preferred because it has only four flats, compared with G-sharp major's eight sharps (including the F), G-sharp major appears as a secondary key area in several works in sharp keys, most notably in the Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp major from Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1. The G-sharp minor prelude (and the fugue) from the same set ends with a Picardy third, on a G-sharp major chord. G-sharp major is tonicised briefly in several of Frédéric Chopin's nocturnes in C-sharp minor. A section in the second movement of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 is in G-sharp major, although the key signature has four sharps. The end of the exposition of the second movement Charles-Valentin Alkan's Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges', subtitled Quasi-Faust, is in G-sharp major, albeit written with a six-sharp key signature (the movement opens in D-sharp minor and ends in F-sharp major).

The final pages of A World Requiem by John Foulds are written in G-sharp major. The key signature is shown as in the example with the scale above, starting with the C♯ and ending at the F (C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯, B♯, F).^[2]

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, which can require double sharps, double flats, or microtonal alterations in key signatures. For example, the key of G-sharp major, with eight sharps, is equivalent to A-flat major in 12-tone equal temperament, but in 19-tone equal temperament, it is equivalent to A-double-flat major instead, with 11 flats.