G major

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G major

Relative key	E minor
Parallel key	G minor
Component pitches
G, A, B, C, D, E, F♯, G

G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F♯. Its key signature has one sharp, F♯. (see below: Scales and keys).

Its relative minor is E minor, and its parallel minor is G minor.

In the treble clef, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom (a lower-octave F note).

In the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, "G major is often a key of 6/8 chain rhythms," according to Alfred Einstein,^[1] and in the Baroque era, G major was regarded as the "key of benediction." ^[2]

Of Domenico Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas, 69 are in G major, and 12 of Joseph Haydn's 104 Symphonies are in G major. (See also: List of symphonies in G major.) Ludwig van Beethoven, on the other hand, hardly used G major as the main key of a work, his only major orchestral work in the key being his Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major. G major is the home key of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. However, none of his large scale works such as his symphonies or concerti (with the exception of the Piano Concerto No. 17) are in this key, apart from early examples written in his youth before his maturity as a composer.

For orchestral works in G major, the timpani are typically set to G and D a fifth apart, rather than a fourth apart as for most other keys.

Ascending and descending G major scale.

G, sometimes called the 'people's key', is one of the most frequently-employed keys across classical and popular music. This is in part because of its relative ease of playing on both keyboard and string instruments: its scale comprises only one black note on the keyboard, all of a guitar's six strings can be played open in G, half of the strings on the mandolin and violin/fiddle are in the G chord when open, and the banjo is usually tuned to open G. It is the key stipulated by Queen Elizabeth II to be used for "God Save the Queen" in Canada.^[3] The music to the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, was originally written in G major. Though it is now usually sung in A-flat or B-flat major, some people, most notably humorist and commentator Garrison Keillor, are campaigning to return the song to its original key; they argue that the song is already very difficult to sing on account of its range (one and a half octaves), and the modern standard key makes it still more difficult.