utterly noobish question

[shotkong64x]

i was just curious, with peices that have a bunch of flatts or sharps like right after the cleff,  what exactly does this mean?  i know that it means that whenever you see that note you sharp or flat it throughout the peice, but is that the only thing to it?  Ive looked at harder peices and that had like 6 or 7 of these, and i could only imagine it would be a pain in the ass without some kind of meaning to it.  sorry if my question is incoherent, but if you understand what im getting at, please help me thanks 

[Spatula]

If you're asking about the order of the sharps and flats:

Sharps (from 0 to 7 sharps)

F,C,G,D,A,E,B - father charles goes down and eat bread

And for the flats (from 0 to 7 flats)

B,E,A,D,G,C,F - bottle empty and down goes charles father

Notice the order of the Sharps is the same as the order of the flats but reversed.

And yes, that is a very elementary theory question, but a good one.  Very few new students bother to notice this even when they're already told by their teachers.

[galonia]

If you're worried about remembering the 6 or 7 sharps ( or the 6 or 7 flats), since they always appear in the same order, you can just remember what is not sharp (or flat)

In terms of what they mean, they tell you what key your piece is written in.

e.g. a piece in B Major will have a key signature of 5 sharps.

[shotkong64x]

ok, so there is something to it.  good.  I really need to/ want to read up on some basic music theory...  my lessons are only a half hour per week, and i dont wanna be wasting valuable time on my teacher lecturing me on stuff that i can learn on my own.   Any suggestions for such reading material? 

[BoliverAllmon]

go to a library and get whatever you can on theory.

[faulty_damper]

It's the signature key.  C dur has no flats or sharps.  Nor does A moll.

Signature keys are like dialects.  There's Chinese language but there are hundreds of different dialects, Cantonese, Mandarin, Taisan, etc.

Those signatures just tell you which one they are.

[Spatula]

It's the signature key.  C dur has no flats or sharps.  Nor does A moll.

Signature keys are like dialects.  There's Chinese language but there are hundreds of different dialects, Cantonese, Mandarin, Taisan, etc.

Those signatures just tell you which one they are.

on a side note
A moll naturally doesn't have any accidentals for the key signature, but watch out for that snazzy raised 7th.

hehehehe (grins)

[BoliverAllmon]

or raised sixth.