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How do I find my minor key signature?

All you need to do to find the relative minor from a Major key signature is to count backwards three half-steps. For example, C Major has no sharps or flats - it's just C D E F G A B C.

study.com - How to Determine Minor Key Signatures in Music - Study.com

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Major Key Signature Review

When you see a key signature, your automatic response is to figure out the key, right? So if it's a sharp Major key signature like this one, you know that the key is one half-step higher than the last sharp shown in the key signature. That means that this example, where C# is the last sharp shown, signifies the key of D Major, where D is the 'home note,' or 'tonic.' And in a flat Major key signature, like this one, you know that you can find the key by identifying the second-to-last flat shown. So, this example shows Eb Major.

Relative Key

But since minor keys have key signatures, too, and the key signature does not show tonality, we can't just tell by looking at the key signature alone whether the piece is Major or minor. For example, here in Minorland, where you see the key of D Major, we see the key of b minor. They use the same letter notes and have the same key signature, but because they are centered around a different note - D Major revolving around D, and b minor revolving around B - they have a different tone and different emotional feel. This is called relative key. Relative keys are Major and minor keys that share the same key signature. It's like if you had an evil twin. Although you look the same and you have the same DNA, you are two totally different people, and you act differently.

Relative Key - Major to Minor

All you need to do to find the relative minor from a Major key signature is to count backwards three half-steps. For example, C Major has no sharps or flats - it's just C D E F G A B C. When working backwards through the musical alphabet three half-steps (so from C to B, from B to Bb and from Bb to A) we find that the relative minor of C Major is a minor. This means that a minor has no sharps or flats - just A B C D E F G A - but because the tonal center is now A instead of C, the music will sound different than C Major. We know that a key signature with one sharp is G Major - G A B C D E F# G. When counting backwards three half-steps, we find that the relative minor is e minor - E F# G A B C D E. Same notes, different sound. This process is the same for sharp and flat key signatures. If we look at Ab Major - Ab Bb C Db Eb F G Ab - we can count backwards three half-steps and find that the relative minor is f minor.

Relative Key - Minor to Major

If you are here in Minorland, or if you're shown a key signature that has been determined as minor and need to find the relative Major key, you would just count forward three half-steps. In this example, we are told that the key signature is c minor. To find the relative Major, count three half-steps alphabetically. When we count three half-steps alphabetically, we find that the relative key of c minor is Eb Major.

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