5 sharps key signature: which keys use five sharps?

A 5 sharps key signature belongs to B major and its relative minor, G sharp minor. The five sharps, in order, are F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, D sharp, A sharp. The last of them, A sharp, sits a minor second under B. Five perfect fifths up from C land on B. The pitches to recompute are 493.88 Hz for B and 415.30 Hz for G sharp.

What a 5 sharps key signature prints

B major and G sharp minor share these five sharps. The next sharp in the fixed order would be E sharp, and that sixth sharp names F sharp major, on the 6 sharps key signature page. Four sharps stop at D sharp and name E major, one fifth lower, on the 4 sharps key signature page.

F sharpC sharpG sharpD sharpA sharp

Five sharps and the standard place of each one. G sharp minor uses the same five places.
Sharp	Treble staff	Bass staff
F sharp	top line	fourth line
C sharp	third space	second space
G sharp	space above the staff	fourth space
D sharp	fourth line	third line
A sharp	second space	first space

Scale notes. G sharp minor here is natural minor, so the seventh stays F sharp, not F double sharp.
B major	G sharp minor
B, C sharp, D sharp, E, F sharp, G sharp, A sharp	G sharp, A sharp, B, C sharp, D sharp, E, F sharp

Diatonic triads in B major: B major, C sharp minor, D sharp minor, E major, F sharp major, G sharp minor, A sharp diminished. G sharp minor starts on G sharp minor, then A sharp diminished, B major, C sharp minor, D sharp minor, E major, F sharp major.

How five sharps name B

The major tonic is a minor second above the last sharp. The last sharp here is A sharp. One semitone up is B. That names B major. G sharp minor is the other key that prints the same five sharps.

Upward fifths: C to G, to D, to A, to E, to B. Five steps, five sharps. One fewer step is E major, already linked. One more step is F sharp major, which takes six sharps. This page does not walk through that sixth sign.

G sharp minor sits a minor third under B. The prelude on this page is the major one in the catalog. The finder, below, returned that same major first.

Numbers you can check

Equal temperament from A 4 = 440 Hz: pitch = 440 × 2^{((midi − 69) ÷ 12)} Hz. B 4 is midi 71, so 440 × 2^{(2 ÷ 12)} = 493.883… Hz, written 493.88 Hz. G sharp 4 is midi 68, so 440 × 2^{(−1 ÷ 12)} = 415.305… Hz, written 415.30 Hz. That second pitch is the same number as A flat 4. The spelling here is G sharp, because this signature is sharps.

The accidental count is five, names F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, D sharp, A sharp. Five perfect fifths above C spell B. Three semitones under B spell G sharp.

The arithmetic is separate from the recording. On 20 October 2026 the key finder called the last 20 seconds B major at 86% confidence. That is the same major the score title prints. The screen did not mark the reading low.

A recorded example you can check

Wikipedia’s The Well-Tempered Clavier article, read on 20 October 2026, lists Book 1 No. 23 as Prelude and Fugue in B major, BWV 868. The Open Well-Tempered Clavier score, MuseScore edition by Olivier Miquel, version 1.0 of 19 March 2015, marked Creative Commons Zero, heads the page “Praeludium 23 / BWV 868”. The clip is the last 20 seconds of the prelude, where it closes in its home key. The catalog names B major. The score heading names the same prelude. Those two documents agree with each other.

Johann Sebastian Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, Prelude No. 23 in B major, BWV 868. Kimiko Ishizaka, piano. Commons file Kimiko Ishizaka - Bach - Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 - 45 Prelude No. 23 in B major, BWV 868.ogg, marked CC0. Bach lived from 1685 to 1750: the Open Well-Tempered Clavier score prints those dates under his name at the head of Prelude No. 1, and Wikipedia’s Johann Sebastian Bach article, read on 20 October 2026, gives his death as 28 July 1750. This clip is the last 20 seconds of the prelude, where it closes in its home key.

On 20 October 2026 at 07:31 EDT this site’s key finder read the clip as B major, Camelot 1B, at 86% confidence, with the hint “Check against your audio”. The next two candidates were B minor (Camelot 10A, 7%) and E flat minor (Camelot 2A, 2%). The screen did not add a low-confidence note. The percentage is this file’s estimate, not a measured accuracy rate. The article, the score heading, and the finder headline all name B major. E flat minor is the 2% candidate, not the headline. This page leaves the alternatives on the record.

What our key tools tell you

The key finder names a key from a recording. Key from chords names one from chord symbols. Neither tool redraws the staff. Five sharps still mean F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, D sharp, then A sharp, whether or not a short clip’s first name matches the printed signature.

5 sharps key signature: quick answers

What key has 5 sharps?

B major, and the relative minor G sharp minor. Both use a 5 sharps key signature.

What are the 5 sharps in order?

F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, D sharp, A sharp. The order of sharps is F, C, G, D, A, E, B, and this signature stops at the fifth step.

Where does A sharp sit?

On the treble staff, the second space. On the bass staff, the first space. It is the rightmost sharp of the five.

What is the relative minor of B major?

G sharp minor, three semitones under B. The catalog piece on this page is the major prelude.

What did the finder return?

B major, Camelot 1B, 86%. B minor at 7% and E flat minor at 2% came next. The screen did not mark it low. The headline matches the catalog major.

What this page leaves open

Harmonic minor in G sharp minor raises the seventh. That extra sharp is not one of the five printed signs.
493.88 Hz and 415.30 Hz are equal-temperament arithmetic. They were not measured from the piano file.
86% describes the last 20 seconds of this prelude, where it closes in its home key. It names B major, which matches the article, and it is still an estimate rather than an accuracy rate.