How Do You Know if a Piece of Music Changes Key

In GuitarOS: Practical Theory, we walk you through:

• how to ID notes on your fretboard past their bodily names,
• which notes go into which keys,
• how to build elementary & fancy chords,
• which chords belong in each key,
• what the "part" of each of those chords is,
• how chords are combined into progressions,
• how to speak the language of rhythm, and
• how all of this gets written down in a way that'south useful to you AND the musicians you collaborate with.

But I get it—today you're in a hurry and you desire to know:

How do I figure out the key of a song?

Here'due south a listing of questions that will help y'all decide.

Although putting this in a checklist makes it seem really formal, this is something that will eventually happen automatically, in a matter of seconds.

I trained my encephalon to do this, and you tin can besides.

With a little do yous'll exist able to take a snap "reading" of a song (or a department of a song).

Grab the printable PDF nautical chart with every chord in each key

1. Is there a chart with a central signature?

2. Did someone call a key?

3. What'south the beginning & last chord in the vocal?

4. Is there a clear dominant chord?

5. Is at that place another clear chordal motion that'due south a key giveaway?

6. Are all the chords diatonic to a sure key?

7. Are most of the chords diatonic to a key, with some non-diatonic (but not entirely unexpected) chords sprinkled in?

8. Tin can this be written in more than one key?

9. Is i easier than the other?

10. Does information technology even make sense to call up of this equally being in i primal?

I'g going to explain each of these in order, but I want to begin past maxim that y'all should exist going through this checklist in this order when trying to determine a vocal'due south key.

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1. Is at that place a chart with a cardinal signature?

Probably the easiest way to determine what fundamental you're in is when the written music tells you the key.

On a chart written by a literate musician, there volition be key signature—some number of sharps or flats between the clef and the fourth dimension signature:

In this example, one flat means that the song is in F.

F# and Gb are the aforementioned key, just with a different name (and different names for each of the notes).

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2. Did someone phone call a cardinal?

Of class, if someone says, "this is a blues in G" or "we're playing Dock of the Bay, but in F," you'll plain know what to do.

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three. What are the beginning & final chords in the song?

If you're learning a song from a recording, or reading a chart written past a less-than-literate musician, you can look at the first & last chords of the song—they're frequently the I chord.

It'due south non a difficult and fast rule though. Some common exceptions:

• LOTS of songs don't start on the I chord.
• Somenever go to the I chord.
• There are enough of songs that purposely cease on a chord other than the I (which gives the catastrophe an unsettled feeling).
• And of course if the song changes to a new key somewhere along the fashion, that'due south going to complicate matters.

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for a printable PDF of this chart, click here

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4. Is there a clear ascendant chord?

If nosotros look at the extended chords that show up diatonically (diatonic = fabricated upwardly of simply notes from inside the fundamental), nosotros see that there's only one that's a dominant seven chord: the Five.

If y'all run into a set of chords that simply has 1 dominant 7 among them, in that location's a pretty skillful run a risk that that chord is the V.

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five. Is there another clear chordal movement that'due south a key giveaway?

Y'all can as well be on the sentinel for other mini-progressions like ii-Five or Four-iv.

When I see Am-D, my brain goes directly to "ii-V in Thousand."

When I run across F-Fm, my brain goes correct to "IV-4 in C."

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6. Are all the chords diatonic to a certain cardinal?

(Once more, "diatonic" = merely using notes from within the key—no outside notes.)

If you encounter this progression:

…you can see that the only key that has all of those chords diatonically is Thousand:

So fifty-fifty though there'south no Chiliad chord, it's in the central of G.

(This case is from Dave Matthews Band's #41. The ring eventually does go to the K chord, merely it takes them a minute and a half of this progression before they exercise.)

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seven. Are most of the chords diatonic to a fundamental, with some non-diatonic (but not entirely unexpected) chords sprinkled in?

Hither are the chords from John Mayer's Badge & Gun:

All of the chords are diatonic to 1000… except that A7 in measure out half-dozen.

But when we look at the usually-occurring not-diatonic chords, we see that A7 isn't entirely unexpected:

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viii. Tin this be written in more than one central?

Sweet Home Alabama goes D, Cadd9, G.

Is that I- ^b Vii-IV in D? (in ruby below)

Or a V-IV-I in Thousand? (in purple below)

If you practise a google image search for "Sweetness Dwelling house Alabama sheet music," you lot'll encounter that roughly half of the transcriptions show it in D, and half in M.

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9. Is ane easier than the other?

My personal preference is to recollect of Sweet Home Alabama in G, because it's easier that way.

Simply thinking of it in D is just as right.

I have another post examining the implications of this thought, and what information technology ways for modes.

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10. Does information technology even make sense to think of this as being in one cardinal?

For some tunes, it doesn't really make sense to recall of them in 1 unmarried key.

Here's The Allman Brothers' Melissa:

cheque these chords against the chart—Cmaj7 is the bVI (say: "apartment six")

Although we don't leave the central long enough to warrant writing in a key change, for measures 11 & 12 we're very clearly playing I-ii-3-IV in the key of A.

If you were soloing over these changes, the E major calibration that sounded and then good over the rest of it suddenly doesn't fit quite right—you have to smoothly switch to A major for those two bars.

Jazz music is filled to the skirt with this sort of thing—at that place'southward ii-V-I, and then I becomes minor and it's the two of some other key…

Jazz musicians nonetheless utilize this same roman numeral linguistic communication, but they're not beholden to whatever central is written on the chart—they're talking well-nigh what key the vocal is in for this subsection of the tune.

Playing fluidly over chords that change primal ofttimes requires an as fluid mindset about keys.

Learning to encounter subsections of songs as being in their own fundamental is the logical extension of getting skillful at seeing songs every bit existence in a primal.

We're going to touch on this again next week when we talk about how all of this feeds into our understanding of modes.

What About Modest Keys?

Information technology'south worth mentioning that upward until now we have studiously avoided talking almost minor keys—keys where the "one chord" is minor: i.

Modest keys are their own matter, and worthy of their own article (which we'll become into in two weeks, after our discussion of modes).

Recap

• At the top of a well-written chart, you'll encounter a clef & a fourth dimension signature, and in between them is a cardinal signature—the number of sharps or flats tell you lot what key the song is in.
• If the terminal chord in the song gives y'all a sense of resolution, it'south probably the I.
• The only diatonically occurring dominant chord is the V. If you see a ascendant chord, there's a decent chance that it's the V.
• Other articulate chordal movement that propose a key are ii-V and IV-iv.
• Sometimes you'll be able to encounter that all of the chords are diatonic to a sure cardinal.
• Even if the I isn't i of those chords.
• Other times most of the chords will be diatonic to a central, and the non-diatonic chords volition be common enough.
• Some songs be written in more one primal.
• One is unremarkably easier than the other.
• Some songs motility fluidly through different keys.
• Getting adept at speedily seeing the central of simpler songs volition lead to getting good at spotting those times when a subsection of a song is in a different key.
• Want this chord nautical chart equally a PDF & in Google Sheets? You can snag that hither
• if y'all'd similar to be walked through this i piece at a time, sign up for GuitarOS

See you lot next week, when we'll talk about what all of this means for modes.

-Josh

alstonthaton.blogspot.com

Source: https://fretboardanatomy.com/how-to-figure-out-the-key-of-a-song/

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