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The main focus of this lesson is
to examine the question of "what
key is a song in?"
Like every musician, also every
guitar player wants to have
perfect pitch, play by ear or
easily determine what key a song
is in. There are many ways to
find the key of a song depending
on what you have in your hand;
a music sheet with standart
notation (time signature, key
signature, accidentals...), just
a tab of a song, or even just a
record.
The first thing to help you
while determining what key a
song is in is the key signature.
You have to know how to read
sheet music and what the key
signature means. The key
signature is the number of
sharps or flats that appear
immediately after the clef. If
your are not so familiar with
key signatures and accidentals,
I strongly recommend you to
study
Key Signatures Lesson in
Music Theory section in MyGuitarWorkshop.com before you
go any further.
For key signatures with sharps,
the first sharp is placed on F
line (for the key of G major/E
minor). Subsequent additional
sharps are added on C, G, D, A,
E and B. For key signatures with
flats, the first flat is placed
on the B line, with subsequent
flats on E, A, D, G, C and F.
There are 15 different key
signatures, including the
"empty" signature of C major/A
minor. Please look at the
simple key signature worksheet.
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G Major / E Minor |
|
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F major / D minor
|
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D Major / B Minor |
|
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Bb major / G minor |
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A Major / F# Minor |
|
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Eb major / C minor |
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E Major / C# Minor |
|
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Ab major / F minor |
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B Major / G# Minor |
|
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Db major / Bb minor |
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F# Major / D# Minor |
|
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Gb major / Eb minor |
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C# Major / A# Minor |
|
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Cb major / Ab minor |
You can see the key signatures and related keys
above. I think you have noticed that each key
signature refers two keys. For example one key
signature for G major and E minor, one key signature
for D major and B minor and so on. These key pairs
are called as
relative keys (relative minor or relative major
of each others). Because two tones have
exactly the same notes you can ask "How can I determine whether the
tone is a minor or a
major?" At this point you can check the major
and minor interval rules and the chords used. Or
just listen to the sound; if it sounds happy and
cheerful probably it is a major and if it sounds sad
and blue it is probably a minor.
Determining what key a song is in by ear requires
ear training(or
talent) and a little musical knowledge. Try to find
the note which the melody keeps resolving to. This
note called "root note". You can feel it, every time
the melody reaches that certain note you feel
relaxed and music resolves. Play the song which
you are trying to find the key of and play single
notes on the fretboard until you find the one note
that sounds best with the song. If you are having
trouble finding it you may listen to bass notes. It
will help.
You can test your "root note" by using your
guitar to play a major scale in the "root note" key,
while the target song is playing. If it sounds fine,
your root note is correct. If not try the minor
scale. Leading tone (leading note)
is very important while determining what key a song
is in. Leading tone points to the root note (tonic
note). It is the seventh tone or degree of a scale
that is a half tone below the tonic; a subtonic.
Leading tone leads or resolves to the tonic.
You also can feel the leading note while playing
your guitar. When you play the leading note the
music gains a tension and wants to resolve and when
you play the tonic you can feel the resolving.
Take a look at the piece of music above. What key is
the song in?
There must be a leading tone to the tonic if it
is in a certain key. Using the key signatures chart
above you can easily see that the excerpt should be
in F major or in D minor. F major has a
leading tone of E and D minor has a leading tone of
C#. Because there is no C# in this sample we
can say that the excerpt certainly in F major. I
hope that now you have an idea how to tell what key
a song is in. |
