How to Tell the Key of a Song
When a piece of music is written it is certainly written in a particular key, whether that be the key of Bb or maybe even E. By looking at the beginning of the score you can see what flats or sharps will be used and can determine then which scale has been used to write the song.
There is a key signature in all pieces of music. It is signified just after the clef (the staff) and includes symbols for flats (b) and sharps (#). When you take a careful look at the start of each of the lines in the music you will surely recognize a grouping of flats or sharps (never both at once). They appear either on a space or on a line of the music staff and are put there to signify the notes that will be affected by them. To say it a different way, if the #, or sharp, is placed on the top of a music staff, the F note will be played as F#. This means that anytime the note F is played, no matter if it is in the staff’s first space, on top of the staff, or below or above the staff (this will be signified by the ledger lines) it will be played as F#.
When the note that has the flat or sharp signified in the key signature needs to be played as a neutral then an accidental will be put in front of the individual note. In other words, if the music requires the playing of an F (neutral) in the G key, there must be an accidental put in front of it so that the person that is playing the music will not play it as an F#.
The key signature is put in place so that the sharps and flats will be limited on the actual notes in the piece of music. Basically, by putting the # in the signature key it avoids the writer from having to put a sharp or flat by each note when the F is in the music. It lets the musician know that each and every time the F note is required that it should be played as F#. The lines of music will not be as cluttered this way and it will be much easier to be read.
Here are some common key signatures and the notes they affect:
Key of C: Includes no flats or sharps
Key of G: Includes one sharp (F#)
Key of D: Includes two sharps (C# and F#)
Key of A: Includes three sharps (G#, F# and C#)
Key of E: Includes four sharps (D#, F#, C# and G#)
Key of F: Includes one flat (Bb)
Key of Bb: Includes two flats (Eb and Bb)
Key of Eb: Includes three flats (Ab, Eb, and Bb)
There is also a relative minor assigned to each key. While it is true that in nearly all ways the major and the relative minor that coincides with it are similar (they use the same scale even though they begin in different places), they are not considered the same. The note that can be found a minor third down from the major (key) is called the relative minor. You can think of it in another way by remembering the sixth note in the major scale is the relative minor. As an example, The C major scale has a sixth note of A so an A minor is the relative minor to C. It is very common to use the relative minor of the key and if you gain a good understanding of them you will find that you have a better understanding of the chord progressions in the song.
Below are some specific keys and what their relative minors (keys) are:
The relative minor for C is A minor
The relative minor for D is B minor
The relative minor for A is F# minor
The relative minor for Bb is G minor
An experienced musician playing in a non-formal setting (not using written music) simply needs to know the key to a particular song to be able to play the chords and scales (melodies) for that song.
Last of all, it is very common for a song to change keys before the end of the song. Musicians that are newer to the musical industry may find this very challenging.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 5:15 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.