Questions tagged [key]
For questions about key signatures, scales, modes and similar topics. Most questions should also be tagged with "theory".
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When playing in a minor key, will the chords be minor as well?
I've been jumping into music theory myself and I've been stumbling on creating certain melodies and such. I've played guitar all my teenage life and not once have I ever sat down and said I'm going to ...
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Is Emajor the dominant chord in the key of A minor?
I read somewhere that Emajor is the dominant (V) chord in A minor. Is this correct? If so, why is it not Eminor, since the A minor scale has no sharps or flats in it?
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Is it harder to play in a key with more flats or sharps?
This is a very naive question, but I tend to perceive a song with a key signature that has more flats or sharps to be more difficult than the same song written in a key with fewer flats or sharps.
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What indicates this passage as B flat minor and not D flat major?
From an exercise to identify the key of this passage, I thought it was D flat major, given the first note, but the answer is B flat minor. What in the passage indicates it as B flat minor?
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What do these unusual signs on key signature mean?
I know that the more typical notation for the little X in the time signature is used for double sharps, but in the intro of the volume the author of this work seems to say that he is using that symbol ...
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How to establish a mode?
I would like to learn about the art of establishing a mode. For example, how to make A minor sound like A minor instead of C major.
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Melody using a different scale than the bassline - what is it called?
Since I only know some very rudimentary terms in music theory, I don't know what
it's called when one does the following to create a sort-of interesting sound.
Suppose I'm playing the piano, using my ...
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Is there a minimum of notes and chords i need to determine the key of a song?
Just by curiosity. What is the minimum of notes and chords i need to determine the key of a song?
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Why is 'C minor' parallel to 'E♭ major', but not to 'D♯ major'?
The way I have parallel keys in my head is that a major key is always three half-steps higher than a minor key. I was trying to evaluate this on the circle of fifths and also during an exam, but I ...
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What key could the progression Cm - G - Dm - Am be in?
I'm working on a song (my first ever actually) and I love the chord sequence:
Cm - G - Dm - Am
I started off working in C-Major, but borrowed Cm from the parallel minor key C-Minor. But really, in ...
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How to determine what key changes are appropriate?
In the month or so until my band get back together I've been working on writing some new material, and want to try and expand how complex my songs are. I apologise if there are a lot of questions - I'...
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Lilypond - Custom Key Signature for Turkish folk music and microtonal accidentals
I have to create this key signature in lilypond:
Would it be possible to create something like that?
I really appreciate any help you can provide.
Thanks!
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Playing a song in a different key
I trying to teach myself guitar and one song I want to perform for a friend (soon) is Akon's "Don't Matter." I can't read sheet music (but i want to learn) but i found the chord progression of the ...
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Changing key in a song convincingly
Update 3
I have started to break down this broad question to specific, smaller questions.
1)
Classical music example for seamless transition from one section to other with changing keys
Say, I have ...
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Singing - effect of vowels on tuning and tonality
I am a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. Singing for me has been a long road but recently I found out something very interesting.
I have a certain song that I am very fond of but I have ...
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What is this called? Why is it allowed?
"Golden Train" by Justin Nozuka (YouTube link below) is in the key of Ab major. However he uses a Cb major chord throughout the song, which is not in the key of Ab major. It sounds good and works ...
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GuitarPro: Change to Eb, but keep notation in E [duplicate]
I just downloaded GuitarPro 7.5. I used to use GuitarPro quite a bit, but it's been a while.
I like to tune down and play in Eb. I want to change a song to sound 1/2 step lower, but want to keep ...
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Why does Beethoven's fifth symphony in c minor begin with a C major interval?
I have been told when composing the first thing is to establish the key. Beethoven's fifth symphony in c minor starts with major third interval. "...-". I would expect a major key. What am I ...
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Do the notes in a scale have to be played in order?
Beginner here, it seems like a scale just defines a particular set of notes that don't have to be played in any order to me. But if you look at A minor pentatonic scale you have A, C, D, E, G, yet ...
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How to interpret notes outside of the key signature?
Lets make this question a bit clear.
If you're playing Bach's music, it shows you that its' key is E minor, or A major or anything. But, when you play something like:
He add sharp in his notes. ...
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What is the difference between the Circle of Fifths and the Camelot Wheel?
I understand the Camelot Wheel is used by DJs to mix songs of different keys together by using adjacent and relative major/minor keys. Can't this same information be deduced from the Circle of Fifths? ...
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Chord progression if the chords are not part of the scale?
I've been learning about harmony, and the harmonisation of major scales.
I can recognise simple chord progressions, and I try and practice by listening to popular songs.
For a major scale, we have:...
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What keys contain both E and Am and is there an easy trick to determine this?
By 'keys contain' I mean in the normal rules of choosing what chords 'fit' within a given key, since of course you can put just about any chord anywhere if you try hard enough!
Is there a shortcut ...
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How to identify a key given a certain chord progression
At the age of 53 I'm new to music theory and in particular to chord progressions. While playing around with the piano, I've noticed that I like the sound of this progression
Cm Gm AM Dm
I have ...
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Can a song be in both a major and minor key at the same time?
I was wondering if a song's key can be declared as just being ambiguous, where you just don't know if it's in major or minor? I think this concept applies only to relative keys as parallel keys have ...
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Identifying the key of a song by ear?
I'm developing a method for students to identify the key of a song by ear. I've seen a lot of videos on YouTube where they say that you should try to identify a common note and that will be your tonic....
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Key used by clarinet
I do not understand the key notation for the clarinet in an orchestral score I am looking at.
This is an extract from the Andante of the Ravel concerto in G:
The clarinet has a different key ...
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Why isn't there a closely related key to C minor that has D as tonic?
For minor keys, there are no closely related keys built on the second scale degree. Why? Is it because the chord built from the second scale degree is diminished?
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Definition of minor key
Minor key music uses the harmonic minor scale as the basis for its
harmony and the melodic minor scale for the melody. If the music uses
nothing but the natural minor scale it IS NOT in a minor ...
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How do they decide the key?
Duke Ellington plays a beautiful solo Take the A Train in 1956 [see youtube live performance is awesome] I think it's in C and most transcripts are in C.
But there is a video of him playing with the ...
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How to write music using standard notation / Finding key
I would like to ask a typical question from amateur musician. Most of amateur musicians understand tablature notation and often even some music theory, I personally can read notes but not in all keys (...
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Key signature change from D Major to G Major? [duplicate]
Which of the following is correct to indicate a key signature change from D Major to G Major?
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Does this modulation make sense?
I am wondering how to assess the following modulation from C major to Bb major according to rules of traditional harmony:
I threw the modulation together without thinking about it much, and thought &...
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Finding The Key Of A Song [duplicate]
How can I find out what the key of a song is? The method I'm most familiar and comfortable with is playing each pitch along with the song and then checking which pitch sounds the most stable at all ...
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How to find key based on chords? How to know notes based on key?
I'm a guitar player and am learning fiddle. I have two questions . . .
If I know the chords of a song, how do I know what key it's in?
Once I know what key it's in, how do I know which notes "...
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Relationship between modes and keys
I watched a video about playing a lead/melody over the chord progression of A minor -> D major.
In the video it was stated that these chords are from the key of G major, but since the "tonic" of the ...
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Does minor/major affect scale degrees when talking about chords?
Say I'm playing a song in C Minor, and I play the chords
Cm, B♭, A♭, G
If I was talking about, or analyzing these chords using roman numerals, which way is more correct to refer to them?
i, VII, VI,...
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Are all modes/scales in a given key signature perceived as equally bright/dark?
Many people experience certain keys to be "brighter" or "sharper" relative to other keys. Keys with more sharps than flats are reported as being "brighter" and keys with ...
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How to work out the key of a song whose chords don't seem to fit an obvious scale?
I don't really know where to start with "House of the Rising Sun" as an example of a song which doesn't have an obvious key. How would I go about working this out - and does it actually matter that ...
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Could one make a piano with all notes placed on narrow white keys?
This piano would include every note normally on a piano, just without any visual distinction between the accidentals and naturals. The keys would be narrower than normal white keys, but, I think, not ...
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Purpose of ascending and descending scales?
I understand that ascending scales go from a lower pitch class up to the next pitch class with the same letter name. For example, C to C'. For descending scales it is the reverse.
What I don't get is ...
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What are the main concepts that aid singing in key?
In my previous question I asked about how many notes are needed to establish what key you are in. That kind of dodges around the purpose of me asking so here’s a more direct question.
With an ...
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The reading of a song: what a beginner in composition needs to pay attention when reading a song? [closed]
Firstly, I'm a beginner in composition and all of my songs were quite "intuitive". I'm at a stage where I really need to know music theory in order to produce better songs.
I) Introduction
...
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How should this passage be analyzed?
From a previous exam. Possible answers were D maj, G maj, d min or a min.
I think it’s a minor: if D or G then the F needs to be sharp and if it’s d the B would need to be flat. I think the c# is ...
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Can a song contain pitches outside of its intended key? [duplicate]
I'm new to music theory and am self teaching so I apologise if this has already been asked but I'd be extremely grateful if you could point me in the right direction.
I'm trying to learn the best way ...
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Understanding alternate key signature in Neumeyer's Hindemith analysis
Regarding David Neumeyer's The Music of Paul Hindemith:
As you will see in Example 3.12 (below), Neumeyer likes to show us the key without a key signature. While he indicates the key with a simple &...
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Do major triad chord notes depend on the key? Key=E, Emaj=EG#B vs Key=C, Emaj=EGB?
I came across something odd shown in the picture below.
(What this is from is not very relevant, but in case your interested: I'm building a simple phone app that would allow me to practice ...
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Is it considered borrowing chords when you're using chord notes that are not in the song's parallel key or mode?
Is it not considered "chord borrowing" in the sense that you're not using notes in your chord that derive strictly from the parallel key/mode of the song and you are simply changing the key of the ...
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Measuring key-relatedness of chords on the circle of fifths
Is there an easy way to visualise scale-degree triads for a given key, based on the circle of fifths? And to also use the circle to 'measure' how distant a given out-of-key chord is to our home key? I ...
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How do I know if I'm in a Major key or its Relative Minor? [duplicate]
For example, if I compose a chord progression F-G-C-Am.
Can I Assume C as the Key? How do I know I'm not in A minor?
I've seen songs analysis that says a song is in determined key even when the root ...
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