Is the first example with C and Am correct? It says the first chord of Am scale is A, shouldn't it be Am?
It could be a typo. Thanks for pointing it out.
Deriving Keys from Chords in Music
21–30 of 41 posts
Re: Deriving Keys from Chords in Music
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
”Key” in this context refers to key signature rather than physical keys on a keyboard.
Thanks for the correction, but the key signature in a piece may be changing. Also, those with perfect pitch can tell the key signature from a short passage if there are few accidentals.
A common idea is doing modulation. It's usually an easy way to increase the excitement of the song. Most people can naturally hear and feel it, but maybe not have the vocabulary to describe what's happening.
Re: Deriving Keys from Chords in Music
#23Talking about this stuff without saying what kind of music you mean seems a little silly. There is a reference to "one popular song", and it seems the author is thinking of pop music. But it seems most things that can be said about keys/chords in one genre/tradition/style, don't apply to others. And even within genres, things naturally evolve so that old rules no longer apply.
The popular song is "Creep" by Radiohead.
Re: Deriving Keys from Chords in Music
#24That's easy, just pick the last chord in the piece.
Re: Deriving Keys from Chords in Music
#25Awesome. So what key is Revelation Song by Phillips Craig and Dean in?
It sounds like a I-v-bVII-IV progression in F# major. If you want to get modal, you could call it F# mixolydian.
Re: Deriving Keys from Chords in Music
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
”Key” in this context refers to key signature rather than physical keys on a keyboard.
Thanks for the correction, but the key signature in a piece may be changing. Also, those with perfect pitch can tell the key signature from a short passage if there are few accidentals.
Well, that's the thing -- when listening to any song, even if you know the pitches, it is impossible to know if there are accidentals or not depending on the phrase.
If a 10-bar phrase modulates in bars 2-5, and you listen to bars 2-5, you may conclude the piece is in key X when it's just a modulation from the overall key of Y.
This also implies the piece follows western common practice, or is even tonal in the first place. The difficulty of categorizing music is its ambiguity :)
Re: Deriving Keys from Chords in Music
#27Talking about this stuff without saying what kind of music you mean seems a little silly. There is a reference to "one popular song", and it seems the author is thinking of pop music. But it seems most things that can be said about keys/chords in one genre/tradition/style, don't apply to others. And even within genres, things naturally evolve so that old rules no longer apply.
Yup! Adam Neely has a great video[0] talking about how serious of a role any theoretical framework has on understanding the music itself -- and how in the US at least, we very often prescribe European standards of harmony on music.
Re: Deriving Keys from Chords in Music
#28This post shows that some very simplistic algorithms can’t unambiguously determine a key. But I don’t think it establishes that a more sophisticated algorithm could not. Key center is not just based on chords and notes in a scale. It’s based on the note/chord that seems like the place where the music is at rest, or at home. Many songs have non-diatonic chords, but it’s still fairly obvious what key they are in. That…
Adam Neely released a pretty in-depth video recently with the opinion that Hey Joe is straight-forwardly in the key of E, as long as you don't get stuck trying to fit it into a diatonic, traditional Western framework. It's a good watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvmALPu5TU I had an unanswered question after the video -- are there listeners who don't feel that sense of "home" when arriving at the E chord? I cer…
I’ve played it a fairly large amount in bands.
First time I have heard that it’s in the key of E. Totally makes sense to me especially in the Hendrix version with the semi chromatic bass walk to E.
Re: Deriving Keys from Chords in Music
#29I had never thought about a key of a song being ‘variable’ but being set in stone. Interesting to have a mindset challenge.
Re: Deriving Keys from Chords in Music
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Adam Neely released a pretty in-depth video recently with the opinion that Hey Joe is straight-forwardly in the key of E, as long as you don't get stuck trying to fit it into a diatonic, traditional Western framework. It's a good watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvmALPu5TU I had an unanswered question after the video -- are there listeners who don't feel that sense of "home" when arriving at the E chord? I cer…
I think context is important. If you are talking about guitar based music, then E is a pretty safe bet as home. But what if a group doesn’t use standard tuning? The first two examples that come to mind are Alice In Chains and Tool. They use E flat tuning and drop-d tuning, respectively (mostly). When I listen to them, Eb and D are home.
Jimi played in Eb a lot too. Kurt Cobain and SRV too.