how to find what scale a song is in

In GuitarOS: Practical Theory, we walk y'all through:

• how to ID notes on your fretboard by their actual names,
• which notes go into which keys,
• how to build simple & fancy chords,
• which chords belong in each key,
• what the "office" of each of those chords is,
• how chords are combined into progressions,
• how to speak the linguistic communication of rhythm, and
• how all of this gets written downwardly in a way that's useful to you AND the musicians you collaborate with.

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

How do I figure out the key of a song?

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

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

I trained my brain to practice this, and you can too.

With a little practice you'll be able to take a snap "reading" of a song (or a section of a vocal).

Grab the printable PDF chart with every chord in each cardinal

1. Is there a chart with a key signature?

2. Did someone telephone call a key?

3. What's the first & terminal chord in the vocal?

4. Is there a clear dominant chord?

5. Is there another clear chordal movement that's a key giveaway?

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

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

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

9. Is i easier than the other?

10. Does it even brand sense to call up of this as being in one central?

I'm going to explain each of these in guild, but I want to begin past maxim that yous should exist going through this checklist in this social club when trying to determine a song's primal.

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

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

On a nautical chart written past a literate musician, there will be cardinal signature—some number of sharps or flats between the clef and the time signature:

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

F# and Gb are the same central, but with a different proper name (and different names for each of the notes).

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2. Did someone telephone call a key?

Of course, if someone says, "this is a blues in 1000" or "we're playing Dock of the Bay, but in F," you'll evidently know what to do.

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3. What are the first & last chords in the song?

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

It'south not a difficult and fast rule though. Some common exceptions:

• LOTS of songs don't offset on the I chord.
• Somenever go to the I chord.
• There are plenty of songs that purposely end on a chord other than the I (which gives the ending an unsettled feeling).
• And of course if the vocal changes to a new key somewhere forth the way, that's going to complicate matters.

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for a printable PDF of this chart, click hither

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4. Is at that place a articulate dominant chord?

If we look at the extended chords that show upwardly diatonically (diatonic = fabricated upwardly of only notes from within the key), nosotros see that there'due south only one that'southward a dominant 7 chord: the 5.

If you run across a fix of chords that only has one dominant 7 amid them, at that place'south a pretty expert take chances that that chord is the V.

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5. Is at that place some other clear chordal move that's a central giveaway?

You can also exist on the spotter for other mini-progressions like ii-Five or Four-four.

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

When I encounter F-Fm, my brain goes right to "IV-iv in C."

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

(Again, "diatonic" = only using notes from within the key—no outside notes.)

If you see this progression:

…yous can see that the but primal that has all of those chords diatonically is K:

So even though there'southward no G chord, information technology'due south in the key of G.

(This case is from Dave Matthews Band's #41. The band eventually does become to the G chord, merely information technology takes them a minute and a half of this progression earlier they do.)

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7. Are virtually of the chords diatonic to a central, with some non-diatonic (merely not entirely unexpected) chords sprinkled in?

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

All of the chords are diatonic to G… except that A7 in measure 6.

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

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8. Can this exist written in more than one central?

Sweetness Home Alabama goes D, Cadd9, K.

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

Or a V-Iv-I in G? (in imperial below)

If y'all exercise a google image search for "Sweet Habitation Alabama canvass music," y'all'll see that roughly half of the transcriptions prove it in D, and half in G.

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9. Is one easier than the other?

My personal preference is to think of Sweet Home Alabama in G, because information technology'due south easier that way.

But thinking of it in D is just as correct.

I have another post examining the implications of this idea, and what it means for modes.

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10. Does it even make sense to remember of this as being in i primal?

For some tunes, it doesn't really brand sense to think of them in one single cardinal.

Hither's The Allman Brothers' Melissa:

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

Although we don't go out the cardinal long plenty to warrant writing in a primal alter, for measures 11 & 12 nosotros're very clearly playing I-ii-iii-IV in the key of A.

If you were soloing over these changes, the East major calibration that sounded and so 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 brim with this sort of thing—there's two-V-I, and so I becomes minor and it'due south the ii of some other fundamental…

Jazz musicians still utilize this same roman numeral language, only they're not beholden to whatever key is written on the chart—they're talking about what primal the song is in for this subsection of the tune.

Playing fluidly over chords that modify key frequently requires an equally fluid mindset about keys.

Learning to see subsections of songs as beingness in their own key is the logical extension of getting proficient at seeing songs every bit being in a key.

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

What About Minor Keys?

It'south worth mentioning that upwardly until at present we have studiously avoided talking about pocket-size keys—keys where the "one chord" is minor: i.

Minor keys are their own thing, and worthy of their own article (which we'll get into in two weeks, afterwards our word of modes).

Recap

• At the top of a well-written nautical chart, yous'll see a clef & a fourth dimension signature, and in between them is a fundamental signature—the number of sharps or flats tell you what key the song is in.
• If the final chord in the song gives you a sense of resolution, it's probably the I.
• The merely diatonically occurring dominant chord is the V. If you see a ascendant chord, there's a decent take chances that information technology's the 5.
• Other clear chordal move that suggest a key are ii-5 and Iv-4.
• Sometimes y'all'll be able to run into that all of the chords are diatonic to a certain cardinal.
• Fifty-fifty if the I isn't one of those chords.
• Other times most of the chords volition exist diatonic to a key, and the non-diatonic chords will be common enough.
• Some songs be written in more than 1 cardinal.
• One is usually easier than the other.
• Some songs movement fluidly through different keys.
• Getting adept at quickly seeing the key of simpler songs will atomic number 82 to getting good at spotting those times when a subsection of a song is in a dissimilar key.
• Want this chord chart equally a PDF & in Google Sheets? You can snag that here
• if you'd like to be walked through this ane piece at a time, sign upward for GuitarOS

Meet you next week, when nosotros'll talk almost what all of this means for modes.

-Josh

metzaccourse.blogspot.com

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