It Could Be Neither or More Complicatedįinally, a piece of music might not be in either a major key or minor key. You could even say something like, "It's in the key of C/A minor." Musicians would understand you. In these rare cases where it's ambiguous, remember it won't matter if you call it major or minor as long as everyone is playing the correct chords and notes. In another case, perhaps a song's melody doesn't come to rest on the major or minor tonic note and the final chord does not suggest a key either. You can think of this scenario as a key change between the relative major and minor. Bob Marley's song Could You Be Loved is a perfect example. For example, it's quite common for songs to have verses which revolve around the minor key and choruses around the major key, or vice versa. Occasionally a song will have parts which strongly suggest the major key and other parts suggest the minor key. Listen to the following recorded examples: Usually the final chord and note will resolve to the same major or minor tonic. Melodies typically resolve to the tonic note of the key.Īgain, if a song's melody notes all fit within C major/A minor and the final melody note is C, it's in C major. You can also look to the melody of a song and notice where it ends. If, instead, it ends on an Am chord, it's in the key of A minor. ![]() So, if a song is using chords all from C major/A minor and it ends on a C chord, it's in the key of C major. ![]() And, that makes sense because the end is where you want everything to come to a stop. Songs are much more likely to end on the first note or chord of the key. What's more reliable is to go by where a song ends. You can't reliably determine a song's key by where a song starts. Introductions in songs are meant to drive you forward into the heart of the song, so it makes sense not to start a song on a point of rest. ![]() Oh, Pretty Woman, however, ends on A and is considered to be in the key of A.Īnother example is the song Can't Buy Me Love by The Beatles. For instance, the famous riff from the song Oh, Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison outlines an E9 chord riff which is the V chord in the key of A major. Many songs do indeed start there, but not always. Many students wrongly assume a song will always begin on the first note or chord of the key. Since we determine the key by its point of rest, you can best determine a piece of music's key by where it ends (or wants to end). A song in a minor key will, similarly, revolve around the chords and notes of the minor key and come to rest on the tonic (i) of the minor key. ![]() The Harmonic “Center”Ī song in a major key will revolve around the chords and notes of the major scale and will come to rest on the tonic (I) of the major key. Or, in other words, where the music resolves, or comes to rest. The answer is where the harmonic “center” of the music is. Before we dive into the diatonic chords of the minor scale, let me answer a common question students have at this stage: What determines if a song is in a major key or a minor key? If all the chords are the same between relative major and minor keys, what makes a major key different from a minor key?
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