Finding the key of a song
Case 1: This is a problem to many musicians out there. A minister could start up a song, and it would take ages to figure out what key he/she is in, and as if that is not bad enough, you get the key but struggle with determining the pattern of the song. So while the singer is singing, you are punching note after note, looking for the singer on your instrument, and when you find him/her, its another tough luck
trying to follow the music pattern, especially if you have never heard the song before.
Frustrating! Does that sound like you? Then I think you should read on.
Case 2: You hear a song on tape or CD, and you are asked to score it. Problem is the song is dancing about and you can’t seem to place the right key; or probably, you have the key, but can’t quite get the exact notes of those “crazy” progressions.
Hopeless is it? No!
There is a solution to that ‘gymnastic playing’. You can tell the keys to a song just by listening to it, with or without your piano. Yes! If the top musicians can, then you can also.
Most musicians can figure out the 3rd or the 5th note of a song easily, but not the root note, because most songs start with the melody or harmony, so it is easy to mistaken them for the root note. Here, we will focus on how to find out the major key to songs, preferably under 10 seconds.
It would not be a speedy process. You won’t automatically be able to do these in one day, but keep at it. They say practice makes perfect right? Wrong!
They also say not practice but ‘Perfect’ practice makes perfect, right? Nope! Wrong again!
I have come to tell you that in its truest sense, practice makes improvement. Perfection is humanly not feasible. In life, you should strive not for perfection, but for excellence. Doing better than you did yesterday, and making efforts to get better tomorrow, not compromising but settling for nothing but excellence in all endeavours.
I will talk about five (5) ways to which you can achieve this skill of figuring out the key to ANY song you listen to, with or without the piano.
IDENTIFYING THE KEY NOTE [TONIC]
You have to learn to identify the keynote / do / root / tonic. Understanding scale degrees and how they can help determine the keys to songs is what we will be dealing with. Most times, you hear a song and mistaken the melody for the root. Not all songs begin on the root note. Remember, the root note can be sung throughout the song [as long as the song maintains the same key] and it will fit in. Some songs don’t even end on the root note/chord. Most times, the root note is accompanied with an altered chord making it difficult to hear, but you just listen for the deepest tone [on the base line, but this is not always exact as some tones could be altered]. Hum that sound, and if you are with your piano, find it in less than 5 seconds. Just don’t be offensive by hitting one note after the other. Use your ears to distinguish the sounds.
LOOKING AT THE PROGRESSION
Know the tonic arrangements. What chords are used for what tonics [using the diatonic movements]? Basically, there are 3 minors, 3 majors, and one diminished chord associated with every key following the major scale. The 1st, 4th and 5th notes of the scale will usually carry a major chord [the 5th will carry a dominant if bigger]. The 2nd, 3rd, and 6th will usually carry a minor chord. The 7th will carry a
diminished chord [or half diminished]. When you hear a chord e.g. an E minor chord, [I don’t know how you heard it but you did], you ask yourself “in what key is E minor the 2nd, 3rd or 6th note?” This will narrow your options down to three keys. The same takes place if you hear a major chord, let’s say Ab major. In what key is Ab the 1st, 4th, or 5th tones?
Next you listen for the way they progress. If the E minor chord goes to the A minor, and then to the D minor, then to the G dominant / major, or back to the E minor; say the movement is in that sequence, identify what tonal movement they are e.g. ‘mi’ – ‘la’ – ‘re’… You would easily get the key of the song as C major, because it is only in C major that you would have that arrangement.
So placing the diatonic movements, it is easy to determine the key of the song using this method. You may still need the piano for this method.
It is important to know what a tone/key is in every single key, e.g. what is the placement of D on every other key?
MINOR CHORD TRICK
In this method, you use the note that places the sound the highest, i.e. using the melody of the song [5th]. For example, if you are humming G, test to see which minor chord puts G on top/as the 5th note.
Then try any of the keys in the minor chord. The thing is you could be humming the 3rd, which will make it Eb, or the 5th apart, which will mean C as the tonic, or even G as the tonic. So while the song is playing, get a key and then test with a minor chord that puts that key the highest, and test all of the keys to find the tonic. Your ear will always be the last judge.
MEMORIZING A KEY
This method is quite effective if mastered. The scope is to master the sound of a particular key [usually middle C], and when you hear a song, test-run the tonic of that key with your memorized key. This is useful if you have no piano, don’t want to be hitting different notes on the piano, or if the song is on the way and you just walked up to the piano. It could be frustrating to a singer or an audience when the
pianist is searching audibly for the key of the song while it is being sung. This is one method I would encourage everyone to master. It could be the key of a song you have played before, or one you love.
When you have the original key of that song stored up in your head, use that to test against the tonic of the new song you are listening to. This method requires a lot of practice, and is not as easy as the others, because the different sounds you have been hearing throughout that day may have impaired your key-memory.
SCALAR TRICK
This one I like also. The rule is simple: ALL KEYS ARE REPRESENTED ON OTHER KEYS!
What do I mean? Let’s say you hear a song and your first guess is C, but that’s not the key. Rather than start running a chromatic on your piano trying to figure out the exact key, get the tonic sound of the song like in the first method, then run a scale in your head from where you are to where the tonic is.
Just as C is the 1st tone in the key of C, it is the 7th in the key of C#, the 5th in the key of F, the 4th in the key of G, the 5b in the key of F#…and so on. Every key is represented on every tone of the scale 12 times. So, your note from the original tonic could be ‘do’, ‘ti’, ‘sol’, ‘fa’, ‘fe’…and so on. Like I said, your ear is the final judge in “hear and play” music.
So there you have it! Have fun out there and keep practicing.
trying to follow the music pattern, especially if you have never heard the song before.
Frustrating! Does that sound like you? Then I think you should read on.
Case 2: You hear a song on tape or CD, and you are asked to score it. Problem is the song is dancing about and you can’t seem to place the right key; or probably, you have the key, but can’t quite get the exact notes of those “crazy” progressions.
Hopeless is it? No!
There is a solution to that ‘gymnastic playing’. You can tell the keys to a song just by listening to it, with or without your piano. Yes! If the top musicians can, then you can also.
Most musicians can figure out the 3rd or the 5th note of a song easily, but not the root note, because most songs start with the melody or harmony, so it is easy to mistaken them for the root note. Here, we will focus on how to find out the major key to songs, preferably under 10 seconds.
It would not be a speedy process. You won’t automatically be able to do these in one day, but keep at it. They say practice makes perfect right? Wrong!
They also say not practice but ‘Perfect’ practice makes perfect, right? Nope! Wrong again!
I have come to tell you that in its truest sense, practice makes improvement. Perfection is humanly not feasible. In life, you should strive not for perfection, but for excellence. Doing better than you did yesterday, and making efforts to get better tomorrow, not compromising but settling for nothing but excellence in all endeavours.
I will talk about five (5) ways to which you can achieve this skill of figuring out the key to ANY song you listen to, with or without the piano.
IDENTIFYING THE KEY NOTE [TONIC]
You have to learn to identify the keynote / do / root / tonic. Understanding scale degrees and how they can help determine the keys to songs is what we will be dealing with. Most times, you hear a song and mistaken the melody for the root. Not all songs begin on the root note. Remember, the root note can be sung throughout the song [as long as the song maintains the same key] and it will fit in. Some songs don’t even end on the root note/chord. Most times, the root note is accompanied with an altered chord making it difficult to hear, but you just listen for the deepest tone [on the base line, but this is not always exact as some tones could be altered]. Hum that sound, and if you are with your piano, find it in less than 5 seconds. Just don’t be offensive by hitting one note after the other. Use your ears to distinguish the sounds.
LOOKING AT THE PROGRESSION
Know the tonic arrangements. What chords are used for what tonics [using the diatonic movements]? Basically, there are 3 minors, 3 majors, and one diminished chord associated with every key following the major scale. The 1st, 4th and 5th notes of the scale will usually carry a major chord [the 5th will carry a dominant if bigger]. The 2nd, 3rd, and 6th will usually carry a minor chord. The 7th will carry a
diminished chord [or half diminished]. When you hear a chord e.g. an E minor chord, [I don’t know how you heard it but you did], you ask yourself “in what key is E minor the 2nd, 3rd or 6th note?” This will narrow your options down to three keys. The same takes place if you hear a major chord, let’s say Ab major. In what key is Ab the 1st, 4th, or 5th tones?
Next you listen for the way they progress. If the E minor chord goes to the A minor, and then to the D minor, then to the G dominant / major, or back to the E minor; say the movement is in that sequence, identify what tonal movement they are e.g. ‘mi’ – ‘la’ – ‘re’… You would easily get the key of the song as C major, because it is only in C major that you would have that arrangement.
So placing the diatonic movements, it is easy to determine the key of the song using this method. You may still need the piano for this method.
It is important to know what a tone/key is in every single key, e.g. what is the placement of D on every other key?
MINOR CHORD TRICK
In this method, you use the note that places the sound the highest, i.e. using the melody of the song [5th]. For example, if you are humming G, test to see which minor chord puts G on top/as the 5th note.
Then try any of the keys in the minor chord. The thing is you could be humming the 3rd, which will make it Eb, or the 5th apart, which will mean C as the tonic, or even G as the tonic. So while the song is playing, get a key and then test with a minor chord that puts that key the highest, and test all of the keys to find the tonic. Your ear will always be the last judge.
MEMORIZING A KEY
This method is quite effective if mastered. The scope is to master the sound of a particular key [usually middle C], and when you hear a song, test-run the tonic of that key with your memorized key. This is useful if you have no piano, don’t want to be hitting different notes on the piano, or if the song is on the way and you just walked up to the piano. It could be frustrating to a singer or an audience when the
pianist is searching audibly for the key of the song while it is being sung. This is one method I would encourage everyone to master. It could be the key of a song you have played before, or one you love.
When you have the original key of that song stored up in your head, use that to test against the tonic of the new song you are listening to. This method requires a lot of practice, and is not as easy as the others, because the different sounds you have been hearing throughout that day may have impaired your key-memory.
SCALAR TRICK
This one I like also. The rule is simple: ALL KEYS ARE REPRESENTED ON OTHER KEYS!
What do I mean? Let’s say you hear a song and your first guess is C, but that’s not the key. Rather than start running a chromatic on your piano trying to figure out the exact key, get the tonic sound of the song like in the first method, then run a scale in your head from where you are to where the tonic is.
Just as C is the 1st tone in the key of C, it is the 7th in the key of C#, the 5th in the key of F, the 4th in the key of G, the 5b in the key of F#…and so on. Every key is represented on every tone of the scale 12 times. So, your note from the original tonic could be ‘do’, ‘ti’, ‘sol’, ‘fa’, ‘fe’…and so on. Like I said, your ear is the final judge in “hear and play” music.
So there you have it! Have fun out there and keep practicing.