Key this track is in?

[ofm1k]

hey!

i'd simply like to know what key this track is written in.




thanks in advance
ofm1k

[robogone]

I don't have any instruments in front of me right now, but a good way of doing it is generally to play along with something and see if you can find a note that fits no matter where you play it in the song. That's certainly not foolproof, but it works most of the time.

[DJ Warmonger]

The "Key" as far as I know stands for chord, not only one note. That is, minor or major chord.

An alternative way is to use automatic key analyzer (I use Pioneer recordbox for that reason) or just check it on Beatport as long as it's EDM.

[robogone]

The "Key" as far as I know stands for chord, not only one note. That is, minor or major chord.

No, that's not true. For a start, most pieces of music have more than one chord, so which one would you choose?

While I will probably be corrected for this by somebody, in general the key in terms of a note (i.e. C, C#, D, etc.) is the root note which is in essence the start point of scale used in the music (although it doesn't have to be the first note, and it is possible that it won't occur at all in the piece).

When you hear something like C Major or C Minor or C Dim7, what is being referred to is the scale that is used, or that is implied.

To my point about finding the single note that is the best fit, that will give you the basic key, but without knowing the scale used, it won't tell you if it is Major, minor, etc.

[jancivil]

Well, the '1' note of a key is known as 'the tonic' of the key while 'root' applies to the 1 of a chord; a distinction to be made in order to avoid this confusion of chord for key. So the home chord of C major is C major, the 'I' chord, built from the base note of the C major scale.

so, you'll see 'C major' as both a chord name and denoting key. Typically 'major' is default so simply 'C' suffices a lot of the time for that quality.

[jancivil]

... C Dim7, what is being referred to is the scale that is used, or that is implied.

that's an unfortunate example particularly, since there isn't any one key that chord denotes or implies through itself. The diminished seventh chord, a symmetrical - ie., comprised of three minor thirds - construction, is in fact a device used in modulation to a new key area, effective for that out of its ambiguity. It doesn't occur naturally in the key of C or C minor, albeit it isn't atypical as a device inside the key either.

[robogone]

... C Dim7, what is being referred to is the scale that is used, or that is implied.

that's an unfortunate example particularly, since there isn't any one key that chord denotes or implies through itself. The diminished seventh chord, a symmetrical - ie., comprised of three minor thirds - construction, is in fact a device used in modulation to a new key area, effective for that out of its ambiguity. It doesn't occur naturally in the key of C or C minor, albeit it isn't atypical as a device inside the key either.

Well I'll be the first to admit that my theory knowledge is less than complete, but I get what you're saying. I appreciate the correction.

[VitaminD]

jan.. I think you are speaking Phd in a thread that requires elementary speak.. as do I. (I'm 'listening'..)

[jancivil]

'C dim 7' is C Eb Gb 'A' (spelled from C, properly B double flat); it's the same object (in equal temperament) as A C Eb Gb, or F# A C Eb, and furthermore Eb can be considered as this chord's <root>. "diminished triad" denotes minor third and diminished fifth, and in 'diminished seventh', the seventh is 'diminished'. "Diminished" is a semitone less than [], here diminishing (making smaller) 'perfect fifth' and 'minor seventh'.*


- the Gb or F# is not naturally occurring in C or C minor. as per C or C minor, C dim 7 is a chromatic harmony. Secondary type of function.

So, as F#[dim 7], it could be a typical vii7 chord of G (minor); as A[dim 7], a typical vii7 chord of Bb (minor); as C[dim 7], the vii7 chord of Db (minor). So its ambiguity, ie., four identities possible through that [all minor thirds] symmetry, makes it the useful device it is to [convincingly, or trick the ear to embrace the] move to another key.

In itself it doesn't belong to either type of C scale until you make an alteration. "B dim 7" would more typify C minor. In the forms of minor using a raised {'leading tone'} seventh degree, a dim 7 is formed via scale tones on that degree of the scale. 'vii7'. So in 'melodic' or 'harmonic minor' vii7 is a dim seventh 'naturally'. Example: B D F Ab all belong to [those forms of] key of C minor. * B to Ab is the diminished seventh in the name.

I said it was an 'unfortunate' example of 'chord denoting/implying scale' as it takes us into 'chromatic usage' ("2nd year", even) which isn't the point of the OP particularly. I'm sure I'm not the writer to make that 'second year' kind of thing accessible to the beginner, that^ is about it.

*: A diminished sixth is a semitone smaller than a minor sixth, a diminished fourth a semitone smaller than a perfect fourth. So there are two things going on here, the intervals themselves called different 'qualities' and their place in harmonies or chords. Diminished is smaller than a perfect or minor interval equally. You would not tend to see something along the lines of 'the diminished fourth chord' but it is not incorrect per se talking of the interval. So a whole can of worms is opened now.

[BertKoor]

i'd simply like to know what key this track is written in.

I'd go for G minor. I also hear the following chords: Bb, C & Eb.

[ofm1k]

i'd simply like to know what key this track is written in.

I'd go for G minor. I also hear the following chords: Bb, C & Eb.

thanks a lot!

[jancivil]

the key is fairly ambiguous actually. statistically G minor is probably a good estimation of the landscape.

[stringtapper]

I wouldn't agree with G minor.

The bass pitch that it keeps returning to and sounds as a starting point for each progression is C.

There is also a melodic figure that plays throughout with the pitches G-Ab-Bb-C, which is a G Phrygian tetrachord.

I'd say C minor with a lot of typical pop harmonic motion, mediant progressions etc.

[jancivil]

the first thing I came away with was tonic of C, aeolian seemingly. I wouldn't want to say a lot about it, it really kind of just floats. G minor, I didn't mean that, I was up all night. There is all this Ab. C feels like subdominant too often.

[Aroused by JarJar]

I agree with C aeolian.

In the old days, the church modes (dorian, aeolian, etc.) where more defined because they had associated melodic fragments ("riffs", you might say), moods, standard places they'd go and so on. In essence this is like maqam still are today in the east, and in a way it's like how fans of certain kinds of music can say "that's West Coast, not East Coast" or "that's happy ruffle House not hippy raffle House" while others not familiar will be saying wtf it all sounds the same to me.

Take a listen to the most famous examples of the Dorian mode for example, say Scarborough fair. It makes a leap to that M6 then descends. That's a typical Dorian figure and if you think about it, it kind of has to be that way, because if you didn't mark both the m3 and M6 right off you couldn't tell the difference between aeolian that modulates to ionian or something like that.

Major and Minor also have these kinds of distinguishing characteristics.

So, the reason it's C aeolian and not C minor is because an archetypical difference between minor and aeolian is that minor traditionally sharpens Te to Ti to make a leading tone and a V rather than the v of aeolian.

The church modes generally are less obvious by nature because they're not pounding on tonic, dominant, leading tone, so it's actually fitting that this piece is in C aeolian but sometimes you might lose track of the tonic.

If you dropped the needle randomly here and there in this piece it is not like major/minor music where you can nail the key in a 4-bar phrase.