Lil James Posted November 1, 2001 Share Posted November 1, 2001 I know that a song can be in a certain key depending on which chords are in it. How do you work this out? Say a song Went A, C, D ? And ALSO what if a song had chords from one key and some from another ? does tha mean my chords arnt musically correct? they sound fine? -------------- Lil James -------------- just asking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHAN Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 I know that a song can be in a certain key depending on which chords are in it. How do you work this out? I would advise you to get some books on basic music theory. A basic understanding of how scales and chords work together would answer alot of your questions. Say a song Went A, C, D ? A song went A,C,D. (sorry, couldnt resist) And ALSO what if a song had chords from one key and some from another ? does tha mean my chords arnt musically correct? they sound fine? If it sounds good, it is good. [ 11-01-2001: Message edited by: KHAN ] So Many Drummers. So Little Time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtrmac Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 A song doesn't have to stay in one key all the time. When music changes key it is said to modulate. Jazz for instance often modulates which is why it's more difficult to improvise over Jazz "changes". At any given time if you play the scale which is derived from the chord (or vice versa) you can see where the sharps or flats are. This will tell you what key the passage is in. Mac Bowne G-Clef Acoustics Ltd. Osaka, Japan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skip_dup1 Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 A song or composition is `in a key` when the motion within the piece resolves, or rests, in that key. It is the central key of the music`s identity. All changes within the piece grow from that key. It`s possible to say, okay, I`m gonna compose something in B-flat, or to put a bunch of chords together and say, these chords seem to be put together around the G chord. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skip_dup1 Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 Oh, and about the and ALSO... Some music arrangements do indeed have chords from more than one key. The piece can have multiple key centers. It`s called polytonality. I have a friend and collaborator who`s really good at it. It`s perfectly legit as an approach, as long as you`re aware when you`re doing it. Otherwise, it`s known as `break glass in case of cacophany...` Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chip McDonald Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 There's 12 notes to choose from. In general, your brain only wants to hear a particular group of 7 at any one time. Those 7 are based on something called the "diatonic scale". Go to the library and get a book on music theory. Or go take guitar lessons.... Guitar Lessons in Augusta Georgia: www.chipmcdonald.com Eccentric blog: https://chipmcdonaldblog.blogspot.com/ / "big ass windbag" - Bruce Swedien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill V Posted November 3, 2001 Share Posted November 3, 2001 Originally posted by Lil James: I know that a song can be in a certain key depending on which chords are in it. How do you work this out? Say a song Went A, C, D ?? Technically, A C D are unrelated diatonically in any key. Of course this hasn't prevented millions of great songs from being written with them. Say you are in the key of A. Well the C in the C chord wouldn't fit because their is a C# in the key of A. In the key of C the C# in the A chord dosen't fit nor does the F # in the D chord. In the key of D the C in the C chord would'nt fit because there is a C# in the key of D. You can go thru all twelve keys and see that these chords don't belong (as a group) to any of them. But two of them belong to several keys. Lets say you were in the key of A. The A and the D fit but when you get to the C chord you are modulating. This is very common in pop music. As a matter of fact the vast Majority of pop and rock songs are not strictly diatonic. One thing to remember, - There are three major chords, three minor chords and one diminished chord in every diatonic key. The one, four and five are all major. While the two, three and six are all minor. The seven is a diminshed chord but it is very rarely used in pop music, usually it is substituted with either the two or the five chord. If you look at a piece of sheet music, it shows the key signature at the beginning. It tells you how many sharps or flats are in a song. Then on the page the accidentals are represented by sharps and flats and naturals. There are notation programs that will figure out what key a song is in and then print the page with the correct key signature and accidentals. Depending on the program and the music (a song with a lot of unrelated chords in it) it is possible that one program may assign a particular song in one key with certain accidentals while another program would assign the same song a different key with different accidentals and both would be correct, it is all relative. And ALSO what if a song had chords from one key and some from another ? does tha mean my chords arnt musically correct? they sound fine? So long as they sound fine they are correct. [ 11-03-2001: Message edited by: Bill V ] [ 11-03-2001: Message edited by: Bill V ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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