Hello,

My apologies if something like this has been asked before (although I did do a search and nothing turned up).

I'm taking my grade 5 theory this June but am having real trouble trying to work out the key of a piece of music just by looking at it. Does anybody have any tips or suggestions that may help? I usually count all the different accidentals and then work it out from there but more often than not I'm wrong!

Please help!

Thankyou,
Caz. x

Not a hard and fast rule but often a piece will begin and end on the key note ie something beginning on D may be either D major or D minor.

You are on the right track.
Make sure you know your keys signatures well.
Write down all the accidentals and arrange them in the order they would appear in the key signature.
There may be gaps but don't let that put you off. Usually at this level the last one is there.
If there is one that just doesn't belong it's probably a minor key.

The last note may not be a good clue as it's an extract and not a complete thing.

But I'm suspect that would be too easy a clue for Grade 5. I used to know all this stuff but I was never sure how much of it was useful.

A good place to start is the key signature And I usually look at the bass note - this is usually the root of the chord on the first beat of a piece to establish the key of the piece. If its a piano piece, then look at the first bar which will probably be chord one of the key, leaping notes are harmony notes, everything else will be passing notes, appogiaturas, auxilliaries.

I'm presuming you know what I mean by chords etc??

Ie. Chord I in C maj - CEG



The piece may well have modulated aswel.

Not in grade 5... there may not be a key signature for this question.

Thanks for your help guys! I'm still a bit lost though!

I've just been practicing on C.A.T.S and this example cropped up (sorry it's a bit tedious to read!): Bb, Ab, Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb, Bb, F, D, Eb, F, Gb. I counted the flats and worked it out to be either Gb maj or Eb min. I chose Gb, it was Eb! How do I work that out even though the last note was Gb? I'm very confused! I know there must be a tried-and-true method in there somewhere!

Caz. x

the D natural was the clue to the minor key.
The order of flats would be
Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb
The D natural is the odd one out and is the leading note in Eb minor.

Oh okay, I get it now!

The trick I think for me would be to work out the key signature and start from the leading note. Thankyou all very much. You've helped a great deal!

Caz. x

The first and last notes could be a red herring. Don't bother looking at them.

I get people to look at the piece to see if the accidentals are sharps or flats. They then write down the six sharps/flats of F# major/Gb major in the correct key signature order. The next step is to tick off the sharps/flats in the list that you can see in the extract. This helps you to see if there is one missing in the flat list or an extra one in the sharp list. As an easy example, if you ticked off F# and C# and there was also an A#, you would know this was B minor. If there was a Fx or a Cx you could straight away deduce it was G#minor or D# minor. Again, if there are lots of flats and one sharp you would tend to see this sharp as the leading-note.

As sbhoa said, the clue for Eb minor/Gb major is looking for the D natural. There is always a Db before a Gb and Cb in the key signature, so that was where the answer is discovered. Writing the list down in the correct order and looking for missing/additional accidentals will hopefully make it an easy process for you.

The best thing is to keep your cool and be good at writing the correct order of key signatures down.

I do it using the ticking accidentals off method everyone's suggested, and then if I'm totally stuck between major and minor, I sight-sing really, really quietly under my breath (I've actually done this in an exam and it's pretty much inaudible to everyone bar me), or do it in my head and then decide which it sounds like. It takes a bit of practice to learn to sight-sing reasonably (and I'm sure people here will have plenty of advice about that), but I find that it's worth it for situations like this as well as looking at music before you buy it, learning a part before you play it etc

Sorry, but I just wanted to agree with Firebird here. Before I learned to sight-sing I spent a LOT of money buying music for school which turned out to be horrible when I played it through...what a waste of money! Now I can read it through in my head in the shop before I buy it - definitely good for my bank balance!

Another way of looking at the evidence is to find an augmented 2nd (Cb to D natural in your example). Augmented seconds don't occur in major keys. In minor keys they occur between the 6th and 7th degrees, and if the key of the extract is the same as that of the key signature, then the seventh degree note will be preceded by an accidental.

If you are only given an extract, then you can't know for certain what key would be given to the whole movement. If you can be certain that the extract is all in the same key (real music has had atonal passages since J S Bach and probably before), then the augmented 2nd tells you what it is.

Could somebody tell me what CATS is please? It sounds like a computer training program for Theory, in the same way that Hofnote is a computer training program for Aural - is that right?

http://www.takenotepublishing.co.uk/cats/

It is software rather than a website like Hofnote, and have no idea what it's like, but think this is it

Thanks for that link - I've had a look at it but apparently it needs Windows-emulating software for Mac so I'll have to give it a miss I'm afraid. Thanks anyway

You're welcome, and never mind - there must be other similar things out there

I just learnt mine from the age of 8 but my teachers have uncovered an easy wya of learning key signatures

Sharps:

Look at the last sharp to appear in the key signature and go up a semitone and that is ur key , for example - 3 sharps, F#, C# and G#. G# is your last sharp and go up a semitone and it gives you A which is the major key signature


Flats:

Look at the second from last flat and that is your key signature, for example - 3 flats, Bb, Eb and Ab. Ab is the last flat and Eb is the second from last flat, therefore the key signature is Eb major. With regards to one flat...this method does not work so at the end of the day there is no way to remember this other than just knowing that one flat is F major!!

Hope this makes sense and gives you some help!

Good luck,

Annetta xx

^ This is how I initially learned it - though we were taught that the last sharp was the leading note (7th) which made it easier to remember where you went from there.

Don't forget relative minors though

The last sharp is 'te' and the last flat is 'fa'...

And whether you learn it via solfa or tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant etc that rule always applies to major keys.

Look at the key signature (if given) this will tell you whether (for the sake of arguement a piece is in E major or c# minor) Then look for accidentals, particularly surrounding the cadences. If there are none bar an obvious modulation, its major, if there are, and they fit the pattern for melodic and harmonic minor variants then the chance is its minor. If harmonised look at the final cadence. If it is not harmonised try to write the final cadence, that should establish the tonality.

If there is not a keys signature list every sharp or flat in the order in which you would build the key signature, if there are accidentals consistent with the relative minor then then chances are its minor, if it fits a pattern for the major key its major.

There is no shortcut to learning all keys major or minor using the circle of fifths. The pupils who have really grasped that have all got merits and disttinctions in their theory exams.

Whilst working out examples at home why not double check your answer by playing it. You may not be able to do this in the exam, but it should reassure you are doing things along the right lines.

Right!
I think the "last sharp = 7th note; second to last flat = keynote" method is an excellent one, and I use it a lot with students - but it probably works best and is easiest to use if your question is one which actually has the key sign(ature) written out at the start of the example. In that case it's very quick to identify a likely major key-note from the key sign - and almost as quick to work out a possible minor key-note three semitones down from the major one.

Where you have an extract with lots of accidentals but no key-sign, I think other factors and clues come into play while you are sorting the #s or bs into a logical key-sign-sequence. For instance, if you have a mixture of # and b you are almost certainly dealing with a minor key with bs in the key sign. Also for instance, kenm's point about the augmented second.

I'm planning on taking G3 in November and I have the same problem with discerning the key! I can do the major stuff OK, but how does one know if a piece is in a minor scale? For instance, in the G2 'Theory in Practice' book (which irritatingly has no answers in! ), it gives a few bars, preceded by the regular key signature, so it looked like common or garden G major. However, it could have been the related minor scale and I don't know how to tell. The book and the other AB materials I have give no help there.

Is there a failsafe method? Is it a case of noting accidentals only or is there another way to tell? I mean, a major scaled piece can be chock full of accidentals, right? And in the 'First Steps in Music Theory' book, it shows the minor scales on the stave with key signature and no accidentals. The 'odd' semi-tones (they seem odd and out of tune to me at the mo!!!) are not marked with accidentals (if my memory serves me correctly), they're just taken for granted.

At the level you are talking about there will be the clue of the raised 7th of the minor scale if you are asked to name a minor key for an extract.
Just had a skim through some grade 3 and grade 5 papers and there is not always a question asking you to name a key. Mostly thing to to with key signatures etc are questions asking you to write out scales.
It is worth trying to get to grips with it though.

I daresay it is, but I don't understand the raised 7th part etc yet either!!!

I know of a great rule!!!!! I learnt it in college.


Take this ONE LINE:


F B E A D G C


basically... start at the F for flats, and the C for sharps.


To work out sharps, start from C which has no sharps
G major = 1 sharps
D major =2 sharps
A major = 3 sharps
E major = 4 sharps
etc
All you are doing is counting up the line BACKWARDS for the sharp key sigs.

Start at the F for flats.

Example: F major = 1 flat
Bb major = 2 flats
Eb major = 3 flats


Hope this helps

It's minor keys and when a piece is in a minor, not a major key that's the problem! I have no trouble remembering how many sharps and flats there are in a major key, I just don't know how to tell from a line of music with a key signature which it is - major or minor.

There are a few clues that you can look for. If the music has a number of accidentals it may indicate a minor key, particularly if there are one or two accidentals that are fairly consistent (rather than a general semi-chromatic style). If you have # (or natural) accidentals with a flats key-signature that's usually a good clue. eg G minor (2 flats) is likely to have an F# somewhere as its sharpened 7th note, whereas if it's in the major key with 2 flats you shouldn't have an F#.

This is one way I work through with my students to help build up a picture of key-recognition -

Key-sig with #s. Take the last # and go up one semitone. That gives you a possible major keynote.
(already mentioned but it's part of the picture).
NOW - go three semitones down from your major keynote. This is a possible minor keynote. If there are accidentals connected with the sixth and seventh notes of that scale, that is the likely answer.

Another clue you might look for is tonic-triad patterns. An example with one sharp that start with some kind of EGB pattern is unlikely to be in G major.

It really is bits of a jigsaw puzzle which will gradually fall into place. The difficulty I think lies in which bit of the picture you need for a given question. I hope some of this helps.

The exam board will make it fairly obvious if something is in a minor key, but appears at first to be in the major. Look at the bass note (if any) at the start and at the end of the piece. Plus, look out for the raised seventh in the scale.

Make sure to write out all the chords in the given key signiture. This will also help you.

another question related to this topic-

sometimes they ask what key the piece 'starts' and 'ends' in. I almost always have no clue whatsoever. How would i identify them?

Possibly they mean you to ignore modulations in the middle of the piece or extract, and identify the main key , which you would possibly do from the key sign, plus any clues in the first and last bars, but ignoring other (possibly conflicting) signs in the middle.

I've not re-read the whole thread so hope I have understood your question correctly.

i don't get it.

Usually this means it starts and end in different keys (probably related in some way but not necessarily).
Start with the key signature then look at the first few bars. Look for arpeggio patterns which might be in the major or minor key for that key signature. Look for accidentals which would appear in the related minor.

For the ending you have to see which note have been changed to define the new key signature or whether accidentals now indicate a change from major to minor. If it is the end look at the cadence.... if you have a perfect cadence (V-I) then this will give you the new key.

I think you are asking about grade 5 or above for this?

It takes practice. Do you have a teacher? Ask for more explanation and practice examples
Look for key changes in the music you play.

im about to take my grade 5 theory exam in 2 weeks.

im also going to take my grade 7 piano exam soon!!

Here's some examples:

If you have a D major key signature and then there is a G#, you would tend to think that it is A major (F#, C#, G#).

If the key signature had three flats and then some A naturals, you would think it is Bb major.

If the key was E major and then you saw some A#s, you would think it was B major.

As the others have said, you look at the key signature and the accidentals at the bars you are told to look at and work it out from there. It's usually pretty obvious at Grade 5 having a perfect or imperfect cadence to help you.