- Hi, and welcome to this quiz entitled, name the key.
So, it's what it says on the tin.
We're going to look at four melodic excerpts
and see if we can work out which key we're in.
Now if you're good at keys, this shouldn't be too tricky,
though there are one or two little dilemmas that I've set.
If you're not sure about keys,
well this is a great opportunity to sort of get sorted.
And if you don't know about this,
do have a look at our video on the circle of fifths.
The circle of fifths is the answer
to all your woes with keys.
It tells you which keys have have which sharps, which flats,
and I explain the whole thing as to how
the whole circle of fifths is constructed.
And that will be your lifeline with keys.
So don't go through the rest of your musical life
not being sure about which key you're in,
or how many sharps or how many flats there are,
and is it major, is it minor?
The circle of fifths will explain it all to you.
So if that's where you're coming from,
you might just want to pause on this one
and have a look for the circle of fifths first.
And then come back to this one.
If you think you're okay with keys,
you might just want to kind of freeze
the picture at this moment.
Have a look through and see if you can
come up with some answers,
and then come back to me and compare your answers with mine,
see how you get on.
Okay, let's have a look through.
Now melody number one has got
four sharps in the key signature,
F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, and D-sharp.
So you may know this key because you've been playing it
or you work with it,
or you may want to refer to the circle of fifths.
So if you're looking at the circle of fifths,
just look at the sharps on the right hand side.
You'll see F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, D-sharp.
Okay, the key with four sharps.
And that will tell you that you're either
in the key of E major or in the key of C-sharp minor,
because remember you've always got a major key
and a minor key that share each key signature.
So the question is, how do we know
we're in E major or in C-sharp minor?
One of the clues,
and this doesn't always tell you the answer,
so be careful, but one of the clues is,
are there any more accidentals that appear during the piece?
Because if there are, it might just be a clue
that maybe you're in a minor key.
Why do I say that?
When you're in a minor key,
well, if you're using the harmonic minor scale,
you'll raise the seventh degree of the scale.
If you're using the melodic minor,
you'll raise the sixth and seventh degree
of the scale in the ascending form.
You won't in the descending form.
So sometimes when you see accidentals
beyond the key signature, it's a bit of a clue
that maybe you're in a minor key.
But I say that, it comes with health warning.
So let me explain the health warning.
It's possible that accidentals will appear
for other reasons.
For example, what happens if the tune starts
in the key of E major for example
and then it modulates, it moves to a different key?
And when it does that, well, it's going to start
introducing the accidentals for that new key.
So it may start in E major
and then it may go somewhere else.
So be a little bit careful.
It doesn't necessarily mean
because there's an accidental down here somewhere,
that it must be in C-sharp minor.
It may be modulating somewhere else.
You may even have little,
what we call chromatic notes, you know,
notes that don't quite belong to the key
but they just sort of colour the melody a little bit,
adding just a splash of colour.
So they may be there because they're using
these things called inessential notes.
So you might have chromatic passing notes
or chromatic auxiliary notes or things like that.
And if you don't know what they are, guess what?
You can find another Music Matters video
that explains everything.
So watch out for accidentals and consider the possibility
that they might be telling you about a minor key.
Now if you do see an accidental,
well the next question is, what is the accidental?
Because if you were to see some B-sharps.
Say this note over here was B-sharp.
Well, B-sharp would be a raised seventh in C-sharp minor.
So that might be a big clue
that we're doing something in C-sharp minor.
But if you saw E-sharp or something,
well that wouldn't be telling you
that you're in C-sharp minor.
Because in E major you've got those four sharps.
In C-sharp minor, you've got the same four sharps.
But you wouldn't be expecting to raise
the third degree of the scale.
It would only be doing that
if it was modulating to another key,
like F-sharp minor or F-sharp major, for example.
So you've got to use a little bit
of musical nous with this.
If you see a raised seventh in particular,
or possibly a raised sixth,
or you see a bit of a mixture
of raised sixth, raised seventh,
not raised sixth, not raised seventh,
well, that's very likely telling you
about a minor key.
But consider the option that also,
it might be modulating to another key
or it might be doing something chromatic
to decorate the melody.
Well, in the first example here,
it's fairly straightforward really,
because we don't see any accidentals
during the course of the melody.
So is it E major or C-sharp minor?
The fact that I don't see any accidentals
rather suggests that it's in E major.
Other clues. The first note is E.
The last note is E.
That doesn't always mean that it's in the key
of E major, it doesn't have to start and finish on E.
But the fact that it does makes it a little bit clearer.
What's even more useful to determine is,
when you look at that E at the end,
does that E belong to the tonic chord of E major?
Well it does, actually.
Having said that, it also belongs to the tonic chord
of C-sharp minor.
But there's a B-natural before it.
So it's not looking like C-sharp minor, is it?
So if you can finish on a tonic chord
and start on a tonic chord, which you could,
well, maybe that's another indicator.
Music doesn't always begin on a tonic chord,
but quite often it does.
So you're looking for things to substantiate
what you're doing.
You might even look at cadences, if you know about cadences.
It's possible to harmonise this V-I,
perfect cadence in E major.
So that's really helping us to fish out the evidence
that supports the idea that we're in
the key of E major.
So that's the answer to number one.
Have a look at number two,
and immediately you'll see five flats.
It's interesting how some people are really comfortable
working in one, two, three, possibly four sharps.
One, two, three, possibly four flats.
And then after that they kind of go into this haze
where they think, "Oh my goodness,
"I can't cope with more complicated key signatures."
Any musician who wants to do the journey
needs to get familiar with every single key.
And one thing you can do is improvise
in every single key on your instrument.
So that you really get familiar with it
and you kind of understand it from a playing perspective.
So good thing to ask yourself,
how far can I go in terms of key and feel comfortable?
Where do I start to fall off?
And start working on the next keys
so that they get as confident as you are
when you're playing in C major or G major or F major.
Anyway, five flats.
If we look on the circle of fifths,
five flats will tell us,
B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, D-flat, G-flat.
You'll see them on the outer ring on the left hand side,
and they're going to point up two keys.
D-flat major, and B-flat minor.
So those are the two options. Let's have a look.
What's going on here?
Well, first thing I'm noticing is
a couple of accidentals.
Well, I suppose it could start in D-flat major
then maybe it modulates towards the end?
But you know, let's see what these accidentals
are telling us.
Well, G-natural is a raised sixth
in the key of B-flat minor.
Bit of a clue.
A-natural is a raised seventh in the key of B-flat minor.
So it may be that these naturals
are telling us something else,
a bit of chromatic decoration, a modulation or something,
but the fact that they're the raised sixth and seventh
in B-flat minor, which has five flats,
is a bit of a clue.
What's the last note? B-flat. Ah. So tonic to finish.
What's the first note? Oh, it's not B-flat.
However, this is an anacrusis.
It doesn't start on the first beat of the bar.
So that's what we call an anacrusis.
So quite often when you start on the last beat of a bar,
you kind of go, dominant, tonic.
What happens here? Dominant, tonic.
Ah, so this is the tonic is it? B-flat minor.
I'm sort of looking at this thinking
this is kind of going up a scale of B-flat minor, isn't it?
And then this is kind of completing that scale
of B-flat minor, you know.
B-flat, C, D-flat, E-flat,
F, G-natural, A-natural, B-flat.
You've kind of got the scale of B-flat minor
embedded in the melody.
So all those things would help me to
be clear that number two is in the key of B-flat minor.
Okay. I'm wondering how you're getting on with this.
Okay, number three. We've got two flats.
So let's have a look on the circle of fifths.
On the left hand side, outer ring.
First flat's B-flat, second flat's E-flat.
So we're either in B-flat major or we're in G minor.
Well I'm looking through, I don't see
any accidentals anywhere, do I?
So I'm already thinking, well, must be in B-flat major.
However, before you commit to that,
I've set a little trap, because I'm like that.
Can you see the first note is G?
Can you see the last note is G? Hmm.
Which are the notes that would be altered
if I were in the key of G-minor?
Well, the raised seventh would be F going to F-sharp,
so are there any F's in this tune?
No, there aren't.
So we don't really know, if there were
to be F's in this tune, would they be F-natural?
Would they be F-sharp? Could be either.
What about the sixth degree?
That's the other one that could be raised.
So that would be E-flat, that would become E-natural.
Can I see any E's in the tune? No, I can't.
So do you see, now we're asking you
to be a sort of musical detective.
Up here, we could see things that were telling us
exactly which key we we're in.
Now we're looking at something thinking,
well, the only thing is that we can't see
any E's or F's, so we don't know
if it's E-flat and F-natural,
that might help us to be thinking B-flat major.
Or we don't know if they might be E-natural, F-sharp,
that might be helping us to think G minor.
So the fact that we don't see any accidentals
could lead us to the wrong conclusion.
But how on earth are we supposed to work
with things we can't see? How do we know?
Well, what other evidence do we see?
The last note is G. The first note is G.
Now, if you were in B-flat major,
why would you start and finish
on the sixth degree of the scale?
It's a bit unlikely, actually.
If you can think in chords, well,
chord I in G minor would fit here,
chord V in G minor would fit here,
so that could be a perfect cadence in G minor.
In B-flat major, well it could be V to VI,
it could be an interrupted cadence,
but why would you finish a piece
on a kind of cliffhanger, interrupted cadence?
So it's probably not going to be that.
So do you see the balance of evidence
starts to make us think, actually, you know what,
we don't see any E-naturals or F-sharps,
but we're beginning to think that we might be in G minor.
Especially the G start, the G finish,
tonic chord G minor, perfect cadence G minor.
If you look through the rest of it,
you might harmonise this with the chord I in G minor.
That might look like a chord V in G minor.
Oh, see, starting to look much more like G minor
than it is B-flat major.
So tricky one in a way, because it's sort of there
by implication.
So I wonder how many people
thought that was in B-flat major,
and I wonder how many people just went that extra mile
and thought about the evidence
that might point us to G minor.
And the answer is that one is definitely in G minor.
Okay. Now what about number four?
Well I don't like to make life too easy for you,
so I thought just to add to the fun,
let's have one in the alto clef.
If you're a viola player,
or maybe a first trombonist in an orchestra or something,
you're probably quite happy with this.
Everybody else might be scratching their heads
thinking, "Oh, alto clef."
But you know how the alto clef works.
Middle C is in the middle of it,
and so if that's the C line, this is going to be D.
So let's have a look-through.
Two sharps. F-sharp and C-sharp.
Circle of fifths, first sharp F-sharp, second sharp C-sharp.
We're either in D major or we're in B minor.
Okay, scan through the piece.
Oh, what am I looking at at the end?
I can see a sharp. What is this note? A-sharp.
Well if I'm in B-minor, A-sharp actually is
the raised seventh, isn't it?
So it's looking possibly like a B minor touch, isn't it?
And the last note is B. So B minor being suggested there.
On the other hand, you might look at this and think,
well it starts on D though, and I go through here,
D, E, F-sharp, G, A, B, A.
But I don't see any of this raised sixth
and seventh lot back here, so why are these not raised?
Well, they don't have to be if you're in a minor key,
but they could be.
This is one of these interesting things where
it's possible that you could harmonise the whole
of that melody in the key of B minor.
Another possibility exists.
Maybe it starts in D major
and then it modulates to B minor.
So that was just me trying to catch you out with that one.
But it's possible you could have the whole thing
in B minor.
If you harmonise it in B minor,
you could actually go.
You could do that, but it might work better in D major.
And then maybe to go to B minor.
So you can hear how that might be better
as a modulating melody.
Anyway, hope you had some fun with that.
Hope you enjoyed going through the reasoning
for why things might be in this key or that key.
And I hope it gives you a bit more confidence about keys.