How To Change The Key Of A Song On Youtube

In GuitarOS: Practical Theory, nosotros walk you lot through:

• how to ID notes on your fretboard by their actual names,
• which notes become into which keys,
• how to build simple & fancy chords,
• which chords belong in each cardinal,
• what the "function" of each of those chords is,
• how chords are combined into progressions,
• how to speak the language of rhythm, and
• how all of this gets written down in a way that'south useful to you AND the musicians you collaborate with.

But I get it—today you're in a hurry and you want to know:

How exercise I figure out the primal of a song?

Here's a list of questions that volition help you decide.

Although putting this in a checklist makes it seem really formal, this is something that will somewhen happen automatically, in a matter of seconds.

I trained my brain to do this, and you lot can too.

With a piffling practice you'll be able to take a snap "reading" of a song (or a section of a vocal).

Take hold of the printable PDF chart with every chord in each cardinal

1. Is there a chart with a central signature?

2. Did someone call a fundamental?

3. What'southward the first & last chord in the song?

4. Is in that location a clear dominant chord?

5. Is there some other clear chordal movement that'southward a key giveaway?

6. Are all the chords diatonic to a certain key?

7. Are most of the chords diatonic to a key, with some non-diatonic (but not entirely unexpected) chords sprinkled in?

8. Can this be written in more than than one primal?

9. Is 1 easier than the other?

10. Does information technology fifty-fifty make sense to recollect of this equally being in ane key?

I'1000 going to explain each of these in society, but I desire to begin past proverb that you should be going through this checklist in this order when trying to determine a vocal'south primal.

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ane. Is at that place a chart with a key signature?

Probably the easiest way to make up one's mind what key yous're in is when the written music tells you the central.

On a chart written past a literate musician, there volition be primal signature—some number of sharps or flats between the clef and the time signature:

In this example, ane flat means that the vocal is in F.

F# and Gb are the aforementioned key, just with a different name (and different names for each of the notes).

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2. Did someone call a primal?

Of course, if someone says, "this is a blues in G" or "we're playing Dock of the Bay, simply in F," y'all'll obviously know what to do.

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three. What are the first & last chords in the vocal?

If yous're learning a song from a recording, or reading a chart written past a less-than-literate musician, y'all tin can look at the kickoff & last chords of the vocal—they're frequently the I chord.

It's non a difficult and fast rule though. Some common exceptions:

• LOTS of songs don't beginning on the I chord.
• Somenever go to the I chord.
• There are plenty of songs that purposely finish on a chord other than the I (which gives the ending an unsettled feeling).
• And of course if the song changes to a new key somewhere along the way, that'due south going to complicate matters.

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for a printable PDF of this chart, click hither

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4. Is in that location a clear dominant chord?

If we look at the extended chords that prove up diatonically (diatonic = made up of only notes from inside the key), nosotros see that at that place'southward only i that's a dominant 7 chord: the Five.

If you run across a gear up of chords that just has one ascendant 7 among them, there'south a pretty good chance that that chord is the V.

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5. Is there another articulate chordal motility that'southward a cardinal giveaway?

You can too be on the lookout for other mini-progressions similar ii-V or 4-4.

When I see Am-D, my encephalon goes straight to "ii-V in G."

When I see F-Fm, my brain goes correct to "IV-4 in C."

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half-dozen. Are all the chords diatonic to a sure key?

(Over again, "diatonic" = but using notes from within the key—no outside notes.)

If you run across this progression:

…you can see that the only key that has all of those chords diatonically is G:

And then even though there's no Chiliad chord, it'southward in the key of G.

(This example is from Dave Matthews Band's #41. The ring somewhen does become to the Grand chord, but information technology takes them a minute and a one-half of this progression before they do.)

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7. Are most of the chords diatonic to a key, with some non-diatonic (simply non entirely unexpected) chords sprinkled in?

Here are the chords from John Mayer'south Badge & Gun:

All of the chords are diatonic to G… except that A7 in measure 6.

But when nosotros look at the unremarkably-occurring non-diatonic chords, we see that A7 isn't entirely unexpected:

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8. Can this exist written in more than one primal?

Sweet Abode Alabama goes D, Cadd9, G.

Is that I- ^b VII-4 in D? (in red beneath)

Or a V-Iv-I in G? (in purple below)

If you practise a google paradigm search for "Sweet Dwelling Alabama sheet music," you'll encounter that roughly half of the transcriptions show it in D, and half in M.

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9. Is 1 easier than the other?

My personal preference is to call up of Sweet Home Alabama in G, considering information technology'south easier that mode.

Merely thinking of it in D is just as correct.

I have another mail examining the implications of this thought, and what it means for modes.

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10. Does it even brand sense to think of this as existence in i key?

For some tunes, it doesn't actually make sense to think of them in one single primal.

Here's The Allman Brothers' Melissa:

check these chords against the chart—Cmaj7 is the bVI (say: "flat half-dozen")

Although nosotros don't leave the key long enough to warrant writing in a key change, for measures xi & 12 we're very conspicuously playing I-two-iii-IV in the fundamental of A.

If you were soloing over these changes, the E major scale that sounded then adept over the remainder of it suddenly doesn't fit quite right—you have to smoothly switch to A major for those two bars.

Jazz music is filled to the brim with this sort of thing—there's ii-V-I, and and so I becomes small-scale and information technology's the ii of some other key…

Jazz musicians still use this same roman numeral linguistic communication, but they're not beholden to any primal is written on the chart—they're talking nigh what key the song is in for this subsection of the tune.

Playing fluidly over chords that change key oft requires an equally fluid mindset virtually keys.

Learning to see subsections of songs every bit being in their own key is the logical extension of getting good at seeing songs as beingness in a key.

We're going to bear on this again side by side week when we talk about how all of this feeds into our understanding of modes.

What Nearly Minor Keys?

It's worth mentioning that up until now we have studiously avoided talking about small-scale keys—keys where the "one chord" is small: i.

Small keys are their own thing, and worthy of their ain commodity (which we'll go into in two weeks, later our word of modes).

Recap

• At the top of a well-written chart, you'll see a clef & a time signature, and in between them is a key signature—the number of sharps or flats tell you what primal the vocal is in.
• If the final chord in the song gives you a sense of resolution, information technology's probably the I.
• The only diatonically occurring dominant chord is the V. If you lot see a dominant chord, there's a decent adventure that information technology'due south the V.
• Other clear chordal motion that suggest a key are ii-V and 4-four.
• Sometimes you'll exist able to see that all of the chords are diatonic to a certain key.
• Even if the I isn't one of those chords.
• Other times most of the chords volition be diatonic to a key, and the non-diatonic chords volition be common plenty.
• Some songs be written in more than ane fundamental.
• Ane is usually easier than the other.
• Some songs move fluidly through dissimilar keys.
• Getting expert at quickly seeing the key of simpler songs will atomic number 82 to getting good at spotting those times when a subsection of a song is in a different key.
• Want this chord chart equally a PDF & in Google Sheets? Yous can snag that here
• if you'd like to be walked through this one piece at a time, sign upward for GuitarOS

See you next week, when nosotros'll talk about what all of this means for modes.

-Josh

Source: https://fretboardanatomy.com/how-to-figure-out-the-key-of-a-song/

Posted by: currylithapablout.blogspot.com

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