How Do I Know What Key A Song Is Written In

Guitar Lessons: Beginner

Amazing step by step instruction for learning keys.

Question:

How can you tell what key music is written?

Answer:

That's an excellent question, unfortunately there isn't a straight forward generic answer.

There's a number of points to consider:

(a) If you can read standard music notation, the *key signature* on the left hand side of the music will tell you (by the number of sharps / flats) here's how that works.

No sharps or flats = Key of C

1 sharp = Key of G
2 sharps = Key of D
3 sharps = Key of A
4 sharps = Key of E
5 sharps = Key of B
6 sharps = key of F#
7 sharps = Key of C#

1 flat = Key of F
2 flats = Key of Bb
3 flats = Key of Eb
4 flats = Key of Ab
5 flats = Key od Db
6 flats = Key of Gb
7 flats = Key of Cb

However it is possible (and quite common for a song to move through a number of keys - called Keys of the moment) to identify these *temporary keys of the moment* you need to have a good knowledge of *key centers* - we cover these topic's in the Express Guitar series http://www.GuitarCoaching.com (Design your Own Chord Shapes bonus).

(b) If the first and last chord of a song are the same e.g., if the first chord was *G* and the last chord was *G* thats' a good indication (please keep in mind the song may not stay entirely in that key as noted in my comments regarding *key centers*.

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