Finding What Key A Song Is In

Hi there,

From what i understand, the first chord of a song is often the key of the song, but not always. The last chord is more often the key.

However, your chord progression doesn't look like it is in the key of D because C is not in the key of D (would be C#). But if you transposed that progression to start with E, then yes it will be E D A E since you are moving up by one whole step.

Is the 1st chord always the key?
No. It might, but, then, it might not.
Tab found for "Time Has Come Today" [Chambers Brothers]
chord progression: D C G D.
Is this song in the key of D? I-VII-IV-I
so if I wanted to play it in the key of E it would be E D A E?
as always, any help is appreciated
I always start with the usual suspects - I-IV-V. In this case, that would be in the key of G (G -a-b-C-D......), which is a likely candidate. In E, that would be E-A-B.

Is the 1st chord always the key?

No. A year or so ago I surveyed a bunch of tunes in various styles, and I found that slightly less that 2/3 of the time the first chord is the root of the key. Last chords are a better gauge, but even then about 1 song in 6 doesn't end on the 'key chord'.
Tab found for "Time Has Come Today" [Chambers Brothers]
chord progression: D C G D.

Is this song in the key of D? I-VII-IV-I

No. It's in the key of G, V-IV-I-V
so if I wanted to play it in the key of E it would be E D A E?

as always, any help is appreciated

You'd be moving it up a whole step, but now you'd be in the key of A.

Not to step on toes, but it could conceivably be in the key of D. Many songs use a progression of I - bVII - IV - I, as this one seems to do. Sympathy For The Devil and Taking Care Of Business being the first two to jump to mind.

Technically speaking, even though the tonal center is D, you wouldn't think of it as D major as the key as much as it being in a D myxolidian mode. But most folks would still consider that to be the key of D.

(It's this sort of thing that people can nitpick to death... :wink: )

And, as mentioned, you're spot on with your transposition, Mike.

Peace

.....A little confusing at first, but makes sense. I was with noteboat thinking its in the key of G, but I just looked it up (forced to learn:-) and indeed, D mixolydian is the same as the key of G. So even though they are interchangeable, D is probably the right choice since that appears to be the center in this progression.

That's the great thing about 'key' discussions... it means so many different things.

The key signature is going to be G major, with one sharp (the F# note in the D chord).

The scale might be D mixolydian (I don't have the tune here to listen to, and I don't know if the Ramone's cover is faithful to the melody).

I did look up the chord progression on line, and later on you have an A chord - which would point to the key of D major, with D-G-A - except for the fact that it's just in a short bridge section. If the scale is D mixolydian, it will harmonize exactly the same way G major does.

So it could be in the key of G major (key signature, chord progression), and the key of D (mixolydian scale)

How do you get the key if the song is power chords since it could've been minor or major? Like if the chords were: E5 C5 G5 E5 C5 D5

You still have notes that make up power chords, so you can at least limit the choices - and in some cases you can firmly determine the key. (You also have a melody line, usually, so take the vocal notes into account too to fill in the blanks)

In your example you have:

E5 = E, B
C5 = C, G
G5 = G, D
D5 = D, A

So if you line them all up, you've got A, B, C, D, E, G. Every note but F. That puts you in some key with an F or F# note, but no C# or Bb notes - C, Am, G, or Em.

After you've limited the possibilities you figure out what your most important note is. That's the 'key note'. Since key notes are almost always chord roots, you've narrowed it down a bit more, to C, Am, or Em.

But the fact is, power chords don't give you a lot of harmonic material. They can often be interpreted in more than one way - that's actually an idea that's thousands of years old... Gregorian chants used eight 'modes', but today we say they used four. They recognized that something using a D dorian scale might have D as the most important note (D Dorian) or not (D hypodorian). Even though they didn't have harmonies, they knew there was something different about the melody - that it wasn't really Dorian. The same thing can be true of keys, just like in the G/D Dorian stuff above.

One of the really unique things about music is that it requires memory of what just happened... the only reason a note might sound bad is because you're hearing it in the context of what you remember just having heard. That same note played all by itself can't possibly sound bad - it's just a note, and it's used in plenty of other songs.

So everything in music theory is relative: a quarter note doesn't represent a note of specific duration, it represents a note half as long (or twice as long) as another note you'll hear in the same song. A scale is only a scale because of the relationship between the tones, and chords and keys can sometimes only be named if you see the whole big picture - C6 (C-E-G-A) has the exact same notes as Am7 (A-C-E-G), but you don't just use the names interchangeably.

So when you come down to a chord progression like yours, it could be in a whole bunch of keys - at least four. Throw in a B5 chord and it's in either G or Em; throw in the F5 chord instead, and it's C or Am. The more information, the fewer the choices that are left - because the more stuff you have to remember in context, the more your ear expects certain things to happen next.

We're all conditioned by the stuff we've heard before, and that's really all music theory is - putting names to stuff you've heard before. So if your song could be in either C or G or Em or whatever, you can tack it on to any other song in that key and it'll sound fine... but it'll sound out of place if you put it on a song that's in B or Gb or some other key.