Minor Keys?

Were they possibly Barre Chords using the Am position?

No it had each page header listed as "chords to be used in the the key of ____" and it includes "minor keys" :x

Do a search for the circle of fifths. You'll see all the major keys and their relative minors.

:roll:

I bought a chord book the other day and it had chords in the the key of Am. I thought there were 12 keys (naturals and sharps)

Can someone set me straight here? FUBAR :P

'Key' can be thought of in a whole bunch of ways:

1. The root note of the scale and/or I chord. There are twelve of those.

2. The key signature that indicates the sharps and flats used in the scale. There are 15 of those in use, but some are enharominic (C# and Db, F# and Gb, Cb and B)

3. The resolution of an authentic cadence. A 7th chord can move to a major (V-I) or a minor (V-i). Since there are twelve roots for 7th chords, there are 24 keys here... 12 major and 12 minor.

When you see a key signature, it represents one major key, and one related minor key.

So NoteBoat, the only difference between a song in A minor and C major is the first chord?

No, the difference is in the cadence. A song in Am has a cadence of E7-Am, while a song in C will have a cadence of G7-C.

The I or i chord doesn't have to be the first, and it doesn't have to be the last. You'll find some songs in C that start on Am, and vice versa.

:? I have like six books on theory and non of them explain the circle of fifths or it relationship to scales, chords or anything else. THere is obviously something I'm missing. I read and re-read and it does not make any sense. I consider myself a smart guy but this just escapes me.

Does this book referenced here explain it any better?

Let's see, this is at the same time very obvious and yet... very hard to explain.

Let's first look at the key of C major, the starting point:

C_D_EF_G_A_BC

Abstract a key with numbers (note degrees) instead of specific notes:

1_2_34_5_6_78

Now, let's say we work out the major scale with the same intervals from the 5th (G):

G_A_BC_D_E_F#G

Aha! Now, in order to keep the same relationships between notes, the same intervals, we need to sharpen 1 note, the F to F#.

What if we again start from the 5th, this time the D?

D_E_F#G_A_B_C#D

This time, we have to sharpen 2 notes, the F is still an F# and the C becomes a C#.

Now if we continue, we get all the sharp keys thus (with relative minors):

Key Minor Signature 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
C major A minor C D E F G A B
G major E minor # G A B C D E F#
D major B minor ## D E F# G A B C#
A major F# minor ### A B C# D E F# G#
E major C# minor #### E F# G# A B C# D#
B major G# minor ##### B C# D# E F# G# A#
F# major D# minor ###### F# G# A# B C# D# E#


We could go on, but the number of sharps rapidly gets out of hand, so we go the other way, with flats:

Key Minor Signature 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
F major D minor b F G A Bb C D E
Bb major G minor bb Bb C D Eb F G A
Eb major C minor bbb Eb F G Ab Bb C D
Ab major F minor bbbb Ab Bb C Db Eb F G
Db major Bb minor bbbbb Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C
Gb major Eb minor bbbbbb Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F


Note that F# and Gb are equally complicated, 6 sharps or flats, so you can use either one.

One of the things you can use the circle of 5ths for is remembering how many sharps or flat a given key has.

Here it is:


C
F G

Db B
F#


Minor Keys

Now minor keys are somewhat more complicated than major keys because you can sharpen the 7th and 6th notes, mainly to get a more effective V-I (V-i actually) cadence.

So in A minor you might use the notes G# and sometimes F# and the chord E or7 instead of Em.

The circle of fifths has a number of uses, but they only really make sense if you have an idea where it came from.
Every scale is made up of two, 4-note halves, called tetrachords. The key of C is [CDEF][GABC] - I've put in the square brackets to show the two tetrachords. If you take the key of G, you'll see that it is made up of the notes [GABC][DEF#G] - again, I've put in the brackets to show the tetrachords. One thing should be immediately noticeable - the second tetrachord of C is the same as the first tetrachord of G (GABC). The second thing that you may notice is that G is the V (5th) of C (hence circle of fifths)!
Another point, is that, whereas C had no accidentals (sharps or flats), G has one - F#.
Looking at G, we see that the second tetrachord - DEF#G - is also the first of the key of D - [DEF#G][ABC#D]. A is the V of D, which, you'll notice has 2 sharps. The 2nd tetrachord of D - ABC#D - is, I'm sure you've guessed, is the 1st of A.
You can see this sequence on the right hand side of the circle of fifths - each new position starts at the V (the start of the 2nd tetrachord) of the previous segment and each new segment, clockwise, gets an additional sharp.
Exactly the same applies to the left-hand, anti-clockwise half of the circle of fifths, but this time, they gain a flat.
I have an illustration, which may help you visualise this.

What confuses a lot of people is that they see a page headed "Chords in the key of G major" and almost the first thing they see is Am, Bm, Em.

There is no explanation of chord structure in such a page. Even worse, I see students with sheets (from previous teachers sometimes) that have (say) G major and G minor derivatives all on the same page with no explanation of the difference between the two keys. Moan, moan moan.

A :-)

So the circle of fifths is a tool to transpose to another key, keeping the same wwhwwwh "format" (lack of the correct term)

Complicating things further, if you're looking at chords, there are three different ways to harmonize a minor key, depending on the minor scale used (natural minor, melodic minor, harmonic minor) that lead to slightly different chord structures.

Of course, you can go deeper still, and start talking about chordal substitutions, which are perfectly usable "when playing in a key . . ." but that's getting a bit further afield.

:shock: I HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN :cry: