DEFINE THE KEY OF A MUSIC PIECE


When a music piece is composed, there is the possibility to use many different scales and their chords. But mostly there will be one scale wich turns out to be the main scale. Almost always the music piece will end with this scale, and the melody will end on the basic tone of this scale. When we see, for example, very often the scale of G-major, the music piece will also end with this scale and in that case we can say that the key of this music piece is G-major.

To define the key of a music piece, we look at the end-note of the melody and, if possible, at the basic note of the last chord of the piece. After that we look at the interval between the basic tone and the third, to find out if this is a minor third or a major third. When you look back in the music piec, just a few bars, mostly you can easily see the minor or major third.


In example nr. 1 the music piece ends with an F. Now we know already that the key of the piece is F. To find out the third, we look back a few bars and there we see the A. F-A is a major third, so the music piece is written in F-major.


In example nr. 2 the piece ends with a G. So the key of the music piece is G. In the previous bars we see a few times the note B. The interval between G and B is a major third. So the key of this piece is G-major.


Example nr. 3 ends with a D. The key of this piece is D. The third, as we can see, is an F. The interval D-F is a minor third, so the key of this music piece must be D-minor. When you are not certain to see a minor- or major third, write down the natural scale. As you know a major third is the same as 2 whole tones. A minor third is just 1 and 1/2 tone. The natural scale always starts with a major third and ends with a minor third:

For examination on the B-level you have to be able to define the key of a music piece with 1, 2 or 3 sharps or 3 flats. For the C-level until 5 sharps and flats and for D for all keys.