Musical Keys

Musical Keys

In music theory, the key of a piece usually refers to the tonic note and chord, which gives a subjective sense of arrival and rest. Other notes and chords in the piece create varying degrees of tension, resolved when the tonic note and/or chord returns. The key may be major or minor, although major is assumed in a phrase like "this piece is in C." Popular songs are usually in a key, and so is classical music during the common practice period, about 1650–1900. Longer pieces in the classical repertoire may have sections in contrasting keys.

The methods by which the key is established for a particular piece are not easy to explain, and vary considerably over the period of music history; however, the chords most often used in a piece in a particular key are those containing the notes in the corresponding scale, and conventional progressions of these chords, particularly cadences, serve to orient the listener around the tonic.

The key signature is not a reliable guide to the key of a written piece. It does not discriminate between a major key and its relative minor; the piece may modulate to a different key; if the modulation is brief, it may not involve a change of key signature, being indicated instead with accidentals. Occasionally, a piece in a mode such as Mixolydian or Dorian will be written with a major or minor key signature appropriate to the tonic, and accidentals throughout the piece.

Pieces in modes not corresponding to major or minor keys may sometimes be referred to as being in the key of the tonic. A piece using some other type of harmony, resolving e.g. to A, might be described as "in A" to indicate that A is the tonal center of the piece.

An instrument may be said to be "in a key", an unrelated usage meaning it is a transposing instrument.

A key relationship is the relationship between keys, measured by common tones and nearness on the circle of fifths. See: closely related key.