[?] Subscribe To This Site

The basic music theory behind different keys and scales.

Basic Music Theory: Picking a Key

Alright, this is where we’re going to talk about finding the right key for your song. We´ll look at the songwriting theory behind different keys.

Generally, if you want to write a happy song, pick a major key, and if you want to write a sad song, pick a minor key. This is of course a bit simple and very basic music theory, but its been working for years and years.

Depending on what instrument you’re playing and what skill level you’re at, this may also influence what key you pick. For example, if you’re a novice piano player, stick with the C major key or the A minor key because both of these keys are made up of all of the white keys on the piano and none of the black. You may be wondering how is it that two different keys can be made up of the same notes? Well the answer lies ahead...

The Notes of a Key

Finding the notes of a key is easy if you use these two patterns: for major keys, WWHWWWH; for minor keys, WHWWHWW (W=whole step, H=half step). These are steps taken from the starting note.

For example, what are the notes that make up the D major key? Start on the D note then go up one whole step to E, up another whole step to F#, a half step to G, whole step to A, whole step to B, whole step to C#, and then the final half step which brings up back to D.

So, following the pattern, we find that the notes in the key of D major are: D E F# G A B C#. Using the minor pattern, we find that the notes of the D minor key are: D E F G A Bb C. Each of these notes is assigned a number based on its position. In D Major, D=I, E=II, F#=III, G=IV, etc.

You may have seen this before when hearing about chord progressions. A I-IV-V chord progression would start with a D chord, then go to a G chord, then to an A chord. Determining the exact quality of these chords (whether major, minor, augmented, seventh, etc.) is discussed in the chords section.

Basic Music Theory: Finding a Scale

The major scale is simply all of the notes in a major key played in succession. The same goes for the minor scale with a minor key. Pretty simple, right? (I know, it's called basic music theory:))

The thing is though, there tends to be some notes in a key that are used more often than the others. As a result, there are scales that will work with a key, but do not include all of the notes in the key. The most popular of these is the pentatonic scale. As the name suggests, this scale is made up of five notes (penta- means five, -tonic means tone or note).

The major pentatonic is made up of the I, II, III, V, and VI notes of a major key. So, in the D major key, that would mean the major pentatonic scale is made up of: D E F# A B. The minor pentatonic is made up of the I, III, IV, V, and VII notes of a minor key. The notes of the D minor pentatonic are : D F G A C.

Basic Music Theory: Exercise 1:

You probably saw this coming, but the first exercise is to go through all twelve notes (C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab, A, A#/Bb, and B) and determine the notes that make up the major and minor scales of each (and the pentatonic scales too, if you’re feeling adventurous).

I know that this seems tedious, but its work that needs to be done. By the time you’ve finished, you’ll have really driven the concept into your head and learned this basic music theory concept, so don’t think of this as a waste of time.

Start up an Excel spreadsheet or make a table in your word processor and enter in all of this information. Have the column headings read: Key/I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII and enter in what you find out from the exercise. Make an individual spreadsheet or table for Major keys, Minor keys, major pentatonic scales, and minor pentatonic scales. Save the files and print them out.

It’s always good to have a handy reference. Also, you’ll notice that some scales, like the C major and the A minor, are made up of exactly the same notes, just in a different order. We’ll get into that in the modes section.

Basic Music Theory: Exercise 2:

This exercise is kind of the opposite of Exercise 1. What we’re going to do is take a few notes and then determine what key or keys contain these notes.

For example, let’s take the notes A, E, and C. What keys and scales contain these notes? You’ll find a few keys/scales that fit. This is useful for a few reasons. First of all, if you come up with a melody that you really like the sound of and want to develop that melody into a full song, knowing how to determine a key from the notes in that melody is very useful (because some groupings of notes will fit in with a few different keys, that also gives you a few different directions to take your song).

Also, if you’re figuring out how to play a song by ear, nailing down a few notes will help you determine key, which can lead to figuring out more notes in the song, which can lead to chords, then the progressions, and so on. For Both Exercises:

If you play an instrument, it is a good idea to play through the keys and scales as you determine them in Exercise 1. In Exercise 2, play the series of notes and then play the keys/scales that can fit into those notes. By playing the possible keys and scales that can fit with a series of notes, you can get an idea of how those notes will relate, and it may spark some ideas of how to continue.

Once you’ve gone through these exercises, move on to the Chords section where the information you learned here will be used to create the chords and progressions that will be the backbone of your song. You´re on your way to master different basic music theory concept, keep up the good work:)

More Songwriting Tips?

For more tips and juicy articles about songwriting, subscribe to my monthly songwriting-guide.com newsletter. This unique inbox offering is packed with information and 100% free. just sign up!

Chords

The next article in the music theory section is about chords. Click here to go directly to it.

Return from Basic music theory to Music Theory main