![music keys in order music keys in order](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YEOfCL-prWs/maxresdefault.jpg)
The letters in BEADGCF stand for all the sharp/flat notes (black keys).
![music keys in order music keys in order](https://www.learncolorpiano.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/key-of-Cb-keyshot-300x137.jpg)
This will help you both find out what key you are in and (if you’re writing music by hand) help you know what order the b’s or #’s should be written on the staff. Sorry, these don’t work for your house or car keys but they will help you find and name musical keys.įirst, the BEADGCF method. To find the relative major of a minor key you do the same but in reverse – you go a minor 3rd up from the root note and use the same key. To find the relative minor of any major scale you simply go a minor 3rd down (3 half-steps/semi-tones) from the root note and use the same key as before. In this case d-minor is the relative minor of F-major and F-major is the relative major of d-minor. Notice that both scales start on the note their named after but both also use the same notes as the other. Here’s what that looks like on a piano using F-major/d-minor: This means that they use the same key but start on a different note. Let’s start by updating our list of keys to reflect both major and minor keys:Īlright, now each key is labeled with both the major and minor keys each represents. Looking at this you might be thinking, “hey those are just the major keys relabeled.” If that’s what you’re thinking you’re already on your way to understanding what’s known as relative major and minor. The most common minor keys in composition are A, E, B, F#, D, G, and C though it is perfectly possible to see any of these. Let’s jump right in and see what minor keys look like: Don’t fear, along with introducing minor keys we’ll be discussing how major and minor keys are related. “Oh, great! 12 more keys to learn!” you might say. As last weeks post was about minor scales, it follows that this week I’ll be discussing minor key signatures. I hope this example inspires you to use relative major/minor modulations in your own composing.A couple weeks ago I made a post on major keys and key signatures. This creates a contrasting section with a more melancholic feel before modulating back to the relative major for the concluding section. I don’t have to use any pivot chord or modulating section of music as the two keys have the same key signature. It then modulates to the relative minor – F sharp minor. You can see/hear how the piece starts in A major. It is a piano piece called Prelude 18 – The Lily. It can also provide a clear sense of structure to a piece. I have put together a chart showing all the relative major and minor keys together with their respective key signatures.Ĭhanging key from the relative major to the relative minor is a great way of introducing contrast in a piece of music. However, you do need to know how many sharps/flats are in the related keys in order to be able to use them in your composition. You can see that it is easy to work out what the relative major/minor of a key is. So, the relative major of F sharp minor is A major. If I want to get from F sharp minor to its relative major.Ĭount up 3 semitones and I get to A major.
#MUSIC KEYS IN ORDER HOW TO#
How to work out the Relative majorĪll you need to do is to count up 3 semitones from the relative minor and you will reach the relative major. So, the relative minor of E major is C sharp minor. If I want to get from E major to its relative minor, again I count down 3 semitones and reach C sharp. Here’s another example of the relative minor of E major: Therefore, the relative minor of C major is A minor.
![music keys in order music keys in order](http://cliparts.co/cliparts/pc7/rxd/pc7rxdzzi.jpg)
You can see that if I want to get from C major to its relative minor I start on C and count down 3 semitones and reach A. Have a look at this example on a keyboard: If you want to get from the relative major to the relative minor you simply need to count down 3 semitones from the relative major. The good news is that it’s really easy to work out the relative minor of a major key! This will make your compositions instantly more interesting. Understanding this relationship between the relative majors and minors is really useful when you are composing as it makes it very easy to modulate (change key) from the relative major to the relative minor or vice versa. However, they sound related because they share the same number of sharps and flats and so you can easily play one after the other without it sounding horribly discordant! The two keys are clearly different because they start on a different tonic note and one scale is major (sounds “happy”) whilst the other is minor (sounds “sad”). Have a look/listen to this performance of a G major scale and its relative minor – E minor: For every note in the chromatic scale there is a relative major key and a relative minor key. Relative keys have the same key signature (number of sharps or flats).