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(Such instruments are called transposing when their written notes differ from concert pitch.)Ī key relationship is the relationship between keys, measured by common tone and nearness on the circle of fifths. For example, modern trumpets are usually in the key of B ♭, since the notes produced without using the valves correspond to the harmonic series whose fundamental pitch is B ♭. to A, might be described as "in A" to indicate that A is the tonal center of the piece.Īn instrument is "in a key", an unrelated usage that means the pitches considered "natural" for that instrument. A piece using some other type of harmony, resolving e.g. Pieces in modes not corresponding to major or minor keys may sometimes be referred to as being in the key of the tonic. Occasionally, a piece in a mode such as Mixolydian or Dorian is written with a major or minor key signature appropriate to the tonic, and accidentals throughout the 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. The key signature is not always a reliable guide to the key of a written piece. However, the chords most often used in a piece in a particular key are those that contain the notes in the corresponding scale, and conventional progressions of these chords, particularly cadences, orient the listener around the tonic. Methods that establish the key for a particular piece can be complicated to explain and vary over music history. Longer pieces in the classical repertoire may have sections in contrasting keys. Popular songs are usually in a key, and so is classical music during the common practice period, around 1650–1900. The key may be in the major or minor mode, though musicians assume major when this is not specified, e.g., "This piece is in C" implies that the key of the song is C major. Notes and chords other than the tonic in a piece create varying degrees of tension, resolved when the tonic note or chord returns.
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The group features a tonic note and its corresponding chords, also called a tonic or tonic chord, which provides a subjective sense of arrival and rest, and also has a unique relationship to the other pitches of the same group, their corresponding chords, and pitches and chords outside the group. Tonality (from "Tonic") or key: Music which uses the notes of a particular scale is said to be "in the key of" that scale or in the tonality of that scale.
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In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in classical, Western art, and Western pop music. For the DJ Khaled album, see Major Key (album).
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