#Music keys definition series#

Along the way, you will gain a richer understanding of the more basic musical devices we will use to create that groundwork.

#Music keys definition series#

In this article series we will establish a clear and working groundwork for what keys are and what they can do for you. To be sure, there are many kinds of music that do not rely on keys as the basis for their compositional design, however as students of Western Classical, Jazz, and Pop music, we will constantly encounter music constructed using keys. Keys themselves are derived from what many consider to be a very natural inclination within our musical minds to perceive structure and the resolution of dissonance in music. The truth is that an understanding of keys is a deeply valuable tool for learning music. Why is this? Why are keys one of the most used but least-well comprehended of musical devices amongst beginning and intermediate learners?Īs with many of music’s more dynamic technical or theoretical ways of thinking, the answer is far less about the ‘what’ than about the ‘how.’ How are keys used? How do we understand them more easily? How can they help us in the study of the music we’d like to learn? Most deeper studies of keys typically fall within the precincts of college study. Even then, many students have achieved a fair amount of competence on their instrument working under the simple impression that more accidentals in the key signature means a more complicated key. Many teachers refrain from teaching much further into the topic of keys until students are more experienced and more easily able to digest the theory and technicalities. We learn that this key signature indicates which notes will be sharped or flatted throughout the piece until its end, or until we encounter another key signature. But what does it really mean to be 'in the key' of something?Īs beginners, we learn that it in some way refers to the number of sharps or flats ( accidentals ) we encounter at the beginning of a piece. Minuets in the key of G, Sonatas in the key of A, Nocturnes in the key of E minor, Fugues in the key of F#, and so on. “ In the key of… ” - we rarely get far into our musical endeavors before we find ourselves faced with this phrase.