The Key To The Mystery
by Kirk Lorange
As a learner of the guitar and the system we call music, I was always
aware of the term 'Key'. I was also aware that it was important to know
what it meant -- the name itself indicated that it was fundamental --
trouble was, no one could define it for me. Here is my definition:
The key is the family of notes and chords
generated by the Major Scale.
Simple as that.
Unfortunately, the way music has been labeled and notated over the
centuries, the straight forwardness of it all is often clouded.
First of all, the scale is not really a series of notes, so much as a
series of intervals: tone tone semitone, tone tone tone semitone. Pick
any of the 12 notes as the starting note, apply the template, and you'll wind up with 7 notes that sound like 'do re mi' when you play them in
sequence.
Secondly, because of the way music evolved, only 7 notes got named: A,
B, C, D, E, F and G. But there are 12 in all, so 5 wound up with the
sharp/flat tag. To a beginner, these notes seem to be different from the rest. They're not.
Third, the sequence, the template, the recipe, the formula, the scale -- whatever you want to call it -- is not symmetrical. It's uneven. Tone
Tone semitone, Tone Tone Tone semitone. It's all over the place. Why?
Because physics dictated this series of intervals without regard to
symmetry. The science of vibrating sound waves gave us this formula. It
wasn't invented so much as tweaked and refined from Nature herself. The
consequence of this unevenness is that the chords generated by the scale have different flavors. 3 are major, 3 minor and one is half diminished.
Fourth, the rules of music don't prohibit the use of chords from outside the key, in fact it happens all the time. Many, many well known hits use
chords that are from outside the key, in fact their use is often the
reason they become hits. They contribute to the 'hook' that grabs the
attention.
Added to all that, the guitar itself is a great source of confusion with its multiplicity of repeat notes, its uneven tuning and the fact that
the strings end at the nut.
Nonetheless, despite all the above, knowing your keys remains the best
way to keep an overview of music, as the key provides a constant, a
context, to which all else can be referred. And what exactly do I mean
by 'knowing your keys'?
Well, know, for example, that the One Chord -- the chord built by
selecting three alternate scale notes starting with the first -- is the
chord which everything revolves around, and which everything resolves
to. It's the boss chord.
Know that the three major chords are in fact the One, Four and Five
chords. These three chords are the basis of hundreds of thousands of
tunes. These are the 'twelve bar blues' chords.
Know that the Five chord is the chord that brings you home to the One
chord, and that the scale allows for it to be a 7th chord, indeed
demands it be so.
Know that the Six chord is the main minor chord and that it is so close
to being the One chord that it's called the Relative Minor. It's like
the minor counterpart of the One chord.
Know that the Seven chord, the half diminished, can be better viewed as
another Five chord.
Know that all 12 keys are the same, that the way the 7 chords relate to
each other is the same for all.
Know that the more you remind yourself which chords are which, the
easier it becomes to recognize them by ear, the easier it becomes to
locate yourself within the key and play through the changes. Most of us
know the sound of the 12 bar blues chords, the sound of E, A, B7.
Hearing the others is just as easy.
Know that each of the seven chords has a specific function within the
key, and that the sound of each tends to lead our ear to another chord.
Know that it will become second nature to you, with enough practice, to
be able to hear piece of music as a chord progression and label it as,
for example --One chord, Six chord, Four chord, Five Chord -- Or One
chord, Three Chord, Four chord, Five chord.
Know that eventually the key will become exactly that -- the key which
will unlock the mystery of how all these seemingly inconsistent elements add up to Music, capital M.
Visit Kirk on the web at http://www.lorange.kirk.net or
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com
