What key is this in?

[bassmonkey]

As a bass player I find it difficult to figure out what key a song is in. It's easier for keyboard/guitar players as they are used to thinking harmonically.

It's useful for bass players, though, in that it helps when analysing a song, seeing what notes the original bassist used and how this fits with the song.

Anyone got any tips on how to figure out the key, sometimes it isn't just the root note of the first bar.

I'll give you an example, I've been trying to figure out the key for Taste of Honey "Boogie Oogie Oogie". I think it might be Dmaj7, but I'm probably wrong.

 

[bassmonkey]

Oh yeah, bonus points for anyone who can tell me the song which features the title of this thread in it.

Clue:It's spoken at the start of the track by a band member, he repeats the phrase twice.

 

[SteveB]

Oh yeah, bonus points for anyone who can tell me the song which features the title of this thread in it.

Clue:It's spoken at the start of the track by a band member, he repeats the phrase twice.

Sting, Shadows in the Rain?

 

[bassmonkey]

Sting, Shadows in the Rain?

Bingo! Buy that man a beer.

I believe it was Darryl "The Munch" Jones speaking, on the album "Dream of the Blue Turtles".

Back to the thread, surely some of you music theory whizzes can answer my question!

 

[mrpackerguy]

I'll take a stab at it.

I wouldn't necessarily go by the first note of the song. Lots of songs start out on the V chord or have intros that don't start on the tonic or have intros that mimic the changes at the bridge.

If you know basic music theory, you're going to be able to figure it out by the chord progressions you're playing. I never get in the situation where I have to figure out what key we're in, but most songs will turn on the V and if it's preceded by the IV, you're in business with the next change. Notes you end up at when phrases turn, seem to frequently end up on the tonic. Most verses seem to end up on the tonic as well before heading to the chours.

Bottom line: I don't think there is any scientific or fool proof way to instantly know what key you're in unless you have perfect pitch. These are just some of the ways I can think of as I go through some tunes in my head.

 

[armybass]

Boogie Oogie Oogie is in D minor or F major. It centers around the D minor vi chord. I really think theory is a must for stuff like this man. You can not get all "keys" from the chord or tonal center of a tune.....

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

The intervalic relationships are usually the quickest way to tell in a song with a single key. Learn how each interval sounds as best as you can. The tonic is usually pretty easy to hear. Listen for the seventh- is it a half or whole step below the root? From there, if you can find the third, you can usually tell what key it is. It helps that most rock, country, funk, and r&b stuff sticks with ionian or natural minor patterns most of the time- makes for very fast recognition of the key.

A lot of jazz stuff is tougher to determine as there's often several key changes, along with the use of modes that aren't used very often in popular music; you may hear the seventh going up a half step to the tonic that would make you assume "Ionian" in popular music circumstances when it could in fact be Lydian.

BTW, Dmaj7 is a chord, not a key.

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Boogie Oogie Oogie is in D minor or F major. It centers around the D minor vi chord. I really think theory is a must for stuff like this man. You can not get all "keys" from the chord or tonal center of a tune.....

Edit: hey, editing your posts edits the quotes as well To clarify a tiny bit for the original poster, you mean the VI chord of the key of F major. A D minor VI chord is a whole different thing- I'm sure you meant the right thing- I just didn't want him to get confused.

Also, if the song you're playing sticks to one key (which most rock and funk songs do), there are a couple ways to tell what key it is from just one chord. The easiest is if you know the sound of a dominant (V7) chord, you can easily tell the key, as there's only one 7 chord in every key, as opposed to the multiple major and minor chords in each key.

But with most popular music stuff, just listen for the root and the seventh. 90% of the rock/funk stuff out there is in natural minor, so that's always a good place to start. Being able to tell if a chord sounds like a major or minor is a must, and pretty easy to do. Hearing dominants or half-diminished is a bit tougher.

 

[bassmonkey]

Cheers Bryan and Armybass. Very helpful.


What I was tryng to do was look at the notes I was playing, arrange them into a scale and therefore tell which key the song is in. Is it not possible to do it that way? Shouldn't the song only contain notes from the scale for that key? Other than passing notes, of course, but they are usually fairly obvious.

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

That's pretty much what I was describing, although the ability to hear what the intervals are between the notes will allow you to tell the key quickly without having to write them down. The thing is a lot of songs don't play every note in a key- they often skip the 2 and the 6 and base themselves on pentatonic scales. Just keep listening and you'll eventually be able to pick out the key by playing two or three notes to see where they fit in against the sound of the song. The best practice is playing with a guitarist who doesn't know the keys he's playing in, so you have to figure it out quickly