What key? / Theory

[fourmations]

hi all

I am self taught (and tabs help too )

how do I know what key a song is in?
I have been playing 15yrs and still dont know
I can "wing" it when playing, but dont really understand

i have asked this elsewhere but was bogged down in the technicality,
is there any easy way to explain it? good links?

rgds

4

[mynameisjonas]

this is a good guide:

http://chordmaps.com/

so, lets take "little fury things" as an example. the verse is D, E, C#m, D. look in the chart and you will see that D, E and C#m are the IV, V and III of A. you will not find them together in any other key, so therefore the song is in the key of A. this becomes more apparent in the riff part, which starts with an A and then a Dmaj7. when you play the A chord you kinda feel like you are "home" or at the "starting point".


this is just a very simple way of explaining it, and as you may know a lot of songs don't have just one key.

[mezcalhead]

The key of a song is generally the first chord, in a rock context anyway ..  or as Jonas describes it better, it's the chord that sounds like home.

The key may change during the song, and I guess strictly speaking if you start playing chords that aren't in that key then you've changed key .. but many rock songs aren't really firmly in one key anyway.

If you have sheet music then the key is written at the start (the sharp/flat symbols just before the time signature).

I don't necessarily find it a useful concept in rock (when I say rock here, I just mean not jazz/classical/etc). Why do you want to know what the key is?

[fourmations]

thanks guys

jonas: I've never seen it so simply put, thanks a million

Mez: I play lots of lead and thats my focus at the moment
I want to know the keys for soloing purposes
(and cos I've always wanted to know)

on a total sideline....why does J spell it "fury" (anger) when he means "furry" (a rabbit!)

rgds

4

[mynameisjonas]

on a total sideline....why does J spell it "fury" (anger) when he means "furry" (a rabbit!)

yeah i've been wondering about that too. i've always pronounced it "little furry things", thinking that's what the song is called. i only recently realized that it said "fury" on the album cover...

[Surfoverb]

on a total sideline....why does J spell it "fury" (anger) when he means "furry" (a rabbit!)

Pun?

[fourmations]

on a total sideline....why does J spell it "fury" (anger) when he means "furry" (a rabbit!)

yeah i've been wondering about that too. i've always pronounced it "little furry things", thinking that's what the song is called. i only recently realized that it said "fury" on the album cover...

jonas - it is little pronounced furry things (as in the rabbit)
on a youtube vid on the go at the moment J introduces the song (in his inimitable fashion)
"this is a song about furry little things, its called little furry things"!

surfo - probably a pun, but the rabbit in question doesnt seem angry in the lyrics! 

I actually thought it was "grab, it falls away from me" for ages
(a tab doing the rounds has it as that as well)

rgds

4