How to find the key of a song

As we’ve seen, there are shortcuts to finding the key.

But the problem is they don’t always work and without learning how to ‘feel’ the key, you’ll never know when you’re right or not.

So a much better approach is to learn to recognise the key by ear.

Now, I realise this may sound daunting or challenging, but I promise it’s a lot easier than it sounds.

This is something that’s already inside of you.

In fact, you’ve already put in thousands of hours of practice recognising the key, without even being aware of it.

Every song you’ve ever heard plays around with notes and chords feeling ‘at home’ or not. That tension of moving back and forth from the tonic (aka tonal centre) is what makes music interesting.

In short: because of the tens of thousands of hours you’ve already listened to music, you intuitively already know this stuff.

Our goal is for you to learn to recognise that intuition and develop it so you can use it in everyday playing.

So, how exactly do we do this? How do you learn to recognise the key by ear?

I can write hundreds of words about this, but it’s faster (and more fun) to actually hear and feel what the key and the tonic feel like.

We’ll cover two exercises, Tonic Chord Selector and Tonic Drone.

TONIC CHORD SELECTOR

First, we’ll listen to a song and pick out the tonic chord. (Remember: the tonic chord will tell us what the key is.)

In the exercise below, I’ll play you a song. Below it, is a ‘disguised’ chord progression. Instead of chord names, you’ll see shapes like squares, circles and stars. (This will help you focus on what you hear, instead of thinking about theory.)

When you hit play, a blue playhead will show you what chord/shape is being played.

Now, your job is to click the shape that sounds most ‘at rest’ or ‘at home’ to you. In other words: select the tonic chord!

A few things to listen for:

• When does the song feel ‘at home’ and when is it ‘still on the road’?
• Which chord feels like it’s most ‘at rest’ or ‘at home’ to you?
• Can you imagine the song stopping on a chord? If that sounds funny, it’s probably not the tonic chord. Try pausing the song if you like.

How did it go? Hopefully it went well! Did you notice how the ‘square chord’ sounded most calm and tension-free. Like it didn’t want to anywhere. That square chord is a G major chord, so in this case the key is G major!

TONIC DRONE

This exercise is coming soon!