- Hi.
We've got a number of
videos out there on YouTube
that pose a question like this.
Here's a melody, name the key.
I wonder what you make of this one
and if you want to,
you could kind of pause for a moment,
have a look through,
and consider the matter
then come back and join me.
Otherwise, just stick with me,
that's absolutely fine.
So, here we've got accidentals
appearing in a melody,
but we haven't got a key signature
and we're trying to work
out what we're dealing with.
Now, the first thing that
you might notice about this
if you're trying to name the key
is that we've got a bit of
a mixture of accidentals
because we've got a sharp,
we've got quite a lot of flats,
and then we've got that natural sign,
which in a way we don't need
because it's what we call
a cautionary accidental,
it's just sort of thrown in
when a composer might think there's a risk
of a performer misreading the note.
That in itself is a little bit of a clue,
which we'll come to.
But the fact that there's a
mixture of flats and sharps
is telling us that we're in a minor key.
So, start thinking
minor rather than major.
This situation is also a clue
because why would we
have F-sharp in one place
and then just a few notes later,
just two notes later in this case,
F-natural?
It's because when we're in a minor key,
remember in a harmonic minor scale,
the seventh note is raised.
In a melodic minor scale,
the sixth and the seventh notes are raised
when the scale goes up
and they are not raised
when the scale comes down,
they just follow the key signature.
So, in a melody that's likely
to be using some melodic
minor along the way,
there may just be a hint of these notes
at the top of the scale
being little bit of a mixture of things
and there's your classic example.
An F-sharp there followed
a couple of notes later
by an F-natural.
It's most likely, not
universally the case,
but it's most likely that this
will be something to do with
the seventh degree of the scale.
So, if we're looking
at F-sharp, F-natural,
one thing you might want to consider
is, well, if that's the
seventh degree of the scale,
we might be in the key of G minor
because G is the eighth
degree of the scale,
or the first degree of
the scale up the octave,
whichever way you like to look at it.
So, could this piece of music
be in the key of G minor?
Well, if we're in the key of G minor,
we need to know our key
signatures here, don't we?
But if we do know our key signatures,
then we'll know that G
minor has got two flats.
It's related to B-flat major,
and the two flats are B-flat and E-flat.
So let's have a look at
that, sort of, possibility.
Well, there's a B-flat there,
there's another B-flat there,
there's an E-flat there.
So, yeah, maybe we're
thinking about G minor.
If we are in G minor, it
sort of confirms why we might
have the F-sharp and F-natural.
So, just looking at the opening of this
we seem to be moving in
the direction of thinking
we're in the key of G minor.
Let's see if there are any other clues.
Sometimes looking at the
first note is helpful
because it might start on the tonic,
the first degree of the scale,
but it doesn't always do that.
This one doesn't.
If it starts on B-flat,
well, I mean you could be forgiven
for thinking you've seen a couple of flats
so therefore it's in B-flat major,
but it's not in B-flat major
because we've talked about the F-sharp.
However, look at these first two bars.
Look at the notes that you've got.
We start on B-flat, we come down to G,
then we go to D, back
to G, back to B-flat.
So, those notes spell out
the tonic chord in G minor,
chord I.
G, B-flat, D.
So even though it's a melody,
there's a kind of
implication for the harmony.
The opening melody notes are
these, the first two bars.
So if I've got those three notes,
there's my chord in G minor,
G, B-flat, and D.
And all these notes would fit it.
So that's helping us to see
that the melody has an
implication for the harmony
and the harmony is shouting
chord I in G minor at us.
So that's a really firm bit of validation
of this notion of G minor.
Then we get to the next
bar, we see the F-sharp
and we see G just before
it, G just after it,
and then we see F-natural and we think,
yeah, we've got it cracked.
We don't need to look at anything else
because we're in the key of G minor.
Well that holds water until
this point in the piece.
But I've purposefully thrown
in an extra challenge.
I wonder how many people
have managed to see this
earlier in the video.
We start in the key of G minor.
The question is, does the
melody stay in G minor?
Because one possibility
is that the melody might stay in G minor.
Another is that it might modulate,
it might move to another key.
Oh my goodness.
Well let's have a look
and see if we think that
could possibly have happened.
Well, E-flat, that belongs
to G minor doesn't it?
So there's nothing too
worrying about that.
When we come down here, though,
you might start to be troubled
by the time you get to this bar.
Why are we looking at B-natural?
Two B-naturals in that bar, aren't there?
And if we were in the key of G minor,
well in the key signature we have B-flat,
and B-flat's the third degree of the scale
so it's not the sixth or the seventh,
those notes that like to get changed
in a melodic minor scale.
It's the third degree of the scale.
So why on earth would I
be looking at B-naturals
if I was in the key of G minor?
The simple answer is you won't be
unless something untoward has happened
like we've modulated to another key.
Now, interestingly,
we've still got E-flat.
So if we've got G minor with two flats,
the first flat is B-flat,
the second flat is E-flat.
We're now in a curious situation
by the end of this, aren't we,
where we can see E-flat
but we can't see B-flat.
And, in fact, when we see
B it's not B-flat at all,
it's B-natural.
How could that be?
Well, if B-flat's the first flat
and E-flat's the second flat,
we've got the second flat but
we haven't got the first flat,
that means we have to be in a minor key.
But we can't be in G minor,
so we must have modulated
to another minor key.
Now, why would I not have
the B-flat, the first flat,
but I would have the
second flat, the E-flat?
Possibly because the
first flat, the B-flat
is the note that's being changed.
Now, if you take a B-flat and
you raise it by a semitone,
it becomes B-natural
and that's what you would expect to happen
at the top of a melodic minor scale,
or the top of a harmonic scale.
So, could it be that in fact
B started life being flat,
but it's been raised
so we've now got B-natural?
Okay, that could be telling us
that, in fact, that B-natural
is the seventh degree
of a minor scale.
So if it's the seventh
degree of a minor scale,
what would be the minor scale?
It would be C minor.
Hmm, let's have a think about C minor.
Interesting.
The melody finishes on a C.
So if it is C minor, it's
gone home to the tonic.
It's kind of reinforced here
because there's another C here
so we're going to go C,
then we go three, two, one to
kind of confirm the C again.
So C minor's looking like a
distinct possibility, isn't it?
But let's just check it out
because C minor's got
three flats, hasn't it?
B-flat, E-flat, and A-flat.
We're happy that we've got E-flat,
we're happy that the B-flat
might have been changed
to a B-natural.
What about the A-flat?
And in fact, here, we've got A-natural.
So what's that A-natural doing there?
Well remember, A-flat is the sixth degree
in the scale of C minor.
If it's been raised because
we're using melodic minor,
then that A-flat is going
to be raised by a semitone
to A-natural.
Aha!
So could it be that this
is a raised six in C minor?
The answer is yes it is.
And another thing is
you wouldn't really want
to write a B-natural
followed by an A-flat
followed by a B-natural
because it would give
us a melodic interval
of an augmented second
which sounds a bit odd.
You know, when I play the
top of a harmonic minor scale
that comes down B-natural, A-flat.
Can you hear the problem?
It's got a certain kind
of oriental feel to it.
So we tend not to make
that interval happen
which is one reason why
we use the melodic minor.
So having used the B-natural,
then we also have A-natural.
So this is the seventh
and the sixth degree of
the scale being raised.
So, we have a melody
that begins in G minor,
modulates at the midway point,
and ends up in C minor.
Now I wonder if you can kind of hear that
when I play the melody.
So, here's G minor.
This is how the melody goes.
Now, can you hear that
change of key halfway through
when you suddenly think
oh, the ground's just slipped
from underneath me a bit.
It's a kind of smooth transition
from one key to another
but we've actually moved, haven't we?
You might hear it more plainly
if I put some chords in with this.
There's G minor at the beginning.
Here's C minor at the end.
So G minor might go something like this.
Now listen to the modulation.
And there we are, in C minor at the end.
So I hope that's given
you some useful practise
in spotting keys and spotting modulation.
