Quote:
Originally Posted by wcostley
carol m
I'll be interested in hearing what Fretsource has to say about how you find the key, because with the little I have learned, your way seems like it should be right, but in reading through all of the 3 pages on this subject, I'm in way over my head on the subject.
Skip............ 
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Hi Skip
Carol's method will get you the key 99% of the time. Sometimes, though, the notes suggest a certain key but it's actually in a different key.
I've uploaded a short midi file of a well-known song that shows what I mean.
Scarborough Fair:
The melody notes are
DDAFEFED
ACDCABGA
DDDCAAGFEC
DAGFEDCD
And the chords used are Dm,F,C and G
Not a single sharp or flat in sight. So the notes by themselves suggest that this song is in the key of C major.
Listening to it though tells you what the key actually is. Listen to the last note 'D'. It has a restful final quality to it that tells you that this is the key note . So the key MUST be D something. The first and last chords too are D minor - which really nails it. The key can only be D minor.
Listen to the quality of the song. It has a soft melancholy feel that is typical of a song in a minor key. It certainly doesn't have the strong happy go lucky sound that we associate with MAJOR keys. (e.g. Happy Birthday - You can't get more major sounding than that)
So the key of Scarborough Fair (this version) is D minor.
But the key of D minor has a key signature of 1 flat, which is B flat, yet this song contains B natural and no B flat.
It doesn't matter. The key is still D minor as can be clearly heard, especially at the last note (D) and chord (D minor).
The reason for that B natural is because the song, instead of using notes of the usual D minor scale (DEFGABbCD), is using the notes of a closely related scale called the Dorian Mode - or D Dorian in this case.
The notes of D Dorian are DEFGABCD - exactly the same notes as C major (CDEFGABC) - but, as you can hear, that's just a misleading coincidence in this case, because D is clearly the keynote and D minor is the key chord, so the key of the song is D minor (or D Dorian to be more precise than is necessary.)