How to Find Out What Key You're In Video Lecture - Guitar Become a Pro

life offers a lot of mundane questions
like what key am I in what's the scale
how did you get into my house and why
are you wearing my pants but living in
ignorance is not the answer so today
we're going to learn how to find out
what key you're in if you know the
chords that you're playing now I'm
probably gonna do a couple videos on
this like how to find out what key
you're in if you don't know the chords
and what to do when you're in a key but
we're just going to learn some tips on
how to find out what key you're in if
you know the chords and assuming that
the song doesn't have a key change is on
the same key so what is a key in music a
key is essentially just a group of notes
that sound good together these notes can
be combined to make chords and chords
can be combined to make progressions or
songs if you were to say a song is in G
or in the key of G all that means is
you're using the notes from the G Major
scale to make all the chords and make
the progression so it all comes down to
the major scale like things usually do
in music now the major scale are just
seven different notes and these same
rules apply to any key that you're in
right so we have notes one two three
four five six seven each one of these
notes can become a chord right and the
chord that it becomes depends on which
note you start on for example the first
note in any key like in the key of C C
would be the first note that becomes a
major chord
if you were to make a triad out of it
I'll link to a video in case you want to
learn more about how to make triad stuff
like that too but just remember that the
first note the fourth note and the fifth
note all become major chords also the
second the third and the sixth note all
become minor chords the seventh note
becomes what's called a diminished chord
now I've got videos on how to make all
these things and using the major minor
scale stuff too but right now we're just
going to zoom that you know that one
four and five become major chords two
three and six become minor chords and
seven become diminished chords so this
is really helpful information and being
able to discern what key you're in if
you know a couple of these chords
because it's just a pattern and you can
just plug in the cores until you find
the right one
alright so the main tip and usually how
I find a key is that I'll look for
commonalities of different chords in a
key
so for example what I mean by that the
first thing I see when I see the 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 thing is I noticed that the 4 & 5
major chords are right next to each
other right so if we had a progression
that had an F and a G in it right F and
G sit right next to each other right in
the alphabet and also in in a major
scale so if I see a song with an F and a
G in it I know the right next to each
other I know that I can plug those in to
the fourth and fifth slots for the
chords and then I can kind of reverse
engineer backwards to find out that I'm
in the key of C now I can do the same
thing with minor chords as we've seen
the second and third notes of any Heat
become minor chords right so let's say
the only information I have to operate
is a song has the notes or the chords a
minor and B minor alright I can find out
what key that is because I know that a
and B are right next to each other so I
know that a has to be the second note B
has to be the third note and I can
reverse engineer that to find out that
I'm in the key of G and G being the
first note now sometimes it's not going
to be as easy as this sometimes you'll
have keys that share common chords right
like let's say I have a C and a G right
though that's that's all I know in the
chord progression right or even let's
say let's even add another one like a C
major a G major and a minor right so I
could be like alright well maybe I'll
take that C major and I'm gonna think
I'm in the key of C because I play to
see first right so I can populate
everything else and I see the G major
that fits us in the fifth spot
and also that a minor chord that we have
that fits it's also in the sixth spot
right but what if I was actually in the
key of G therefore that first chord I
play is a C right if I populate a C as
being in the four spot G a B C right
then G would be in the first spot and a
would be in the second spot so sometimes
you actually don't have enough
information to find out what key you're
in in that case you kind of have to use
your ears and try to figure out where
the resolution is that's why kind of a
misnomer that I see a lot of players and
I've heard actually like a lot of really
good players
think is like the first chords you hear
is the key that you're in like if a song
starts with Gia
a lot of people will think well maybe
that's a G major chord sometimes that is
the case and maybe more often than not
it is but that's not a rule that's just
kind of like an indication of maybe it
is in the key of G and is giving you a
good idea of where to go now some chords
will also be a dead giveaway as to what
key you're in right and that's going to
be the diminished chord if you ever see
a diminished chord or a minor 7 flat 5
chord which is a type of diminished
chord you know that is occurring only on
the seventh note in a key so if you see
a B minor seven flat five and again
we're operating under the premise that
everything is in the same key which
isn't always true musi can go out of the
key you can add chords from other keys
and stuff like that too but if we see a
diminished chord or a minor 7 flat 5
chord we know that that's going to be
the seventh note so we just have to go
up a half step to find the first note
which would be C so B minor 7 flat 5 or
B diminished only truly exists in one
key where it's the seven again this is
plugging those numbers in another one is
if you ever see a 7 chord like a d7
chord a dominant 7 chord it's a really
popular one right well that chord
actually technically only exists within
a key on the fifth note so you would
plug a D into five and then you account
you can count forwards or backwards
again right so like if D is 5 B is 6
f-sharp is 7 and G is 1 so you can find
out that you're in the key of G so the
most helpful tip that I can give you to
find out what key you're in is to start
looking at relationships between chords
and see where the 4 and the 5 and the
major chords are together see what's
closed these intervals of course are
going to be really important to kind of
distinguish in songwriting and just
being able to kind of like figure out
what key you're in what to do in
different keys and eventually you'll
start seeing all these patterns and
you'll see a group of chords and you
won't even have to plug them in you'll
just know okay all this has a F sharp in
it so I know I can't be in the key of C
stuff like that just little things like
that go a long way and a first thing
might seem kind of daunting trying to
like remember all this stuff but if you
just remember there's only 7 spaces for
notes and each of these notes can become
a chord therefore those only seven
chords I can always reverse engineer my
way to find out what key I'm in just by
I mentally plugging in those notes but
most importantly just keep in mind these
are just tips to try to help you find
out what key you're in if you need help
with that like it's just music theory
these aren't hard rules if you're
writing a song you don't always have to
have all the chords lined up in the
spaces you can always just really do
whatever you want and just follow your
ear and do it sounds good
it's always helpful to know what key
you're in because then you have more
options and it's easier to communicate
with other musicians and it's also kind
of like a way to guarantee that you'll
never truly be stuck because you can
always just randomly pick another one of
those numbers to find a chord or find an
arpeggio or really find anything and
you'll never be stuck because you can
always randomly pick a number and you're
good to go it's going to sound great