Don't be - nobody's been shot for setting a chart key wrongly... Yet... ;-DOriginally Posted by nimbleswitch
Exactly how it's done. A general review of chord sequence will then confirm or contradict that indication.My usual, albeit primative, procedure is to note the key signature and figure, e.g., "Two flats, so it's either B flat major or G minor," then I look to see if the final note or chord is one or the other of those, and go with that.
Since you mentioned it, I went to look over what keys you set in the "Fiddler" and "Porgy" songbooks, and found nothing amiss in the "Fiddler" one - its music is pretty straightforward.So, if you find reason to consider the key of any of my postings as something else, please correct me, okay.
In the Gershwin opera, however, the harmonic sequences are often very "irregular", and so it *is* difficult to determine a definite key for some songs.
Some indications in how to determine key from chords follow:
- IT TAKE A LONG PULL: song begins in G major, moves to G minor. Melody would help, in this case, to decide, but it's definitely G ;-) . I find nothing wrong in saying it's in Gm (I would prefer G because it's beginning key, but without seeing melody Gm is fine)
- BESS, YOU IS: song begins in Bb, moves to D, then F# (probably 2 flats in key signature that change en route?). Bb is ok because it's the starting key of a multi-key song
- RED-HEADED: the song is in Bb (you set C). There's Bbs all over, F7s before them, and C7s which are secondary dominants. A give-away is Gb7, which is flatted VI of Bb. Song also begins and ends in Bb (not counting Intro). No flats in chart? Bad choice by publishers... ;-D
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