Key

The tonal centre a piece of music is written in, named by its tonic note and described as major or minor.

The key is the gravitational centre of a piece: it names the scale the melody is drawn from and the chord the music tends to return to. On guitar the key is usually chosen for practical reasons, since open strings and familiar shapes make some keys far easier than others, which is why so much guitar music sits in E, A, D and G. The key is not fixed for the whole piece, and a change of key, called a modulation, is one of the strongest effects available in songwriting.

Example: A song whose chords and melody keep returning to the note and chord of G is in the key of G.

Key

See also