how do you know when a piece of music is in a minor or major key?

Question

for example C major and A minor share the same key signature but how do you know if the piece of music is in the major or the minor key?

what if you are sight reading a peice of music - how will you know??

Answer 1

If you are listening to a piece of music the major key will sond more cheerful and uplifting, the minor key will soung sadder, more mysteious and even sinister.

Answer 2

"would either the relative major or minor be an acceptable answer?" if you are just given the key signature, yes. If you are shown the sheet music, no. Barring atonal pieces (no fixed tonal centre) the expected answer to your example is C major or A minor. Most pieces finish in the key, so looking at the final bar / measure will give you a clue. C major notes will be C, E and G. A minor will be A, C and E. If you see a G there, it is C major. If you see an A, then it is A minor. The first full bar / measure should contain the notes of the tonal chord, too. If you have anacrusis (a partial bar / measure at the beginning, sometimes called pick-up or lead-in notes) this won't necessarily help. Also, in a minor scale the 7th note is sharpened. If the scale is A minor, then the next A is the 8th note, the octave. The note below that (G) is the 7th note, so if you see G# written somewhere in the piece, it is a big clue that you are in A minor.

Answer 3

Because the scales have different intervals. The minor scale has a flattened third, which gives it the characteristically sad sound.

On the keyboard, the triad for C major is C-E-G, and that for C minor is C-Eb-G. If you play those over you will see that the minor key has a characteristic shading.

A major has as its triad A-C#-E, whereas the minor version is A-C-E (the third flattened). You will see that despite being in a different key, the major and minor versions preserve their characteristic modality.

PS: In answer to the poster below, Hava Nagila might sound happy, but the reason might be that it is not in a minor key. In fact it is, like much Jewish music, modal, and is in the mode known as 'Freygish', an altered Phrygian mode. Also known by the Arabs as 'Hijaz'.

In answer to the original poster's PS, if you are talking about the appearance of the music, A minor will tend to finish on an A minor chord, or at least an A, whereas C major will close on a C major triad usually. Also A minor will tend to contain a lot of G-sharps.

Answer 4

You are in danger of losing the plot.
It only matters which key it is in if you can do something about it, tronbones, Guitars Viols etc can accomodate the difference between Minor and Major scales Piano, Organ, Trumpet, Sax cannot because their relative pitch between notes is largely fixed.they are in "Even or Equal Temperament.
The trouble is the relationships between intervals based on Thirds which give that wonderful harmony which charactorises Western Music, fits uneasily with Octaves and so each individual scale needs different pitch for each note to optimise it,
Pianos have brought in standardiation with each interval between motes being the same yet unaccompaied choirs will automatically adjust their pitch to comform to the true value ofd the notes they are singing, that is why unaccompanied choir or those accompanied by String quartets sound so much better, also early Beatles, No Piano so real harmonies.
Roy Rowe a top Brass Band Soprano cornet player did an article in the British Bandsman about this, or look on the net for the Even Tempered Clavichord
see
http://www.kirnberger.fsnet.co.uk/Temps3.htm for a bit more insight
People who know whether music is major or Minor key are anoraks not Musicians, I arrange music and it has never bothered me, it just needs to sound good, Piano players usually bang out the same chords depending on what key they are in and ignore what is written on the music, while I write 4 seperate choral parts and nstrumental parts and if the piano part is unplayable, mine often need 3 hands, I just dont care

Answer 5

It will really help if you know your scales well, then you should be able to tell by the sharps/flats in the sight reading piece whether it is minor or major.

Alternatively, just start playing it and if it sounds more uplifting and upbeat to you then it is major, if not then it's probably minor.

Answer 6

Good answers so far, but let me be thorough. For one thing, it can often be hard to tell. The first song of Schumann's Dichterliebe, for example, is notoriously ambiguous.

Here are the main ways, though. What is the first chord in the piece? What is the last chord in the piece?

Do you see lots of what is called the "leading tone"? That is the raised 7th scale degree (e.g. g sharp in a minor.)

There are three forms of the minor scale the notes that change are the sixth and seventh scale degrees. For the sake of clarity, I'll deal with a minor:

Natural-"un-raised" 6th and 7th
a-b-c-d-e-f-g-a

Harmonic-raised 7th
a-b-c-d-e-f-g#-a

Melodic-raised 6th and 7th going up, lowered going down:
a-b-c-d-e-f#-g#-a
a-g-f-e-d-c-b-a

In "Western" music we tend to think of Major as "happy" and minor as "sad." This is not universal. "Hava nagila", for example, is a happy song, but is in minor.

Hope that helps!

Answer 7

Look at the last note or chord: that is usually a dead giveaway.

Also look for accidentals. If the key signature is C's, but there are G#'s, you may be in a minor.

Answer 8

It has to do with what it is being applied to usually. For example the tune "The Right Time" is in D minor which is actually F major but because it's a blues jazz piece it is regarded as being a minor scale.

Answer 9

By looking at any accidentals in the piece

Answer 10

by the root note or the chords