Keys and tonality
- Major keys usually sound bright and happy; minor keys usually sound darker or sadder.
- Modal music uses modes (older scales, such as the Dorian mode), common in folk music.
- Atonal music has no key centre, common in some 20th-century music.
- Pentatonic scales have five notes; they are used in folk, blues and many world musics.
Modulation
- Modulation is changing key during a piece, to add variety and interest.
- Common modulations are to related keys: the dominant (the key five notes above), the subdominant, and the relative major or minor.
- The relative minor shares the same key signature as its major: A minor is the relative minor of C major.
- A key change up a step near the end of a pop song gives a lift of energy.
Hearing tonality
- Listen to the overall mood, the chords (major chords sound bright) and the final chord.
- In an exam, you may be asked to identify the key at the start and end, or whether it modulates.
Key terms
- Tonality
- Whether music is major, minor, modal or atonal.
- Major
- A key or chord that usually sounds bright.
- Minor
- A key or chord that usually sounds darker.
- Modulation
- Changing key during a piece.
- Relative minor
- The minor key that shares a major key's key signature.
- Atonal
- Music with no key centre.
- Pentatonic scale
- A scale of five notes.