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Guitar chord forum - chordie → About Chordie → Including the key of the song on the chord page
I usually play with a piano player so knowing what the key of the song is is important. Right now, I have to look at the original source of the chord chart to see what it is. Would it be possible to have that information displayed as well, and possibly have a way to browse songs by key?
Welcome Kesmit,
I will answer your second question first. Every single chorded song shown on Chordie can be transposed into whatever key you want it to be in with two button clicks so a search by key is not necessary. Look to the right of the screen for 'Transpose chords' click the button on the right , select how many semi-tones up or down you want then click on that, and you are now in your chosen key.
Your first question I find harder to understand so if I am barking up the wrong tree, I apologise. Many years ago when I was taking piano lessons (a skill sadly long since forgotten) I was taught from a music score where the number of sharps or flats signified the key used, but I gather from a friend that it is possible to play piano/keyboard from just using chords as we do with guitar but I would have thought that a pianist would be able to determine the key himself from the chords used. I do not understand how looking at the source chord chart helps as by looking at the chords used in the song in front of you should tell you what key it is in. For instance if the the predominant chords are Am, C, F and G7 the key is C. Also in C you will find D, Dm, Em and Bb commonly used too.
After writing that I have just remembered something!! Take a look at: http://www.chordie.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=8500 the same question was posed and answered in the Theory section a while ago.
Perhaps someone with more understanding of piano/keyboard can help you better with this.
Roger
These the I, IV and V chords for the main major keys for 'easy' guitar. There will be minor chords in between but you can usually recognise the key fom it's 3 major chords.
Key of A: A, D, E
Key of C: C, F, G
Key of D: D, G, A
Key of E: E, A, B
Key of G: G, C, D
Get the pianist to play the 3 chords and (s)he should be able to recognise the key.
I've read elsewhere that generally the last chord played in a song will show what key it's in. A lot of the time the 1st chord will be the key and will be the same as the last chord. This is not a rule but generally speaking if the last chord is not the key then it sounds a bit off.
So if the last key is a D then the song is in the key of D.
I sit back and wait for this to be torn apart by the theory buffs amoung us. Pile in!
Very often the song starts and ends on the key chord but not always.
But I do agree that showing the key is a good idea. If a song is in Chordpro format the key can be included.
Guitar chord forum - chordie → About Chordie → Including the key of the song on the chord page
