The Key Certainty

Method

How to guarantee that you’ve picked the right

key
 Key Certainty
When you’re trying to figure out the key of a song, it can be difficult to
know when you’ve got it right or not. No matter how you figure the key
out, there can sometimes be the nagging feeling:

‘What if this isn’t the right key?’

This can suck all your confidence away and force you back into
playing it safe, or even worse – not playing at all.

There is a way past this though. You see, if you’ve got the wrong key,
chances are that you’ve made one of 2 mistakes. They are:

• Thinking the 3rd of the key is the root, and

• Thinking the 5th of the key is the root

Thankfully, you can ‘test’ to make sure you haven’t made these
mistakes. You have your hypothesis – the note you think is the root.
Now you just need to make sure you haven’t made either of these
errors.

To make sure you haven’t mistaken the 5th of the key for the root, all
you need to do is go a 5th down (7 frets down) from your hypothesis
and see if that’s a better fit. If it is, then there’s a chance that this new
note is actually the root.

To make sure you haven’t mistaken the 3rd of the key for the root, you
need to go down a major 3rd (4 frets) if you’re in a major key or down
a minor 3rd (3 frets) for a minor key.

The whole process looks like this:

 Hypothesis
Start Here

Test For The 5th

Go down 7 frets

Sounds Better Sounds Worse

Start the process again
with this new hypothesis

Test For The 3rd

Go down 4 frets (Major Key) or
Go down 3 frets (Minor Key)

Sounds Better Sounds Worse

Start the process again Great Work!
with this new hypothesis You Found The Root
Of The Key
Notice how in every stage of the process you’re testing to see if
something sounds better or worse. If it sounds better, then that new
note is probably going to be a better candidate for the root of the key.

If that’s the case, then simply take your new hypothesis and start the
process again.

However, if the notes you’re testing sound worse, then you’re on the
right track.

Make sure to watch the bonus lesson to see this whole process in
action so you can see and hear how it works.

Also, if you wanted to check your keys using the melodic or the
chordal methods, use the charts below as a guide.
 Melodic Method
Here, you’ll find all the notes of all the different keys. If you’ve found a
melody that contains 6 or 7 of the notes in one of the keys, chances
are, that’s the key of the song.

Major Keys
C Major

C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C

Db Major

Db-Eb-F-Gb-Ab-Bb-C-Db

D Major

D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D

Eb Major

Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb-C-D-Eb

E Major

E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E

F Major

F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F

F# Major

F#-G#-A#-B-C#-D#-E#-F#
 Gb Major

Gb-Ab-Bb-Cb-Db-Eb-F-Gb

G Major

G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G

Ab Major

Ab-Bb-C-Db-Eb-F-G-Ab

A Major

A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A

Bb Major

Bb-C-D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb

B Major

B-C#-D#-E-F#-G#-A#-B
 Minor Keys
C Minor

C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb-C

C# Minor

C#-D#-E-F#-G#-A-B-C#

D Minor

D-E-F-G-A-Bb-C-D

Eb Minor

Eb-F-Gb-Ab-Bb-Cb-Db-Eb

E Minor

E-F#-G-A-B-C-D-E

F Minor

F-G-Ab-Bb-C-Db-Eb-F

F# Minor

F#-G#-A-B-C#-D-E-F#

G Minor

G-A-Bb-C-D-Eb-F-G
 G# Minor

G#-A#-B-C#-D#-E-F#-G#

A Minor

A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A

Bb Minor

Bb-C-Db-Eb-F-Gb-Ab-Bb

B Minor

B-C#-D-E-F#-G-A-B

Bear in mind that each major key has a minor key that uses the exact
same notes. This
 Chordal Method
You can also use the chords you find in a song to determine the key.
Below you’ll find all of the chords in every key for easy reference.

The tricky part though is that pretty much every chord can exist in
more than one key. For example, a G major chord exists in the key of
G, but it also happens in the key of C and also the key of D.

There’s a solution to this problem as well though. If you have the

ability on your device, you can actively search for the chords in the
song you’re working on.

For example, if you had the chords C#min, AMaj, EMaj and BMaj,
you could use the search function for each of those chords. If you did
that, you’d find that only one key uses all four of these chords – the
key of E major.

That means that song is in the key of E major. By the way, you can
search a PDF by pressing Control+F on Windows or Command+F on
a Mac.
Key
C Major/ CMaj Dmin Emin FMaj GMaj Amin Bdim
A Minor
Db Major/ DbMaj Ebmin Fmin GbMaj AbMaj Bbmin Cdim
Bb Minor
D Major/ DMaj Emin F#min GMaj AMaj Bbmin C#dim
B Minor
Eb Major/ EbMaj Fmin Gmin AbMaj BbMaj Cmin Ddim
C Minor
E Major/ EMaj F#min G#min AMaj BMaj C#min D#dim
C# Minor
F Major/ FMaj Gmin Amin BbMaj CMaj Dmin Edim
D Minor
F# Major/ F#Maj G#min A#min BMaj C#Maj D#min E#dim
D# Minor
Gb Major/ GbMaj Abmin Bbmin CbMaj DbMaj Ebmin Fdim
Eb Minor
G Major/ GMaj Amin Bmin CMaj DMaj Emin F#dim
E Minor
Ab Major/ AbMaj Bbmin Cmin DbMaj EbMaj Fmin Gdim
F Minor
A Major/ AMaj Bmin C#min DMaj EMaj F#min G#dim
F# Minor
Bb Major/ BbMaj Cmin Dmin EbMaj FMaj Gmin Adim
G Minor
B Major/ BMaj C#min D#min EMaj F#Maj G#min A#dim
G# Minor

I hope this has been helpful to you. As always, you can reach me
through the site or reply to any email I send you.

Cheers,