A challenge !

Paul_C

I've got a series of chords that I'm playing with, which I like a lot, but trying to find which key part of the song is in has so far got me stumped.

It doesn't matter a huge amount to me but I thought I'd throw it out there to see what people with a better knowledge of theory make of it

The first part contains Em, B7, Am, F#dim and Cmaj - which various places tell me is E Harmonic Minor.

The second part, however, has Gmaj7, Cmaj, Dmin7, Am and B7 and I'm not sure they fit anywhere, so I assume I'm jumping keys somewhere

If possible, can someone enlighten me ?

Brad

I'd say the second part is overall G major with a little detour. You can look at it a number of ways, it depends on how you want to treat the D-7 and if you want to include the Am in that detour...

You could look at everything in G just D-7 being a ii of C so Cmaj for that bar.

Or D-7 being a ii and Am being a vi of C major.

Or D-7 being a vi and Am being a iii of F major (less keen on this personally).
 

Paul_C

G major doesn't have a D minor (Dmin7) or a B major (B7) though.

Phil_aka_Pip

@Brad makes sense 
Given that the first part is in Em, you could maybe treat the Gmaj7 as its relative major and then treat the Cmaj7, D-7, A- sequence as being in the key of Am before using the B7 to get you back into Em.

Brad

Phil_aka_Pip said:

@Brad makes sense 
Given that the first part is in Em, you could maybe treat the Gmaj7 as its relative major and then treat the Cmaj7, D-7, A- sequence as being in the key of Am before using the B7 to get you back into Em.

Yep that's what I'm getting at. You're correct @Paul_C D-7 isn't in the key of G but you just slipped out momentarily. How you deal with that chord and the surrounding ones is up to you. 

Neither is B7 but it's acting as a V-i move back to the 1st part. B7 has a stronger harmonic pull to Em than Bm (which would be diatonically correct in the key of G) Try both. If there is a V-I movement and the V happens to be minor, we often change it to a dom7 for a stronger resolution. 

viz

Well if you said G not Gmaj7, it'd be a modulation to G major with a flat 7 - ie basically like G mixolydian, which has a minor V chord (the d minor), then when you land on the B7, it's ready for the modulation back to Em through a V-i cadence. 

Are you sure it's Gmaj7?

If so, then it's the same as the above, except it starts with a Gmaj7!

sev112

C ?

bingefeller

If it sounds good, then it is good.

stickyfiddle

bingefeller said:

If it sounds good, then it is good.

I'm very much with this approach. Plenty of music doesn't fit a single key or rule rigidly, between modulations and key changes and intentionally "out of place" chords or notes. 

FWIW it sounds like you're shifting to C or Am for the second bit (depending on your exact structure and melodic note choice)

Barney

The first 2 chords could be treated as Emelodic minor..next 3 the key of Gmaj
2nd part first 2 chords key of G maj still..then next key of C apart from the B7