So, instead of my usual noodling and occasionally coming up with little riffs and progressions , I decided to be more disciplined and pick a key and use the chords therein to come up with something, in the hope that I would gain more understanding of keys and how things fit together.
Things went fine with E Major and B major, but today I messed around first and because I liked the way the first two chords sounded together I'm now stuck trying to find out what key I'm in.
The progression goes back and forth between G # minor to F # Major a few times and then climbs from B b minor to B Major to D b 7 three times and on the fourth run up I change the final chord to D b Major before going back to G # minor and F # major.
Most of the chords seem to fit either G # natural minor or A b minor ( I'm using a site called www.Guitar- chords.org.uk ) but the B b minor, D b 7 and D b Major don't from what I can see.
Are they borrowed chords from parallel or closely related keys?
Is there a simple answer as to why these chords seem to fit together but are not all in the same key or are they in the same key and I not looking at it the right way?
Comments
If you think of the Bb minor as A# minor, and Db major as a C# major - it'll fit with what the website says.
Just remember - theory knowledge doesn't make you a good player. It took me quite a while to learn it all, but knowing too much can sometimes become a hinderance or barrier to creating music. I'll be trying to write something and rather than listening for what I want to come next, I dip in to the theory to write, rather than the sound.
Or you try and write something unnecessarily complicated because you know the theory and you end up writing a song in 11/8 that shifts key too much...
(And I still love listening to Gabriel-era Genesis, by the way)