How can you determine what key a song is in?
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Listen and determine what specific notes are being used.
Depending on the notes and the patterns they are being used in, you can make strong guesses as to what key a song is in, and then you can verify looking (or just knowing) what scales (i.e. keys) use those notes. Determining whether a song is [intended to be] major or minor is going to depend on what the inherent tonic is (the first note of whatever scale you’re using).
So if you hear the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, and B, you might think the key is C major. Which wouldn’t be wrong, But then you also might notice that A was the very first note you heard, and that the melody seems to center around going back to A. So the song may have been intended to be in A minor.
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