What key do ya think this is in?

larry_emder

New member
My sister was playing a little excercise on the violin - the notes were (all the values are crotchets) :

C - E - G - A - Bb - A - G - E

I asked my mum what key she thought it was in; She said it was in Fmaj, as it has a Bflat, which is the Fmaj scale.

I however thought it was in Cmaj with a flattened seventh.....It begins on C, and wants to go 'home' to the C....it just 'feels' right....i was unable to explain it to her any deeper than that. I then showed her an example of a blues progression who's 'home' chord was a dominant seven chord.

I just wasnt sure how to word my argument, and hopefully you guys can show me some insight.

Cheers.
 
Re: What key do ya think this is in?

It's an arpeggiated C13 chord which at its root is a C dom7 with the A being the extension. Like I told Toad, A classical theorist would say it is a C dom7 arpeggio which puts it in the key of F with A being a passing tone or simply a degree in the scale. A Jazz cat would call it a 13th with the A being an extension and would probably care less what key its in. A Blues dude would say its in the key of C.

LOL! Remember according to classical theory a Bb blues is actually in the key of Eb since there is no Bb dom7 in the key of Bb.

You see its all conceptual depending on your point of view.
 
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Re: What key do ya think this is in?

Key signatures are archeological wonders! A product of a bygone age! LOL!
 
Re: What key do ya think this is in?

larry_emder said:
My sister was playing a little excercise on the violin - the notes were (all the values are crotchets) :

C - E - G - A - Bb - A - G - E


Cheers.

This is not a scale but an arpeggio of C 6 with 7 ( if you play both 6 and seven it is C 13 ) :
C is the root , E is the major third ( of C ) , G is the fifth ( of C ) , A is the six ( of C ) , Bb is the minor seventh ( of C ) and the rest is going back down to C .
Easy if you know what is a chord .
 
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