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Keys and Chord Families

The key of a song determines what notes and chords can be used. A key is based on a musical scale, which is a series of seven notes with specific intervals between them. The first note of the scale is called the root note and gives the key its name. The chords that sound good together in a given key make up the chord family for that key. Common chord progressions like 1-4-5 can be formed by playing the chords corresponding to the first, fourth, and fifth notes of the scale in a key.

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Pranjli Mishra
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123 views1 page

Keys and Chord Families

The key of a song determines what notes and chords can be used. A key is based on a musical scale, which is a series of seven notes with specific intervals between them. The first note of the scale is called the root note and gives the key its name. The chords that sound good together in a given key make up the chord family for that key. Common chord progressions like 1-4-5 can be formed by playing the chords corresponding to the first, fourth, and fifth notes of the scale in a key.

Uploaded by

Pranjli Mishra
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Tom Catuosco

Musical Keys & Chord Families Guitar Teacher


732-993-8540
www.tomcatuosco.com

The “Key” of a song determines what notes and chords can be in the song.
Song keys are based on scales.

A “Scale” is a group of seven notes in ascending order spaced at specific intervals apart from
each other. Each note’s position in a scale is called it’s “Degree”.

Scales can be Major or Minor depending on the interval pattern of whole and half steps.

The first note of a scale is called the “Root” or “Tonic”. The Root is the “home” of the scale.
The sound of all other notes in the scale is based on their distance from the root.

The “Key” of a song is named after the Root of the scale being used.
For example, if the scale used is C Major, the song is in the Key of C Major.

C Major scale with degrees underneath:

C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Knowing the degrees of the scale’s notes in a key lets you know what chords are in the key.

This “family” of chords will sound good together in the song.

The chords in a key that are based on a regular Major scale are…

1 - Major 2 - minor 3 - minor 4 - Major 5 - Major 6 - minor 7 - diminished

Using the example of the Key of C Major, the chords would be…
C Major D minor E minor F Major G Major A minor B diminished

Knowing the chords of the key allows you to make up “chord progressions” or sequences of
chords.

One of the most common chord progressions is 1 4 5 meaning you play the “1” chord
followed by the “4” chord, followed by the “5” chord.

The 1 4 5 progression in the key of C Major would be C Major F Major G Major


1 4 5 Progression in other popular keys...
Key of A: A Maj D Maj E Maj Key of D: D Maj G Maj A Maj

Key of E: E Maj A Maj B Maj Key of G: G Maj C Maj D Maj

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