Chord Progression question???

[rockabilly1955]

hey all...... what key would this progression be considered?? Em, Am, and C major?? I believe it to be the key of Em, but some seem to also say the key of G major??? thanks guys

Are there any other chords?

I don't really know music theory but I would guess G Major.

But I also think G Major and E minor share the same chords.

Just as C major and A minor do, but I could be wrong.

[rockabilly1955]

nope.........just 3 chords. I too have noticed several Keys that share the same chords, but am still studying on what makes it a certain key

[EddieRay]

It's probably Em. What does the song resolve on? (I.e., last chord?)

[fraserhutch]

Could be C or G, or their relative minors (em and am). Impossible to tell out of context, not enough info.

[dementedchord]

gee if i want to answer these things i need to get here before fraser it seems... i'll go out on a limb here though and vote for G/Emin... and here's why... while it's true that all three also exist in C/Amin if we anaylize them they would all take on basicly a tonic function... so no real movement to speak of... if on the otherhand we look at it from the G/Emin perspective the Emin would be a tonic function while the Amin and C would take on a subdominant feel... so more movement... any chance your using an F# anywhere in a passing chord???

[EddieRay]

Well, if there are only 3 chords, and G is not one of them, it can hardly be the key of G, can it?

[dementedchord]

sure it can... if you think modally... and it was given as G/Emin so if ya want to quibble Emin then...

[EddieRay]

Originally Posted by dementedchord

sure it can... if you think modally... and it was given as G/Emin so if ya want to quibble Emin then...

You may have a point there. Let's ask all the socal rockabilly players here who think modally what they think about it.

[axeman_ukl]

if you look at the key of g

1..g major 2..a minor 3..b minor 4..c major 5..d major 6..e minor 7..f#mb5

it could be a 6 2 4 chord progession in the key of g

but having said that e minor is the relative minor to the key of g major
and all the same chords appear in that

so it could be a 1 4 6 chord progression in the key of e minor (6)e minor becoming (1) the root note of the key

so with the chords avilable i would guess it to be e minor
but i could be wrong music theory is not my strong point.

[axeman_ukl]

but then again it could be a 3 6 1 in the key of c major
4 1 2 in the key of a minor


i am no wise than when i started !!

[rockabilly1955]

song ends with a light, fade out on E minor. Man....music theory gets pretty confusing. Im gonna go with key of Eminor

If it ends, or "resolves" on Em then chances are the song is in the key of Em.

[TelePaul]

This might help; each Major chord ahs a relative minor chord to go with it. For example, they key of G major contains the chords G major, D major and C major. The respective relative minors of these are E minor, B minor and A minor. These six chords will be prevalent in many songs.

If we look at the key of C Major, we can see the major chords are C major, F Major and G Major. The respective minors are Am, Dm and Em. Hence the overlap.

[Nicole_Rose]

the key of Em is the relative minor to the key of G major, and the notes in the scale are the same for both and the chords are the same too. . same thing for C and Am

[chazba]

It's impossible to tell w/o refering to the melody. That will give the sonic clues necessary to determine the key. If the melody has an F# then the key is G. If it has F natural, then the key is C. (or a relative minor of whichever key.)

writeonnnnn

chazba

[EddieRay]

Puhleeze. Can anyone think of any example songs in a key where the root chord does not get played? In theory you can probably score every song in existence in the key of C but you'd have fill the manuscript with accidentals to do it.

C'mon, enough information has been given - it's not impossible or too confusing to figure out. It's being made far more complicated than it actually is.

The OP says Em is the first of a total of three chords. It ends on Em. I'm betting it sounds naturally resolved when it ends.

Play the outro for any song and 9 times out of 10 the final resolving chord is the key.

[_john_]

Yodelay,

It's like #16 is getting at...it's about the notes in between that will determine the key.
Jam to your 3 chords and see what key you are playing in...the F# / F (natural) will tell you if it's actually in the key of G or C, respectively.

In case it wasn't clarified already, G is the relative major of Emin (and thus Emin the relative minor of G). The chord or note itself doesn't necessarily need to be in the song to be in that key.

Simply based on your 3 chords (Em, Am, and C), it's really not enough info...it could quite easily be in the key of C/Am, G/Emin or even F, as the individual notes within your 3 chords are all diatonic to those three scales above.

_john_

[EddieRay]

I found an E minor in my navel once.

[dementedchord]

Originally Posted by _john_

even F, as the individual notes within your 3 chords are all diatonic to those three scales above.

_john_

Wrong !!! the 7th chord is a 1/2dim ....

[TelePaul]

Originally Posted by EddieRay

Play the outro for any song and 9 times out of 10 the final resolving chord is the key.

That's the funnest part of any song...the satisying arpeggiated chord!

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by EddieRay

Puhleeze. Can anyone think of any example songs in a key where the root chord does not get played?

I wrote a song once in the key of G that didn't include a single G major chord in the root position until the last few bars... but I don't think that's what you meant....

[DonS]

There could be several possibilities going on harmonically but there isn't enough information as already established. Here is the simpleist way I know of how I would analyize it:

In order to establish a key for this progression, you have to listen to what root the music gravitates towards as home key. It isn't always which chord comes first that is important. Does the music call Am home or Eminor? G major is way out in left field. In all music of the past 500 years or so, this is usually established by a dominant to tonic harmonic progression. With the info provided this is minor.

E minor is the V chord of A natural min. thus establishing Am as the tonic, and A minor as everyone here knows is the relative minor chord (vi) to C major. CM is either a new tonality or depending on the melody and bass line an invervion of Am7. But to me A minor is clearly the established tonality.

Keep in mind that theory is ALWAYS subjective . . .


Em, Am, Am7/C
A min: v chord, i chord, i6/5 (1st inversion of minor 7th)

or w/ key change:
Em, Am, CM
Amin: v chord, i chord/vi in cmajor new key

[_john_]

#20:

Wrong !!! the 7th chord is a 1/2dim ....

Oops. Quite wrong, I agree, sorry. THe F key was not an option...must have been have asleep when I wrote that.

[EddieRay]

Originally Posted by DonS

There could be several possibilities going on harmonically but there isn't enough information as already established. Here is the simpleist way I know of how I would analyize it:

In order to establish a key for this progression, you have to listen to what root the music gravitates towards as home key. It isn't always which chord comes first that is important. Does the music call Am home or Eminor? G major is way out in left field. In all music of the past 500 years or so, this is usually established by a dominant to tonic harmonic progression. With the info provided this is minor.

E minor is the V chord of A natural min. thus establishing Am as the tonic, and A minor as everyone here knows is the relative minor chord (vi) to C major. CM is either a new tonality or depending on the melody and bass line an invervion of Am7. But to me A minor is clearly the established tonality.

Keep in mind that theory is ALWAYS subjective . . .


Em, Am, Am7/C
A min: v chord, i chord, i6/5 (1st inversion of minor 7th)

or w/ key change:
Em, Am, CM
Amin: v chord, i chord/vi in cmajor new key

I'm glad to see someone else has the wits to declare a major key (C or G) out of bounds or too contrived, and that the "home" chord is a significant clue. The ONLY piece of information missing is what makes it feel resolved (goes home) at the end. As the OP stated, it fades out on Em, another significant clue. Of course, you have to know what "resolved" feels like. Otherwise, yeah, you'd need a lot more information, such as can be found in Music Theory 101.

But considering all the brain farts in this thread, Fb minor is clearly the key for the song in question because it is a somewhat flatulant key. As someone in some other thread pointed out, Fb Major is the most flatulant key of them all.