How can you tell which key a song is being sung in, if you do not read music, or

Question:All I have is the song on CD. It is Lee Greenwood singing Oh Holy Night.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: All I have is the song on CD. It is Lee Greenwood singing Oh Holy Night.

Most pop, rock, and country songs -- and most hymns -- start on the tonic chord of the key, and they all resolve on the tonic chord of the key.

Listen to the recording for the last chord of the song -- or the last chord in the chorus, if there is one. Then see if you can match that chord on a piano or guitar. That chord is the key that the song is in.

So if the song (or the chorus) ends on G chord, you can be pretty darn sure that the song is in the key of G. If the last chord is an A minor, the song is almost certainly in A minor.

Hope this helps.

Do you have a piano?

Pluck out the first few bars on piano, trying to match the pitches to the ones on the CD. within a few bars, you'll be able to tell what key it's in. I am not sure how much you know about keys; you have to know at least something to be able to actually say what KEY it's in. Though if you have a good ear you can figure out the notes to the song with no music background.

Unless you have perfect pitch (the ability to tell which note is being sung without any instrumental aid), this is a nearly impossible task. I assume you want to figure out what key the song is in so that you can order the sheet music in the right key.

Here are two suggestions:

1) Try looking up the song online. Search for "Lee Greenwood Sheet Music" and see if there is a copy of the song on any sheet music website. This might be a very hard thing to do, however, since that version of "Oh Holy Night" isn't incredibly popular.

2) Another difficult suggest, but I would bank on this one working out more so than the first. Take the recording of the song to someone who can play the piano by ear OR find a piano yourself and guess and check. If you can find the melodic dictation for two or three lines, you will be able to figure out the key signature.

If you do not know anything about music theory, this again will be tricky. You will need to know what keys a C, B, A#, etc are on a piano. You will also need to know what combination of sharped and/or flatted notes make up what key signature.

I wish I could be of more help, but as I said, unless you have perfect pitch it is a very difficult task.

Best of luck!

If you have access to piano or keyboard this could work(you must be able to determine the note names of the keys): Find a pitch and match it to your voice. Once you've got your voice in unison with the piano, work your way down the piano with your voice in unison. Stop when your voice can no longer produce the sound of the piano. Find the lowest pitch you can produce with a good solid tone. Define that pitch on the piano(B, C, A, E flat), whatever it may be. Memorize it, then use that pitch as a reference to figure out the key to other songs.
example: if I know my lowest note in my vocal range is a C, then I can count up by 1/2 step or whole step to the key of the song I'm trying to determine. With good consistency this can actually work really well. You'll improve every time, plus it's kinda fun. Good luck!

if you have a piano,see if you can match any of the notes

I agree with trying to play along with the CD on piano or guitar. Just be sure your piano or guitar is in tune or you may still not have the right key.

I play guitar and bass, and here's how i do it. Learn the major and natural minor scale if you haven't already. When i encounter a new song, i pick out notes that sound good with the music, and that shows that they are in key. You have to know what to listen for to know what "sounds good" though, thats a very abstract concept. Once i find a scale that fits the song perfectly, the root of that scale is the key. Make sure you can differentiate between major and minor keys though. There are some other types of keys, but these are variations of the first two, and are relatively rare.