A great way of visualising the 24 keys of Western music is the circle of fifths, which depicts the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, their minor and major key signatures, and how they relate to each ...

The major key and the minor key, which will begin on a different note. This is known as the relative minor. So G major, for example has a key signature of one sharp, but this is also the key ...

Or perhaps it’s because D minor chord progressions have a tough time building suspense, unlike those of other minor keys — or like the irony-laden major-key composition of “Everybody Hurts.” ...

That all of these keys are major keys is unsurprising — with the exceptions of A minor, E minor, and B minor, none of the minor keys were even able to break 4%.

This is often done via the dominant V chord common to both keys, which in this case would be G major. But wait! Isn’t the V chord in a minor key a minor chord? Well, yes, but in these cases we cheat ...

Tell us your favourite gloomy minor-key and upbeat major-key songs below. Journal reference: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, DOI: 10.1121/1.3268504. Topics: ...

As an educator for more than 45 years, mostly as a college professor, with a near-decade hiatus as a magazine journalist, I wish I could completely yea-say Mike Brost's "Second Thoughts About ...

The major key and the minor key, which will begin on a different note. This is known as the relative minor. So G major, for example has a key signature of one sharp, but this is also the key ...