Topmusicanswers
- How do you work out the tonality of a piece?
- What is the tonality of a chord?
- How do you know if you have tonality?
How do you work out the tonality of a piece?
Recap
- At the top of a well-written chart, you'll see a clef & a time signature, and in between them is a key signature—the number of sharps or flats tell you what key the song is in.
- If the last chord in the song gives you a sense of resolution, it's probably the I.
What is the tonality of a chord?
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is called the tonic.
How do you know if you have tonality?
The tonality of the song will be one degree above the last sharp. In the example above, the last sharp was in the C note, so the tonality is D major. Note: a degree, in this case, is the next note of the line or space. If you want to know the relative minor tonality, just take a degree below that last sharp.
