how to dtermine if the key is major or minor?

Question

I saw an online instructor who wasmisleading that Avicii s song shame on me was in the key of C-majer and he himself couldn t identify the chords and left a misleading track to students. but i could hear the chords souning wrong and thanks to the chord identification plugin which helped me to find out right chords and online i found the song is actually b minor. that song sounds super happy. now i am confused how to determine if a song is in a major key or minor key for song analysis?

Answer 1

The song is in E minor, very firmly and very obviously.



The verse slams Es out constantly. The bridge descends from E to C - but that is entirely to be expected in E minor - movement chromatically from the tonic to the submediant is very common.



Even though the loop for the chorus starts on a C it is NOT in C major. The dominant - G - is never stated, but there is obvious movement to E, which then resolves to the dominant - B - immediately. It is a firm and definitive perfect cadence.



So you're both wrong. It's E minor, absolutely no question.

Answer 2

To put it simply.

Major is happy, minor is sad.

Love songs are typically written in a major scale to make it sound happy, whereas break up songs are written in the minor scale to make it sound sad.

Answer 3

I agree with Mordent, it's unmistakably in and never strays from the key of E minor.  Musically, it's junk (there's another four-letter word likely more apt).  Even the descending Em Em7 Em6 C is all Em aliases.

Answer 4

Maybe it's time for you to get a professional music teacher.

Answer 5

This is a simple “rule of thumb”. It doesn't always work and it doesn't relate to music theory but if the first and last chord of a song’s accompaniment are the same minor chord then it's in a minor key. If they are the same chord and it's major, then it's in a major key.

Answer 6

I think you just have to listen for where the tonal center is. Most songs will repeatedly return to that center, that chord, and will often linger there. A song will often start there. The chorus will usually end there. But you definitely do not do it by whether the song seems happy or sad.