Hi and thanks in advance.
I am trying to figure out what’s the key of the following progression. (all major chords)
D – F – C – G
What I’ve tried until now has been laying out the single notes of the triads which makes ( D F# A, F A C, C E G, G B D).
I am having trouble because of the F chord, you could think this as G major (being G (I), C (IV), D (V)) but the F chord just does not fit. Also as we have a major D chord (D F# A), and a C chord (C E G) wich would makes two consecutive semitone jumps (from E to F to F#). Would this make it a non diatonic key?
Thanks!!
You can’t always tell by just looking at the chords – context can make a difference, so without hearing it, I couldn’t be certain. I’ll take a stab at it though with probability. Chord progressions like this which use all major chords are usually used in pop or rock songs and are rarely complex. My guess is the key of C major with the D just being an outside chord. Let’s break down my reasoning.
Firstly, there is no common key (none I could even think of) that contain four major chords. Remember, this is unlikely to be something complex. This leaves us with the possibility that this progression is either switching keys or is mostly in one key with an added outside chord (quite common).
Let’s for a moment assume it’s switching between two keys. Quite plausible with these chords but not so much with the order you have written them. Take G and D for example. If this was a two chord song using just those two chords then you’d likely just think of it as a I-V in G major or possibly a I-IV in D major. The same could be said for F and C. This could be a I-V in F or I-IV in C. Now lets’s look at a chord sequence that goes something like this, played one bar per chord.
F/// C/// F/// C/// F/// C///
G/// D/// G/// D/// G/// D///
You can pretty much hear the key change – six bars of F major and then six bars of G major.
Now let’s play the chords something like this.
F/// //// C/G/ D/// F/// /// C/G/ D///
Now you don’t quite hear the key change so much, it’s a bit less clear and obvious – even a bit messy sounding. Is it even changing key? probably not, it’s just going off piste a bit.
Now play the same chords but change the order and the duration.
C/// F/ G/ C/// F/ G/ C/// G/// F/// D/// C/// F/ G/ C
This time everything sounds pretty much like C major but with a D thrown in for a bit of decoration.
So it all depends on context. With the chord order you have, assuming it is played one bar per chord, we can’t hear any obvious key change going on. This leaves us with two possible keys – C major (C,F and G) or G major (G,C and D).
More often than not, the chord that feels most stable to end the song with is most likely to feel like the home key. If I play your sequence a few times and end on the G it just feels slightly less stable than ending on the C. Obviously I’m playing all chords with equal duration so this could change things if played differently, but overall, that’s pretty much why I have come up with C major.
Does that help?
Agree, definitely D. Great song, I like it.
I’ll take another listen later and see if I can add some more ideas. Good subject to talk about.
I think it is a really good song too.
That would be great, this subjects seems to appear in many other songs.
There is a melody played by the end of the song that picks the R 3, 4 and 5 of each of the chorus’s chord progression, which confirms for me its all major chords.
I’ve had another listen and I’m of the opinion that this is one of those songs that’s not worth over analysing. It works and sounds great. It’s clearly in D major but with a few twists. The riffs at the end, like you say are just 3,4,5 over each chord. I didn’t hear the root? I might have missed that. Over the C it’s a chromatic run from 3 to 5 (reminds me of the Hey Joe bass riff 🙂 ).
The verse chords, D, A, F has a riff that could possibly be thought of as D phrygian over the D (the b2 being the clue). The riff over the A to F could be anything. I’d personally just think of it as all just D or D phrygian with chord based riffs and avoid scale notes that clash over certain chords.
This is not the kind of genre I know a lot about the common techniques used so somebody else might point out the obvious that I’m missing, but I think there’s not much need to think of it as any more than a song that somebody has just put together and played around with riffs that sounded good.
Hello Lee!
Thanks so much for the in detail answer. I was too rigid about finding the exact key and left out the possibility that one chord could just be an outsider.
I played the examples you wrote and it helped me a lot to understand your point.
If you are interested the song I was trying to figure out is this one by a band named Fuzz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeOrBXEhOSA&ab_channel=RainwaterEnema
The progression for the verse goes
D/// A// G F
And for the chorus (which is the part I was looking at)
D/ F/ C/ G/
For me it feels that the song feels like home on the D chord.
Thanks again!