music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

, a closely related key (or close key) is one sharing many common tones with an original key, as opposed to a distantly related key (or distant key). In music harmony, there are six of them: five share all, or all except one, pitches with a key with which it is being compared, and is adjacent to it on the

circle of fifths In music theory, the circle of fifths is a way of organizing the 12 chromatic pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths. (This is strictly true in the standard 12-tone equal temperament system — using a different system requires one interval of ...

and its

relative major or minor In music, relative keys are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures ( enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps. A pair of major ...

, and one shares the same tonic. Such keys are the most commonly used destinations or transpositions in a

modulation In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the '' carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informat ...

,Schonbrun, Marc (2006). ''The Everything Music Theory Book'', p.76. . because of their strong structural links with the home key. Distant keys may be reached sequentially through closely related keys by

chain modulation In music, modulation is the change from one tonality ( tonic, or tonal center) to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature (a key change). Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as ...

, for example, C to G to D. For example, "One principle that every composer of Haydn's day Classical music era">lassical_period_(music).html" ;"title="/nowiki>Classical period (music)">Classical music era/nowiki> kept in mind was over-all unity of tonality. No piece dared wander too far from its tonic (music), tonic key, and no piece in a four-movement form dared to present a tonality not closely related to the key of the whole series." For example, the first movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 7, K. 309, modulates only to closely related keys (the dominant, supertonic, and submediant).Benward & Saker (2009). ''Music in Theory and Practice: Volume II'', p.155. Eighth Edition. . Given a major key tonic (I), the related keys are: * ii ( supertonic, the relative minor of the subdominant) *iii ( mediant, the relative minor of the dominant) *IV ( subdominantJones (1994), p.35-36.): one less sharp (or one more flat) around circle of fifths *V ( dominant): one more sharp (or one fewer flat) around circle of fifths *vi (

submediant In music, the submediant is the sixth degree () of a diatonic scale. The submediant ("lower mediant") is named thus because it is halfway between tonic and subdominant ("lower dominant") or because its position below the tonic is symmetrical to ...

or relative minorBarry, Barbara R. (2000). ''The Philosopher's Stone: Essays in the Transformation of Musical Structure'', p.19. .Benward & Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I'', p.243. 7th edition. McGraw-Hill. . "Most modulations occur between ''closely related keys'', which are those keys that differ by no more than one accidental in the key signature."): different tonic, same key signature *i ( parallel minor): same tonic, different key signature Closely keys in C major

Specifically: : Starting from a minor key (i), the closely related keys are the mediant or relative major (III), the subdominant (iv), the minor dominant (v), the submediant (VI), the subtonic (VII), and the parallel major (I). In the key of A minor, when we translate them to keys, we get: * C major * D minor *

E minor E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major. The E natural minor scale is: : Changes nee ...

* F major *

G major G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable com ...

* A major Another view of closely related keys is that there are six closely related keys, based on the tonic and the remaining triads of the

diatonic scale In music theory, a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole st ...

, excluding the dissonant diminished triads. Four of the five differ by one accidental, one has the same key signature, and one uses the parallel modal form. In the key of C major, these would be: D minor,

, F major,

, A minor, and

C minor C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major is E major and its parallel major is C major. The C natural minor scale is: : ...

. Despite being three sharps or flats away from the original key in the circle of fifths, parallel keys are also considered as closely related keys as the tonal center is the same, and this makes this key have an affinity with the original key. In modern music, the closeness of a relation between any two keys or sets of pitches may be determined by the number of tones they share in common, which allows one to consider modulations not occurring in standard major-minor tonality. For example, in music based on the pentatonic scale containing pitches C, D, E, G, and A, modulating a fifth higher gives the collection of pitches G, A, B, D, and E, having four of five tones in common. However, modulating up a tritone would produce F, G, A, C, D, which shares no common tones with the original scale. Thus the scale a fifth higher is very closely related, while the scale a tritone higher is not. Other modulations may be placed in order from closest to most distant depending upon the number of common tones. Another view in modern music, notably in Bartók, a common tonic produces closely related keys, the other scales being the six other modes. This usage can be found in several of the Mikrokosmos piano pieces. When modulation causes the new key to traverse the bottom of the circle of fifths this may give rise to a theoretical key, containing eight (or more) sharps or flats in its notated key signature; in such a case, notational conventions require recasting the new section in its enharmonically equivalent key.

Andranik Tangian Andranik Semovich Tangian (Melik-Tangyan) (Russian: Андраник Семович Тангян (Мелик-Тангян)); born March 29, 1952) is a Soviet Armenian-German mathematician, political economist and music theorist. Tangian is known ...

suggests 3D and 2D visualizations of key/chord proximity for both all major and all minor keys/chords by locating them along a single subdominant-dominant axis, which wraps a torus that is then unfolded.

See also

References

Further reading