music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, 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 In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

, there are six of them: four of them share all the pitches except one with a key with which it is being compared, one of them shares all the pitches, and one shares the same tonic. Such keys are the most commonly used destinations or transpositions in a

modulation Signal modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform in electronics and telecommunication for the purpose of transmitting information. The process encodes information in form of the modulation or message ...

,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, for example, C to G to D. For example, "One principle that every composer of

Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( ; ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

's day

Classical music era The Classical period was an era of classical music between roughly 1750 and 1820. The classical period falls between the Baroque and Romantic periods. It is mainly homophonic, using a clear melody line over a subordinate chordal accompaniment ...

] 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. 8th ed. . Given a

major key In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in Western classical music, jazz music, art music, and pop music. A particular key features a '' tonic (main) note'' and i ...

tonic (I), the related keys are: * ii (

supertonic In music, the supertonic is the second degree () of a diatonic scale, one whole step above the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the supertonic note is sung as ''re''. The triad built on the supertonic note is called the supertonic ...

, the relative minor of the subdominant) *iii (

mediant In music, the mediant (''Latin'': "being in the middle") is the third scale degree () of a diatonic scale, being the note halfway between the tonic and the dominant.Benward & Saker (2003), p.32. In the movable do solfège system, the mediant no ...

, the relative minor of the dominant) *IV (

subdominant In music, the subdominant is the fourth tonal degree () of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance ''below'' the tonic as the dominant is ''above'' the tonicin other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdomina ...

Jones (1994), p.35-36.): one less

sharp Sharp or SHARP may refer to: Acronyms * SHARP (helmet ratings) (Safety Helmet Assessment and Rating Programme), a British motorcycle helmet safety rating scheme * Self Help Addiction Recovery Program, a charitable organisation founded in 199 ...

(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 the tonic and the subdominant ("lower dominant") or because its position below the tonic is symm ...

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 ed. 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 In music theory, a major scale and a minor scale that have the same starting note ( tonic) are called parallel keys and are said to be in a parallel relationship. Forte, Allen (1979). ''Tonal Harmony'', p.9. 3rd edition. Holt, Rinehart, and Wils ...

): same tonic, different key signature Closely Related keys in C

Specifically: In a minor key, the closely related keys are the parallel major, mediant or relative major, the subdominant, the minor dominant, the submediant, and the

subtonic In music, the subtonic is the degree of a musical scale which is a major second, whole step below the tonic (music), tonic note. In a major key, it is a lowered, or flattened, seventh Degree (music), scale degree (). It appears as the seventh scal ...

. In the key of

A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: Changes needed for the melodic ...

, when we translate them to keys, we get: *

A major A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The A major scale is: Changes needed for the ...

(I) *

C major C major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel min ...

(III) *

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

(iv) *

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, on the F. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major. The E natural minor scale is: Change ...

(v) *

F major F major is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat.Music Theory'. (1950). United States: Standards and Curriculum Division, Training, Bureau of Naval Personnel. 28. Its relati ...

(VI) *

G major G major is a major scale based on G (musical note), G, with the pitches G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, C (musical note), C, D (musical note), D, E (musical note), E, and F♯ (musical note), F. Its key signature has one sharp (music ...

(VII) 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 a heptatonic scale, heptatonic (seven-note) 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 eith ...

, excluding the

dissonant In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness, unple ...

diminished triads. Four of the six differ by one accidental, one has the same key signature, and one uses the parallel modal form. In the key of

, these would be:

, 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: Cha ...

. 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 A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to heptatonic scales, which have seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient ci ...

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 In music theory, the tritone is defined as a interval (music), musical interval spanning three adjacent Major second, whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be ...

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. According to 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 In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp (), flat (), or rarely, natural () symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the clef ...

, 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 In music, two written notes have enharmonic equivalence if they produce the same pitch but are notated differently. Similarly, written intervals, chords, or key signatures are considered enharmonic if they represent identical pitches that are ...

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. He is professor o ...

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