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Meaning of Tonality: Key of C Major as an Example

The meaning of tonality, which is another term for musical key, can be brought to life by using the key of C major as an example. If you pick up your guitar or sit down at your piano, and you...

  • Play the chord C major for a few bars, while you
  • Hum or sing a tune comprised of some notes from the C major scale (C D E F G A B),
  • Usually Including the tonic note, C,

...then you’re playing and singing in the tonality of C major or the key of C major.

This concept is vital with respect to modulation because, to modulate successfully, you have to first establish one tonality, then move tonality to a different tonal centre (change keys), then—usually—return to the original tonality.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, this process can get dicey because:

  • There are 24 possible keys (12 major, 12 minor), and your listener’s brain can only make sense of the tonal relationships of one key at a time—one tonality. (Well, usually. In Chapter 6, a brief analysis of the song “Gimme Shelter” illustrates how two tonalities can coexist simultaneously.)
  • Those 24 keys are all based on a selection of the same 12 pitches only (the individual notes of the chromatic scale), so if you’re playing in a given key and you introduce chords and notes from other keys without knowing what you’re doing, you can easily muddy the tonality and confuse the listener’s music processing modules.

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