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Buttleston t1_jd9h89a wrote

OK so, the keys on a piano are black or white, right? The white ones are A B C D E F G. The black ones are either sharp or flat, let's not worry about why for a second and just say the black keys are Ab Bb Db Eb and Gb.

If a song is in the key of C, then, very simplistically, almost all the notes and chord are *only* comprised of the white keys. That is, a "key" is 7 out of the available 11 notes. Those notes sort of "sound good" together and most western music is oriented around a key.

Different keys are different note, but the 7 notes in that key have the same relationship as in the key of C, just shifted up or down.

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Any-Growth8158 t1_jd9o6sw wrote

Not only does the key of C use primarily certain notes, it also places emphasis on a subset of those notes. Musical phrases (a sequence of notes that form a musical "sentence") will tend to start or end with one of the main notes--especially the root of the key (it's name).

Of course much of the best music ignores many of the rules, but you have to know when to do so to make them sound good usually...

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