How do I calculate the Key of my music collection?
Not dissimilar to BPM calculation, determining the Key of a song can be done either manually or electronically.
Manual Calculation
Calculating the Key manually requires a ‘good ear’ for music (preferably someone musically trained) and a piano or other tuned musical instrument. By listening to the track in question and playing individual notes on the piano you should be able to find one note which ‘fits’ the song and blends into it. Once you are happy try playing the subdominant and dominant keys of your selected note to find which one fits best. Again, once you are happy you have the correct root note play its chord in both major and minor listening to which fits the song. Whichever fits best is the song’s Key!
Electronic Calculation
If you don’t consider yourself musical enough to calculate the Key manually or you just don’t have the time you can use software to do the job for you. Much like the software used to calculate BPM, programmes such as ‘Mixed in Key’ work by analysing music files downloaded/ripped onto a computer, electronically calculating their respective Keys. Whilst this is a much easier method of calculation it should again be noted that accuracy can be questionable.