finding the key of a song

[upright625]

Ok i have been playing guitar for about a year and a few months self taught, starting last year when i was 14. Ive played with a fwe professional musicians and have learned a bit from them but one thing still gets me is how to figure out what key a song is in, if you could help that would be great.

[guitarer]

You first need to learn all your scales. Then the usual chords in a song are the 1st, 4th, 5th, realtive minor or 6th. Just pretty much figure out what key the chords fit into. For instance, a song with c# wouldn't be in the key of G.

[PRSman]

Generally, at the beginning of the song's tablature they list the number of #'s or b's. You can then reference which key in the circle of fifths has the same number.

[zigote]

You usually can tell the key in a tune by which a chord it mostly revolves too.

So if there's allot of tension going on and it less loose on a "C Chord", That could be the key.

Experiment or listen to guitarer and learn all your keys. :-)