“How do I find the key of a song with accidentals?” Before we can answer this question, we need to define the term accidental.
In musical notation, any of the symbols used to raised or lower a pitch… or cancel a previous sign or part of a key signature. (The New Harvard Dictionary of Music 4)
In other words, they’ll be the sharps, flats, and natural signs in a song that don’t appear in the key signature.
If you have sheet music to work from, start by using the key signature to figure out the key.
- This’ll make things easier, because any sharps or flats not in the key will be your accidentals.
- Also, you can figure out if you have a modulation, chromatic harmony, incidental chromaticism, or a minor key on your hands.
These two links show you how to find the song’s key using the key signature:
What do you do if you don’t have sheet music? I had a music theory teacher in college who said you can find the key of a song by adding up all the accidentals.
- Once you’ve written down the accidentals from the song, see if all of them fit in one key.
- If they don’t, the song may have a modulation, or it may be in a minor key.
This chart will show you the sharps and flats in every major key: