In interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, I would hear math from Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney, who quickly transposed chord progressions for other instruments. Or B.B. King, a son of share-croppers that ran away from home and never went to school a day in his life, discussing how Charlie Christian used diminished runs to connect the turnaround back to the start of the chord progression during the V chord. It made me question whether or not ignorance truly was bliss.

It was then that I realized something. Growing up in a family of carpenters, I found that there was something similar about the way musicians talked about songs and the way carpenters talked about their work. It was slightly foreign and coded, but more importantly, it was the same audible shorthand. My dad could rattle off something that contained five pieces of important information in one phrase. Just like carpentry, music is not only a craft, but a trade.

So my cry to those who have not learned their keys is to try once again. But this time, you won’t be taught to learn “your” keys, but to understand “the” keys. I believe that a big source of the aversion to studying music theory has to do with an excess of pedantry. There seem to be hundreds of ways to explain what keys are without actually disproving simpler explanations. And while I enjoy diving deep into music theory, what I don’t enjoy seeing is a beginning student frustrated because the information they are being given is unorganized. In other words, I like to teach the rules before the exceptions, which is the same way I like to learn.

In that spirit, I’d like to offer an explanation that is based in simplicity without simplifying to the point of being riddled with inaccuracies. The definitions I have below are not detailed. But detail isn’t the same thing as accuracy.

The first definition is very simple. The second definition is a little bit more detailed.

Definition One: Keys are groups of seven notes.

Definition Two: Keys are twelve different but specific combinations of seven-note groups chosen from a pool of twelves notes.

So there you have it. If the second description confuses you, just remember the first. The second description will make more sense as you learn more. And really, there could be a third, and a fourth, and so on. And then there are exceptions and differences of opinion. And this is where the pedantry snowballs into a giant boulder chasing down anyone who dares cross its path. So we’ll just keep our descriptions where they are. As you learn more about music, you can add to the description of what musical keys are. For now, don’t worry about it.

Visualizing and Understanding What Keys Are

A quick disclaimer: The word “keys” has two different meanings. First, there are musical keys, which are the groups of notes that I explained above. Second, there are piano keys, which are the physical objects you strike on the piano to make a note sound. For this reason, I will not be using the word in reference to the piano. Instead, I will only use the word “notes” for the piano, and the word “keys” only in reference to the subject of musical keys.

I find the piano to be a good visual representation of keys. If you don’t play piano, don’t worry. It simply provides a nice picture to work with.