Give Me A Chord Progression and I'll Guess The Key! (Rick Beato study)

[Jak Angelescu]

Hey guys! I just finished my first lesson on YouTube under his channel, and with that plus Syn’s help I’m wanting to test my knowledge of finding the key signature of chord progressions. I tried look up little tests and quizzes online but I can’t find any. And when I search “Blues chords progressions” or “jazz progressions” they give me things like ii V I and not the actual chord name. So could you guys help me with a test?
I’d like for those who are reading this, to pick a key and give me a chord progression out of that key (but don’t tell me what it is!) You can use 7th chords, minor 7th chords, major chords, minor chords, diminished, it doesn’t matter. I’d like to see if I can get it right! Thank you all so much!!

 

[idssdi]

Bm6|F#7|Amaj6|E7|Gmaj6|D7|Em7|F#7 for the verse and for the chorus
Gmaj6|D7|Em7|Bm6|Gmaj6|D7|Em7|F#7
Or D|C|Bm|C, Bm|F#maj|Amaj|Emaj|Gmaj|Dmaj|Emin|F#maj,Bbmin|Emaj|Bbmin|F#maj|Emaj|Bbmin|F#maj
This may keep you busy for sometime or not depending how quickly you get it.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Is the first progression of verse and chorus it in the key of D Major? My second guess is G major. I haven’t gotten into deciphering 6th chords so I tried, lol! Nor have I gotten into minor keys so I hope this wasn’t a minor key, haha! Thank you so much, Ids! How did I do? I was pretty sure it was in the key of GMajor until I saw that A major chord, but because of it being Amaj6 I’m not sure if that 6th technically makes it a minor sense it’s lower than a 7. I’m trying, lol!

 

[idssdi]

I consider the first one Bminor but it’s kinda weird with the six chords. It’s pretty jazzy but it’s based on Hotel california which is in Bm I think. Maybe try the other ones they can be a bit easier(except the last one that’s just me messing up a 12 bar blues in Bb)

 

[idssdi]

And the chorus is in Gmajor. Forgot to say that

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Truthfully I don’t think you’re playing in B minor. Because the chords for B minor, in the key of B minor, your F sharp would have to be a minor chord and it’s not in your progression. I think you also have like three dominant chords in that progression on the top.

 

[idssdi]

Yeah that’sounds what I mean There’s not really one specific key the first thing is in There usuayou is only one dominant chord per key so saying that whole thing is in one specific key is kinda weird. Over Bm6 and F#7 you can do B harmonic minor stuff though making it Bm (at least for me). For The other part it gets a bit weird where you need to kinda change the scale for where chord which makes it very jazzy. If you take the regulations chord progression for Hotel california you can kinda solo over it using the Bm pentatonic scale (even though I don’the consider that very interesting they did a great solo with it just using that scale) I would definetely not consider it Dmajor since it is Bminor is ther relative minor of Dmajor so you still kinda missing out on that F#min. I kinda did that one purpose because jazz stuff tends to have a lot of key changes in the chord progression. Just using one scale over the whole chord progression doesn’the really Happen a lot(that’s more of a rock thing). Gmajor also misses the F#minor or the F#major so that also can’t be it(it is really a jazz thing)

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Yeah I got the whole D major thing because I think I was trying to do something with those 6th chords. But if you were going to send me a progression I wished it would have been something that you yourself knew the key signature of. Because if you don’t know the key signature yourself I don’t know if I’m right or not LOL!

 

[Ed Seith]

I think when you’re talking rock, you’re often talking “general” key, because a note or part of a chord stepping outside a normal key is kind of the “rebellion” part of rock and roll.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Oh yeah, definitely! But as I’m someone who’s just starting to grasp key signatures, I can’t have a “rebellious” chord progression or I’ll never figure it out

 

[idssdi]

Tbh I definetely think it is Bminor but sometimes I’m wrong so I kinda hoped you could either prove me wrong with a well though out argument or also say it is in Bminor. D|C|Bm|C is probably a better one that try so try that one. Btw I Googled ‘hotel california key’ and it seems definetely in Bminor.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Well Hotel California is Capoed. And I don’t know if you’re playing it Capoed. It’s capoed on the 7th fret so immediately that would make it in B minor with the chords that they play. If you are capoing it anywhere you should have told me that because that automatically changes the key no matter what chords you are playing.

 

[idssdi]

Even when it’s capoed you still play certain chords and I don’t actually play it capoed. Besides that recognizant key based on the chords that are being played you should not to know the info of having a capo for that tbh.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Well yeah you play certain chords when it’s capoed still. But when you Capo something it changes the key signature of it because the chords are actually different. It’s kind of like the Caged system thing. If you play a C major chord in the open position but you still play that same position up on the 8th fret it’s not actually a C major chord. It’s a G# if you Barre it on the seventh fret and do an open c chord position. Which makes it a different key.

 

[idssdi]

Yes but I never think that way. I just hinkle n the actual holds being played because hen you actually have the correct underlying harmony too