Keys

The 24 major and minor keys

All 24 keys on an interactive circle of fifths: scale notes, key signature, chords, a staff you can hear, and how often each key appears in real songs.

What this section is

This section has one page for each of the 24 major and minor keys. Each page spells the scale, key signature and chords from the rules of notation, shows the scale on the staff, plays it in your browser, and then counts how often the key appears in open collections of real scores: the 1,462 art songs of the OpenScore Lieder corpus, 1,974 Mutopia scores, and the MusicBrainz and Open Opus catalogues. Wikipedia’s article on the key is excerpted at the end of each page.

F majoris the most common key in the Lieder: 130 of 1,462 songs
6songs in G♯ minor, the rarest key in the Lieder
47%of Lieder have flats in the key signature, 40% sharps and 13% none

The 12 major keys

Key	Key signature	Scale	Relative minor	Songs in the Lieder	Share	Rank of 24
C major	none	C D E F G A B	A minor	95	6.5%	5
G major	1♯: F♯	G A B C D E F♯	E minor	118	8.1%	3
D major	2♯: F♯, C♯	D E F♯ G A B C♯	B minor	99	6.8%	4
A major	3♯: F♯, C♯, G♯	A B C♯ D E F♯ G♯	F♯ minor	74	5.1%	9
E major	4♯: F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯	E F♯ G♯ A B C♯ D♯	C♯ minor	91	6.2%	6
B major	5♯: F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯	B C♯ D♯ E F♯ G♯ A♯	G♯ minor	40	2.7%	17
F♯ major	6♯: F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯	F♯ G♯ A♯ B C♯ D♯ E♯	D♯ minor	27	1.8%	19
D♭ major	5♭: B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭	D♭ E♭ F G♭ A♭ B♭ C	B♭ minor	49	3.4%	14
A♭ major	4♭: B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭	A♭ B♭ C D♭ E♭ F G	F minor	86	5.9%	8
E♭ major	3♭: B♭, E♭, A♭	E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C D	C minor	127	8.7%	2
B♭ major	2♭: B♭, E♭	B♭ C D E♭ F G A	G minor	70	4.8%	10
F major	1♭: B♭	F G A B♭ C D E	D minor	130	8.9%	1

Lieder = the 1,462 art songs of the OpenScore Lieder corpus. Keys that sound the same are counted together.

The 12 minor keys

Key	Key signature	Scale	Relative major	Songs in the Lieder	Share	Rank of 24
A minor	none	A B C D E F G	C major	89	6.1%	7
E minor	1♯: F♯	E F♯ G A B C D	G major	58	4.0%	12
B minor	2♯: F♯, C♯	B C♯ D E F♯ G A	D major	37	2.5%	18
F♯ minor	3♯: F♯, C♯, G♯	F♯ G♯ A B C♯ D E	A major	26	1.8%	20
C♯ minor	4♯: F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯	C♯ D♯ E F♯ G♯ A B	E major	15	1.0%	21
G♯ minor	5♯: F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯	G♯ A♯ B C♯ D♯ E F♯	B major	6	0.4%	24
E♭ minor	6♭: B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭	E♭ F G♭ A♭ B♭ C♭ D♭	G♭ major	14	1.0%	22
B♭ minor	5♭: B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭	B♭ C D♭ E♭ F G♭ A♭	D♭ major	10	0.7%	23
F minor	4♭: B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭	F G A♭ B♭ C D♭ E♭	A♭ major	42	2.9%	16
C minor	3♭: B♭, E♭, A♭	C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭	E♭ major	44	3.0%	15
G minor	2♭: B♭, E♭	G A B♭ C D E♭ F	B♭ major	63	4.3%	11
D minor	1♭: B♭	D E F G A B♭ C	F major	52	3.6%	13

Lieder = the 1,462 art songs of the OpenScore Lieder corpus. Major or minor is estimated for the Lieder; the number of sharps or flats is exact.

How every number is produced

Pitch spelling is computed, not copied: each scale is built from its pattern of whole and half steps with one letter name per degree, and checked against the circle-of-fifths formula and the key signature.
Keys are merged by sound, so F♯ major and G♭ major share a page, as do the other pairs that sound the same. Each page names the other spelling and links to the page where it belongs.
The counts come from the OpenScore Lieder (key signature exact, major or minor estimated), the Mutopia Project, MusicBrainz, Open Opus and AcousticBrainz; the method and the limits are printed on every page.
A page shows chord, ending and melody statistics for its key only when at least 30 songs back them. For the rarest keys it says how few songs there are.

Boundaries

The Lieder are mostly 19th-century European art songs, transcribed by volunteers. They are not a sample of all music, and their key choices (many songs in F, E♭ and G major) reflect that repertoire and the voices it was written for.
A count of keys in scores is not a count of listening.

Licences and credits for everything used on this site are on the credits page.