Key Help Please

Ok, guitar and bass player of many years, new to theory - couple of things about keys are throwing me out. Looked at Bodoms lesson (Awesome, real clear) But i've been running over some songs and find that some songs don't seem to fit wholly in a key. I.e a progression in one of my bands songs is D#5 E5 B5 F#5 (I play bass, stupid guitarist likes Power *Rolls eyes*) Taking the root notes points to E, taking all the notes from the chords leaves a majority in E (With a C just hanging about) but the whole song 'feels' like its in G# - because its the note we start on, progress to and use as a base :S and also Bodoms chart is based on major and minors so... how do you work out powers, seeing as they're neither right? Might be me just being an idiot or missing a trick but any insight?

Thanks,
Nick

i think in this case you have several possibilities. I think that is the thing about power chords, as they arent minor or major. So in this case you have several possibilities. It could very well be G# or it could also be B major, it depends on what you want.

Since you are using power chords, we need to define the notes you are playing, and hopefully we can build a scale. To start we have a D# (D#, A#) and we follow that with an E (E, B). So right now we have:

We know that every scale has one note per letter, so we can build across:

A#, B, X, D#, E, X, X

We continue on to the next chord: B (B F#) and finally F# (F#, C#)

A#, B, C#, D#, E, F#, X

Let's place out the steps inbetween these notes.

A# half B whole C# whole D# half E whole F# some_interval X some_interval back to A#

Now a major key is defined as WWHWWWH (whole whole half... etc). We find this pattern in your scale. Starting at the B, we can see a whole to C#, whole step to D#, half to E. There's our pattern. So we know our unknown note is a G#, to put a whole step from F# to G# and G# to A#.

Therefore, you are playing in a relative key to B Ionian. Since you start on a D#5, you are playing D# Phrygian. It could be something different, but that's what i would assume without hearing your song.

If you start on G# then your in the Key of G# minor ......Same notes as B Major (like JustJeff said)