Thus the scale a fifth higher is very closely related, while the scale a tritone higher is not. However, modulating up a tritone would produce F ♯, G ♯, A ♯, C ♯, D ♯, which shares no common tones with the original scale. For example, in music based on the pentatonic scale containing pitches C, D, E, G, and A, modulating a fifth higher gives the collection of pitches G, A, B, D, and E, having four of five tones in common. In modern music, the closeness of a relation between any two keys or sets of pitches may be determined by the number of tones they share in common, which allows one to consider modulations not occurring in standard major-minor tonality. Despite being three sharps or flats away from the original key in the circle of fifths, parallel keys are also considered as closely related keys as the tonal center is the same, and this makes this key have an affinity with the original key. In the key of C major, these would be: D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, and C minor. Four of the five differ by one accidental, one has the same key signature, and one uses the parallel modal form. In the key of A minor, when we translate them to keys, we get:Īnother view of closely related keys is that there are six closely related keys, based on the tonic and the remaining triads of the diatonic scale, excluding the dissonant diminished triads. Starting from a minor key (i), the closely related keys are the mediant or relative major (III), the subdominant (iv), the minor dominant (v), the submediant (VI), the subtonic (VII), and the parallel major (I). Subdominant, dominant, supertonic, and mediant i ( parallel minor): same tonic, different key signature.vi ( submediant or relative minor ): different tonic, same key signature.

V ( dominant ): one more sharp (or one fewer flat) around circle of fifths.

IV ( subdominant ): one less sharp (or one more flat) around circle of fifths.

iii ( mediant, the relative minor of the dominant).

ii ( supertonic, the relative minor of the subdominant).

Given a major key tonic (I), the related keys are: 309, modulates only to closely related keys (the dominant, supertonic, and submediant). No piece dared wander too far from its tonic key, and no piece in a four-movement form dared to present a tonality not closely related to the key of the whole series.' For example, the first movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. For example, 'One principle that every composer of Haydn's day kept in mind was over-all unity of tonality. Distant keys may be reached sequentially through closely related keys by chain modulation, for example, C to G to D. Such keys are the most commonly used destinations or transpositions in a modulation, because of their strong structural links with the home key.

In music harmony, there are six of them: five share all, or all except one, pitches with a key with which it is being compared, and is adjacent to it on the circle of fifths and its relative major or minor, and one shares the same tonic. In music, a closely related key (or close key) is one sharing many common tones with an original key, as opposed to a distantly related key (or distant key). Circle of fifths showing major and minor keys.

Music keys that go together