Analyzing tonality is not simple, it is a specialized knowledge, so the method I mentioned below is only a relatively simple and easy-to-understand method for common situations. Common problems in analyzing tonality are limited to the Western major and minor key systems and the Chinese national key system (there are also medieval tonality systems, but they are not as common as these two, which will be mentioned at the end).

Before analyzing the tonality, you must first check whether it is a Chinese national mode. I think the most common method is to listen (if you can't hear it, just sing it yourself, or listen through your inner hearing). The music of Chinese national modes has a strong flavor of Chinese national music, and the special feeling can be heard as soon as you listen to it. , so to a certain extent there is no need to judge through theoretical knowledge. If you really want to get involved in theory, essentially the melodies of Western modes and Chinese national modes are completely different. Generally speaking, you only need to remember relatively simple common sense. For example, the leading tone in Chinese national modes does not directly tend to solve the problem. The tonic, in the Western major and minor system, the dominant chord tends to jump four degrees upward to the main chord. The scales of Chinese national modes are mostly pentatonic. The partial tone is generally not at the beginning of the downbeat, and each tone level in the major and minor modes is can all be emphasized equally, etc.

If you hear that the music whose key is to be judged is a Chinese national mode, then there are three steps to judge the specific key:

Step one: look at the key signature and confirm What tune is it.

Step 2: Look at the ending tone, determine the main tone, and determine what mode it is.

Step 3: Look at the partial tones in the music and determine whether it is a pentatonic mode, a six-toned mode, or a seven-toned mode. If it is a six-toned mode, indicate what was added in the analysis result. As for the partial tone, if it is a seven-tone mode, it should be stated in the judgment result whether it is Qingle, Yanle or Yale.

For example, there is a piece of music that has been determined to be in the Chinese national mode. The key signature is four flats, and the note at the end of the music is B flat. There are only A flat, B flat, C, D flat, The six notes are E flat and F. Then the analysis method is as follows:

Step 1: The key signature is four flats (B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat), so it is the key of A flat.

Step 2: The note at the end of the music is B flat, so B flat is the tonic. Since the Gong sound of the Chinese national mode of A flat is A flat, B flat is the Shang sound. Therefore, the music is in the key of B flat.

Step 3: Since there are only six notes in the music: A flat, B flat, C, D flat, E flat, and F, the music only has one partial tone, D flat, which is flat. The A tonggong system is a clear angle, so this piece of music is in the B flat quotient mode with a clear angle added.

If you hear that the music to be judged is not in a Chinese national mode, then the mode to which the music belongs is a mode in the Western major and minor system (medieval modes are excluded first), then if you want to judge the specific tonality , is also divided into three steps:

The first step: look at the key signature and determine what key it is.

Step 2: Look at the root note of the ending chord, determine the tonic, and then determine what mode it is (the root note of the ending chord is the tonic of the mode in 99% of the cases).

Step 3: Look at the rise and fall of the VI and VII levels to determine whether it is natural, harmonic or melodic.

For example, there is a piece of music that has been determined to be in a non-Chinese national mode. The key signature is five sharps, the ending chord is B-D-sharp-G-sharp, and the F's in the score are all repeated F-sharp. . Then the analysis method is as follows:

Step 1: The key signature is five sharps (F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, D sharp, A sharp), so it can be judged to be the key of B.

Step 2: The ending chord is B-D sharp-G sharp, which is a sixth chord. The root note is G sharp, so the tonic of the key of the music is G sharp, so the music is G sharp. minor key.

Step 3: Since the seventh note in g-sharp natural minor is F-sharp, but the F's in the score are all sharpened again, the music is obtained by raising the seventh note in g-sharp natural minor by a half step. , so the music is in the key of g-sharp harmonic minor.

It should be noted that the three concepts of "tone", "mode" and "tonality" must be distinguished. The key is only determined by the key signature. Each key signature corresponds to a key. For example, a sharp key is collectively called the G key.

Each key contains many modes - major mode, minor mode, palace mode, Shang mode, Jiao mode, Zheng mode and Yu mode (the first two are modes in the Western major and minor system, and the last five are Chinese Ethnic modes), and, of course, the Medieval modes—Ionian, Dorian, Phrigian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian, and a few other types of less common modes. Tonality is the combination of key and mode. For example, the combination of C key and major mode is C major, and C major is the key. Without causing ambiguity and confusion, "tonality" can also be abbreviated as "tone". Of course, it cannot be abbreviated like this in situations like this article, otherwise it will cause confusion. Some books say that tonality is the property of the key, such as major tonality, minor tonality, pentatonic tonality, medieval tonality, atonality, etc. This statement is not standardized, and tonality is still based on the definition of this article. It is not easy to have problems when understanding the explanation!

As for the medieval tones, the medieval tones also have a strong ecclesiastical color and can be distinguished through hearing. It is similar to identifying Chinese national tones and does not need to go too deep into the theoretical characteristics. Moreover, Under normal circumstances, the distinction between Ionian mode and C natural major mode will not be involved, so there is no need to worry at all, as long as the possibility of Chinese national mode has been ruled out and the pitch level in the melody is the same as that in a certain natural major scale. When the tonic is obviously not the tonic of the natural major key, it can be considered to be a medieval mode, and then it can be determined according to the characteristics of each medieval mode. This is an opportunistic method that saves the listening step. It should be noted that if you use the opportunistic method just mentioned, you must first rule out the possibility of Chinese national modes before you can judge whether it is a medieval mode, because in this method, any clear music mode with the same main tone must be ruled out. They interfere with each other with medieval styles. Regarding the distinction between natural major mode, Qingyuegong mode and Ionian mode, Qingyuegong mode can be distinguished at once by listening (as mentioned before). As for the distinction between natural major mode and Ionian mode, those interested If so, you can refer to some professional modal analysis books. Theoretically speaking, the objective distinction is still very complicated, and it is still a matter of spin.

As for other modes besides Western major and minor modes, Chinese ethnic modes, and medieval modes, since they are somewhat rare in our modern life as Chinese people, we will not mention them here. If you are interested, you can study them in depth. one time.

If you still don’t understand anything, you can ask me again. :)