What are Parallel Keys
From “Minor vs. Major¨ in Music Theory for Electronic Music Producers
As we saw in 20240903174948-Being_“In_Key” and 20240904103821-Musical_Scale_and_Key_Patterns, the musical key is the set of (mechanical) keys and their pitches or notes which sound good with a certain selected (mechanical) key and its pitch or note, while a musical scale is a pattern, namely a sequence of intervals (refer to 20240901171406-Musical_Intervals), used to select (mechanical) keys and their pitches or notes that sound good together. One can say a musical scale is an algorithm for crafting a musical key based on a root key, root note, or root pitch.
Consequently, “parallel keys¨ serves to describe musical keys that share the same root key/note/pitch. For example (Allen 2018, 119):
From “Minor vs. Major¨ in Music Theory for Electronic Music Producers
[…], A major and A minor are parallel keys, and this is true of any two keys with the same letter name. C major and C minor, F# major and F# sharp minor, etc.
This can help elucidate the relationship between scales and modes (refer to 20241014155552-Modes_and_Scales). If a set of musical keys that abide by scales contains parallel keys, then these musical scales in their keys cannot be considered musical modes of each other. This is because musical modes diverge in their roots but all contain each other’s roots at different scale degrees.
root_key root_note root_pitch musical_key musical_scale parallel_key parallel_keys parallel_musical_key parallel_musical_keys musical_note musical_modes musical_mode root note notes pitch pitches musical_note music_theory mode scale_degree
bibliography
- “Minor vs. Major.” In Music Theory for Electronic Music Producers: The Producer’s Guide to Harmony, Chord Progressions, and Song Structure in the MIDI Grid., 1st ed., 119. Minneapolis, MN: Slam Academy, 2018.