Is it possible to work out the ‘key’ of a song by ear?
Just wondering if its at all possible hearing the ‘key’ of a track with your ear?
Or what degree of accuracy can you pick two tracks by ear and them being Harmonically compatible?
It’s like who or whom
Play it on a guitar or any instrument you do know how to play and find out what the most resonant key is.
You can usually tell if songs blend together well by ear, DJ’s have done this for a long time before there was software to do it for you. Sure some worked it out on an instrument, but alot just did/do it by ear.
Having that information readily available makes things a lot easier though.
And…
There are people who have what is called perfect pitch, and can tell you the note just by hearing it.
Its how it was done before computers mate 
even without any musical background or knowledge you should be able to tell if a song blends well with another
I been able to mess with songs and mixing randomly and sometimes will come to a track and remember a popular one then I compare and usually is the same key.
i have no idea what the names of the keys are. but jesc tells me i mix harmonically. i just listen for what blends, and go with it. if it wont harmonize in any way, i know its out of key.
just takes practice and careful listening.
once you know what to listen for you should be able to detect key clashing similar to how you detect beat/phase matching.
it’ll sound bad if the keys clash, if the keys match it’ll sound beautiful.
By ear is far more accurate than using a program ever could be.
Oh yes,
these programs got it so wrong…I tried all of them cause I wanted to know how good technology is,…and they suck. They got it wrong most of the time. If you want to mix harmonically just train your ears, learn to play an instrument, learn about scales, etc.
Don´t rely on software - it´s not there yet.
And YES, you can detect the key of a track by ear…much faster then software does.
+1
That said I still run songs through MiK because it was free for me and is generally close. Mostly I’m just hearing random tracks throughout the day and often think, yes that would jive with X.
Learn how to improv/solo on guitar or piano…if you want to be able to name it.
If you just want to know whether things clash, well…just listen. If you’re beat matching manually, it usually took me longer to match things when there was a key clash to the point that I just gave up if it took more than about 10 seconds. The times I went back later and tried to listen to why…it was because there was a clash.
That is just crap.
I don’t know what programs you were using, However according to DJTT forum guru’s all these programs use the same key detection process.
I build sets using MIK and 95% of the time the tracks go together. Sometimes a track will get logged under a different key because there is a key change so it won’t mix properly. That’s where my ears come in to know whether it works or not. It took me 8 hours to create a 2 hour set the other week. I guess I saved a further 8 hours not having to finding out ‘by ear’ what track went with what.
Point being, key detection programs do function the vast majority of the time and save you a lot of work. If someone requests a track I can normally play it within 4 song changes by quickly jumping through 5ths, 3rds and 7ths. Ths has a 2 fold effect.
- makes a punter(s) happy
- Gives an extreme boost of energy on the floor.
Sorry to disagree…I experienced something different.
I´m a trained musician, have trained ears and know about scales and all this boring stuff…I detect the key of a song within seconds by ear. I´m sorry to come over as a dick but I don´t care what any of the gurus said about the software - I HEAR it detecting wrong keys all the time. When I tried MiK out it took me longer to correct all the wrong tag fields then it would have taken me to just go by ear…
But hey, if you´re satisfied by the outcome of the software I´m glad to hear that…
I too have found key detection software to be a load of shite.
The question has to be asked do people on the club floor really care what key the track is in. Naturally that answer is no.
I do not doubt that key detection programs do not get it right all of the time. It could well be that the exact key is only found maybe 50% of the time. However; The key that is detected by the likes of MIK are predominantly in harmony and ultimately that is the goal of harmonic mixing is it not?
So is MIK really shit and basically sucks?
I think not but I will accept that it is not perfect.
Most DJs are not musicians and can’t play a musical instrument. Hell most DJs I see, can’t even get to grips with basic audio levelling and think the more lights they have on, the better it is… If they can’t even fathom clipping and distortion how are they supposed to get their heads round major, minor and augmented scales, when the person producing the track may well have not had a clue what scale the song was written in either?
That didn’t make any sense.
And as for DJs not being able to understand keys, that’s a fair point, but I don’t think it’s in favour of key detection programs. These programs encourage you to think about the key of tracks rather just thinking about whether or not they sound good.
Trying to make sense:
If MIK detects a track as E major but it’s really C major would that not be in harmony?
I’m not out to promote Key detection programs. However if somebody writes that they are all useless (or words to that effect) I feel obliged to give my view to the contrary.
The main topic is whether keys can be detected by ear; which they can.
A good musician yeah can work out the key by ear easy enough, just do your doh reh mi’s on the track and you’ll get a rough idea 
… personally I find it restrictive though when transposing to the correct one is only a mapping away.
Funny thing is I used to have a guitarist playing live electric alongside my set when I was back playing vinyl (gotta love a screaming distorted guitar on a breakdown) …
Now I wasnt into harmonic mixing so to speak, but he told me virtually everything I was playing back then was in “E” .. no joke!
Must have been subliminal
But being able to harmonically mix everything is why I use key lock / transpose rather than relying on software.
Im going to disagree with just about everything you said. I use Rapid Evolution and 99% of the time it gets it right and im almost always mixing harmonically.
Yes of course you can use your ear, and you should, but software does it instantly and thus MUCH quicker than you can do it by ear. You can tell right away if the songs dont actually blend and the software got it wrong, but with RE it doesnt happen too often.