Frequently Asked Questions

The questions a first reading usually raises, answered in the order they tend to come up.

Questions, Answered

How does the site decide which key a line is in?
It scores the line against every tonic in all seven modes. A chord whose every note belongs to a key’s scale earns that key a point; a chord with a note outside it costs one; and a line that opens on the key’s tonic chord, or closes on it, earns one more for each. The highest total wins, and the reading shows its working.
What happens when two keys score the same?
The page says so, and names every reading that tied. Short lines tie often — two or three chords rarely pin a key down — and pretending otherwise would be the one dishonest thing an analyser can do. The site then reads the line in one of the tied keys by a stated order of preference, and says which one it took.
Which chord symbols can it read?
Any chord the network voices, written the usual way: C, Am, G7, Fmaj7, Bm7b5, Ebdim7, Dsus4, and the rest, with a slash for a bass note (C/E). A token it cannot read as a chord — a word, a repeat sign, N.C. — is shown as unread and left out of the scoring. Nothing is guessed.
Why Roman numerals and never numbers?
Because a numeral carries the chord’s quality in its case — ii is minor, II is major — and its alteration in a flat or sharp, which is exactly what a move is about. Writing a line as plain digits belongs to a different chart tradition, and the network has a site for that.
Which moves can the reader find?
A short, declared list: borrowed chords such as the minor iv, bIII, bVI and bVII, the bVI–bVII–I climb, V of V and V of vi, the deceptive arrival, the chromatic mediant, the dominant a tritone away, and the major V in a minor key. Each has a page under The Moves with its rule written out step by step, its source, and every line in the corpus where it fires.
Why is the F chord in A minor written bVI?
Every numeral here is counted from the major scale on the tonic, whatever the key's mode, so the same chord gets the same numeral in every key that shares its tonic. Many minor-key analyses count from the minor scale instead and write that chord VI; the two say the same thing, and the move pages note it wherever a source counts the other way.
Can I link to a reading?
No. A typed line is read in your browser and never becomes part of a web address, so there is no page for any particular line — only the reader itself, and the pages that describe each move it can find.