Late Nights & Key Signatures

So, if there is an F# in the key signature of a Christmas Carol, what key is the music in? and how do you find and label the guitar chords? Oh how I wish I'd not quit piano when I was 10 (and that I'd kept my music minor in college)!

We're getting ready for our Christmas Eve service in the international church and I've been busy tracking down the music for the songs we'll be singing. Thanks to a team from Rome, NY, I have a "Living Hymns" hymnal that has all the sheet music, though without the chords for guitar. Sooo....last night I stayed up really late.. er, ok, until the early AM today, trying to rectify that. :)

The first thing I did was take the next lesson in the crash course in chord progression that I've been learning on the fly this past year and figured out what key the song was in based on the number of sharps or flats (aka "accidentals.") in the key signature. Then I proceeded to plunk out the song on the keyboard, trying to figure out what chord should be played in accompaniment.

When you don't know what you're doing it's harder than you think!! Especially when most carol's are done in the relative-minor key so that there are some interesting chord combinations! "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" were especially challenging as a result of those combinations. Understanding that music was based in mathmatics helped me, though, in figuring all that out. :)

I'll be bringing my attempt at figuring out the chords to practice tomorrow night and we'll discover fairly quickly how well I did when the guitar and piano play together. Sound nice? Score! Off-tone? Back to the keyboard! (or better yet find someone who knows a lot more about music than I do! lol).