Pitch Class, Tonal Counterparts, and Camelot Key Equivalents

June 7, 2020
Everyday
dj, music

The tables below show the tonal and Camelot key (alphanumeric) counterparts to pitch classes for major and minor keys.

Major key

Pitch class	Tonal counterparts	Camelot Key
0	C (also B♯)	8B
1	C♯, D♭	3B
2	D	10B
3	D♯, E♭	5B
4	E	12B
5	F	7B
6	F♯, G♭	2B
7	G	9B
8	G♯, A♭	4B
9	A	11B
10	A♯, B♭	6B
11	B	1B

Major key: pitch class, tonal counterparts, and Camelot key equivalents

Minor key

Pitch class	Tonal counterparts	Camelot Key
0	Cm	5A
1	D♭m	12A
2	Dm	7A
3	E♭m	2A
4	Em	9A
5	Fm	4A
6	G♭m	11A
7	Gm	6A
8	A♭m	1A
9	Am	8A
10	B♭m	3A
11	Bm	10A

Minor key: pitch class, tonal counterparts, and Camelot key equivalents

Spotify API

In the Spotify API, ‘key’ maps to pitch class and ‘mode’ distinguishes between major (1) and minor (0) key, which can be represented as a Python dictionary thusly:

		(0,1):'8B',
		(1,1):'3B',
		(2,1):'10B',
		(3,1):'5B',
		(4,1):'12B',
		(5,1):'7B',
		(6,1):'2B',
		(7,1):'9B',
		(8,1):'4B',
		(9,1):'11B',
		(10,1):'6B',
		(11,1):'1B',
		(0,0):'5A',
		(1,0):'12A',
		(2,0):'7A',
		(3,0):'2A',
		(4,0):'9A',
		(5,0):'4A',
		(6,0):'11A',
		(7,0):'6A',
		(8,0):'1A',
		(9,0):'8A',
		(10,0):'3A',
		(11,0):'10A',

Python Dictionary

Here’s a Python dictionary that can be used in a function to convert Camelot key values (“8B”) to their tonal counterparts (“C, B♯”).

camelot_to_tone = {'8B':'C, B♯','3B':'C♯, D♭','10B':'D','5B':'D♯, E♭','12B':'E','7B':'F','2B':'F♯, G♭','9B':'G','4B':'G♯, A♭','11B':'A','6B':'A♯, B♭','1B':'B','5A':'Cm','12A':'D♭m','7A':'Dm','2A':'E♭m','9A':'Em','4A':'Fm','11A':'G♭m','6A':'Gm','1A':'A♭m','8A':'Am','3':'B♭m','10A':'Bm'}

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