Key & harmony
Musical key
The musical key is the note a track resolves to plus whether it is major or minor — A minor, F major. It is the same information a Camelot code carries, written the way a musician would write it.
Measured in our catalog
10 of the 24 keys have two names — F♯ minor is also G♭ minor — and 31.0% of the 443,787 keyed tracks in our catalog sit in one.
The most crowded position is 8A, A Minor, with 36,060 tracks. That one has a single name; 10 others do not, which is why two programs can analyse the same record, agree completely, and write down different keys. The Camelot code is unambiguous by construction, and that is the entire reason DJs use it.
| Camelot | Written here | Also written | Tracks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11A | F♯ Minor | G♭ Minor | 18,886 |
| 2A | E♭ Minor | D♯ Minor | 18,715 |
| 3A | B♭ Minor | A♯ Minor | 17,488 |
| 1A | A♭ Minor | G♯ Minor | 15,241 |
| 5B | E♭ Major | D♯ Major | 13,605 |
| 12A | C♯ Minor | D♭ Minor | 13,081 |
| 2B | F♯ Major | G♭ Major | 11,512 |
| 4B | A♭ Major | G♯ Major | 11,395 |
| 6B | B♭ Major | A♯ Major | 10,314 |
| 3B | D♭ Major | C♯ Major | 7,549 |
Measured on 11 August 2026 across public tracks carrying a detected key, counted per Camelot code and grouped by whether the note name carries an accidental.
Why it matters
Every DJ meets both notations and they describe the same thing. Camelot exists because its neighbours are adjacent numbers; note names exist because they are what the rest of music uses, which matters the moment you talk to a producer or read a sample pack.
The catch nobody mentions is that five of the twelve notes have two names. The same key can be written two different ways by two programs analysing the same file, and they sort nowhere near each other in a library.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between musical key and Camelot key?+
None, as information — they are two notations for the same thing. Camelot renames each key as a number and a letter so that compatible keys are adjacent numbers, which note names do not make obvious.
Why is the same key written two different ways?+
Because five of the twelve notes have two names — F♯ and G♭ are the same pitch. That affects 10 of the 24 keys, and two pieces of software analysing the same file can each pick a different spelling.
Do I need to know music theory to mix in key?+
No. That is what Camelot notation is for: the relationships are encoded in the numbers, so you can make every harmonic decision without ever naming a note.
Related terms
Camelot key
Camelot notation renames every musical key as a number from 1 to 12 plus a letter — A for minor, B for major. 8A is A minor. Codes next to each other on the wheel share most of their notes.
Open Key
Open Key is a second notation for the same wheel Camelot describes. It numbers the positions differently — C major is 1d rather than 8B — and uses m and d for minor and major, but the mixing rules are identical.
Relative major and minor
Relative major and minor are two keys built from the same notes — A minor and C major, for instance. On the Camelot wheel they share a number and differ only by letter, which is why moving between them always works.
Harmonic mixing
Harmonic mixing means choosing the next track by key as well as tempo — staying on the same Camelot code, moving one step around the wheel, or swapping between the major and minor of the same number.
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