What key/mode is this piece in?

[memka]

I haven't learnt about modes yet and it doesn't seem to be in D major.

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_inside.html?item=5959627&cart=341280041440657&page=01

[ninwa]

it's a pentatonic scale, since the mediant and leading note of the D major scale are omitted, thereby creating a 5-note scale rather than 7 - it's what most traditional chinese music is written in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale

go down to "Further pentatonic musical traditions"

[memka]

Thanks

[excal]

Ah, you'd lose marks on the exam there ninwa =p

It can also be the subdominant rather than the mediant (I believe this is what's prescibed in the music study design), and it's the major pentatonic scale .

That said, the mediant/leading note and tonic/subdominants can also be removed, but you've created a major pentatonic scale in another key (the subdominant major / dominant major respectively).

[ninwa]

 

oopsidaisies, that's what I get for not concentrating in theory ...

to my piano teacher, if for some reason he's reading this: THIS IS WHY I DIDN'T DO MUSIC AT UNI!