THE VIOLET STAR KEY
The Violet Star Key — A Musical Key Compass by Jalen Buer
A Geometric Musical Key Compass for Chord Relationships & Key Navigation
The Violet Star Key is a free musical key compass, created by Jalen Buer — a Michigan-based electronic musician and producer. A geometrical music key compass that bridges note values and chord relationships from the circle of fifths in accordance with its respective musical key. Designed from the ether with the musically creative — in performance and music production — in mind.
The Violet Star Key is a musical compass tool designed to help musicians, composers, and producers understand key relationships, chord progressions, and emotional tonality. Created by Jalen Buer, a Michigan-based electronic music producer.
- 12 keys × Major & Minor modes
- 7-pointed heptagram geometry — {7/2}
- Scale notes & diatonic chord display
- Emotional tonality description per key
- Tarot / Major Arcana mapping per scale degree
- Elemental pattern (Fire / Water / Earth / Air)
- Clickable node panel per scale degree
- Rose Rhythm Builder — 8-slot chord sequencer
- MIDI export — drop into any DAW
- Free. Browser-based. Nothing to install.
The Violet Star Key is a free, browser-based musical key compass created by Jalen Buer — Michigan-based musician, producer, and video editor. It is available at jalenrileyartistry.com/violetstarkey/. No download or account required. Works on desktop and mobile.
Read more about the Violet Star Key and its MIDI export feature on the blog.
Questions About the Violet Star Key
A free visual musical key compass created by Jalen Buer. It maps any of the 12 musical keys onto a 7-pointed star, showing scale notes, diatonic chords, emotional tonality, elemental patterns, and Tarot arcana — all in one interactive tool.
Songwriters, producers, composers, and music students. Anyone who wants to understand a key more deeply before — or while — writing in it.
Yes. Completely free. No account, no download, no paywall. It runs entirely in your browser — nothing to install.
Select any of the 12 keys in major or minor mode. Explore the scale notes, diatonic chords, emotional description, elemental pattern, and Tarot / Major Arcana mapping for each scale degree. Build a chord sequence in the Rose Rhythm Builder and export it as a MIDI file for your DAW.
The Rose Rhythm Builder lets you arrange up to 8 chords from your chosen key into a sequence. Hit export and it downloads a .mid file — ready to drop into Logic Pro X, Ableton, GarageBand, or any DAW. Whole-note triads at octave 4, generated entirely in the browser.
A 7-pointed heptagram — distinct from the circle of fifths and not a hexagram. The 7 points correspond to the 7 scale degrees of the chosen key. Jalen designed the geometry and the star system from scratch as the structural foundation of the tool.
Each of the 7 scale degrees is associated with 3 Major Arcana from the Tarot. It's a creative and symbolic layer — not a divination system — meant to give composers an additional emotional and archetypal frame for each degree of the scale.