Song key

[GrimRiffer]

How can u guys tell what key the song is in? And if you are using your ear, how do you tell the root note of a scale?

 

[Excalibur]

Look up chord scale harmony on the net. Should of some help.
A general rule would be: the first chord in the song usually determines the key - Note that this is not true for all. Determining the key using the chord scale harmony would be a better way. I hope that helps

 

[karlie]

+1 yup! usually its the first chord in the song, but besides that, you can look up the diatonic chord progression. i think its the same as chord scale harmony

 

[leecs]

Just whack only! thats how we can learn......

 

[GrimRiffer]

lol. hahaha.true. but if u anyhow whack u wont know ur mistakes. and i dont know how to apply a scale. : (

 

[billthegeek]

Finds out the chords used in the song, and see which scale contains all those chords which are used.

*Go research on chord progressions - a particular key has a certain chord progression associated with it. This chord progression are a group of chords which can be formed from the various notes from the particular key.

 

[leecs]

lol. hahaha.true. but if u anyhow whack u wont know ur mistakes. and i dont know how to apply a scale. : (

Aiya, don whack it yourself. bring a friend or 2, then you whack. let your friends hear your mistakes. Thats what i do last time. now ok liao

 

[Excalibur]

Agree with leecs, learning how to apply scales with your friend is a good thing. Like what leecs said, he can help you hear your mistakes. On top of that, he can help you strum a simple chord progression while you try to improvise.

You could try this with a friend: - It helped me out, I hope it'll do the same for you

Tell your friend to strum Em, C, G, D
You will then try to improvise using the E minor scale.
Work on your phrasing and not your speed, speed will come in time.

Thanks for the +1 Karlie

 

[karlie]

Agree with leecs, learning how to apply scales with your friend is a good thing. Like what leecs said, he can help you hear your mistakes. On top of that, he can help you strum a simple chord progression while you try to improvise.

You could try this with a friend: - It helped me out, I hope it'll do the same for you

Tell your friend to strum Em, C, G, D
You will then try to improvise using the E minor scale.
Work on your phrasing and not your speed, speed will come in time.

Thanks for the +1 Karlie

haha no problem, but yeah, i agree, i don't know about you but when i was in primary school, we were always learning " do re mi fa so la ti do ". that's the maj scale ah, so actually when you play a progression, you can try humming out the scale and perhaps try to come up with something random ( & of course something you think sounds nice ).
this will train both your internal ear (relative pitch) as well as your singing (to some extent).

yeah! with accuracy comes speed, your fingers will get so used to pressing the same frets that it'll just increase its speed, this is called muscle memory haha. hoped this helped

 

[BurnToast]

peronally what i do is hear everything in the c scale, learn the chord progression then jam to it. If the key is wrong, at least you get the progression right then i'll proceed to the right key it's in.

as for solos, i have absolutely no idea what the hell modes are. What i do is i take a chord and dissect it. say chord progression C Am F G. i'll play every note but end either at C, E or G. Well at least that's how it works for me. though i know this isn't a very good way to solo but at least it works for me

*Disclaimer* what works for me doesn't mean it works for you ha... Cheers

 

[Excalibur]

Haha, humming... Yes i do that too. That's how i come with originals. Worst thing is when you get a really kick ass tune while on the bus / mrt, then forget it once you reach home.

Anyway, yep to the thread starter - Just memorize the pattern for the major and minor scale. Ask a friend to strum some simple chords and you improvise on that. With this, you can do quite a few stuffs.

 

[karlie]

peronally what i do is hear everything in the c scale, learn the chord progression then jam to it. If the key is wrong, at least you get the progression right then i'll proceed to the right key it's in.

as for solos, i have absolutely no idea what the hell modes are. What i do is i take a chord and dissect it. say chord progression C Am F G. i'll play every note but end either at C, E or G. Well at least that's how it works for me. though i know this isn't a very good way to solo but at least it works for me

*Disclaimer* what works for me doesn't mean it works for you ha... Cheers

haha actually i think ending on the C E G makes alot of sense, by ending on the chord tone, you're making sure you're giving your solo a nice ending. haha

well, modes = moods, haha its the phrasing that counts, if you make a solo sound all indian/gamelan kind of sound, you're most probably playing in lydian, but most of the time, this don't really matter lah, and if it works for you, then that's what music is bout

 

[crozzfire]

Hmmm when it comes to theory ah, very hard to explain la.

The easiest would probably be observing the starting or ending note. It would usually be the root or the dominant note. This step gives you a few possibilities of what key the song is in. Then observe the chord progressions, deduce the sharps/flats/naturals blah blah, and you pretty much know what key it is in already la.

Modes will eventually fall in later la.

 

[RockerJ_77]

Yeah. Usually listen and just play. It all comes from theory,the song structure usually comes in a certain root note,followed by the scale. It isn't hard to diffrentiate the modes actually,but the theory for the modes are quite confusin. =D

 

[kdash]

personally i listen to the chord progressions and bass lines (since i'm a bassist). if you know what the chords are, usually the key can be derived from there. eg for excalibur's chord progressions of Em, C, G, D, it should be pretty obvious that the key is in G, at least to the experienced ear.

if you play the guitar long enough, you can tell what chord the guitarist is playing just by listening, i'm sure many guitarists here can testify to that

 

[Excalibur]

True, the chord progression given by me can be played in the G major key.
I normally play it in the relative minor though, E minor.

 

[kdash]

True, the chord progression given by me can be played in the G major key.
I normally play it in the relative minor though, E minor.

haha yup that would depend on your melody line and what is the root chord that you always go back to. chord sets for major and their relative minor are pretty much the same. eg G and Em keys.

thanks for pointing that out, Excalibur!

 

[Excalibur]

No probs

 

[GrimRiffer]

Thanks for everything Excalibur!

 

[Excalibur]

You're most welcomed, have fun learning that beautiful piece of instrument!