How Can I Tell What Key A Song Is In?, Kris said this was a popular question .. |
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How Can I Tell What Key A Song Is In?, Kris said this was a popular question .. |
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Jan 17 2008, 01:34 PM |
Hey Fret, I sympathise with your question - its almost impossible to describe this, but you will know it when you start to feel it. If you don't know it you need to practice some more - fortunately practicing this is fun - you just need to listen to a lot of music, and think a little about it while you are doing so.
Pick a song, listen to it as usual, and after each chord change, ask yourself "did I get somewhere with this change, or am I still moving to somewhere else". If there is still a feeling that you need to move on, you are not on the root. AFter a while you should be able to pick out the chord that is the root. When you can do this, start listening to songs that you know the key and chords of and check that you are right. That's the best explanation I can give you - keep working on it -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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Feb 4 2008, 06:30 AM |
Dont be so hard on yourself man! We all have mental There really isnt a waste of anyones time if you dont yet undertand something... Glad you figured it out tho Thanks Deep - thats a great point - if you hadn;t figured it out we would have been happy to help you with it -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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Apr 4 2008, 01:00 PM |
Sure - thats a good point - a lot of the time the bass is playing around the root notes of the chords so that will help you figure them out
-------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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Jul 30 2008, 10:39 AM |
thank you DR.. because you just touched the subject.. i want to ask you about the scales.. im still pretty new to this, but i was thinking about playing the minor pentatonic scale.. and not the major scale, because i would think that it did not work on the minor chords..? so i guess my question is.. when choosing a scale, should i look at the notes in the chords rather than Major vs. Minor? (i only know the minor /major pentatonic, blues and major so lets stay with these for the sake of understanding) Basically- a scale whether its major or minor- can be "harmonised". This means turning the group of 7 notes into a group of 7 chords. When we harmonise the major scale, we get major and minor chords (and a diminished chord- no need to discuss that here too much though). Also a minor scale will harmonise and get major and minor chords too. So a major scale wil work over minor chords, in the case that it is one of the chords you get from harmonising that particular scale. (all this is in Andrew's chords for scales lesson) We lay out the scale, pick a note then skip a note, untill we have 3 notes:(check the above lesson for how to get to this next step) We get: C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor B diminished So as you can see- all the chords in your progression are in that^^. And we produced those minor chords by harmonizing a major scale, so yes! you can use a major scale over a minor chord- if the chord can be taken from that particular scale. This may seem a bit off topic- but when you get really used to harmonising scales like this- you'll get to the point when you can quiclkly decide what chords will work over any scale you like- and also you will recognise chords as groups of chords from a certain scale- making scale choice quick and easy Read that lesson though! It's a great one and can either of you explain exactly when a key is a minor key?? Again, minor scales can be harmonised just like a Major scale and will have it's own set of chords etc (check the lesson). Adding this knowledge of harmonising scales along with using your ear to identify the root/home/resolving note/chord will give you a powerful tool for working in this kind of "puzzle". My short answer would be to use C major scale of your chords, my longer answer would include identifying the tonic (root of the scale) chord and also learning how to harmonise a scale for a true understanding of how scales and chords work together. |
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Jul 30 2008, 11:15 AM |
thank you both.. i believe i still have some work to do in the theory department..
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Jul 30 2008, 04:22 PM |
Um, hello? Guess I'm not needed around here any more Wrk & DR did a great job of answering that one!
-------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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Mar 23 2016, 09:35 PM |
Hi Fuebob -
You need to keep in mind the root notes of these chords which are a clue to the tonal center. Both of those riffs (as is often the case) seem to me to start with the first root note as the tonal center - C in the first, D in the second. For the first rift, that confirms what you already said - this seems to be a C minor riff. For the second riff, the first root note is D, meaning we are looking for a scale that starts with D and incorporates F, G and A# as well. D aeolian is D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C D - since Bb is the same note as A# it fits in nicely. The reason we would say Bb and not A# in this context is that D Aeolian is a mode of F major which is the scale we get when using one flat (Bb), but that is really just a matter of notation and doesn't change our conclusion. To answer your general question - the fact that we don't have any thirds here in theory gives you a little more leeway in scale choice but since power chord riffs are usually painting around full scales in the actual songs anyway, in practice the 3rds are kind of assumed and you end up with the same result. One way to confirm this is to not just listen to the riff, but also any bass and melody line that goes with it - they will often incorporate other missing notes of the scale and give you a fuller picture. This post has been edited by Andrew Cockburn: Mar 23 2016, 09:39 PM -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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