Finding the Key of Songs For Soloing

Comment

Comment by Philipp Boettcher on February 2, 2010 at 9:27am

i find it a very helpful lesson, its like this little tips that are to easy to think of yourself:) But I do have to say, if I wouldnt have learned theory like a maniac the last couple of month it would have left me probably very confused when he started to talk about the minor trick. I think he should have explained in the first place what a key actually is. I think thats what people are most confused about i think.

What i learned it is a resting point, like a magnet-field where all notes finally go back to. Like what it says about chords: its a ROOT note, like the root of a tree, where everything comes from. All the other notes in a song apart from the key are in a kind of tension. The key of the song, the ROOT note means rest, means homebase. What also has to be understood is that a chord, a basic major chord, consists of 3 notes. Every key, for example the key of C consists of 7 notes.
And a basic major chord consists of the 1st note, the 3rd note and the 5th note out of that 7 notes.So if you play the 1st, the 3rd and the 5th note simultaneously, you get a C major chord. The reason why the teacher says that almost everybody guesses eiter the 1st, the 3rd or the 5th note is because our ears are so used to this very fundamental relationship between these 3 notes. This relationship is the most common in western music.

Comment by Keith (Co-Founder Of GPU) on February 1, 2010 at 9:59pm

I was pretty close when humming the notes:) got a little lost when he started talking about 3rds and 5ths but a helpful lesson none the lesson. At least it is a starting point....

Comment by Wezzy Boy on February 1, 2010 at 2:06pm

Excellent, but I think if you know the notes in the triad then your ear would possibly be more advanced.

I'm just learning theory and think that this is great but I dont know the notes in a triad by heart so I couldnt do the test as he described.

It did however show me that I am developing a good ear so maybe some test tutorials would be a good idea. e.g. show some theory with some practical examples followed by a little test.