5 Tips- How To Find The Major Key of A Song By Ear

5 Tips To Help Find The Major Key of A Song By Ear!


1) Listen for the note that you can sing consistently throughout the whole song.

2) The major key (when trying to find it by ear) is the note that gives you a feeling of "home base" ... a feeling of rest and calmness. Train your ear by trying to play songs you can sing from memory on the piano. First, determine what key the song is in by finding which note the song seems to resolve on. This note is known as the tonic.


3) If the song were going to come to an end, what chord would it be?

4) Try playing octave bass notes in your left hand at the end of the song to determine what key you are in.

5) If you are not 100% sure you are singing the right note, try singing a fourth up to see if that's a better match.

Learn how to quickly recognize what key a chord progression is being played in --- regardless of its complexity!
Learn how to listen to a chord and within seconds, figure out what type of chord is being played!

A great technique to play a song by ear is to listen to the bass notes that are being played in a song. After you figure out the bass notes, then figure out the chords. Most of the time the bass notes correspond w/ chords (usually major or minor) that have that bass note as the root note of chord (except when it's a slash chord ie C/E would be C chord w/ E bass). A lot of times when the bass note is different note than the root note of the chord, it's usually another note in the same chord (ie E is another note in the C chord). If the chord that's being played w/the bass note sounds "happy" you can figure it's a major chord. If the chord sounds "sad", it's probably a minor or diminished chord.

Watch the bass notes that the guitar guy is playing in the band. You can figure out a lot of the chords.
i.e. if he's playing G C D bass notes a lot in a song, you can figure that he's playing in the key of G b/c C and D are the 4 and 5 of the key and G is the 1. A lot of times you'll find the 1, 4, and 5 of a key in the bass notes of a song. The main thing is to look for the 4 and 5 which are a whole step apart.

PRACTICE FINDING THE MAJOR KEY TO A SONG:

Use this online tool to find major keys when you're away from a piano.

http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/javapiano/javapiano.htm

Next, go to
http://www.TowerRecords.com and type in any song. You can get a 30 second sample of it. They have a wide selection to choose from,knowing the title of the song or the album.

Jermaine Griggs, the founder of HearandPlay.com, suggests the following:

"Then...

1) Listen for the note that you can sing consistently throughout the whole song.

2) The major key (when trying to find it by ear) is the note that gives you a feeling of "home base" ... a feeling of rest and calmness.

3) If the song were going to come to an end, what chord would it be? How would you hum it? In "Happy Birthday to you," you're looking for the final "YOUUUUUUUUU!"

4) Remember "Do RE MI FA SOL LA TI DO?" Well, the key that you're looking for is "DO." So as you listen to the song, try to sing "DO."

5) If you are not 100% sure you are singing the right note, try singing a fourth up to see if that's a better match. In the nursery rhyme, "The wheels on the bus go round and round," this would be like singing "The---wheels." Perhaps, wheels is the key you should be singing but you are incorrectly singing "the" when it is not the key (the tonic).

Try these to get started."

I highly recommend all of the HearandPlay music resources. I have been using them for years, incorporating them in my piano lessons, to help students play by ear. This is a very well-worth stop, so visit the H&P Blog and hear it from the professional, play-by-ear guru himself, Jermaine Griggs! You'll be glad you did!

http://www.hearandplay.com/main/tag/key-center











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