OK, so you are listening to a song, and you want to attempt to play it, is there a way to determine what scale is being used? Major, minor, pentatonic, Blues, then there’s the weird ones like mixolydian, etc. I will try a scale and it will sound correct for a couple of notes, then sounds off, so will try a different scale, and I usually get the same results. Just trying to figure out that by looking at this or that it will tell me Major, Minor, Blues, etc. I think part of the problem is extra notes not normally used in that scale, or its the weird scales I haven’t quite figured out yet. Haven’t studied theory a bunch in awhile, so maybe I’ll figure it out when I get to theory!
Thanks,
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You need to be able to figure out the key of the tune first. Then comes the harmony: What is the tune’s chord progression? Then come chord tones: Which notes of each chord in the progression are the ones to play? Then comes the scale (mode) for each type of chord in the progression.
It’s not as mysterious as it seems at first glance. It’s all about taking a broader view of what is happening in a tune, then diving deeper, later by layer.
It all starts with music theory: how and why chords go together; how/why chords are created; and how they relate to one another.
I know, it sounds like a lot. Because it actually is a lot. But it’s totally doable with the proper courses, study, practice and time. Hope this makes sense.
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Yes, it makes sense, the problem is everything is still basically new to me (I haven’t taken a theory class in over 30 years so I’m a bit Rusty. Just have to be patient and learn it one piece at a time until it all meshes together. But it’s just so much fun when I can figure out the scale and can play to the song even if it’s not the exact notes! :]
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For most of us mortals it’s either extensive studies or lots of trials and errors. When you make enough mistakes you are left with much fewer choices, and one of them is the right one.
Unless of course you are Jude.
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and for some of us, it’s both
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A new scale might indeed be required every time the chord changes…
Playing one scale over an entire song works if/when the song uses chords that are diatonic to each other. >90% of pop music will be using diatonic chords, but not ALL (which is why it sounded off to you).
Also, while it’s possible to get away with one scale over the entire song (if diatonic), it might not sound the “best”. There will be no “wrong” notes in there, but it will feel like you are not outlining the actual chord progression with tension and release, which really makes “music” instead of just stringing chords together.
And don’t disregard the mixolydian scale, which will help you in many rock and funk songs!!
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Sounds like I have my work cut out for me, but at least I have a direction. Thanks all.
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If I recall correctly, Josh covers this in Module 15 of B2B. I think that Lesson 4 goes into this.
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Thanks for the info. Gives me something to experiment with.
Look at these phrases:
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Olha que coisa mais linda, mais cheia de graça É ela a menina que vem e que passa
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Besame, besame mucho como si fuera ésta noche la última vez
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Penso che un sogno così non ritorni mai più Mi dipingevo le mani e la faccia di blu
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Des yeux qui font baisser les miens Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche
If you only speak english, it might be difficult to determine what those languages are… you might be able to pick out the one that’s French. If you speak a romance language you can probably pick out Spanish and/or Italian and maybe the Portuguese.
Music is a language and if you want to read and speak the language, you have to become familiar with it and learn how it works. Many (maybe most) people can whistle or sing to a tune, some even if they’ve never heard it before, because over years of listening to a style of music, you become familiar with its structure. So you understand the music, you can recognize the notes that fit into the music, if you have some music training you probably understand how things like harmony and passing notes work… but you lack the skills/knowledge to put those things into words and transfer that to an instrument… you speak the language but you don’t understand the spelling and the grammar.
So, to answer your question, if you want to know what scale is being used or what key it’s in, you have to look at the notes being played… but you have to look at all the notes, not just the notes that you’re playing because the context is important. Say you have song that uses the notes:
E, F#, G, A, B, D, E
What scale is that?
It could be E minor or E Dorian but you don’t know without a C/C#, it could also be G major. You’d need to listen to the song and see if you can hear it’s “sound” It’s usually not too hard to hear the difference between G major and E minor and usually songs start/finish on the tonic of the scale (but not always). The difference between E minor and E dorian might be harder to hear, dorian has a darker/mysterious sound.
So the short version is that you need to listen to a lot of music, study/analyze the music and be able to recognize what you’re hearing. If you want to be proficient, you need to do it enough to recognize it without having to think about it.
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Adding to what @MikeC suggested, go find the sheet music for the song and it should tell you the key the piece is in. That get’s you started. Next would be figuring out the chord progression so you can identify the chord tones (vs just individual notes unrelated to anything, or trying to tie it to a specific scale).
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