[mrhev]

I've got a question. If I'm riding down the road listening to a song I like, how do I figure out what key i'ts in?

[allthumbs]

Can be difficult without a guitar in hand to check if your Key choice is accurate. Unless you have trained your ear very well, I wouldn't try and drive and figure this stuff out at the same time, could be hazardous if you got distracted.

[Donovan]

Originally Posted by allthumbs

Can be difficult without a guitar in hand to check if your Key choice is accurate. Unless you have trained your ear very well, I wouldn't try and drive and figure this stuff out at the same time, could be hazardous if you got distracted.

LOL! Yea, sharp remark AT Yea, you better listen back the song back home and try figuring out some of the chords with your guitar. Then a little chord progression theory and a little common sense would help if the song ain't too complicated

[Jim]

Unless you have perfect pitch, you would either need some kind of instrument - or some kind of tuning device - like a pitch pipe or electronic tuner or tuning fork. Or a recording of another song in a known key you can compare it relatve to.

But I agree - don't do it while driving unless you are one of the lucky ones with perfect pitch...

Jim

[mrhev]

Yeah, I wasn't sure if that was something a person could learn to hear or not.
Thanks for the input.

[anthony knight]

abit of a tip for you minor chords sound sad or mysterious major chords such as g are mostly happy sounding. strum a em chord and youll hear what i mean. a song like while my guitar gently weeps by george harrison is in the minor key, it starts on am and sounds pretty sad and heart felt

[scotty_b]

I think as you go along as a player you get a 'feel' for the sound of certain keys. I can normally tell a 'guitar' key from listening to it. Certain voicings give things away, like hearing the low E string, or a G chord. Practice transcribing and your ear will develop, or play along with the radio or TV ads or whatever. Put yourself in a position where you need to use your ear like that, and it will develop. Do it enough and you will hear a song on the radio and know what it is they are playing

[bmurnahan]

As Scotty B said, some chords on the guitar are easily recognized and can be hint to what key you are in.

If not you can use relative pitch to label the chords by number. You can classify the progression as a 1 4 5 or a 1 6 4 5 or whatever you hear. Then when you get to your guitar or some other instrument you can use as a reference you can get the actual key.

Bob