Working Out Music

Discussion in 'Guitar Lessons, Tutorials & Tips' started by Rey1970, Mar 20, 2005.

  1. Rey1970

    Rey1970 New Member

    Hi guys how do you all work music out? I 've use these methods, know others use it too,If I hear the song and if I don't have my guitar I use my right arm as a fret board, and picture what I want to play chords notes etc!!! when I get my guitar I usally already know how to play it or what I'm looking for!!!. I start by "feeling" for the notes to find out my key area or "tonal center" sliding up and down the E strings or hit the notes on the 12th fret feel around if it sharps or not always ensure that your guitar is properly tunned, once I've found the key most songs play in 1 some songs changes to 2 keys sometimes but once i find that out say its C then I use the notes of C maj. try soloing over the song once I've nailed that write the notes that play along with the song then to know if its maj. or min. use notes from both scales to hear the sound. I willfully hit "off" notes from scales to double check myself sometimes you can hear some songs and know its minor by the "sad" sound while a maj. has a more upbeat(happy) to it.Then i substitute chords using the I IV V etc. there is a pattern you can use if you know 1 or 2 chords :this system I used to improvise 1 scale to an entire chord progession;


    .. KEY .. I .. .. . II .. .. III ... IV .. . V .. ... VI .. ... ..VII
    .. .... .. Maj ... Min .. Min .. Maj .. Maj .. Min ... diminished
    .. E .. . E .. .. . F# .... G#.. . A ... . B .. . . C#.. . .... D#





    so if you know a song has chords E , C#m, A, B we can say since A and B follows alphabetically and are both major in quality they'll fit in spots IV, V, & since C#m is minor in quality, and follows B alphabetically it has to go in the VI spot,& by working backwards you'll find E chord ending up in the 1 spot so we can safely say the song is in the key of E major(in my last lesson building guitar scales whole and half steps you'll know how to fit the rest of chords above) try this one A maj7, C#m7, Dmaj7, E7 if you alter the pattern a little


    .. key I ... II ... .. III ... .. IV ... ..... V... ... ...VI... . ...VII
    .. .. Maj .. Min ... Min... Maj ... dominant ... Min... 1/2dim.sh


    so we can say the E7 since its a dominant 7th it can only go in the V spot then Dmaj7 has to be in spot IV, C#m in III, Amaj the I chord. Try these for practice I'll post the answers at the bottom, IF I FEEL LIKKE IT!!! #1 Em-D-c #2 D-Bm- Em--A #3 Fm-Cm Bbm-Db-Eb.From this I get the 1 scale to solo & improvise, I try doing ear training all the time, to help me to reconnize intervals , sometimes I don't always come up with the chords in progression I know its there but can't hold them, cause I've never practice them, but there's always room for improvement!!! Then I try to sing what I'm trying to play, my solo notes (I try to sing close to pitch as possible) use tha naa naa ,laa laa laa, whatever is best 4 you, stop & play the cd at points,but I sit with pen & paper, I use both "ear" & theroy I use to depend on fingering position to play scales but now I build them the maj & mins. mostly. let me know what you think guys,You'll probably got some easier methods we can relate to one another, the answers to progression #1 key of G Maj, #2 key of DMaj, #3 key of G#.
    Another way if you got the following progression: G Maj7/ Em7/ Am7/ D7/
    list all the possible keys each chords should belong to:
    GMaj7---- I chord in G, IV chord in D
    Em7------II chord D, III chord in C, VI chord G
    Am7-----II chord in G, III chord in F, VI chord in C
    D7------V chord in G.
    loking at this you can see the one common key of all these is G.So from this you can say when improvising over major tonality chord progressions: find the dominant chord and this usually will be the V chord in the key of the propper scale( D is the V note in the scale in the G Maj scale) so you know you right. Another way is to hear the key!!! but thats after 5o yrs of playing.
    Try this progression and play the F note over (keyboard or guitar)or hear if the music is trying to get "somewhere"
    FMaj/ Cmaj / Dmin / Bflat / Amin / Bflat / CMaj/
    ////...////...////....////....////....////....////
     
  2. Liquid

    Liquid New Member

    nice post...fun to read..

    "or hit the notes on the 12th fret feel around if it sharps or not always ensure that your guitar is properly tunned, once I've found the key most songs play in "
    ......can u further explain this line a lil?
     
  3. Rey1970

    Rey1970 New Member

    the 12th fret the guitar "starts over"so you have E A D G B E & all the sharps and flats closeby also F, & C
     
  4. Liquid

    Liquid New Member

    yea but how do u find what key the song is in?...i mean just like that??...thats quite impressive..

    and why do u explore this area of the guitar when most of the notes will probably be lower?
     
  5. Rey1970

    Rey1970 New Member

    You could explore anywhere all the notes are all over but at the 12th fret its easier or slide up and down on the E string or the B string till you find a note that goes along with the music throughout the sound If you play a correct chord progression you'll hear your music is trying to get "somewhere" or what they call a tonal center or a note the music is revolving around, and that will be your key center.Lower or higher an E is always going to be an E so is a For G no matter what part of the guitar its just going to be an octave higher or lower.Also you can derive a scale from the chords find out all the notes in the chords you have and the most common notes of them all would be your key.
     
  6. Liquid

    Liquid New Member

    the music throughout the sound If you play a correct chord progression

    .Lower or higher an E is always going to be an E so is a For G no matter what part of the guitar its just going to be an octave higher or lower

    parts i didnt get...
     
  7. Rey1970

    Rey1970 New Member

    Hey liquid what I'm trying to say there is mostly one note or key, a chord progression revolves around try playing this progression and listen for how smoothe it sounds you could actually hear a note the chords are going to which is the F note in this one, also if your progression is wrong or all over the place you not going to "Zero" in on it.
    F/C/Dm/Bb/Am/Bb/C/ and hit the F note on another instrument.
     

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