About figuring a song out by ear...

[Hasbro]

Originally Posted by Llewlyn

Hard to tell but the tune might be in F major, with F minor as a substitute. If you posted the whole chord progression maybe we could help a bit in analyzing the tune?



What I do to learn a song by ear:

1. First, I figure the key. Both melody and harmony contains hints and this is usually not a hard task.
2. The key tells me the scale - on the scale I figure the melody. If I spot notes "off-scales" I got a hint that something might happen in the harmony as well so I'm prepared to look for different chords.
3. Then I harmonize the scale and get the seven chords. Those are my "main chords" and I divide them in classes: tonic, dominant and subdominant.
4. The I play/sing the melody of the tune try to find the chords. I am really not picky about the exact chord but I just try to figure out the class. For example, if I feel that the chord is a dominant one (and we are, say, in the key of C) I am not too picky about G7 or Bminb5: I use whatever sounds good/close to the original.
5. For the off-scale chords, I find that most of the times they are (a) just dominant chord that stresses the relaxation to the next chord (b) scale changes following the circle of fourth. Clearly, the level of complexity depends on the music you hear but I find that for what I do that's really enough.

Ll.

Is there a difference between circle of fifths and circle of fourths?

[Hasbro]

Originally Posted by Al Acuff

Here are links to a three part lesson by Ted Greene on tonality and music theory.

Most music theory lessons are based on a piano keyboard and that approach never made much sense to me as a guitarist. These lessons are written by a guitar player for guitar players. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

http://tedgreene.com/images/lessons/...1976-05-28.pdf

http://tedgreene.com/images/lessons/...1976-05-29.pdf

http://tedgreene.com/images/lessons/...1976-05-30.pdf

Would chord chemistry be a good book for someone who is really a novice in understanding these things to read, or is it more for someone who really has a firm understanding of everything to begin with

[Llewlyn]

Originally Posted by Hasbro

Is there a difference between circle of fifths and circle of fourths?

No.

One might argue that is just the "direction" of the circle - ascending fourth instead of descending fifth. In truth though, "circle of fifth" is how people call it in some countries (e.g. Italy) but they mean the same thing.

Ll.

[Nailpicker]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

It's not an issue about what should be, or usually is, if you go by ear. Many songs use chord substitutions,
parallel key chords, in and out of major chords, key changes, etc.. Then again many songs don't, so knowing
the chords native to the key is a good starting point.

This.

I used to focus on "music theory" when working up a song. These days I don't think about much of anything (and my arrangements likely reflect that), but simply get down with what is pleasing to my ear. I fall back on "music theory" (gotta put that in quotes) when I hit a stumbling block part in the song.