An easy way to build your ear skills

Posted on 06 August 2008 See Comments | Post Comment

Learning to pick out the key to a song (the “tonic”) is a very useful skill to have as an “ear” musician.

Many of you have found this tip very helpful…

Go to a site like TowerRecords.com or open Itunes, where you’ll have access to hundreds of thousands of song samples (no purchase necessary).

Simply go to your favorite genre and start listening to the samples.

Just take your time and listen for that ONE common note that can almost be sang over any chord in the song. Try to fast-forward yourself to the end of the song and figure out what the keynote of that chord would be. Often times, the keynote (root note) of the first chord is the key of the song… but not always.

Also, you can review this post for more tips on finding the key.

Have fun with this one!

 

 

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6 Comments For This Post

1. learnlah says:
   August 6th, 2008 (comment#1)

   Hey Jermaine, this is very good tip for ear training. Thanks

2. tobi says:
   August 7th, 2008 (comment#2)

   yeah sure. you’re right. more often than not, the tonic chord is the last chord of a song, so if one can fastforward either the music or his/her mind to the last chord, then he/she could easily consistently get the key of a song. and having built that foundation, one could then move on to be able to determine the key even in the middle or at the beginning.

   cheers

3. Jermaine says:
   August 7th, 2008 (comment#3)

   Absolutely Tobi! Thanks for adding…

4. felina says:
   August 7th, 2008 (comment#4)

   I think this is a great strategy. thanks j

5. nexus863 says:
   August 10th, 2008 (comment#5)

   hi,

   wonderfull advice. I will try it and let you kno how i do.

6. sabatini says:
   November 27th, 2008 (comment#6)

   Hi There! I’m having trouble identifying music genre. I wanted to know how I can differentiate Gospel between Worship and Praise songs.

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