Can you recognize the KEY to a song?

[S.M. Johnson]

When you sit in with an unfamiliar band, and the song list fails to list 'the appropriate keys'.....

How much of a challenge do you find this to be?

Can you readily identify/easily identify the appropriate key by EAR?

[Nigel Mullen]

Yes

[mtulbert]

Normally, I don't hear the key that the tune is in, but I have no problem hearing the chord changes once the tune starts.

When using the number system, you are focused more on the intervals anyway.

[Mike Ester]

I've found that I can usually get the key without effort.

When I am told that the next song is going to be in Bb or Eb, I just smile and say, "Black keys. No problem. I keep my capo in my hand at all times." (referring to the black keys on a keyboard).

[Les Anderson]

I can usually pick up the key after about the second or third bar. Playing scales over and over again as part of the daily practice sets that ability in motion.

[Tracy Sheehan]

I read once of a young girl who had been born with perfect pitch ear could tell what key a vacuum cleaner was humming in.
Don't think i could do that but do know i had to turn off an over head fan on stage to tune by ear as the fan would be humming in a certian key. (Frequency.)

[Les Anderson]

I read once of a young girl who had been born with perfect pitch ear could tell what key a vacuum cleaner was humming in.
Don't think i could do that but do know i had to turn off an over head fan on stage to tune by ear as the fan would be humming in a certian key. (Frequency.)

Tracy, your post reminds me of a fellow band member who wanders around and tries to figure out what frequency (key) all the sounds around him are in. One of the florescence lights in my basement buzzes in the key of F# he told me so,we took my panflute into the room for the big test, and bedamned if he wasn't right.

[Christopher Woitach]

What band would have you sit in and not tell you what key they're playing the song in?

[Gary Lee Gimble]

What band would have you sit in and not tell you what key they're playing the song in?

A band that has concluded after the second or third tune, that an announced key signature won't help.

[Bob Hoffnar]

What band would have you sit in and not tell you what key they're playing the song in?

You are expected to have the ability to know what key the song is in by hearing it in many situations. You don't need perfect pitch to do it. I do my best with that stuff but ask for help if its available.

[CrowBear Schmitt]

findin' the key to a tune is a main prerogative
if one can't find it, he's in trouble & better get his "you know what " together

[Bill Howard]

I have personally known 3 people in my life who can tell chords by sound alone. Myself My Late brother,and a Blind friend Ben Lawson knows him steve Allen.My nephew is a guitar player he has an I phone with a tuner built in we will be stting at a table in a restaurant and he will get his tuner going and say What Chord?...Sounds like f


How do you do that?? I can hear it...I use a familiar song like roll in sweetbabys arms,I hear it in G chord or Working man blues A... I have tuned my strat many many times without a tuner and got it almost dead 440...
I used to play at Church the Paino player would always look at me for the chord when a singer just started singing....I just can hear it:)

[Norman Evans]

To Bill H.
Is Steve Allen's wife named Sharon? If so, they spent a lot of time in my home several years ago. He is an excellent musician. I haven't heard from him in years.
Thanks, Norm

[Bob Cox]

Any chord that has been strummed on a 6 string guitar I usually always know from the resonase it creates. Most
singers that play guitar too almost always strum a chord they are fixing to play in.

[Jim Cohen]

If you play enough guitar to recognize chords from someone's hand position, be sure to set your steel where you can see the guitarist's left hand. That will help not only with the key but with the changes if you can't hear them quickly.

[Ray McCarthy]

With age, C,D,B,G and E all start sounding the same. If I didn't hear it right, I just wait till sombody strums a chord and I pick the 4th string (E) and run the bar up till I find the key. I find it easy to match the pitch of the string to the key of the song. I do the same thing when playing along with recorded music.

[Joe Smith]

Once the song starts. I can tell what key it's in. But If they want me to kick it off, they better tell me the key

[Leander Willie]

You need to know the key ahead, because, if you do the intro with what ever instrument, if your in e flat and the singer wanted c, well you know the story . Leander

[Tom Quinn]

It's called jazz... ;- )

[Alan Harrison]

Yes...wthin the first two or three notes.

[Elton Smith]

What key was that clap of thunder in?What key is the whine of the tires going down the highway in?Every sound has a key or frequency.It just don't apply to music,it applies to every sound.Don't just apply it to music but all the sounds you hear.Then the key will be easy.

[Mark van Allen]

Something to think about here, if you haven't, is that musical tones are frequencies, and so chords are stacks of frequencies... which beat and resonate together differently. So an E chord sounds fundamentally different from a G... time and exposure makes it more obvious.
I get the impression that many musicians I've met simply assume that a song in, say, E and G are exactly the same, but in different "positions", and so you must be told the key to play in.
Actually the key and chords of E and G sound very different, and if you start from that realization, you can begin to hone in on the nuances that will separate the keys in your ear. On a bandstand with several instruments it may take a bit more concentration.
A comfortable familiarity with the number system helps as well, if the first few chords are flying by and you recognize the "5" sound, you have a tonal center to listen for the "1" to come back around, and tune into that.
Like any process it gets easier with time.
It's fascinating that some of the sharp keys like E, A, G sound much closer to each other (edgy, crisp?) whereas E and Eb are night and day different.. Eb being softer, rounder than E. 1/2 step is a world of difference.

[Ray McCarthy]

I believe the classic composers wrote their symphonies in certain keys to bring out particular feelings in the music. A symphony in the key of C would not produce the same emotional impact as the same symphony in some other key.
I think

[John Billings]

I think Dm is the saddest chord! I used to work for a very well-known steel player. I could thwack an unfinished steel body, and ask him what note it was. He'd call out from the office, "Just a tad shy of Eb, JB." He was always right!

[John Billings]

This is strange! Server glitch? This double post also ended up on another thread.