I wish to know how I can identify which key a song is for myself. Is it simply a benefit of ear training?
I've told you this before - ear training at any of the great sites out there including
teoria.com will give you the necessary skills to do this - it is not something that happens overnight but as the result of application and focused practice and review
I wish to know what key these instrumentals are in:
This is in D major, although the progression might seem strange to some because of the sequence of chords
Bm /// | G /// | D /// | A /// :|| repeat ad infinitum ad nauseum
Bm = B-D-F[sup]#[/sup]
G = G-B-D
D = D-F[sup]#[/sup]-A
A = A-C[sup]#[/sup]-E
sometimes the G is a G[sub]/B[/sub] or G with a B in the bass
I identified this by recognising the F[sup]#[/sup] to begin with.
I then checked whether it harmonised with an A (F[sup]#[/sup]m | D), A[sup]#[/sup] (F[sup]#[/sup] | D[sup]#[/sup]m) or B (Bm | B) - chords in brackets are potential triads that match those diads.
I could just as easily have checked C[sup]#[/sup] (F[sup]#[/sup]m | F[sup]#[/sup]), D (D | Bm) or D[sup]#[/sup] (D[sup]#[/sup]m | B) and reached the same conclusions.
I decided that D and Bm were the best matches for what I was hearing.
From that it was a case of identifying where the D chord was and then identifying chord movement by interval.
The D moved to an A chord (down a 4th). The A moved up by step to the Bm chord. The Bm chord morphed to the G chord, whilst sometimes retaining the B bass (the F[sup]#[/sup] became a G and so by taking the spelling to the simplest form, G-B-D (stacked 3rds), we had morphed to G).
From there it was simply a case of identifying whether the progression started on the D or Bm - this was determined because of the resting/pausing nature of the A chord in the progression - the progression appears to come to a temporary halt on the A. The rest is simply arranging the sequence in correct order
Bm-G-D-A which is vi-IV-I-V, a common enough progression in the pop music canon.
The progression used in the introduction was identified as IV-V-vi-I without reference to pitch.
More accurately the first chord is a major chord.
The second is a major chord that is a step above the first chord, this means it shares no notes with it. Choice at this stage is to think: IV-V
The third chord is a minor chord a step above the second chord, this means it shares no notes with it. Choice at this stage is to think: IV-V-vi
The fourth chord is a major chord that shares two of the notes of the third chord - the root of the third chord drops by step, so it must be the relative major of that chord. Choice is left at: IV-V-vi-I
The first chord only shares one note with the fourth chord - the 5th of the fourth chord: the other two notes rise by step, suggesting that it moves to the sub-dominant triad (IV) relative to the fourth chord.
Additional information used to arrive at final choice - the progression seems to reach a final point on the fourth chord - in a major key this would be either chord V or chord I but not chord IV. As chord V was a not a viable option, the progression as arrived at by listening was accepted as the progression.
Having established the progression in the abstract, we can then flesh it out by applying the process from above.
I identified the first chord as A major. The rest of the intro progression is therefore
A /// | B /// | C[sup]#[/sup]m /// | E /// | A /// | B /// | C[sup]#[/sup]m /// |
and our key is E major.
A = A-C[sup]#[/sup]-E
B = B-D[sup]#[/sup]-F[sup]#[/sup]
C[sup]#[/sup]m = C[sup]#[/sup]-E-G[sup]#[/sup]
E = E-G[sup]#[/sup]-B
The song goes on to then use the following progression
E / E B[sub]/D[sup]#[/sup][/sub] ||: C[sup]#[/sup]m B[sub]/D[sup]#[/sup][/sub] E E[sub]/G[sup]#[/sup][/sub] | F[sup]#[/sup]m[sub]/A[/sub] /// :||
which renders as:
I-V[sub]/7[/sub]-||:vi-V[sub]/7[/sub]-I-I[sub]/3[/sub]-ii[sub]/4[/sub]:||
B[sub]/D[sup]#[/sup][/sub] = B-D[sup]#[/sup]-F[sup]#[/sup] with a D[sup]#[/sup] in the bass (1st inversion chord V)
E[sub]/G[sup]#[/sup][/sub] = E-G[sup]#[/sup]-B with a G[sup]#[/sup] in the bass (1st inversion chord I)
F[sup]#[/sup]m[sub]/A[/sub] = F[sup]#[/sup]-A-C[sup]#[/sup] with an A in the bass (1st inversion chord ii)
This example is more complex, having chords with notes other than the root as the bass.
However, recognising bass movement and chord quality are the first step to doing this type of transcription.
Recognising 1st inversion and 2nd inversion chords are an important part of this process; this leads to knowing that for a given bass note there are only so many chords that can be built containing it within the key
I am tempted to identify the chord ii as perhaps chord ii[sup]7[/sup] (F[sup]#[/sup]m[sup]7[/sup]) as this seems to fit better, however I have reduced the transcription to simple triads to outline the process.
I wish to do some backpack rapping to these instrumentals to practice my...writing (With poetic metre / rhythm) / flow and delivery / vocal editing (compression, eq, reverb, ad-libs, stacking, mixing, etc.)
However, I'd like to treat this as if it were a real song I was coming out with. I want to make sure my vocal melody is musically correct and need the keys of these instrumentals; and perhaps the chord progressions as well?
Like always, any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!
quid petatur, datur (what is asked for, is given)
---------- Post added at 10:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:29 AM ----------
Haha hey you asked, and I'm trying to get my posts up so I gave you the best suggestion I had. But yeah I don't think there is any "magic" way to do it. If you want to be a great artist, understanding pitch and key is definitely useful and will just make you a better musician as a whole. Unfortunately, it does take some time and patience. I'm sure there's an app for checking your key though, which might be more what you're looking for.
thank you for admitting that is was a useless post-count bump piece of spam....
the only good app for checking it is called the human brain, as illustrated by my above post.
