Well, I’ve been practicing with a piano to find the key of s songs.
For about a week now, every day for an hour or two.
And i honestly think I’ve gotten worse. I get the correct key about 1 in 20 songs (using beatport, keyfinder and MIK to check my answers, if all three have the same key, I’ll assume it’s correct).
In the process of figuring it out, I feel like I’m just convincing myself it’s a certain key, then going with it, it’s usually wrong. As I go through the keys, always starting at A, I just psych myself out thinking it’s the first key I chose because the key is getting higher as i play higher, I try to use the minor chord trick but that usually ends up unhelpful because i chose the wrong key to begin with, spending 5 to 10 minutes on one song just makes my brain hurt from hearing it replay over and over etc. etc. blah blah blah.
Is it possible i’m simply too old to develop an ear for it? Everyone i know that can pick out keys or play by ear their parents had them in piano lessons at age 2. I’m 17, and this is incredibly frustrating.
It’s going to take more than that…don’t get discouraged.
Try going lower instead of higher. Keys are more easily deciphered on the bass notes. Take this song (because it has an obvious bassline) -
At the 1:14 mark the bass kicks in. In about 99% of “bass” music (Electro House, Dubstep, etc.), the first note of the drop is the key of the song. I know the key of this song…can you figure it out? As you’re going lower, try to match the key of that bass note.
It’s actually D#minor. Sorry about that, I’m steering you wrong with crappy music. I just wanted to give you something with an obvious bassline.
Try this… For now don’t worry about major and minor. Just try to find the bass note.
From the beginning of the video there is a bass note playing. It sounds like it’s part of the kick drum, tuned kicks are common in EDM. It’s then present throughout most of the song. Just tell me the name of the note.
Also, are you playing notes or chords? It’s fine to start with notes, but you need to play chords to see if it fits. Even just a power chord works better than nothing.
I’m tapping D# to the drop, but I really can’t hear a similarity or dissimilarity. sounds like the song, with me playing an entirely different sound of a single piano key haha. That’s what i think my problem is, anyone piano key sounds too different from the song itself for me to hear anything, every ntoe on the piano sounds intrusive and shouldn’t be there.
I get really confused what people mean by bass these days, when i think bass, I think SUB bass. Do you mean the sub bass note? Or just the mid-bassy synth?
I always compare with chords to find minor or major after I think i’ve found the note.
I’m starting to think this is just a waste of what little spare time I have to learn/get better at mixing and producing. If I have the technology to do something for me i might as well..
And I can’t hear it well unless I’m playing chords. That’s why I use a guitar…it’s faster/simpler/more idiot-proof to move chords around. I mean…I can sing root notes without thinking……but I can’t tell you what the hell the note is.
I’m really not trying to be rude but you might be tone deaf. Literally my whole family is tone deaf. There’s no hope for them. But I bet with practice and proper training they could break out of it. Maybe you can too. You need to seriously commit to this though, it’s not something you can just pick up after a month or so.
A note is a note regardless of how it’s played. If you can’t hear that an A# is the same in a distorted Dubstep synth or a piano, your ears may never hear that.
