How To Find The Key Of A Song On Bass (3 Mistakes)

So you've probably learned a bass line, you've worked out the notes, you maybe even worked out the relationship between the notes. But then have you ever wondered what key is this song in? Whether you play bass as a hobby or you're a professional instantly. Being able to recognize the key of a song is a vital skill for bass players. It's a vital skill for all musicians. Being able to work out the notes by ear is okay. But if you want to take your bass playing to the next level, we need to know the theory behind the bass line. So in today's video, I'm going to show you how to find the key of a song on the bass guitar. And three super common mistakes bass players make so you don't end up making the same mistakes. Hey, it's jaz here from thebassemastermind.com welcome back to the channel. Now, before we learn how to find the key of a song, we need to do some basic theory checks. First, we need to make sure we know our major scales, our our minor scales, our major triads, and our minor triads. Now, if you already know all of those four things, you can skip to this timestamp where I start teaching my step by step method for finding the key of a song. So I'm going to break down the major scale very quickly. It's a seven note scale. We're going to do everything in C. So we'll be doing C major scales and C minor scales. I'll teach you the fingering and position and the pattern. And then I'll teach you what the notes are. So we're going to start with our second finger on, on the third fret of the A string. And then fourth finger. We're assigning one finger to each fret. This is called the one finger per fret system. And then play first finger on the second fret of the D string, second finger on the third fret, fourth finger. And make sure when you put your fourth finger down, quick tip here, you can actually put the other fingers down to help out that little pinky if you're struggling with the pressure on the pinky there. And then first finger, second fret of the G string, then third finger and fourth finger. So that is a C major scale. Let me just quickly tell you the notes. We have C, D, E, F, G, A, B and C. Now the major triad is just taking the first note of the scale, which is also called the root. It's taking the third note of the scale. So 1, 2, 3, third note of the scale and then the fifth note of the scale. So 1st, 2, 3, 4, 5, the fifth note. So if we play them all together, first note or the root, you have the major third, we have the perfect fifth. And then we can also add what's called the octave. Now the minor scale, we're going to start on our first finger. I'll teach you the pattern and fingering. Then I'll teach you the notes. So first finger on the C. Third finger, fourth finger, assigning one finger to each fret. First finger, third finger, fourth finger, first finger, third finger. That is the natural minor scale. So it's the same concept, tri, meaning three. We're just taking three notes of the scale. We're taking the first note of the scale, the third note of the scale and the fifth note of the scale. So C, that's an E flat, that's a G. First finger, fourth finger, third finger. And then you can also add the octave. So you have those two scales, you have a major scale, you have a minor scale, you have a major triad, you have a minor triad. And that's all we need theory wise for today's lesson. What you'll find. Most songs will either be in a major key, so they'll be using the major scale, or they'll be in a minor key. And generally in a minor key, you use the natural minor scale that I just taught you. There are two other minor scales that you can use in a minor key, but let's not worry about them for today. Now let's learn this step by step method for finding the key of a song. And in less than 10 seconds, that's what I promised you guys. Now I'm going to break this down into just three super simple steps that you can follow along. So let me quickly show you the example track that we're going to be using today. So here is how it sounds. Okay, awesome. So we just heard the track. Now step one of this three step process is super simple. It's more intuitive than theoretical. Step one is to literally do what we just did. You listen to the track and it's gonna sound crazy, but all you do is you just hum the first note that comes into your mind. Now you gotta trust me on this one. It sounds super simple and I'm all about making things nice and simple and you're probably looking at me a little bit weird like this. Why is this the first step? But this process has been tried and tested with all of my students. And after a few months of working with this three step process, their ability to Be able to recognize the key of a song has increased dramatically. And the reason why humming the first pitch that comes to your mind is. Is the best way of finding the key of the song is because your brain will automatically find the one note that works best over all of the chords, but just give it a go. So let's listen to the track again, and then all I want you to do is just hum or sing the first pitch that comes to your head. So just have a listen to the track, don't hum one note, and then try and move it around to try and find the key. Just commit to humming one note. And before I play the track, I'm super sorry for my awful singing voice, but this is the best way to find the key of a song. So I'm going to commit to it and I'm going to sing the first pitch that comes into my head. Okay, here it goes. Are you singing that note? Now, obviously this skill is going to come with time and practice, but trust me on this, this is the best way and the most intuitive way as well to find the key of a song. Now, if you weren't humming the same note that I was humming, which was the key of the song, I'm going to explain after the three steps what you should do and how to figure out if you are actually singing the key of the song. So step two and three are really confirming that you've actually sung the correct note. And like I said, after the third step, I'll explain exactly what you should do. If you go through the process and you figure out actually this isn't what the key of the song is, I'll explain exactly what you should do. So just hold tight. Step two, again, is super simple. The pitch that you are humming, you just find that pitch on your bass. So you would play the song, Hum the note, find it on your bass, you might get it straight away. But if you don't, just kind of play around, like, Try and match the pitch. And this second step as an exercise alone is actually amazing for ear training. Interval recognition, pitch recognition. Like, if you just do this step, and even if it takes you a long time, it's definitely worth it. So just spend some time matching what you hear in your head to what you're playing in your bass. Because at the end of the day, that is the ultimate goal, to be able to hear something and be so connected to our instrument that we can pull off whatever we're trying to hear in our head. Whether it's quite technical, we've got the technique to deal with it. Rhythmic or quite theoretical. We have the knowledge to be able to do it. So we want to be so connected to our instrument. And I think the best way of doing that is 1 clapping if it's rhythm and 2 singing if it's to do with harmony or pitch. Now, before I move on to step three of this process, I've actually gone and designed a worksheet for this one video. So if you're watching this video, I've designed a worksheet just for this one video which breaks down this step by step method and just a few things to watch out for. So if you go below this video, click on the link in the description, you can download that PDF for free, print it off, and then next time you come to learn a song by ear, you can just reference that PDF, follow the three step process, and also make sure you're not doing those three mistakes that I said you should avoid and I'll share them at the end of the video. They're all included in the PDF for you to reference and remind yourself in the future. So yeah, you can go and download that free PDF below this video. So step three is to work out if you're in a major or minor key. Now, if you are humming the correct pitch, you found the one note and that is the key of the song. So in this case I have an E. Now what you want to do is find out are we in E major or E minor? Now, there's really two ways to figure out if you're in a major or minor key. There's the intuitive way and there's the theoretical way. Let me show you both ways and then I'm going to share the common mistakes I see bass players make and and how you can avoid them. So the intuitive way is to just listen to the track. Does it sound major, kind of brighter sounding? Or does it sound minor, which is a bit darker sounding? But if you want to be a bit more theoretical about it, all you do going back to the major and minor triads from earlier is you just simply play the E major triad or the E minor triad and the note you really want to look out for is the major or minor third, depending on if the major or minor third sounds correct will mean you're in a major key or a minor key. I'll demonstrate quickly for you. So here's the track. I'm going to play an E major triad. So we already know M that note is the key of the song. So we're going to play a major Triad to see is it in a major key. So major triad is great. First note, third note of the E major scale. Perfect. Fifth or fifth note of the major scale that is the major triad. Let's play it over the song to see if we're in a major key. Well, I mean, that didn't sound good to me. So what you want to do is really pay close attention and use your ears. Listen to that third note. In this case, it's a G sharp, the major third of E. That note does not sound right. So I reckon this song is in a minor key. Let's play a minor triad now. So in E minor, we have a, E, we have a G, which is the minor third, which is the note we want to be listening to. We have a B, we have an E as an octave. Let's play the track and play our E minor triad over. The track. Sounds a lot better than. So that's really the theoretical way of figuring it out. Just using major and min minor triads.

Hey, guys, I just wanted to cut into this video. You can see I've got my glasses on and I'm just editing here with my laptop. I'm editing the video that you're watching right now. But I wanted to cut in because I actually created this whole video came about from a comment or a question I got in my free Facebook group, the Bass Master community Facebook group. This is the question. And it was essentially, how do I find the key of a song? So all I wanted to say was if you do have any suggestions for future videos, any topics, any questions you have about music or playing bass, as this is a new channel, if I think it's a good idea, I will go and make a video answering your question. And I'll also leave a link to the free Facebook group that you're welcome to join and we can hang out in there.

So I'll leave a link below this

video to the Facebook group and let me know if there's any topics or questions you have about playing bass or music, and I'll try and put them into my future videos. All right, now let's get back to. Well, me editing and you watching the video.

So we have just figured out the key of this song is in E minor. But going all the way back to step one of this process, what happens if you hum the incorrect note? So say you listen to this song and you hum a different note. I'll just sing a different note. So you hum that note. Then you go to the second stage of the process. You figure out that note, you match the pitch you're singing to what you're playing on bass. That's an A. So let's play an A major triad and A minor triad over the song. The A major triad doesn't sound that great, but the A minor triad actually sounds okay. So then what we would do is just to double check that we've got it right. We would actually play the A minor scale over the key of the song and we would listen to each individual note to check the key of the song is actually A minor, That note. So there's one note in that scale that just doesn't sound right. That F really doesn't sound right with the key of the song. So then what you've just found out is, is that the song is not actually in the key of A or A minor. So then you would go back to step one, repeat the process, sing a different note, figure out that note on the bass, play the major triad, minor triad, see which one sounds best, and then say it's a minor triad. Then you play the minor scale. If it's a major triad, you play the major scale. And then you would have the key of the song if every single note in that scale sounds correct. Now, this method generally applies to more popular rock, blues type music. If it's any kind of complex jazz going through different key centers, obviously this method might not work as well. But if you're just learning classic pop or funk or rock songs, then this method will work just fine. So now I want to share with you the three super common mistakes that people make when they try this process and they try and figure out the key of a song. And these mistakes are all related to step one of this process. Generally, bass players or musicians will sing certain intervals because they sound very similar. Like in the example earlier when I actually played an A instead of an E. That's a very common mistake. So if you know what these common mistakes are, then you can hopefully avoid them. So if you find out you've hummed the wrong note in step one, there are three reasons why this might be the case. So what you might be doing is singing a perfect fourth interval away from the key of the song. And that's actually exactly what I did today. So the key of the song was an E. And the second time I hummed A, which is a perfect fourth away from E. Another very common mistake is that people hum the perfect fifth away from the song because it sounds quite similar to the key of the song. And also what people might be singing is the relative major if you're in a minor key or the relative minor if you're in a major key. So if you go through the three step process and you find out that you're not humming the correct note, you may be singing a perfect fourth away, a perfect fifth away, or the relative major or minor. So over time with some consistent practice using this three step method, you will eventually be able to instantly recognize the key of a song and your key recognition will become a lot quicker. But it all starts with actually implementing method or concept into your practice routine. So make sure you download the PDF below this video so you can print it off, use it as a reference guide, maybe stick it on your wall. So when you go to learn a new bass line and you want to figure out what key you're in, you can reference this PDF, make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell. If you are on YouTube, check out this video next. Have an awesome day and I'll see you soon.