How long did it take before you could hear what key a song was in?

David_

David_

Facepalmist
And did you actively work on ear training, or did the ability to hear what key a song is in just come with time?
 
I did work on ear training in college but for me it really came from playing and transcribing as much as I could.
 
I don't know....probably a couple of years though. It was something that just kind of evolved over time.
 
I could do it pretty early. I mean, as soon as knew all the chords, figuring out a song's key came pretty easily/quickly.
But then, I do have the ears of a Peruvian fruit bat (according to my bandmates).
 
Yes I actively worked on ear training in my early years of playing! Something I feel is super importent to becoming a good player. Glad I spent the time now, because it has made it so much easier to play well with others and learn songs on my own. Probably took a couple years of training my ear as well as learning theory to get to the point where I could nail any song I heard quickly.
 
rsadasiv said:
Many songs are in more than one key....
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thecornman said:
Yes I actively worked on ear training in my early years of playing! Something I feel is super importent to becoming a good player. Glad I spent the time now, because it has made it so much easier to play well with others and learn songs on my own. Probably took a couple years of training my ear as well as learning theory to get to the point where I could nail any song I heard quickly.
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Thank you.
 
I have been playing for close to 20 years and still have no idea. I don't know theory or scales, so that might be why.
 
I can't hear the key a song is in, but am usually pretty good at working out chord changes for most of the songs I want to play. It saved me a lot of money on sheet music and song books in the 60's.
 
I've always been able to hear the key of a song, if I'm following what you mean by "key." What's way more difficult for me (and probably more useful) is figuring out the mode. I can intuitively feel what notes and chords belong together, but the specific names and definitions of the modes are not something I can call up on the fly.
 
I can't find the key without an instrument in my hands. I can usually suss the chord progression without an instrument. But that didn't happen until 10 years or so of not-very-serious theory study.
 
I started learning guitar by learning all the Beatles songs by ear and that's how I've always done it, so recognising chords and keys happened fairly quickly.

Sent from my blissfully peaceful garden.
 
That is how I learned to play, so maybe a month or two. It wasn't perfect, but listen to music that you are familiar with and play it over and over until you get it. no cheating with tab, they didn;t have that when I learned and I couldn't read music and my dad hated that I was trying to play guitar, so no support from home. It gave me extra ambition to learn just to piss him off!!!! lmao!
 
It sounds like this thread might need some clarity as to what it means to "hear the key a song is in". I'm picturing a song comes on the radio, you're driving the car, and you say, "It's in A flat". I can't do that. If it's just figuring out a song by ear, I can usually do that.
 
Chicken Man said:
It sounds like this thread might need some clarity as to what it means to "hear the key a song is in". I'm picturing a song comes on the radio, you're driving the car, and you say, "It's in A flat". I can't do that. If it's just figuring out a song by ear, I can usually do that.
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For me it means being able to figure out what key a song is in. I can't hear most songs on the radio and tell you what key they are in unless there is a very guitar timbre-specific part in it.
 
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