How to hear the key of a song INSTANTLY

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You're all a bunch of bitches

[@BrandonDeon]

How many did you get?? Also, 52 Week Guitar Player is closed until mid-March. We'll only be accepting 100 new students when we reopen. Join the waiting list now dammit: brandondeon.com/survey-page2

[@expertarcher8542]

I got about half.

[@ballshd68419]

I got Bmin

[@a3rnav]

To make it even easier, imagine that the song suddenly ends on one long note. The note you first thought of was probably the same note as the key.

[@AlexGainChannel]

I dont understand this whole thing. The first example, there were obviously more keys than C minor. Only at the end it returned C minor. For example G sharp major.

[@boltcutters]

@@AlexGainChannel took me a year to finally be able to hear it. You're looking for where the song feels like it's resting. Try pressing keys on a marked piano/keyboard while you're listening to a song, that's how I finally got it to click for me

[@CamiloSinger]

What helped me immensely was actually learning to play bass before guitar. That honed my ear to listen for the root note of the chords, then I just need to figure out if it's mayor or minor.

[@GaryTongue-zn5di]

You literally could have just did that with guitar.

[@felixflatterer6646]

this riddle style video is awesome. also i like how you call us guitar chefs, sensei

[@sanchezz4387]

I actually love how bright F major is. I didnt get it right but every time i play an F chord it blows me away how bright and beautiful it sounds

[@jzuzakmusic]

I didn't really like watching shorts and this is just way better! Keep it up!

[@RSMusic4L]

27 seconds in I have to pick up my original 1962 usa strat . dang this guy rocks

[@RSMusic4L]

fuck i guessed c sharp minor. not even jokin

[@alexandermandache1628]

If I had that guitar I would flex it likr that too 😂

[@MladenTheWeird]

Welp, got the G at least. Good stuff, thanx

[@Sasquatch10]

hey, it's better than what i got 😅

[@gargamel3393]

It always makes me sad when Brandon tells me to just leave. I learn from this so I come back, but then he tells me to just leave again.

[@anthonyjones7264]

Keeos these videos up. I honestly love them.

[@Devils.harp.player]

This is actually perfect!

[@Lemmingadventures]

For us amateurs, why don't you demonstrate the technique used to find the key?

[@nebben01]

He did. Did you watch the whole video? Did you see the part at the end where he checked notes starting at the first fret on the lowest string? Only one note sounded like "home," or made it sound like the backing track "resolved. (In the example at the end of the video, it was A, the note on the 5th fret of the Low E string)

[@jasonbourne4784]

​@@nebben01he shoulda done that at the beginning llol

[@BrentLeVasseur]

I got the first one wrong and the second one right, and third one right too, 4th one right too. So 75% accuracy on these easy examples. Whats harder is if you play two unrelated chords on the piano at the same time, and then try to identify those pitches from low to high. Now that’s hard without perfect pitch.

[@Madchris8828]

Playing along to songs is a great way to practice this. And yes listening to the bass helps alot too. This does get more complicated though with drop tuned metal though or Jazz

[@denislavdochev3783]

I was ready to quit but I got the third one right so I decided to continue 😂

[@thestrangermusic]

This is useful, but more relevant for beginners. What I wish I could do as an intermediate guitar player would be to instantly figure out the chord progression of a song by ear with minimal effort. Any tips on how to learn that?

[@TheJML1975]

But if you learn the root, surely the chords should be easier for an intermediate guitarist?!

[@thedispenser8301]

Thank you brandon😭

[@Gameboy2007-Official]

WAIT I ACTUALLY GOT IT

[@noank9175]

Informative and to the point.

[@JJ_TheGreat]

1:10 But how am I supposed to know what each of the notes sounds like? How do I know the difference between a B, E and F note - for example? I am very analytical and tone-deaf.

[@frederickbaker5819]

I just play jazz on top of evrrything so eventually ill make the wrong notes the right notes

[@morrisonkidiwani]

thanks brando!

[@jessemurray2236]

Thanks for the tips, nice video btw. do you edit them yourself?

[@Theeldritchwitch]

I'm surprised that I almost got the 1st and the 3rd

[@peacefulruler1]

You’ll receive structure, feedback,….and verbal abuse 😂

[@lewisbons2503]

Well, I found what every root note was but always was off by a whole step 😅

[@BlueStarTwo]

0 right … 😐 I honestly struggle to know what note/chord is being played unless I’m playing it myself. I might not be tone deaf but my tonal memory utterly sucks.

[@samueljardine3402]

Just look at the lowest note the bass player is playing and call it a day. Leaves more time for cigarettes.

[@Svobodastical]

Got all of them right

[@benhynum9879]

I got the G one right. No cigarettes for me!

[@BasementBerean]

I recognized the third one as G "instantly" without having to actually do anything. That was a weird kind of luck I sometimes have. Typically, I use a keyboard in my living room. I don't play keyboard, but I use it to find the keys of songs I want to learn on guitar. But playing a bunch of notes to recognize a key is not "instant" by any understanding of that word I'm familiar with.

[@aaryanvipin2412]

Thanks!!

[@holywaterREACTS]

Thanks

[@ahoneyman]

Never played a song without knowing the key and chord progression first. Just write down what needs to be played.

[@poyogobrr7589]

1:56 My ass is playing a god damn B Minor after going “yeah this shit is easy so far” GUESS IM QUITTING (I just did the relative minor of the next example GRAHHHHHHH)

[@chrisutter7054]

So I didn't find what I was looking for 😕

[@8ypicals726]

Ok, I hear the root note, but how do you know, which note it is??? You all have perfect pitch or something?

[@darkphoenixdc8381]

Why not just test for notes in key signatures? Identify modality first (typically major/minor) and test using the sharps/flats on the circle of 5ths. For example, if the F# or Bb does not feel consonant, then the song is likely in either C major or A minor (of course this does not account for non-diatonic notes like the raised leading tone but its alot faster than checking chromatically)

[@ukguitarnoodle]

Every time I try a song has a "borrowed chord" OR they didn't know theory so it contains whatever.

[@jannomeeuwessen4886]

Weirdly enough I had the 1st, 2nd, and 4th right, but the G one wrong. I heard the D chord the entire time. Idk Why. I heard D D D D D D E C D

[@AlexGainChannel]

I dont understand this whole thing. The first example, there were obviously more keys than C minor. Only at the end it returned C minor. For example G sharp major.

[@kb470]

But I don't really know what keys are. I am new here

[@kb470]

I figured it out. I dont know what notes are.

[@swagner89]

Minor pentatonic frequently sounds good over major chord progressions, so that isn't a great test

[@Mkemcz]

1:30 instantly started playing Smoke on the Water :D

[@heethanthen]

This video doesn’t work because it treats resolution to be an all or nothing kind of deal. Some notes are naturally going to sound more resolved than others and some notes will sound more resolved over different chords. This guy seems to think all music is comprised of generic 3 chord loops

[@spaideman7043]

scored zero out of three. after this video im still scoring zero...

[@akshatvikramsrivastava1786]

My two were correct 😅😅-Bm and G maj

[@jasonbourne4784]

0:25 0:46 1:30 1:59 Imo the examples don't last long enough

[@ejaybermudez0214]

Honestly I got 1 key of f I listen a bass player that you said recently so I got one ahaha.

[@jasonbourne4784]

What if I don't know any of the notes. Lol

[@AlefSousa017]

I think my ear is broken or something: I kinda got all of them... The first one I got perfectly: C Minor. The 2nd one I got D Major, the relative major key, so kinda right but not really. The last two were the ones that made me think my ear is broken: I didn't get them right, because I was thinking of their 5th instead of the actual key! G Major example? I thought it was D Major. F Major example? I thought it was C Major. To give me some credit, I wasn't using my guitar for these examples, I want to think that I would've probably got them all right if I were, but I was actually practing with a keyboard and didn't want to go grab my guitar for it lol

[@werd-uc2ti]

BRO I ONLY GUESSED ONE OF THEM WRONG (without using guitar) i have perfect pitch? ;0

[@Josh-ri4rd]

I am like brand new to playing, I can play like 3 riffs and am practicing the pentatonic scale from the video a few days ago. Are there any tips other than just playing a lot more time because this is gibberish to me honestly. Then again almost all music theory words are completely gibberish to me, I spent a while the other night looking over the circle of fifths and think I kind of understand it but still am super lost.

[@spezifisch4468]

1:12 me a bassist: 👁👄👁

[@AlternateBroilergrill]

Teaching guitar on a completely different level, talking like a General to soldiers. Love that stuff!

[@sgtcaco]

Dude. Minor pentatonic works over dominant chord. That is a major chord.

[@darrenanthonius8371]

Do the genres of the song determine the key? The first time I heard a metalcore song I thought it was G major but taking a further look into the band, I realize it's a metalcore band and thatt It was e minor, so I was right. Considering Em is basically G maj's "brother"

[@sadisadra]

No n3ccersiallry, it's just more common to use minor for metal core and sad music and stuff

[@Somethingofaguitarist]

Day 10 of asking Brandon to explain relative minor theory

[@dead_channe1]

Thanks. This didn't help at all

[@iliaskarampoulas3373]

I cheated, i have perfect pitch 😐

[@JesusL0vesY0u]

Aw man 😔

[@localbod]

You are one of those naturally gifted people and in the minority. Most of us probably have relative pitch if that's what it's called. 👍

[@davidemmons899]

You don’t have $hit

[@legendaryzibbo9146]

How dare you be an amazing beautiful wonderful talented person. Absolutely deplorable

[@thelone7th]

You have to reset your life. That's unfair for us!

[@goldenbdogg4880]

Or asking what keys are 😅

[@MaftunaZiyokulova-z9c]

You krize

[@dilshodramazonov76]

I cheated, i have perfect pitch 😐

[@nickandrews2255]

We get it

[@fu2201]

$2400

[@Шерали-ъ9ш]

🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

[@the_fountainhead99]

This is a sham. If you find A as the key and somehow figure out it a minor. How in the world would you miss C in the first place since A minor is C major. Lol

[@YanyanLun]

hahahhahaha

[@TimurNovik]

🥴

[@TimurNovik]

Срсхшщссо

[@TimurNovik]

Иллщрчж

[@sidrolf]

You are so rude for a Canadian

[@georgerichardson7728]

lolz

[@dilshodramazonov76]

I cheated, i have perfect pitch 😐