marnold
December 28th, 2007, 09:33 AM
On Christmas I was noodling on my Floyd (that sounds like a euphemism for something else, but I digress) while my 10 year old son was watching. He has been taking piano lessons for 2.5 years now. I wanted him to learn to play, plus I wanted someone else to teach him the basics of music before I try to teach him guitar, which should be interesting.
Anyway . . .
I played a C major scale and asked him what scale it was. He replied, "C major." I thought that was pretty good, but since a piano is basically arranged around a C major scale, I thought I'd mix it up a bit. So I shifted up two frets and played a D major. He said, "D major." Mind you, he knows next to nothing about playing guitar and he wasn't watching my fretting hand anyway. Amazed, I shifted down to G. He replied, "G major." I was duly impressed. I probably could have thrown minor and harmonic minor in there too because he has studied those. I told him that that ability to identify a key just by listening would serve him in good stead.
Now if I could do the same thing! I could tell you the difference between major, minor, harmonic minor, and probably Phrygian, in addition to the pentatonics, but I don't think I could pick the key out of the air. Obviously if I was watching someone's fretting hand I could.
Anyway . . .
I played a C major scale and asked him what scale it was. He replied, "C major." I thought that was pretty good, but since a piano is basically arranged around a C major scale, I thought I'd mix it up a bit. So I shifted up two frets and played a D major. He said, "D major." Mind you, he knows next to nothing about playing guitar and he wasn't watching my fretting hand anyway. Amazed, I shifted down to G. He replied, "G major." I was duly impressed. I probably could have thrown minor and harmonic minor in there too because he has studied those. I told him that that ability to identify a key just by listening would serve him in good stead.
Now if I could do the same thing! I could tell you the difference between major, minor, harmonic minor, and probably Phrygian, in addition to the pentatonics, but I don't think I could pick the key out of the air. Obviously if I was watching someone's fretting hand I could.