When I was learning I just had to count the intervals. When I'd learn a piece I'd sort of analyze it in my head and name all the chords I could in whatever key it was in. I wasn't systematic, but after a while it became second nature. I'm sure you could be more organized about it than I was, like pick one key per week, practice the scale and practice all the triads and the commonly used seventh chords in that key. Spend 20 minutes a day doing that and I imagine within 6-12 months they'd all feel pretty familiar. Or just look at the scores of a lot of pieces in many keys and practice identifying the chords. After a while it will get easy.
Learn all the white root note scales first they all are just like the cmajor it you just need to know where the sharps and flat lie C: CDEFGABCD: DEFGABCDE: EFGABCDEF: FGABCDEFG: GABCDEFGA: ABCDEFGAB: BCDEFGAB
I have just one question about the "learn all the white root note scales" part. Does this mean
a. Learn to play the scale of the key effortlessly using the fingers
b. Learn that exact scale degree to white note mapping (and then add the sharp / flat) example belowDegree: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8D: D E F G A B C DSo I remember E = 2, F = 3, G = 4, A = 5, B = 6, C = 7, and I memory the pattern for the scale quality
The reason I ask which method is because I have memorized how to play the scale in the fingers with motor memory but that does not really help me identify the degree quickly!
I'm not sure how this is possible, if you can play the scale then you know the notes well that exist within the scale, then it is mearly a simple step of realising which note of the scale you are playing to idenfity the degree. I am not sure by what you mean by "quickly", how do you do the C major then quickly?
If you can do the c scale fast I really don't understand why you can't do it for all the other scales I listed above. The process is the exact same.How do you know F is the 4th of the Cmajor? It is because you know the scale well and we're the F lies within that scale. If you feel with F major then you should be aware of the notes following FGABCDEF so the 4th note in that series is a B, but you also have to realise it is not a white B but Bb because of the key signature, thus why I said memorise where the sharps and flats are for the scale, there really is not a lot of memory work required for that one.I think studying the circle of 5ths is much more instructive if you are interested in chord progressions.
Here's what worked for me:Improvising in every key2-5-1 chord progressions, jazz style through the circle, knowing the 5 of each scale instantly.
I know it seems easy, but in practice I think a lot of beginners can't instantly move to a new chord number (without calculation) without a fair bit of chord progression pracise or awareness of moving from the sub dominant, dominant and sub mendiant to get a better mapping. Practicing scales doesn't really teach us the degrees as well as jumping from chord number to chord number I feel. Is it possible you just learnt all this soo fast at an early age Ben and you are superior to us?
Lol no I mean I teach it in that manner using the scales all the time and no one seems to find it difficult. I didn't learn such thing when I was very young, the chords and scales had no name for me but I knew what it felt like, what it sounded like and how they can be reorganised.
Question how did you learn it with C so fast and apply that to the others as well.
My question now is: How do I make sure this newly learned information gets stored into long term memory and not short term. Because last time I tried to move onto new keys every couple of days and I forgot the ones I had already learned. What advice do you have to keep the chord degrees or even any important patterns or repertoire in memory for long term? Thanks!
My question now is: How do I make sure this newly learned information gets stored into long term memory and not short term. Because last time I tried to move onto new keys every couple of days and I forgot the ones I had already learned. What advice do you have to keep the chord degrees or even any important patterns or repertoire in memory for long term? Thanks! Im pretty sure I only started remembering scale degrees (as a number) in C when I started messing around with chord progressions. Otherwise, I had no real reason to remember a number. I knew it had F, G and amin chords but I didnt nessisarly associate it with a numeric. I dunno I may be wrong
Im pretty sure I only started remembering scale degrees (as a number) in C when I started messing around with chord progressions. Otherwise, I had no real reason to remember a number. I knew it had F, G and amin chords but I didnt nessisarly associate it with a numeric. I dunno I may be wrong
Learning the same thing in different ways helps solidify it. So, if you're working on one particular key as you described above, you might also pick some pieces written in that key and go through them to identify chords in the score. Then get a recording of the piece and listen to it while looking at the score and trying to identify the chords. It's fun and I think coming at the problem with different approaches will help solidify your memory.
the idea of instant recognition is not something that just comes to you by thinking about it, it takes time, repeating the observations over time, seeing it in the sheet music, observing it within context of actual music. No trick is really going to avoid all of that.Also I suggested you learn your root triad chords.CEGDF#AEG#BFACGBDAC#EBD#F#Since these will give you the root, 3rd and 5th. If you know the neightbors of these notes then you will know 1,2,3,4,5,6 without much effort at all. You should also know your 8th which is merely an octave from the root note, then that means the 7th also becomes easily known because it is semitone below the 8th. So there you go all of the degrees can be understood simply by the basic triad chord. Instead of considering the tones and semitone distances between the notes (which I think is silly to merely memorize for beginners) you learn the scales themselves and then consider the neighbors of the notes in that manner.
I'd learn where individual notes on the scale want to go.1... stays where it is.2 goes to 1.3 is pretty stable4, probably wants to go down to one. But it might go up to 5 too.5, really wants to go to 1.6, wants to go down to 5.7, really wants to go to 1.There are those colors. I'm thinking relative solfege here too.And then for chords, they're following a I IV V progression. But it might be I ii V also since ii and IV are almost the same. You could also substitute viio in for V if you wanted, but it's weaker. But almost the same. iii and vi are probably going to come before ii or IV and might sound more stable, less like they want to move away.Otherwise... More practice. Listen and write it. See it written and sing it. There are only seven notes and that's seven chords there. You can even simplify it more and get rid of ones with the same function, just go by function. I IV(or ii) V(or viio). And then iii and vi are fairly similar. So that's... four chord functions going on?
For getting at the "color" of relative pitch too... Switch keys. You can hear that same something the same way in different keys. It's just that feeling a bit of energy or not for resting vs. how much it wants to move somewhere.... as opposed to perfect pitch colors where each note has it's own color. I guess. I don't have perfect pitch.But I think there is something to all the ingredients together creating something, like orchestration, voicing, the chord, etc. A unique combination with a unique overall "color." That I have heard when some single moment of a piece of music stands out to me. it's because it's the same instruments, same chord, same pitches, etc.
Topic: Any advise to help identify scale degree's instantly? 