Here we go how to recognize the key...

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degenaro

degenaro

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Until you get to the point where you can trust your ears how do you figure what to play over a progression?

Easy...I'll assume we all know the major scale and it's subsection I.e. Major pentatonic (if you prefer to think of it as a minor pentatonic just use that a minor third up from the key as in if you're in C major play C major or A minor pentatonic.

So...
Let's keep this simple for starters...
Say you have 3 power chords say c to d to g.
Without any fancy nonsense the obvious choice is to treat it like some G major thing.
The first one would be viewing it as C major to D major to G major...you'd play G major or G major pentatonic/E minor pentatonic.

Next up C major to D minor to G major. Play C major or C mj pent/A min pent

Less likely but still a viable option C maj to D min to G min
You'd play F maj or F maj pent/Dm pent

And lastly C min to D min to G min and use Bb maj or Bb maj penta/G min pent.


So...all you need is the parent key and off you go. How? Always the same you got 3 major and 3 minor chords per key and the m7b5 that for now we ignore.
So in C we have C, F and G for the major chords and d, e and a for the minors.
They happen on the root up a fourth and up a fifth for the major and up a maj 2, maj 3 and 6th from the root for the minor chords
Now make yourself a chart for G and F...and we take it from there
 
Very cool post Ed, glad to see you back and in this part of the forum.
 
ok, got G and F down. Just to clarify for me, C,D,G would be IV, V, I of G. C,Dm,G -> I, ii, V of C. C,Dm,Gm -> V,vi,ii of F. Cm, Dm, Gm -> ii, iii, vi of Bb. Right?
 
hank":hja6zvi8 said:
ok, got G and F down. Just to clarify for me, C,D,G would be IV, V, I of G. C,Dm,G -> I, ii, V of C. C,Dm,Gm -> V,vi,ii of F. Cm, Dm, Gm -> ii, iii, vi of Bb. Right?
yup...you got it.
And obviously when you have ambiguous stuff...say a C power chord to a D power chord you can theoretically interpret it as either minor or major and then make all of the options work over it...
 
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