Key of the song?

hey GregR, welcome to guitarnoise! 95% of rock tunes are in the key of the first chord played. For example, Smells Like Teen Spirit's ( :roll: ) first chord is an F power chord (E=1,A=3,D=3) so it's in the key of F. You use scales to play solo's. For instance, the Black Dog by Led Zeppelin riff is mainly compromised of the A blues scale, so you solo over it with the A Blues Scale. Here's a tab of the A blues scale: http://www.worldguitar.com/bluestab.html . Play Black do on your sound system and jam along with the scale. You can do the same thing exept start it on the 3rd fret and it'd be in G. Like, go from 3 to 6 on the E string then 3, 4, 5 on the A string, etc. according to the scale formation. Hope I cleared some stuff up for you. BTW congrats on Battle of the Bands!

thanks alot, and thank you for using black dog as an example

no prob dude, if you're confused about anything else, just ask..

Hey yoyo that's a great example.

Here's a followup question: you said the Black Dog riff is "mainly comprised" of the A blues scale ... so where do the other notes come from? I mean, I know that we're not constrained to simply playing scales for every riff and solo, but is there a formula or something for knowing when to add an off-scale note?

Also, I've always wondered about that third note in the Black Dog riff, 6th fret D string - is it G# or Ab, and how do I know when it's not a note from the scale? :


|------|----------------|-------------------|-------------------|---------|
|------|---------------5|-------------------|-------------------|---------|
|------|-----5-------7--|-5h7p5-----5-------|-------------------|---------|
|---5-6|-7-------7------|-------7-7-----7---|-5-7-7---------2---|2--------|
|-7----|---7------------|-------------------|-------5-7---5-0---|0--------|
|------|----------------|-------------------|-----------8-------|---------|


Thanks in advance,

Eh, sory dude, I'm learning that right nw with my guitar techer. Maybe someone else could help... :(

Eh, sory dude, I'm learning that right nw with my guitar techer.
LOL, thanks anyway. Be sure to ask your teacher if no one else responds. :)

The rule for naming notes is that you avoid (whenever possible) having two notes with the same letter name.

So if you're playing in A, and you need the note a half step below that, you'd call it G# instead of Ab - since you're in A, you'll need A notes more often than G notes.

If you were to write out the notes in standard notation, that would mean fewer accidentals... that's the main reason for the way notes get named.

Thanks for explaining the naming convention, NoteBoat.

"Accidentals," eh? So that's what that is... I've heard the term but never knew what it meant before.

So much to learn.

I've got your book in my Amazon wishlist! :D

His book is well worth the $$. I am on my secnd read of the book now. Highly recomend the book. JMO on this.

yoyo, im learning the 5 blues scales in E- right now, my question is this, are the scales the same, just in a different key or are they completly different?

Thanks for explaining the naming convention, NoteBoat.

"Accidentals," eh? So that's what that is... I've heard the term but never knew what it meant before.

So much to learn.

I've got your book in my Amazon wishlist! :D

Acidentals are notes that are not in key. Like in C Major, with no flats or sharps, but the song had a D flat at one point during the song. That would be an accidental.

To the original question.

Tons of rock music uses the I IV V progression. there are a few songs out there that wont start on the key note, which may cause you some confusion. An example is Two tickets to paradise. The main progression is G to A. Usually, and I say usually, the only place to find two major chords a full step apart would be the IV & V of a scale. In this particular case, it is as the song is in D, which makes an entrance during the chorus.

hey GregR, welcome to guitarnoise! 95% of rock tunes are in the key of the first chord played.

I seem to recall in a earlier post on key that NoteBoat said something like. I went through all my music books and found that the key of songs most often relates to the chord that the song ended on. The first chord is the key in about 50%. I could be wrong about this. I also am not sure what type of music is in his books. I'm assuming they are a wide variety of music. I use to go by the first chord idea, now I'm not so sure. ??????

You're right, I remember doing that... looking at songs from books and seeing where they started/ended by genre. As I recall, except for alternative, every genre pretty much ended on the I chord, but only about 70-90% start there.