PLAYING BY EAR IN
MINOR KEYS |
In popular music the vast majority of songs are in major keys, but
there are some songs in MINOR KEYS, so you need to be able to hear and identify
the notes in those melodies so you can play them by ear.
Songs in minor
Keys usually have a more somber or sad feeling - the music, not necessarily
the words - whereas songs in major usually have a more cheerful tone (the
music). But there are always exceptions.
Here are a few examples of
popular songs in minor Keys, in different eras.
| | Summertime
(1935)
Eleanor Rigby (1966)
The Thrill is Gone (1969)
Stairway To
Heaven (1971)
Heart of Gold (1972)
Lonely No More (2005)
Hips Don't
Lie (2006)
Disturbia (2007) |
Identifying Scale Degrees in Minor Keys
So, how do we play these songs by ear? How do we identify the notes we are hearing?
I will assume that you've gone through the material in the previous
modules, and you understand the basic method - how to play song melodies in major
Keys by ear using relative pitch. If not, you may find the material here to be
somewhat confusing.
To Begin With:
For playing song melodies in
minor Keys by ear using relative pitch, it's best if you forget everything
you've ever heard about songs in minor Keys. And forget about minor scales.
Basically, there is only one simple rule:
The
Basic Rule:
In songs in minor Keys, you identify the scale degrees and notes
in the same way that you do in songs in major Keys. In other words, proceed just
as you would if the songs are in major Keys. |
What?? How can this be?
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Remember - in songs
in MAJOR Keys, we are able to hear and identify scale degrees because:
| 1. | In
every song melody the notes generally lie in a universal seven-note major scale
pattern defined by the W W H W W W H upward pitch interval sequence, beginning
with the tonic, and | | 2. | Our
ears are accustomed to hearing this pattern and can be trained to "lock on" to
it, so that we can identify the tonic and the various scale degrees associated
with the major scale. |
And then, if we've memorized the notes that go with
the scale degrees, we can quickly identify each note as it comes along in the
song - and play it on our instrument.
But, what you may not realize
is . . .
All of this is also true for songs in minor Keys!
For example, in
the Key of A minor the notes in a song melody are typically in this group of notes:
A
B C D E F G
But that's the same group of notes found in the Key of
C major:
C
D E F G A B
For this reason, A minor is called the RELATIVE MINOR
of C major. Song melodies in either Key use the same group of notes.
And
of course the same thing happens in other Keys as well since every minor Key
has an associated major Key (the relative minor concept).
Thus,
If
you've trained your ears to identify scale degrees in major Keys, then if you
are listening to a song melody in a minor Key, your ears will hear the melody
notes and "assume" that the song is in a major Key since the notes are from a
major scale (the associated major scale).
You will then identify the scale
degrees in this major Key. |
And
if you've memorized the notes that go with these scale degrees in major, you can
quickly identify the notes and play them on your instrument - just as you do with
songs in major Keys.
Therefore,
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if you've learned
to play song melodies in major Keys by ear using relative pitch, then you will
automatically be able to play songs in minor keys by ear.
So, what does it all mean?
It means
| You
can listen to ANY popular song melody and play it by ear - without even knowing
whether it's in a major or minor Key because, in either case, the melody
notes you will hear are diatonic to a major scale which you will hear. You will
identify the scale degrees and the notes in the same way. (The major/minor tonality
of the song may affect the nuances of your style of play, but it won't affect
which melody notes you play.) |
EXAMPLE. "Summertime"
On YouTube there is a video of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong singing "Summertime"
by George Gershwin, from the light opera, "Porgy and Bess" (1935).
Here
are the scale degrees that I hear in the first and last lines of the first verse
(underlined notes are in the lower octave) - first, using the scale degree numbers
and then, once again, using abbreviated solfege:
I hear these scale degrees, based on the major scale, without even
thinking about whether the song is in a major or a minor Key (although I probably
will notice that the melody sounds like minor).
Now, using my instrument,
I can determine the tonic of the major scale associated with this melody - by
singing scale degree 1 or do and then finding that note on my instrument.
Doing this, I find that the note is D. Thus, the major Key, scale degree 1 or
do, is D major.
Now, if I've memorized the notes that
go with these scale degrees in D major, then I can quickly identify the actual
notes that Ella Is singing in the first verse.
Here are the notes vs
scale degrees in D major:
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If I want to play the melody in this Key and since I'm hearing it
in my head in this Key, then I can identify the actual notes and play them on
my instrument.
The notes in the first line are thus:
Play these notes on your instrument. Do they sound right? Yes, these
are the correct notes.
Thus,
I can play this song melody by ear without knowing the song's TONALITY, whether
it's in a major or minor Key.
Finding
the Song Key
Now,
What if, out of curiosity
only, I want to know the tonality of the song - is the song in major or
minor?
A song's tonality is usually indicated
by the scale degree of the last note in the melody.
Song
melodies in major usually end on the major scale tonic, scale degree 1 / solfege
do. In contrast, song melodies in minor almost always end on scale degree 6 /
solfege la in the major scale - three half-steps below the major scale
tonic.
In this song, "Summertime", the
melody ends on scale degree 6 / solfege
la -
the note B, three half-steps below the major tonic note D. Thus, the song is in
a MINOR Key - B minor - even though our trained ears hear the scale degrees in
the Key of D major.
Thus,
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| Songs
in minor tonalities have a song Key and an associated major Key
(that we hear). The song tonic is three half-steps below the tonic of the associated
major Key that we hear with our trained ears. |
But you don't need to think about the song Key when you are playing by ear!
If you've trained your ears to hear major scales, then all you need to do is
identify the scale degrees you are hearing - just like when you are listening
to songs in major.
Chromatic Notes In
Minor Keys
As I've explained, in popular song melodies the notes
generally are diatonic to a major scale.
However, chromatic notes do sometimes
occur and are slightly more likely to occur in minor Keys, due to the structure
of minor Keys. There are actually four types of minor Keys. The most common
type, called NATURAL MINOR, is the one I've been discussing - the seven-note group
is diatonic to the associated major scale - no chromatic notes.
However,
in the other three types of minor Keys, the least common types, called HARMONIC
MINOR, MELODIC MINOR, and DORIAN, there are one or (rarely) two notes that are
chromatic to the associated major scale – specifically, 1) the note midway between
the fourth and fifth degrees of the associated major scale and 2) the note between
the fifth and sixth degrees. In the Ear Training page I explain how to identify
chromatic notes.
Don't dwell on the various minor Keys. The vast majority
of popular songs are in major Keys, and the most common minor Key, natural minor,
contains no chromatic notes.
Summary
The notes in every popular song melody,
in major or minor Keys, generally lie in the seven-note pattern whose notes are
in the major-scale-upward-pitch-interval sequence, W-W-H-W-W-W-H, where W is whole
step and H is half step.
If you've trained your ears to hear and identify
a major scale and scale degrees in songs in major Keys, then in minor Keys you
will also hear and identify a major scale and scale degrees. Thus, you identify
and play notes the same way in either tonality.
Song melodies in minor
Keys almost always end on scale degree 6 (solfege la) of the associated
major scale - this note is the song's tonic. Since scale degree 6 is three half
steps below scale degree 1, the tonic of songs in minor Keys is three half steps
below the tonic of the associated major Key.
Song
melodies in minor Keys are slightly more likely to contain chromatic notes, due
to some variations in the structure of minor Keys, however these chromatic notes
do not occur frequently, and they can be identified using the techniques explained
in the Ear Training page.
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