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I can’t find the forums where we went to youtube to load a song and list the key.
Not on any forum or page.
I posted something there before, but it was at tha tail end of the spring FBW, was it scrapped and reset?
What page should I go to launch the challenges?
Doug,
Please go to the academy, click on Fretboard Wizard. Once there you will find a link to the community under course materials. You will find all the challenges there 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Doug,
Please go to the academy, click on Fretboard Wizard. Once there you will find a link to the community under course materials. You will find all the challenges there 🙂 Let me know if this helps 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Doug,
Please go to the academy, click on Fretboard Wizard. You will find a link to the community under course materials. You will find all the challenges there 🙂 Let me know if this helps 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Doug,
Please go to the academy, click on Fretboard Wizard. You will find a link to the community under course materials. You will find all the challenges there
Cheers,
Tony
Doug,
Sorry for any confusion, If you go to the academy page, and click on the link for the Fretboard Wizard course you will find the link for the community underneath the course materials. Let me know if this works for you 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Hi Tony,
I see the challenges where you said they would be, but I don’t see the posts from the first iteration of the Fretboard Wizard course. All of the posts I can see for the challenges start in November. I would also like to look at a post I made for Challenge 2 (or maybe 3…) back in May but couldn’t find the post anywhere. Please help!
Kevin
Kevin,
I had to consolidate the courses this time around so the previous comments/posts aren’t available at this time. Good news though, going forward the posts will remain 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Must I score 100% on the quiz to move on from Module 1 (Find the Key)? Where are the forum and challenges for Fretboard Wizard? I only see the Forum on login and that takes me TAC Forum.
Greg,
Only an 80% is required to move on 🙂 As for the forums, make sure you are going to the academy clicking on Fret Wiz, and then right beneath course materials you will see a link to go to the community forum 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
So Tony stated the song was in the Key of D, but is it major, minor or something else? What is it? Just D?
So starting on the Low E string we have (excuse the formatting)
e f g a b c d e
h w w w h w w
Now that doesn’t look like the major or minor pattern,
C Major
c d e f g a b c
w w h w w w h
A Minor
a b c d e f g a
w h w w h w w
Is this the pattern for a scale type we haven’t covered yet?
Franklin,
Great question here, we can construct a major scale from any note, but alterations will have to be made to the natural notes to do so (in every other key except for C major). I would recommend checking out the live q&a replay for this module as this very question came up and I went into it in detail and gave some examples 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Hey all! I hope your having a great Monday!
I wanted to share a practice technique that might be helpful with this module.
I wanted to practice with more songs to continue to build my ear training and so I looked up the original keys to the songs of my favorite band, The Beatles and practiced with their entire catalogue by hiding the answers and quizzing myself using the Low E string technique.
You can find them here as well as other songs I believe:
http://whatkeyisitin.com/beatles/
Hope this helps as you continue to grow in your journey with guitar!
Cheers
Gio
Love that idea. Thanks!
I remember when I first started trying to play the guitar. I thought one on one lessons were expensive if you did them through a local music store or school. So I did the next best thing… the internet. I ended up ordering a half dozen or so DVDs from Guitar World, Licklibrary and Truefire. I watched a bunch of videos and lessons on stuff that was way out of my understanding of guitar and never really understood it. I eventually gave up and started looking for beginner lessons on Youtube. I remember watching this one lesson over and over again trying to grasp the concept I was seeing. It was on a Guitar World DVD called “the alchemical guitarist” and the lesson was called “Skeleton Key – Unlocking the modes with the mystical major scale diagram.” I memorized the fret board pattern and used it to warm up my fingers. I can still do it to this day. After watching this lesson and doing the quiz two times…. I finally understand what the lesson was trying to teach me years ago!!! I really never would have understood it if it wasn’t for what I saw right here. That tells me all I need to know about the value of how the lessons are taught here. Thanks so much T.A.C. and team. Well worth the money invested in these lessons.
Hey All! A couple little tactics I tried when I was having trouble deciding between two keys.
1) I would strum the note in rhythm with the song
2) This could be a bad habit, I don’t know. But I would try other octaves of the same notes. Sometimes the pitch heightened the “wrongness” for me.
The Q&A really did shed extra light on the subject. As I never thought of playing the major scale to see if it fit. That was a game changer concept for me.
Cheers!
Christopher,
Great stuff here!!! These are both excellent hacks to use!!! Thank you for sharing!!!
Cheers,
Tony
Tony and New Friends!, I couldn’t make Thursday but I just finished reviewing the Q&A. Fantastic! I realize that I took this course so that I wouldn’t necessarily have to memorize the fret board. I can’t remember what I did yesterday but I remember my kindergarten classmates like they are still best friends. When trying to find the key of a song by ear and then validating by playing the full scale, I get stumped. Mechanically I can do all of my pentatonic scales. But I don’t know what notes I’m playing. It’s even worse if I try to play the full scale. I know my notes on a fret if I start on each open string and go up by one fret at a time. But, I am no wizard when starting on A on the low E and then putting together the rest of the scales. What is the best way to overcome this barrier? Am I back to just memorizing the notes on the frets? Thank you for any advice you can provide. I feel like I may not be ready to jump into Monday’s upcoming lesson without understanding how to overcome this lack of ‘presence’ on the fret board. Fronz
I think I figured it out, Fronz.
Take your A example and use the Finding the Key by Ear – Bonus sheet as a guide.
So using the Major Scale Pattern Rooted on the Low E String, you want to play this rooted or starting with the A note. Use the pattern as a guide of how many frets to move, i.e., 8 to 10 is 2 frets; 7 to 8 to 10 is 1 fret then 2 frets, etc. So for the A scale you would play as follows:
E string – hit 5th fret, 7th fret;
A string – hit 5th fret, 6th fret, 8th fret;
D string – hit 5th fret, 7th fret, 8th fret;
G string – 5th fret, 7th fret, 8th fret;
B string – hit 5th fret, 7th fret;
high e string – hit 5th fret, 7th fret
See how that works for you.
Kate,
Great explanation here!!! This is exactly the process, great work spelling that out!!!
Cheers,
Tony
Thank You Kate!! I appreciate the response very much and am practicing diligently!
Fronz,
This is a great question and a common one so you are not alone 🙂 In terms of scales I would strongly urge you to look at the basic major and the basic minor scale pattern I have attached to the Thursday replay. Think of these as shapes rather than specific notes… in fact the only note I want you to be concerned with is the root position of the pattern (the note on the low E). The cool thing about closed position major scale shapes is that the shape (as long as you get it correct) automatically has the major scale programmed in it, so you don’t have to think about anything other than the root. I hope this helps 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
I’m getting’ there Tony. I’ve gone back through the furious 5 and working it out!
Thanks for the reply!
Fronz
Now I’ve got to go back thru those videos! The movable chord shapes were killing me! But now I’m going to go back and try each one of them lower half first, higher half second. I’m so glad you archive the Q & A. I’ll never be able to make the afternoon gigs but the replay was perfect. Somebody is going to ask the right questions. Thanks!
Errrrrr…60%…better go back and review some of the Foundational 5. The major/minor thing is tripping me up and I hit check without selecting a radio button on one question. I called it out though 🙂 Just downloaded the tabs so I’ll go through the scale patterns as I think happy or sad.
Hi Tony, You mentioned you were going to post the tabs for the scales to use to aid in finding keys. I can’t find that. Where is it located?
Thanks!
Naia,
There is a link included on the replay page for module #1’s live hang out 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Now that I am able to find the key and chords, I was able to play along with the performers in the Golden Pick today. What a break through!!! Thanks Tony, this is great fun !
Very frustrating…I have been through the quiz and it is just not making any sense. What am I supposed to be listening for?
Sorry to be so dense, need a little help.
Thanks
Clem
Hi Richard, I hear your challenges with getting the hang of the finding the correct “key” to the songs in the quiz. Take a look/listen to the Q&A video for this first module, it connected a lot of dots for me and gives us more tools beyond the single note method to confirm the key. I think I only got about a third of the “keys” right when I first did the quiz and I still haven’t completed it successfully, but I know I will.
Clem,
No worries, try to listen for the note that the song is most “drawn to.” I find the low E string the easiest to use for this 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Hey Tony,
I truly feel that my technical skills for picking and the non picking hand are just not that good. Any tips and advice to improve that?
Thank you!
Frank
Frank,
Now worries at all, to first say the cliche answer, time will truly help, but to expound upon that I would say the more you execute chords and more importantly their transitions you will find yourself picking up speed and overall technical ability. Just a little bit everyday adds up 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
For Info – The songs don’t play to well in Google Chrome, I had to switch to Safari on my MAC.
Hi Tony, there is no check mark for having completed lesson 2. on my challenge progress profile. Thanks.
same here… I have marked complete from the Q&A replay and done the quiz but it still won’t show this module as complete. Do we have to score 100% to mark the quiz done and then this will show complete?
Sharon,
So to be complete the quiz needs an 80% or better and the lesson and replay should be marked complete. If for any reason these tasks are done and it isn’t registering just holler at the info@tonypolecastro.com email and we will help troubleshoot 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
aha.. the 2nd time I did that, I scored higher but then I kept trying and think I got fatigued. I will do it again with a fresh ear. Thanks Wiz
Cathy,
Module 2 will open up on Monday so you can dive in there 🙂 As for any other incomplete lesson be sure to hit the mark complete button and also by scoring an 80% or higher on the quiz will allow you to “complete” the lesson 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Hey folks, two days of training and I used the methods on two songs to find the key and play 3 key chords and some notes too that sounded like a match! Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Come in from the Cold…I found the key and played along! Woo Hoo!! Thanks Tony! !
Fronz,
Nice work bringing these skills to the streets 🙂 Keep it up!!!
Cheers,
Tony
Awesome experience. No. 12 almost got me ( was thinking E ) but picked A when I tried the 1/4/5/chords and they fit. Thanks for the great info about the low E string Tony. Along with that and trying the 1/4/5 , you can get it most of the time.
I have found the error side of trial and error majorly. Perhaps practice will improve my tin ear.
Clem
one more thing, isn’t Am and C relative keys? so they would both sound good if a song was a in a key of c or am? correct?
Rob,
Hehe 🙂 I think you are on to something here 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Ok so house of the rising sun. how do you determine it’s a minor by the method taught? am is not a note on the low e string. I knew it was a am because i played the song hundreds of times. but using the ear training method in module how is that done? many songs will be in a minor key. Thanks. great course btw.
Rob,
Great question 🙂 This will be my starting point for our Thurs. live q&a. Once you find the note that works, the next thing you will look at is it’s tonality (major or minor). More on this soon 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Rob.. I had the same scenario. The A fit. But with a C major chord in the mix…it could not be A. As the Am scale is a mirror of the C ( at a different starting point ) it had to be Am.
This was so much fun. Even though I was only playing single notes of the scale from the key of the song, it was really fun to play along with the soundtracks. Really feel like I am finally learning something about music and the guitar. Can’t wait for the next module!
Thank you
Mike S
Nice work Mike!!!
Cheers,
Tony
So “House of the Rising Sun” was a trick question. A or Am? Am because it first chord is A minor and A Aeolian sounded correct rather than A Ionian. I initial got that question wrong but went back and looked for strategies to discern major or minor. I noticed also the 5th always sounded close to being right.
Daniel, I would love to know what Aeolian an Ionain is/means! Sounds like it would be helpful and maybe even required learning! I am having trouble in this space.
You guys are the best 🙂 We will talk about modes on Thursday… and how you actually all know them already 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Daniel,
Indeed it was my token trick question 🙂 More on this in our Thursday session. We will discuss some strategies to double check what we think the key is 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Loved this first section and the related quiz! I see what you mean about playing a note thru a long portion of the song to see if it’s the true key. Awesome exercise!
Hey Tony,
Loving all of this so far. Would the lesson on improvisation help with learning how to improve your folk guitar playing? Right now I just do basic finger picking for chords with a capo on different frets. I would like to incorporate some riffs into the mix as well.
Thanks again!
Frank
Frank,
Absolutely, the improv module will not only help you with your playing and lick incorporation, but it will also make some lightbulbs go off in regards to what’s possible when arranging and playing tunes you already know.
Cheers,
Tony
Thanks Tony! Also I play my guitar in e flat tuning. For the sake of this course should I alter it back to standard tuning?
Thanks!
Frank,
Indeed all of these answers are based on standard tuning 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
In the example song you used, i thought the G sounded ok too. Granted it was a bit hard to hear the music in the background. What if there’s more than one note that sound good?
Scott,
This is a great question and one we will go over live for sure 🙂 Sometimes when trying to figure out the key there may be two or three notes that are in the running… remember our chord matrix… this is why more than one note sounds good sometimes, if you have it narrowed down to two or three, try each throughout the duration of the song as the true key will prevail 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
I must admit that I rushed a couple of choices and sure enough missed the best option with an option that turned out wrong. Listening to the whole segment and comparing the finalists may have helped! My dad always said ‘pazienza Giovanni, pazienza’ and 40 years later, I’m repeating the same mistakes! 🙂
VERY frustrating… having trouble getting the audio samples to play. Using latest Safari browser. Got two of them, eventually, to play, then the next one doesn’t. Have to start all over. Naturally the deck gets re-suffled, and then I start down through questions with the same process, with sound files not playing; no display buttons, nothing standardized to play simple audio files…
Got correct answers for the two I was able to eventually hear. Gonna logout now. Maybe things will be playable tomorrow? (hope, hope, hope).
Charlie,
I do apologize for the temporary glitch, we have our tech team working on a solution 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
I had the same trouble. I saw someone else said click on the far left side of the bar. I tried it and it worked!
What does the “key signature on standard notation” look like and where would I find it?
Hi Andrew, when you chek the TABs Tony provides for most lessons, the line, in which the actual notes are written starts with the key sign. There is one key sign for “treble” and one for bass notes (this only holds for instruments like a piano). Guitar notation should only use the normal clef (official wording?!). The clef key looks kind of like a very twirly version of a written small f… unfortunately I#m not able to post a screen shot gere, but you will see it if you look in any TAB/music notation.
Hope that helps, ben
Andrew,
The key signature is located at the beginning of any score. You will see the treble or bass clef and sometimes some sharps or flats associated with it, that right there is the key signature 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
I could not get the system to play all of the music on my PC, but I was able to get it to work on my iPhone.
it seems faster just to run through 1-4-5 progressions to find the key, but iam going to trust our leader that this will help me hear the key with out playing a note when we are done. i have blind faith right now , lead on brother
john
John,
That approach is fantastic, in fact it is a great way to confirm a guess on the key 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Hi Tony, although I think to have an idea of what is meant, it would be great to explain this in more detail, may be during the live session on next Thursday. Cheers, ben
Ben,
Absolutely 🙂 We will go over some quick ways to double check your “guesses” on the key. Things that you can do quickly to figure out if you are on the right track or not 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Hi Tony. At some point, can you expand a bit on songs that change key? I know a couple of songs where the verse is in Amin and the chorus in Amaj. Plus other songs that change key with every verse. I think the principle you taught this week is the same, but would be interested in your comments on this. Cheers!
Nicholas,
This is a great question for the live q&a, in fact module 2 will help with this as well 🙂 As with most things theory, every time a rule is made it gets broken some of the songs that change key are great examples of that 🙂 … I shouldn’t be so hard on them… they don’t break the rules, just bend slightly 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Okay, I just completed the first lesson and quiz; not that I had any idea of what to expect but it was difficult for me! On the bright side, I have never before tried to identify a key with my ear…so, there’s that! I will be taking the quiz a few more times, I’m sure!
James
James,
Great job jumping in and please feel free to go through the quiz as many times as you wish. This is a skill that develops over time so keep after it 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Well, that was a real eye-opener! Got all the song keys correct except “House of the Rising Sun” which I’ve been playing for years and knew was in Am, but got tripped up on the Ab note vs Am chord. Was going to ask a question about this but see it’s already been explained, so lesson learned, ID the note that fits, then tonality. Thanks.
Nicholas,
Glad you are getting into the quizzes 🙂 You nailed it in your newly learned process: ID the note that fits and then ID tonality!!!
Cheers,
Tony
On what fret would I find an Am? I know flats and sharp notes. Is an Am same as a Ab?
He Fronz, that was a tricky question… basically the key is A (truly A, no sharp or flat). But the scale tonality couly be major or minor. For that particular question you had to go a little step further and needed to identify the minor tonallity besides the basic key. For instance strumming the A minor chord (and may be comparing the major one) would help at this.
cheers, ben
…forgot to say: there is not fret for Aminor.
Unless I’m misunderstanding the question, I think this is just a point of clarification. Am is a chord whereas Ab is a single note…
Gary,
Bingo 🙂 Thank you for chiming in here, that is a perfect way to put it 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Fronz,
I am so happy you asked this question as it is a common misconception that an A minor is the same as an Ab. A note is a note is a note until you assign a tonality to it, for example you can have an Ab major or an Ab minor, just like you could have a C# major or a C# minor. When trying to determine the key first find the note that works throughout and then ask yourself is the song sad or happy (in terms of sound not lyrics) if sad it is likely minor, and if happy it is likely major 🙂 More to come on this in our live q&a on Thursday 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Y’all are Great! Confusion is the first part of learning … I’m really still not following the Minor/Major thing. I have reread the replies a few times. I’m glad to know there is no Am fret. But, I don’t understand the tonality component. So sorry. I’ll catch up eventually. Thanks!
Glad to see others chiming in on this topic. I had no issue with eh quiz other than around this particular questions. I am looking forward to the Live Discussion later this week!
Unfortunately I won’t be able to make the live event on Thursday this week (much needed job interview). But, I am hopelessly unclear on the tonality, major, minor, diminished. When I listen to the emotionally ‘sad’ tune ‘House of the Rising Sun’ I hear A on my low E string for all of the song. So how is the key Am, or in the key of an Am chord? How do we know if we’re using notes or chords to identify the song key? I apologize to all for being so thick. IF this comes up in the session I’ll grab it on the replay. If not, I may be playing a happy version of house of the rising sun…
No worries at all Fronz I will be hitting this in the live session that will be available on replay. We will discuss the tonality as it applies to key and what that all means 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
This is a awesome start to the course:-) I made a few clangers on the quiz, but that is all good as it has made me really listen to a piece of music:-).
Awesome Emma!!! This is the place for clangers for sure 🙂 I am glad you are digging in and if the lesson helps open ears then it is perfect 🙂 Keep up the awesome work!!!
Cheers,
Tony
My new favorite word “clangers”!
Hey Tony- Great job. Connections not great though. very slow to load.
Claudia,
Thanks for the kind words, with so many people accessing the module this morning it may have slowed things down a touch, but it should be up to snuff as our developers are working on it 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Potentially useful, but maybe I missed the point of the course – “Fretboard Wizard”, to me, would seem to be more geared toward maybe what the TAC is – really building a fluency across the fretboard and the practice items to get there. Building strength and having the fretboard and navigating become second-nature. I may have made the mistake of thinking this was that. This is more applied theory and whereas useful, maybe not what I anticipated based on the title.
Hi Chris,
I am pretty sure, that this course will satisfy your anticipation finally. So far we just learnd the basics – and those in small pieces/chunks… lets wait for the next weeks and everything will fit together. And doing so, will potentially make you see the fretboard in a different way, allowing easy (secon nature) navigation on it.
Chris,
Indeed Fretboard Wizard is a course that will help you apply theory to the fretboard. Throughout the modules we will be doing exercises and challenges to reinforce the topics. I hope I am addressing your question, if for some reason I am missing it, just shoot me an email at info@tonypolecastro.com and I will be happy to help and answer any questions.
Cheers,
Tony
I am starting to feel the same way. Im hoping there is more to come.
I will say that one thing that I have learned (so far) is that I know a lot more than I thought I did! I just didn’t think I “got it.” I guess you can say I lack the confidence as a guitar player because singing is my strong suit. I know my cowboy chords and the basics to songwriting, but this program is helping for sure. The format of this site, the videos and your demeanor and delivery is great. It’s like Im hanging out with an old friend. Thanks for all that you do Tony and I look forward to continuing to grow. Ive been stuck in the same spot for years and I finally am gaining some much needed confidence as a guitar player and renewed energy as a musician in general. By the way, here is a fun fact….my old band Greenwheel was on the Spiderman soundtrack you referred to with the Stone Sour song. 🙂
Awesome about your band on that sound track!!! I am glad you are here and digging in, whether it confirms and exercises the knowledge you have already or introduces some new info it is always good to feel like you are on the right track. I am really looking forward to the live sessions as that is when I feel we will all have some great light bulb moments together and any confusion will be explained away 🙂 Thanks for being here man!!!
Cheers,
Tony
Tony,
It would be very helpful, if I could download the video portions to my computer. Then I could take the lessons home with me to the sticks. I plan to come to town this evening in order to do the first quiz and hook into this evenings web gathering. I have been sneaking looks during work, but can’t make a habit of that.
talk to you later,
Jace
Jace,
You just made my day 🙂 I will be adding download links very shortly 🙂 Thank you for leaving the note 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
I don’t know about anyone else but I can’t hear the song you are listening to when trying to find the base note that will be the key. Your guitar drowns out the recorded song.
I can’t hear the song or even load it on the quiz.
Tom,
We are working on that pesky play button and it should be fixed by the end of the day. You can still play it by clicking to the left of the timeline 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Gene,
It will certainly help if you have headphones (you can keep one in and one out) or if by chance you have external speakers that will help as well 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
OK, I’ve been through the video once and need to do it again before doing the quiz, I have been playing (following along keeping an eye on where the other guys are making their chords. All I’ve really learned doing this is changing chords really fast. Anyway to my comment. I was told by someone in the very beginning is “The key is almost always the chord the chord the song starts on.” In fact
who ever starts the song will ALWAYS tell us what key the song is in, and it will be the first chord.
Gene,
Indeed 🙂 Jams are very helpful especially when the players who are participating announce the key 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Ok, this is going to be one of the most simple, elementary, courses that Tony has put together. But for me, this is definitely some of the fundamentals that I missed 35 years ago. This morning was a light bulb. Find the lowest bass note that sounds good with the ENTIRE song. I would see people doing this but thought they were looking for bass notes for each chord change, so that is what I would try to do. Needless to say, I would try this method and quit time and time again. This is GREAT!!
Bo,
Thanks for this feedback, and I am so happy to hear you are getting some great tips and info out of this course. Sometimes coming back through information even if it’s review can shed new light on it!!! I am so pumped you are here!!!
Cheers,
Tony
this was great. now need to apply what you gave us. navigate the fret board with confidence.
Marilyn,
Yes indeed onward and upward with many more discoveries to come 🙂
Cheers,
Tony