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How to Find Chords by Ear
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How to Find Chords by Ear

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  2. Jeffrey Y May 30, 2017

    Hi Tony,
    Awesome course. I have not been as active a participant as I would have like to but life is getting in the way. I knew it would be a challenge to manage but I really wanted to learn music theory as it applies to the guitar and you really nailed it. Thank you for that. I do however, have a question. I was trying to find the key and chord changes of Midnight Rider by the Allman Brothers. I could figure out the song was in the key of D, but I could not get the other chords. So I cheated…..(he said sheepishly) and looked it up on the internet. The chord changes were D, Gm7, C and the solo backing was C, Bb, repeated. The chords sounded correct when I played them over the song, but I dont see the connection to the D major scale standard pattern. Did i miss something ? id it in the key of D? What the…?

    1. Tony Polecastro June 1, 2017

      Jeffrey,

      You found one of the wonderful exceptions to the music theory “rules.” I say this because that tune is a favorite of mine and it definitely takes you on quite the curvy path when trying to figure it out 🙂 So here are my thoughts on that tune: It definitely is in the key of D because that is where the tune is drawn to (where it resolves). As for the inclusion of the C and the Bb that part would lead me to believe they are including some accidental chords which is completely ok just know that they occur outside of the natural major scale. I hope this helps confirm your thoughts and acknowledge that there are some exceptions to the rules in there 🙂

      Cheers,
      Tony

  3. Stephen May 30, 2017

    Does anyone know the artist on the I’m Walking the Dog song? I can’t find the version that Tony & Levi have up here.. found lots of others but really like this one!

      1. Stephen May 30, 2017

        Hmmm… I listened to a couple different webb pierce ones but never found that version. I love it! Thanks Tony!

  4. Bo S May 28, 2017

    Ok, I have no idea how many times I watched the video, read over my notes, and took the quiz; but the only thing that made the difference was to SLOW DOWN. I took my time to find the key. Then one stroked chords to find the right chords. I still did not ace the quiz but tonight the light bulb is on. No instant gratification on this stuff. I remember how many long nights and sore fingers it took me to learn how to play the guitar 35 years ago. Not sure why I thought this would be easy and quick. The great part is that once you start to hear the sounds more clearly, it does get easier.

    1. Tony Polecastro May 30, 2017

      Bo,

      Thanks for commenting and letting us in on your process 🙂 This definitely does take time but as you have observed once things start to click it gets a bit easier 🙂 Great work!!!

      Cheers,
      Tony

  5. Wendy T May 28, 2017

    Hi Tony,

    This is Wendy from Hong Kong. Thanks for putting together this brilliant guitar course, it’s such an eye-opener. I’m still catching up with the classes & quizes, so I have kind of ‘catch up’ question to ask:

    After we get the key, and proceed to try the chord by ear, how would you recommend us to find out where the chord on the fretboard is? Should we simply do it ‘the old way’, i.e. memorize all the common chords patterns, or is there a easier way to quickly figure out the chord on the fly? I remember you taught about the CAGED pattern, but since CAGED should about finding other ways of playing the same chord, and my problem now is “not sure where the chord is on the fretboard, in the first place”, would you guide me through this?

    Wendy

    1. Tony Polecastro May 30, 2017

      Wendy,

      I am so glad you are digging into this course!!! In regard to your question on finding the chords, I would recommend getting your basic open chord positions down pat (C,A,G,E,D,F,and B) I say this because knowing these chords in there basic positions will facilitate travel to other shapes and in other positions. The beautiful thing is that as you go further in the course (namely the transposition module) you will start to see patterns, the kind of patterns that are universal in terms of chord shapes and more importantly how they lay out on the neck 🙂 My recommendation, know those open position chords inside and out, once you have those down start trying to recognize patterns, for example in the key of G generally you will play the G,C, and D chord, it is these very common “1-4-5” patterns that will help you find random chords in the long run 🙂 I hope this helps and if you can make it make sure to tune in to this Thursday’s live q&a where I can talk about this in more detail 🙂

      Cheers,
      Tony

      1. Wendy T May 31, 2017

        Thanks Tony! I look forward to the coming Thursday section (though I can only join the replay). What you’re describing is exactly what I would like to achieve (some day) – getting the basic and then able to extend to entire fretboard through rules and patterns. Very exciting stuffs!

  6. Jeffrey H May 18, 2017

    I had a slight advantage in the quiz on “This Land is Your Land” since I play it with old friends at parties but in a different key. I had to do some transposing on paper and got it. It felt like a small win!

  7. Scott C May 15, 2017

    Hey Tony
    In this lesson, during the chorus of the song you are playing along with, there’s a progression into that minor 6 chord (in this case the B minor). I think it was just descending bass notes and not full chords. Would those correspond to the D major scale? or not necessarily?
    Thanks
    -Scott

    1. Tony Polecastro May 16, 2017

      Scott,

      Great ear!!! And that is actually a very common sequence (that walk down to the root of the 6 minor) It goes from the root of the scale down to the 7th degree and then ends up on the 6th degree. A very common walk and the cool thing is that it works both ways… down to the 6 minor and up to the 1 chord from the 6 minor 🙂

      Cheers,
      Tony

      2. Tony Polecastro May 17, 2017

        Gregor,

        Great question!!! I will discuss some walk down patterns in our q&a this Thursday 🙂 … in fact there is a formula I will share with you that will help you calculate a walk up or down anywhere 🙂

        Cheers,
        Tony

  8. Zoe D May 13, 2017

    Hi Tony,

    In the first live Q&A when we would find the root note of the song on the low E string, you said it would also be helpful to play the entire scale of a note to isolate it and distinguish it from other notes that might also fit. You mentioned that in the future you would upload a scale pattern for the major, minor & pentatonic scales (you played a fancy scale pattern using all the strings, not just the low E) and I was wondering if it was on the website already by any chance? I scoured through the Foundational Five and Fretboard Wizard courses and only found the “Making Major Scales” PDF.

    I’ve been using this website for the scale patterns…is this what you had in mind?

    http://www.guitaristsource.com/lessons/scales/

    Just want to make sure I’m on the right track. 🙂

    Thanks for all your help!
    Zoe

    1. Tony Polecastro May 15, 2017

      Zoe,

      That is a great site, thank you for sharing. It is great to visualize those patterns like that!!! I attached the tab to four shapes that are rooted on the low E string in that module’s (week 1) replay. You can find the link in the written description 🙂

      Cheers,
      Tony

  10. Tessa M May 11, 2017

    I found it easier to listen to the song a couple times and then pause it and just play the chord progressions myself to see which it was. On “Stand By Me”, I could have sworn I had it right- but after I missed it, I played the chords without the track and it just kind of clicked and made sense. This is great practice!!

  11. Michelle N May 10, 2017

    So a bit off topic, but I JUST PLAYED A B MINOR BARRE CHORD FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!!!! **RUNS AROUND THE ROOM CHEERING* WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

      1. agi-a May 11, 2017

        Naomi,
        Thanks for sharing the solution you found, b/c I had the same question. You helped me 🙂

      2. Tony Polecastro May 11, 2017

        Naomi,

        LOL that is the first I had heard of that pneumonic 🙂 Thank you for sharing that, now I had a light bulb moment 🙂

        Cheers,
        Tony

    2. Tony Polecastro May 11, 2017

      Naomi,

      Thanks for the question 🙂 Lets evaluate the D major scale to check things out 🙂

      D-E = W
      E-F# = W
      F#-G = H
      G-A = W
      A-B = W
      B-C# = W
      C#-D = H

      So the only sharps necessary would be the F# and the C# to make the D major scale 🙂 I hope this helps 🙂

      Cheers,
      Tony

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