One very practical skill for guitar players is to be able to change keys.
This is especially helpful if you want to play guitar and sing oh if you're
playing guitar for somebody else you're singing that's because certain keys are
better for the singer than others. Also there are some things when you're
playing they just work better in certain keys than others. So one way to do this
and a very useful way is to memorize a little graph like this. So what
I've done is I've written out the scales for the 5 most popular keys that
guitar players used C G D A and E and I've written out the scale for each of these.
There's 7 notes in each. Up top, I wrote the number for each scale degree
in other words C is the first note, D is the second note in the key of C. If
you're talking about the key of G, G would be the first note. And
underneath that, I don't know if you can see that, so I've had a little Roman
numerals, and that's very common in music because especially when you're talking
about chords the roman numeral gives you a chance to make a capital roman numeral
for a major chord and a small baby roman numeral for minor chords so that's
enough theory for right now. I'm gonna choose the 1 chord in each key, the
4 coordinate key and the 5 chord in each key. Why? Because there are so
many songs created with those 3 chords in the key. So for example if I
were to play a song in the key of C and I used the C chord,
the F chord and G chord and I wanted to play the song (___) in the key of G. I
could take the one chord from the key of G and replace it every time there was a
C chord in the song. I think the 4 chord in the key of G, a C and replace it
every time there was an F chord and the same with the D every time I saw a G in
the key of C I'd replace it with the D. Sometime I'll take a piece of sheet
music and I'll actually write out or cross off the C's and put G's. I'll cross
off the F so I don't have to necessarily do it right in my head but once you get
used to this you can especially if the song is simple with just three 3 chords.
It's fairly easy to memorize the 3 major chords in each of these 5 keys
and then just shift on the spur of the moment. Now I want to give you an example
with a guitar. First of all, a good way to practice this is to play the 1 4
5 chords in each of the keys and I'm going to go an order starting with C. By
the way there's a little pattern here. I'm going to point it out to you. In the
key of C, the 5 chord is G and that's the next scale. Again
the 5 chord in the key of G is D and that's the next scale. This is related to
the Circle of Fifths in which I'm going to right now but there are patterns here
that I want you to see. Also by the way it has to do with the number sharps in
the key. You start with no sharps, 1 sharp, F sharp, 2 sharps, 3sharps
and 4 sharps and so on. So let's start off with a key of C.
We'll go to the 4 chords, the 5 chords and then back to the one chord that's a
1 4 5 - 1 4 5 or in this case C F and G. By the way, you can get the most of
this if you play along with me but just listening will really help also. Now in
the key of G the 4 chord will be G A B C and the 5 chord will be D right after it.
Okay let's go on to the next one G A B C D the 5 chord. We'll do now the key of
D D E F G A
and D - 1 4 5 -1 4 and 5. Next D, A now A is the 1 chord, D is the 4 chord
and finally we're going go on to the key of A B C D E, the 5 chord E A. I'm
gonna use B7 because it's easier to play than B and it's very commonly used.
Now here's an example of changing keys. I'll use a very simple song - happy
birthday. So let's say I'll start off in the key of C. I'll raise it up an octave
Happy birthday to you. That's really high for me. Let's lower it
C, let's go back -C B A. Let's try that in a key of A. So I know the 1 4
5. It's a 1 4 5 song so A B C D and E here we go.
Happy birthday to - to the 5 chord. Happy birthday
back to the 1 chord. Happy birthday, here comes the 4 chord
Happy birthday, that's some kind of high - to you - 1 4 5. I'm gonna go down the key back from A and G
Here we go Happy birthday
to the five 5 chord , G A B C D - happy birthday to you. Okay, another 1 4
5 and I'm counting for your sake - 4 chord C - happy birthday
Happy birthday, Happy birthday to you.
Okay,
I hope you've enjoyed that. Please if you like to give me a like and leave me a
comment I'd love to know what you're thinking. Take care for now. I'm Tomas
Michaud, from Real Guitar. Bye.