Lets say you're messing about with a fews notes that sound good together. Therefore there's a chance they might be in the same key. Is there any application online where by you can enter in certain notes, and it will show one or more keys that these notes are in. Obviously, the more notes you'd enter, the less possible keys there would. It would eventually narrow it down to two keys: the major key, and its relative minor. Then having found the key, you could incorporate whatever little short few licks you came up with your into that key, and make them make sense, etc.
I don't know of a program off the top of my head, You can refer to a scale chart and learn all the notes of a particular scale or mode to find your key. If you're starting With a melody or lick with just a few notes you're likely to have many more options for what key you can play in than if you started with a chord progression.
If I already knew the 12 scales of by heart, I'd still have to go through each one by trial and error which is tedious. I know the D, G and C scales best because they're the most common
if you knew the modes/scales and how they worked on your instrument you would be able to tell which scales would go with particular sets of notes because of patterns you would recognize within the series of modes. Try to match the pattern of notes you're playing with these charts and you could figure out possible keys. Or you could tell me which notes you're playing and I could try and match them to certain keys/modes and (try to) tell you how I do it. Guitar: Bass: P.S. There are other scales beside the traditional set of 7 Modes used in western music (like standard american music[Diatonic scales]), there's also the harmonic minor that's pretty common, it has a eastern "arabian" sort of sound to it. Besides that there are countless other types of scales like the Ragas and Enigmatic scales and stuff, so if the notes you've chosen don't fall into the patterns on the fret boards i linked, then you might not be playing in the standard Diatonic (major/minor) scales or maybe not even in a scale that's been invented yet. Maybe you could invent your own scale! The only stipulation if that the pattern of steps within an octave have to be consistent from octave to octave(and i bet even that rule has been ignored in inventing scales).
That's far too tedious, but since you offered, I'll give the notes. I've realised that the notes are not in any one key, but maybe you can make sense of why they work well together. Here are the so called chords I'm picking from: e-0-----2--------------- b-4---- (2or3)------------ g-6-----4------------- d-6-----4---------------- Thanks
cool! yea, i'll see if i can figure it out. so this is on a bass? I just want to make sure I'm thinking of the right intervals. Also, are you playing the 2 and the 3 on the D string(if it is a bass we're talking about)? or can't decide between them? from what i can tell you have too many notes in your scale to make it a Dorian (standard Major/Minor) scale or a Harmonic Minor scale. If you line up the notes you gave me in order of their letter names you get; A, A#, B, C#, D#, E, F, F#, G and that gives you too many half steps to make it a traditional scale. for example; D#, E, F and F# are all a half step apart meaning their are no notes between them (one fret apart). The rule of the diatonic scales is that you can have exactly 2 half steps per octave per scale. No more, no less. For example (I will use W in place of the word 'Whole' and H in place of the word 'Half'[a whole step is when two notes are separated by one other note, for example, the C and D have C# between them, therefore C to D is a whole step]) a major scale's intervals go; W W H W W W H and a Minor scale goes W H W W H W W. each scale has only 2 half steps in it. Because of this I don't think i can identify the notes you gave me as a scale. Sorry i can't give you a straight answer, but I hope I have at least been clear and informative and if you want to ask me anything else, feel free. P.S. You will notice that these scales are made of the same set of intervals because they are what's called "modes" of the same scale. so here is a major scale expanded two octaves and within the parenthesis will be a minor scale; W W H W W (W H W W H W W) W H. Knowing modes can really help in developing melodies, that might be something to look into. I dig the progression BTW, sounds eerie and sort of backwoodsy the way i'm playing it.
Sorry, here it is corrected on guitar! e-0-----2--------------- b-4---- (2or3)------------ g-6-----4------------- d-6-----4---------------- You seem to know alot. Out of curiosity, is your ear as good as your musical knowledge?
my ear is pretty good, I'm glad it's not any worse cuz it get's me by.. (I should do more ear training and rarely have the chance) I'm gunna have to rethink this whole thing cuz i was thinking the strings were perfect 4ths like a bass. I'll get back to you soon, but I bet GuerillaBedlam has got it right. Ok, here we go. GuerillaBedlam is right in selecting the C# (B string 2nd fret) because with the D you would have 3 half steps in a row and that would make for a non-Dorian scale, but all the notes you're playing (so the notes are; B, C#, D#, E, F# and G#) could work in a few keys since the note between G# and B is left out. If you make the missing note an A# you could play in B Major or any of it's modes (like G# minor as GB said. F# mixolydian and A# Lydian are also worth mentioning, but again, they're all modes of the same scale.). If you made the missing note an A natural instead of an A# you would be playing in E Major or one if it's modes (Like B mixolydian, C# Minor or A Lydian). I hope this helps. The mode should be selected based on the roots of the chords you're playing, which i'm in the process of figuring out now.. I think the chords you are playing here are a C# minor (+9?) and an F# suspended so i'd check out C# minor and F# mixolydian because it's nice to have the chords you're playing being on Do, especially the more resolved sounding one. My knowledge of music theory is incomplete and that's just about as much as i can tell you for now i think.. i've kinda exhausted my knowledge. I dig the progression even more now hahaha make's more sense! Keep us posted on your progress in figuring this progression out and good luck
I discovered there is an app for the iPhone and iPad called Guitar Toolkit that has a feature where you can just pick out random notes on the fretboard and it will tell you what chords it could be. I love this app for many reasons. It works for guitar and mandolin, which are the two instruments I play.
