The first step to
hear and play any song is to determine the major key of the song. In
most cases, the notes of the melody use only the notes of major scale.
For simplicity sake, you may want to select C major. Thus, you have 7 notes to
figure out the melody, i.e. C, D, E, F, G, A, B.
Of course, not all
songs are in C major scale. I usually start with C major. After I
harmonize the melody, I can either choose to play the song in C major
or transpose to other keys. It is up to you. Please look at the
examples of “Hey Jude”.
Example 1: (C
major) Listen
Example 2: (G
major) Listen
They both sound the
same, but yet subtly different, isn’t’ it? That’s because both
examples have same melody/rhythm, but different major scales.
To determine
melody, you need to listen to the melody repeatedly till you get
familiar with both the melody and rhythm.
Go to ==> Lesson 2: Harmonize Melody
