What Key is that Tune? Tunes that Change Key

What Key is that Tune? Tunes that Change Key

Following on from the last article on finding out the key of a tune or song, this post will present a couple of more challenging examples. Most tunes stay in the same key throughout, but there are examples that have parts in different keys, and then there are tunes...
Understanding Chord Names

Understanding Chord Names

This article sets out to shed some light on the world of chords and bewildering array of letters, numbers and symbols that define them. The first thing to understand is that chord names are split into two halves The pitch of the chord The type of chord The Pitch of...
Making sense of 7/8

Making sense of 7/8

When I first tried to get my head around a tune in 7/8, I was mystified.  The tune was Bulgarian and, whilst the music sounded amazing, the notes made no sense to me – having been over-exposed to 4/4 for all my life.  The rhythm was driving and exciting, but where was...
Getting Your Guitar into Open D Tuning

Getting Your Guitar into Open D Tuning

If you’re used to playing guitar in standard tuning and want to try something new, give open D tuning a try.  A new world will open up to you – playing all the open strings will result in a beautifully resonant and full-sounding D chord.  Just experimenting with...
How To Transpose (Change the Key of) a Tune Up

How To Transpose (Change the Key of) a Tune Up

Following on from my introductory post on transposing, let’s now take a look at a practical example. Take this short bit of music in G major that could be from a reel or hornpipe: Let’s say you’ve started playing at a session and everyone plays this tune, but in A...