There are a lot on musicians who play Keyboard out there. Some of which play by ear and are among the best in the world but can't tell you the first chord if asked, while others have their theoritics down pack, I play by ear but the one thing that helps me tremendously with every song I play is the scale degree numbers and learning progressions, I can't stress enough how so important it is to know at least the basics, though for some, getting into this may not be their cup of tea and they may have already know every song in every key fluently, but for those of us who are from semi-begining it might be a bit hard getting to it but to the advance players who want to expand their knowlege here's is a tip on how i read scale degrees;
Pin Point the Signiture Key then read east and west from that Key,
Here's how it works:
Lets take the key of C:
Lets establish C with the scale number straight out which would be this:
C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
We see that C=1, D=2, E=3 and so forth.
But I take that same C and I read three keys to the right, then three keys to the left
This method shortens the horizon of the scale and makes it seem smaller because everything hovers around the Sig Key and reads now like this
G A B C D E F
5 6 7 1 2 3 4
If you read three keys to the left (west) you'll find its much easier to pinpoint the Maj 7th, Dom 7th, the 6th and, for intance use this method to get acclimated with the 7ths and 6ths rather than reading al the way pass the 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc, to get to your 6ths, and 7ths. Then three keys to the right would give you the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. and the 5th is right there to figure out, more on the 5th later
I've used this for years and I must say it takes a while to get it down but once you do, Aww man, you'll find it so much easier especially when you have to think on the fly real fast. Lets say you want to know where the 6th in a scale is? A person's conventional normal thinking theoretically will read from that 1st key and read the whole step, half step method and run all up the scale counting 1-2-3-4 -5 to get to the 6th, (takes too much time) when to the left of the key its only three half steps away. Maj 7th, Dom 7th, then there's that 6th.
Lets look at it with keys take Db: with this method we know the the C is the Maj7th, the B is the Dom 7th and that Bb is your 6th.
I cant tell you how easy it takes for me to recognize scale degrees using this method, no matter what key it is I always know that my Maj 7th, Dom 7th, and 6th is always three half step to the left of my Key Sig, respectively ALWAYS! and my 2,3 and 4th three whole steps to the right, and my 5th is right there easy to figure out from either end.
A hidden GEM in this method is how easy it would become to invert chords, and how easy it would become to figure out chords and their formulas.
Now basic Triad chords are pretty much simple for everyone even those who are just getting deep into it, but dealing Augments, Diminishes, raised or flatted note is a different monster.
Now we come to that all important 5th, a few things to consider first.
We know that when talking about a minors the 3rd is ALWAYS FLATTED, but if you know scale degrees you know that a Diminished Chord is sort of a Hybrid Minor i call it with that 5th being flatted as well but with the Augmented chord the 5th is raised and the 3rd resolves to its normal major state Sounds like rocket science? Watch this!
That 5th is what I call "interchangeable", it is often either raised or flattend or normal
so with my method of reading what I do is when I read to the left of the Sig Key, in conection with reading three half steps to give me my Maj 7th, Dom 7th, and 6th, I also read another two half steps back this gives me my Augmented or raised 5th, my normal 5th, and then to the right i read and additional half step from my 4th which gives me my lowered 5th, so if some one say major 7th flat 5th or raised 5th, like nothing to pin point quickly.
Sure this sounds like alot but hey if you have to guts, grit, and patience to give it a whirl you'll see what it does for you.
Musiq
