THE GROWTH PROCESS VOL. 3 by Leugreat Odikayor (best ebook reader for chromebook TXT) 📕

it sounds right, but what does that mean? The thing is to find the tonic. That's the "home" note. Assuming that this person is singing tonal music, i.e. any popular song, then there is going to be one pitch that seems like home and to which the singer often returns. In your imagination it will be the ending pitch, the one that wraps it all up. Songs don't always end on the tonic, but they seem like they ought to. So you get into your head what sounds like the home or tonic for the song you're hearing.

 

Then you want to hope that the singer is in tune with the piano and didn't happen to choose a starting pitch that was in between two keys. If the singer heard something from the piano or another tuned instrument before getting started that should be OK. If you are one of those with absolute pitch then you'll know right away the name of the tonic and can put your hands in place. But if you instead have relative pitch, like most people, then you'd probably need to quietly run over a few notes to find the singer's tonic.

 

Once you have the tonic it's just a question of major or minor. That's beyond the scope of this answer, but you probably know what minor sounds like. Most popular songs are in major keys, but if the scale is minor then you'll know what to do - I expect you wouldn't be asking this question if you didn't already know how to improvise in a key.

 

Below are some tasted methods that was used in the vol.1 of The Growth Process;

 

I have gotten so many comments,emails and messages from my students and many others asking me,sir,"How do I enter a key when a singer sings?".

Wow nice question. This same topic"key Finding", took me 24months to learn. Not that the subject was hard, nope. It was due to the fact that I was willing to learn, but didn't know how to go about it. No mentor to guild me, no music prof. to groom me through the process of building my ears musically. So on my own it took time and consistent pursuit for knowledge to pull through.

 

There are so many things one can do to get a person's key more faster and effective.Even though you weren't born with a Perfect Pitch, you can still pull through. Some of the ways are below;

 

1.Build your ears to identify notes especially in your major scale. Everytime you wake-up, take conscious step to memorise or sound the notes in your scale. Then,try doing/sounding it chromatically like this; DO DI REH MOH MI FAH FI SOH ZI LA TOH TI (all together 12. You should be able to sound this faster and accurately). When you do this often you are conciously Taming your mind,brain and ears to sounds,which will invariably increase your chances of getting keys even without access to a keyboard.

 

 

2. Try to listen to the song, before rushing to click the buttons/key on piano. There is something I always tell my students, both live and online, that if you can't listen and produce the sound your hearing correctly, there are chances that you could get the wrong key. The first thing you do when you want to find a singer's key is LISTEN, and try to produce the right sound with your mouth,then find the sound on the keyboard.Like I will always say, "I prefer someone whose musical ears are accurate, than someone who can play very well on the keyboard, but don't know when a singer is on the key, or has left the key etc".

 

3. Most songs end on the tonic(Doh). If that's the case you have two choices here;

(a). It's either you choose to wait for the end of the song, then get that Doh sound and hum it,then find the sound on the piano.

(b). You can choose to pick the Doh from the starting of the song or the middle (that part where it seems the song is resting) then find the sound on the piano.

 

4. I use this method most of the time.To get a singer's key, the idea is to listen and then pick any sound you hear, then run your solfageio scale(do re....TI) very fast in your mind till you get to the Doh, then that's the key. You can now find it on the keyboard.Now I said any sound, I mean any sound from the song, even if it's "ah","God","I" etc any sound at all. All you have to do is run the sound you produced through your scale.

For example if a singer sings

"Jesus you love me too much oh"

Too much oh

Too much oh excess love oh

I can choose to pick "OH" then run my scale with it to get my doh like this(Doh re mi....to do) but instead of using that,use "oh" to run it.If you produced the right "Doh"sound,you would get the right key on your piano.

 

 

5. You can also use the "humming System". It talks about you humming the sound alongside the singer, then Finding the Doh you hummed on the piano.simple right.

 

 

6.Another way you could find someone's key, is this. If you are a chronic transposer, then you can make use of your weakness here.How you do it is this. When the singer starts singing,first produce the ending sound "doh" of the sound by going ahead of the singer in your mind,then use your T.button(Transpose button) by either adding (+ or -) , but I prefer you (+).when you (+), observe the sound,if it rhymes with what you've produced,then that's the key if not try again, until you get to the point where by one can't tell if it's you or the piano that's producing the sound.

 

 

7. You can also try this way too. If after producing the sound by first listening to the sound, then proceed to the finding the sound on the piano by first clicking on key C. If key C isn't the key, then you have the right to neglect all the scales contained in C on other keys...This will however limit your search on the keys not in the C scale.

 

 

8. Note, this is it. If you try all these and still no improvement,then try leugreat's principle. It states that "the amount of time you spend trying to find key, put that hours of trying, into developing your ears musically,and that's all".simple rule right?. If after all these 7steps and you still find it difficult, please forget about finding key and pursue developing your ears.If your ears are bad musically, these steps will not be effective, because you will find it difficult. Leave whatever you are doing, and build your ears. Cause when it's built, you won't struggle to find key,scale,chord progressions etc. The last chapter will talk more on ear development and how to go about it.

 

ARE THOSE METHODS USEFUL? Answer depends on you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 8

Why many Fail to Get The Right Key)

 

The problem is not getting the key, because you can get any key from the piano. The point is, is it the right key? How do you tell it's the right key? Why do I fail to get this key? But I did the above method, yet am still struggling to get a singer's key, what's wrong? You might be caught up in the web of those questions, what appropriate approach have you used to settle that?.

There are certain things that could make one not get the right key to a song or a singer, some of them could be;

 

(a). INDISCIPLINE ; One of the major qualities of a keyboardist is Discipline. Are u disciplined with the keyboard? Do you try always to show yourself using ambiguous chords and extension, just so people might say you are super good, and loosing the flavor/Interest of a song to a listener? You are indisciplined. A good keyboardist does just show in playing all the chords in one minute, but in discipline. Your sitting position, how you talk, how you listen, your approach to songs. You don't just make noise with your Chromatic Scale all in the name of finding a singer's key, that's INDISCIPLINE.

 

(b).POOR HEARING EARS(MIXED HEARING) : Are you always confused on the multiple sounds you hear while finding a key? Then you fall under this category. Remedy: Try developing your ears to identifying a sound at a time, always know the sound of your Chromatic Scale( doh, di, reh, moh, mi, fah, fi, soh, zi, Lah, Toh, Ti, ). Learn to distinguish each sound from another, that's when practice comes in. You can use ear training apps to develop yourself too.

 

(c). NOISY AND BUSY ENVIRONMENT/ DISTRACTION : Do you stay in noisy environment when trying to figure out a key? If you do that stop it, if not you will get a wrong key. Our brain is programmed to function better while single-tasking not Multi-tasking. The sounds from the noisy/busy environment might conflict with the sound of the piano, and thereby clashing and making you get a note in the paino. Many while trying to get a key, gets distracted and carried away. You must be careful.

 

(d). GETTING ONLY A NOTE AND NOT THE TONIC : Most instrumentalist fall under this category. Most people When looking for a singer's key, tend to hear notes and not the tonic, that's why there end up getting a wrong key. Most at times back then it happens alot to me, I would feel I have gotten the key, not knowing that it's just a note I heard, and I end up messing the key up. What you look at for is not the note but the TONIC. Let your ears try to get that tonic(Doh), if not you might end up picking a note in the scale and get the wrong key. Usita note in the scale is not bad, that's if you understand intervals well enough. Later in this book, we would look at intervals, and how to use it get a key.

 

(e). UNRELAXED/ALWAYS TENSED AND PRESSURED : Are you in this category? Are you always pressured anytime you want to especially find a key? Or other stuffs in the piano? Relax, that's the key word. Don't let anyone pressurise or make you feel tensed, be calm and do what you wanna do.

 

(f). BAD EAR DEVELOPMENT : People tend to feel good when things are working out well. What if your ear fails you? It only fails you when you haven't mastered the use of developing a strong solid ear, to identify sounds in whatever production it comes from. A keyboardist that has a bad ear will always struggle. It's not a curse, but a reality. Your ears must be open but logically and musically to know variations. You are hearing, not listening. In developing your ears , you listen. Listening is a great tool many Fail to use when faced with circumstances in the piano world.

 

(g). RUSH : Most people won't get a key easily even after applying those methods, because of rush. Most people the moment they hear a singer sings, immediately there jump on searching for the key even without hearing to know the tonic. That's why most people end up making noise , especially in church services, when a keyboardist will use the whole of Worship segment to look for just a key to a song. To get a key, avoid anything rush. Be calm and listen. Most people don't listen they only hear and delve at once to the piano, no, it's not so especially if you don't have Perfect Pitch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 9

( Understanding Intervals & Using it to get a Key)

 

What are Intervals :

 

An interval is the space between two notes. Let's take a look at the C Major scale to illustrate what I mean. The distance between the C and the D in the C Major scale is a second. D is the second note in the scale. Follow same logic and you'll find that