Music Education

Learning Banjo - How to Play By Ear

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Now if you notice we started on C and ended on C. That second C is called the octave. It is the same note as the root but higher in pitch. [11/2/03 thanks to Brien Pepperdine for catching the typo in the last paragraph!] What we have here now is a chromatic scale starting on C and ending on C. Root, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step.

C is the root. 1. a whole step from C is D. 2. a whole step from D is E. 3. a half step from E is F 4. a whole step from F is G 5. a whole step from G is A 6. a whole step from A is B 7. a half step from B is C

So your C scale is C D E F G A B C

Now, try writing out some scales on your own.

Once you have a scale laid out- and it might be a good idea to sit down and work out A couple of scales here for keys you will be using a lot on the banjo like A,D and G andd keeping them handy to use in the next step- go ahead and number each note:

The notes numbered 1, 4 and 5 (C, F and G) will be your major chords for the key of C.

Go back and look at all the songs in the key of G that know (that is, if you are already playing a couple of songs.) You will notice that almost all of them use some combination of G, C and D. Some songs will only have two of the chords but most of the time you will see all three.

The note numbered 6 is going to be your relative minor. In this case Am.

Every root chord has a relative minor chord. We'll go into this in more detail later on, but every key has a unique number of sharps and flats. The key of C has no sharps or flats and the key of G has one sharp (F#.) The same rule applies to minor keys. Any minor key that has the same number of sharps and flats as a major key is the relative minor of that major key.

The key of Am has no sharps or flats. Therefore it is the relative minor of C. It is good to know your relative minor chords (the 6 chord in the number system) because you can swap them around in some situations. If you are playing a song and cannot remember how to make an Am chord you can just play a C chord. It is different but it is close enough that you may get away with it.

The note numbered 2 is going to be both a minor chord and a major chord. In this case Am and A.

Number 3 is where it gets kind of neat because in folk music this is often referred to as an "off chord." In the key of C your off chord is E (remember in the introduction when I mentioned Freight Train?.)