How can you train your ear to play along with records? I can play most music that is in tab or with friends and know the key. The problem I have though is finding the key. I sit for hours and try to find the key but just get discouraged. I then pick up the tab and can't believe how easy it was. I have asked this question to people that can do it and they just say know your fretboard and practice. Keep up the good work. If you ever get a book or video out let me know. I would love to get some lessons from you.

Finding what key a song is in is an ear training exercise in itself, and the more you do it the better you get. But I have a method that I use on the non-pedal steel. I use the high root note and high 3rd tone to find the key. Looking at this chart below will show you what I mean.

fret 0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12
             
3rd  E   F   F#  G   G#  A   Bb  B   C   C#   D   D#    E
root C   C#  D   D#  E   F   F#  G   G#  A   Bb   B     C

Ok, looking at fret 0 (your open tuning) C is your root. Play the C note open and if that note sounds like it's within the key (chord), then play the E note on top, and if that E note is harmonically in that chord, then the song is in C. If that E note doesn't sound right, then play that E note on the 1st fret and if it comes into the ear as a harmony note to the key of the song, most likely the song is in F and you just played the root note of the key and that C note was actually a harmony to F and makes it a 5th tone of F.

So go on up to the 5th fret and that is your F chord and your good to go. So I will alway start with my open Root note, which for this tuning is C, and play the song and then go find on the fret board where that string can be played and sound in the key of the song, then check the 3rd tone on top of it to see if that note is in the chord postition or move the 3rd tone up a fret to the 4th tone and if it comes into the key, then that 4th tone is now your root tone and that string under it a fret back is the 5th tone. So 7 frets back or 5 frets up from that 5th tone is your key (starting chord). I hope this little trick I do helps, but indeed you have to search the neck sometimes. Use the open root note to do it and then check against it with either the 3rd tone on top or up a fret to the 4th tone (or new root note) and that will give you a key reference to go by.

-- Ricky Davis

I've had the same problem and I'll throw my two cents in on what I do (which is probably worth about two cents and I accept PayPal). I find the best way for me to find the key of a song is to listen to the bass player. The bass player almost always uses the root and either the third or fifth of the tonic chord within the first four notes of a song. Try to match the bass player by playing on your low strings and you should be able to "home in" on the key. Now, some songs don't start on the tonic -- a favorite song of mine, "In A Mellow Tone", starts on A7 even though it's in the key of G, but those kinds of songs are the exception. If you combine this with Ricky's advice, you should be able to determine the key of any song.

Here's another hint. Most singers like to sing within a range of keys -- like F to A for example. So, if you know that one song is in the key of F, then you probably would want to try keys around F for other songs by the same singer. You'll probably find that a lot of the songs are in the same key.

-- Red-Eye