Random Jamming

[TrentNWM]

Just had a preview show gig last night, and our pianist just began playing piano chords before the show really started, and everyone was looking at me to jam along with him. I have no issues with soloing, and I'm in fact pretty good at it when I know what key I'm in. But it was at that moment that I realized I needed some kind of technique to find what major or minor key someone is jamming in so that after I find it I can get to work lol.

I've heard of people using the CAGED system to do this, but I have no idea how to do that so please give some explanation thx.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Watch the lessons on caged system.

 

[Andrew Milner]

Hm, so are you having trouble figuring out what key a song is in or where to play notes on the guitar?

If your issue is figuring out what key you're in, you need to understand how major and minor scales work so if given a set of notes, you'll know what key it is. There should be lessons here both from Papa Gates in video format and myself in forum thread format.

If it's the second issue, then the CAGED system lessons are your best starting point, as Calvin suggested,

 

[Lindsey]

The circle of fifths can also help if you know the amount of sharps of flats

If you're sure of two major/minor chords that are being played you could easily guess the other one, since there are only 3 in a key. (There's three major chords in a major key, and three minor chords in a minor key).
I think if people used the caged system to figure it out they go through chord shapes till they find one that fits.

 

[Chris Johnston]

That's great that you're already able to solo based purely on the knowledge of which key you're in. That makes you half way to getting where you need to be to deal with the situation you've mentioned

The skill you'll want to look into next is Ear training, but more specifically being able to hear the I chord in a Major or Minor Key - (a lot of the time it will be the chord that starts the tune but not every time) If you do that enough, you'll be able to listen to a chord progression and your ear will tell you that the progression has hit the I chord, and all you need to do is match, by ear on the instrument, which note is the root note of that I chord - once you know that, you're back in the zone of soloing in a key

There are loads of great resources on YouTube for developing your ear this way - I always reccomend Rick Beato - but even if you search 'Ear training, chord progressions' something helpful should come up You're essentially training yourself to be able to hear how a Major Key flows and the chord progressions that can be made from it.

Best of luck!