Hey David,

If I identify a particular note as the tonal center of a song, how can I tell which note of the major scale it is (e.g. note 4)?

Thanks,
Karan

David's response:

Hi Karan,

It's really the sound of all seven notes together that reveals where you are in the scale. If you're very good at distinguishing half steps from whole steps, you could probably puzzle it out and figure out exactly where that tonal center lies in the major scale just by the particular sequence of half steps and whole steps that you can hear.

But in practice the way we feel these things is much more instantaneous. From all the time you've spent exploring these sounds in the IFR Jam Tracks series and in your Sing the Numbers practice, what you'll come to recognize is the overall sound and feel of the fourth harmonic environment. This is what tells you that the tonal center you are feeling is note 4.

So it's not always the note itself that you'll be able to recognize. When you just focus on that note, you might not be able to feel whether it's note 1 or note 4. It's only when you take into account all of the other sounds that you're able to perceive an entire harmonic environment, and that's when everything snaps into place.

Happy practicing Karan!
David