Playing a melody by ear part 2

 In the part 1 of  "playing a melody by ear" , we discussed some fundamentals. In this post, we are going to look at the concept of  Key  in music. What is the key of a song? A key in music is the major or minor scale in which the music revolves. It is also refers to as the tonic note . Basically, we have the major key which is based on the major scale scale and the minor key which is based on the minor scale. For example,C major scale ( key C) is : C, D,E,F,G, A,B,C   and E minor scale is: E, F#,G,A,B,C,D,E.  At first, this concept of  'key' will look confusing for starters. Enough of  music theory! Now how do you know the key of a song by ear? First, listen to the song and hum it. Play around with the major scale or pentatonic scale on the instrument .The scale which you are playing that tends to be 'lost ' so to speak in the song is the key. Learning to recognize the key of a song by ear is very important in your musical journey!  With practice, you can recognize the key of any song by ear. And, once you get the key of a song, the other notes will fall in place.  Another big question is : how do I know if the key is a minor key or  major key? Once again, you can tell by using the pentatonic scale. Playing a melody by ear is not magic!