anybody can tell what pitch/scale this is?

Trad Irish Music
1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pVFJIvJ3bA

Thanks! :slight_smile:

2

Bb

3

B pentatonic (B, C#, D#, F#, G#).

4

Sorry, Peter, dunno what’s the matter with me - didn’t hear it, and was blowing way too sharp. You’re right of course.

5

thanks a lot for the answer :slight_smile: may I know how you guys figure this out? is there any way to train this? I thought it was B major, but guess I was close and wrong :slight_smile:

would be great to know how to discover/hear what pitches/scales tunes are! :slight_smile:

6

I wouldn’t say B major was wrong. I would say that that form of pentatonic is a subset of B major. Personal opinion. I think there may be other opinions. Much like there are lumpers and splitters in taxonomy.

7

thanks for your explanation. Now i’m still interested in how you guys are always able to figure this out so fast/good :smiley:!

8

Well, I wasn’t, was I? I was friggin’ useless. :frowning: I’ve not been well. :sniffle:

9

Aye, we could argue about the single, clearly planned but out-of-scale low A taken by both Julie Fowlis and Mike McGoldrick at 1:16… but (that apart) it’s still a pentatonic tune and agreed that form of pentatonic is a subset of B major!

Years of training and usage… after which ‘so fast/good’ becomes irrelevant for the bread-and-butter stuff (aka your comfort zone) because you don’t need time to get it.

10

Just adding that McGoldrick’s playing A fingering on a low E whistle.

I think I’ve never heard anything, anything by or with Julie Fowlis that didn’t make me think the world is a mighty wonderful place after all. She is a gift, just brilliant.

11

Hi MTGuru

So you will like Thatcher set and Star above the Garter/ Lisheen and Ensemble including JF and Blackbird


David

12

When I want to figure out a scale, I need to play along with the recording. Sometimes if something is really tricky (or really fast) I will use software to loop a note, which makes it trivial to match.

When I want to figure out a key signature quickly, I just ask my wife. She can usually identify them within a couple bars just by hearing them. “Sounds like B,” or whatever. But for my purposes I need to keep in mind that she’s not telling me the key, but the key signature. She says she doesn’t have perfect pitch, but whatever she has seems to work that way a lot of the time – especially when she sits down and transcribes a melody from a recording and the only tool she uses is a pencil :astonished:

13

:thumbsup: