Jammer vs Piano - Part 8 - Identifying the key, tonal centre & scale (major/minor) on jammers

Jammer shortcuts - Identifying the key, the tonal centre (tonic) and scale

How do we read from the score where to put the hand, and what fingers we’ll generally be using on our jammers?

For a brief summary on the minor key system and the terms used, see The key, the tonal centre (tonic) and scale

The Standard Keyboard (a.k.a. the Piano keyboard) is built around a musical scale tuned to an irregularly spaced set of notes called the major scale. Traditional music notation (the score) is designed to match the major scale and the musician using this scale.

Alternative musical instruments, on the other hand, are built around music theory and consistent spacing of notes.  The two styles fight somewhat. 

Players of alternative musical instruments (including jammers) need to read a score's key signature (the number of sharps or flats) and extract:

1. The tonal centre of the music: this informs where the centre of the hand goes; the tonic of the music.
2. The scale used in the music: major or harmonic The scale informs the consistent melodic pattern the fingers use, the chords to create, the chord progressions and the bass line of the piece.

Fortunately, the jammer gives, by design, a way to accurately and quickly read the score and know the key and scale the piece uses.

Step 1: Assume the key is major, find the key.
First, read the number of sharps or flats then, on the jammer, working outward from the C, the centre line, which has zero flats, and the F and G, which have one flat and one sharp respectively. Count up two flats or sharps for every key away from the centre.

For example:

{Diagram here}

0 sharps/flats, the key is  C major
3  flats, the key is        Eb major
3 sharps, the key is        A major

The jammer player only need remember that the relative minor is a minor third lower than the relative major.
It is always the same relative vector on the keyboard, so you are given a choice or two positions to put the hand. In the case of zero flats, the middle finger goes over the C.

{Diagram here}

Step 2: Determining which hand position “fits the music”. 

The textbooks’ suggestions:

1. Look and the tonic triad at the beginning and end of the piece: do the notes 1, 3, and 5 which key signature matches?
2. What is the Final tone of the piece, particularly the lowest note of the final chord? Which is it?
3. Look at the second to last chord in the piece; this is usually the Is it a leading tone?; does it sharpen the 7^th?

My suggestion: play the first couple of bars and the last couple of bars of the piece.  First with the hands positioned for first the major and then the minor key. You should feel which option "fits."

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