"What is that Chord?!"

Have you ever heard a song or filmscore and you just wonder what chord that is?
 
I don't have that level of pitch recognition or relative pitch recognition.  Eventually, I hope for it to develop, but at this rate, I'll be 250 years old by then.  So I have been wondering...
 
Is there an app for that?
 
We have entire song recognition apps, we have graphic spectralizers, and we have pitch tuners that run on Droid or iPhone and use the phone's own microphone for input.  I would love to have an app that can make an educated guess as to what chord is being heard by the microphone!
 
Every few months I go look for such a thing in the Droid marketplace, but don't see anything close.  Lots of guitar or keyboard chord "playing" apps, but nothing that will listen to a sound source.  A Droid app would be best for me but even if it were a PC-only application, I could get by and really improve my musicianship.
 
Thanks in advance!

Greetings Jeff, and thank you for your thoughts.
 
I shall check out Melodyne.
 
As for the "figuring it out", I know what you're saying, that it's not that hard.  Except when it is, of course! 
 
As a further explanation of my personal difficulty, here's an example, and the impetus for my thread today:  About an hour ago I heard a fantastic song on somebody's website.  It's a dance song.  The site and the song are long gone now.  I could tell that the predominant "color" was minor.  That was all I could come up with.
 
I cannot tell if it was C minor, G minor, A minor, or ANYTHING ELSE-minor.  I also could not tell if it had any diminishments, dominants, susses, fifths, sevenths, ninths, or thirteenths.  This is really getting me down just writing this.
 
I've got a handle on major and minor and that's the limit of my current skill level.  I am in my 40's, have been listening to music all my life and playing it for a good portion of that, so this frustrates me.  We were not taught "recognition skills" in school band, after-school guitar lessons, or before-school jazz band practice. 
 
We were only taught to read and play, read and play, like little robots.  I played a single-note instrument for much of my youth, so "comprehensive chord recognition" didn't even happen by accident because I wasn't exposed to if often enough (i.e., see chord on page, hear it as I play or as band plays).  For that, I feel that my music education was not complete or comprehensive.
 
I am not tone-deaf by any means.  I can match pitches.  Play a C in my range and I can sing it.  I can find it on a keyboard, guitar, or horn.  But play a Bb and ask me what it is without letting me hunt-and-peck, and I'll have no damned idea.  Play a C-major chord, and I can tell you it's a major chord.  Play a G-minor.  I could tell you it's a minor, but no way could I tell you it was G-minor with the D on the bottom...
 
Anyway, that's the background on this.  And I think it's the sole reason for the migrane headache I now have. 
 
But thank you for trying to help; I'll check out Melodyne.

I'm a non-smoker.  Of any/all things.  Made a promise to myself long long ago, and I always keep my promises to myself!   

However, on occasion I will savor a good beer or a glass of wine. 

I shall try the practice and study thing.  In 100% of cases, it eventually works.  But only if done frequently enough and long enough before end-of-life.

Suggestions for effective practice would be helpful.  Because none of us really knows how much little time we have left.  And I have already wasted four+ decades...

Thanks! 

I'm not very good at this stuff either... but I play a lot of improvisational jazz- horn-inspired melodies on my guitar.

When I need to figure out a song's key I just grab a guitar and start playing... within a few seconds I have the song key figured out... then I put on my thinking cap and figure out the chords real slowly.

Maybe that approach can help you?

best regards,
mike

+1 Mike,

At church or gigs I listen to the instrument or vox.  I ear in the magic triad key (tonic (with root-note of course)) ... and narrow it down to 6-8 (of the 12 major keys) ... else sequentially (trial and error) ... if I'm having a bad day.

Seriously, the longest that should take me is 10-60 seconds ... no matter how pitch deaf I am that day.  If I can do it, anyone can!  So if someone sings a 'steady solo', you/I should be able to find his/her key that way also.

Of course it's trickier with the Minor keys and complex chord progressions (of hip hop and 'certain' film scores) ... then I'd rely on the machines at my level.

Guys, thanks for trying to help.  Really.

Usually, I am a very good self-teacher/self-learner.  But in this instance, I am admitting ignorance.  And this time I am not qualified to teach myself.

As I said, I've been listening to music for decades.  Spent thousands on my music education over the years.  I have keyboards, violins, horns, drums, and guitars galore, and can even play some of them!    I know my scales and key signatures and I "get" the circle of fifths/fourths.  I can read treble clef and bass cleff.  I even know what alto clef is and that a trumpet is a Bb instrument.  I have scale books if I need to fall back on them to figure out the modes.  I can write something with a I, III, V progression, but I have to pretty much just throw a dart to decide where to begin.  The last one started on A, so what the hell, this time I'll start on E. 

Go ahead, laugh.  I freely acknowledge that I have no idea what I'm doing. 

I have all those scale books, Hannon exercise books, and even chord books for guitar and keys, plus apps on my Droid that can show me all the inversions of any three or four-fingered piano chord.  It's never a problem to find a chord or make up a progression.

But I don't REALLY KNOW IT well enough to be a competent listener; a listener who can actually SAY what he's hearing; and maybe even name some of the notes or the root key.  I want to go to the next level and this is one time that I don't know how to teach myself.  I've spent way too much money on teachers already.  There must be a better way.

I have no reference point.  I can hear a Beatles song or an Alexander Courage composition or a Candy Dulfer jazz piece, but unless I am reading the notes or chords from a sheet or fakebook, I have NO IDEA what chords are being played.  An orchestra could be playing, and I have no reference point for picking out the root or telling you what the violas are doing.

Oh sure, I can recognize a 12-bar blues riff, and I can even tell you when I'm hearing that.  I might be able to identify a harmonic minor scale or a pentatonic scale.  I can hear major and minor.  And when something is sounding jazzy, I know there might be 6ths, 7ths, or 9ths in there.  Luckily I can usually sense when something is out of tune, which helps a little bit when playing violin or trombone.

But I repeat my earlier post:  I can't tell if it began in C or in Bb or F unless I can play the song over and over and over again while I hunt and peck on an instrument.  I can find what sounds "good" and I can even play improv along with it.  But damn...Root?  Key?  Forget it, I have no way to reconcile what my ears hear with the notes I find on a keyboard with the actual key signature or chord progression.

The guessing game is getting old and lame.  Been there, done this:

Me:  "Sounds like the key of D because F's and C's sound better sharped and pretty much everything else sounds better natural."

Teacher:  "Nope, that's actually in the key of G.  You just heard a modulation where a C was sharped."

Usually I'm not even that close.  I pick Bb, and it turns out to be A minor, which looks like the key of C on a sheet.

This is where I continually get stuck in the mud, just spinning my wheels.

Anyway, thanks for listening.

Often trial and error is a good approach.  Also if it's a difficult piece it helps to get more people involved.  I recall a few occasions with 3 of us working on analysing chord sequences: me with a guitar, another guy sitting at a piano and a third guy operating a cassette player.  We listened to each phrase, or sometimes to each chord, repeatedly while playing along until it sounded correct.  Steely Dan songs can be tough to work out!

I hear you, Positively Charged; actually, I'd venture to say most of us are like you for detecting anything outside the triad (magic) chords of the major keys.  I'm sorely limited with complex songs and would love chord help in these, too ... to jam away with by ear (without site reading madness)

BiaB (Band-in-a-Box) also has ear training stuff, which I don't have patience for ... but others might.

There may be certain key/chord detection tools, IIRC, also in IPhone Apps, and such ... else they recognize singular notes.

yes, Melodyne's chord recognition for instruments is really amazing.. buy that application, it's way too cheap for what it does.

As a guy who has done a lot of playing by ear on the bandstand, i can safely say it's a skill that really takes tiome and experience. Melodic intervals come first:
 
Two drills:
1) As you listen to a song, put it in C  (Bb for you bandos), find the key center, and chase the notes around - any song, any time. Practice finding the key ,and then the notes.
 
2) With a friend (doesn't matter what instrument) agree on a scale stand not facing each other, and you play a note on the scale for him to hear, he plays it, and then plays a note back to you for you to find, then you pass a new note back to him, etc. A great drill, and a great way to be secure in scales. 
 
If you can find tonic, and hear intervals, the chords will fill in, but not in two weeks. I had a student come to me  and said he REALLY wanted to learn sax, even if it took a month.

The best app so to speak is ear training, the only problem is that it takes some work and dedication. There are some books and some programs such as:
Ear Master Pro (I have this)
Solfege, Ear Training, Rhythm Dictation, and Music Theory: A Comprehensive Course by Ghezzo
 
If you're willing to spend 30 minutes a day on the topic, you'll find yourself arranging pop songs quite easily in no time (or any type of diatonic music in equal tempered music). When it comes to non-functional harmony, well that will take a little more time but it's well worth it. I think the single most important skill in music or audio is having a good ear. It really opens up the world to you.

Just a thought....go to youtube and listen to some simple slow blues. Most of them are 1/4/5 and 99% are 12 bar.
Type in youtube a slow blues in C as a start. Now you know the 4 chord is gona be F and the five G.
 
You will soon come to understand what a 1/4/5 sounds like in any major key.
 
Then go do the same thing in the minor keys.
 
After some time when you hear a song you will know what key it is in, and know what the chords are gona be if it is a 1/4/5 blues tune. This is not real hard to do for the common keys such as E G A Bb C D.
 
You will find that are a lot of 7th chords in this style of music and a few 9th chords from time to time.
 
If you want to learn to hear and a more complex chord, you need to understand the context. Jazz for example or at least certain types of jazz have a pretty standard chord progression and your gona find flat 5's sharp 9's 13th chords an so on. Some of these chords just have a certain sort of sound and are very easy to hear, like major 7th chords or 13th chords. It helps if you have a piano even if you do not know how to play it very well because it is very easy to form a chord on a piano. C for example the root the third the fifth C7 add the 7th note in the C scale. C9 add the 9th note in the scale and so on.
 
Don't expect for all this to fall in place in a few days but it will not take for ever.
 
I assume you play some inst. youtube has told you the key so if the key is C play a c major scale over the progression and it does not matter at the start if your solo makes any sence. Then play A minor pentatonic scale over the C major progression. A natural minor scale will fit over most of the minor progressions.
 
It is a good way to learn to solo and a good way to learn to hear the chords.
 
If you do not understand anything I just said just ask and I will help you.
 
I can show you how to do this with a VST and also with Melodyne and also there is free software to slow songs down.
 
I do this all the time when I get lazy or the song is to fast or too complex for me to understand.
 
I always can make some time to point you in a direction that will work for you. Just ask.

This may be what you want. chordec....cost me 3 bucks for my Iphone....downloaded a Jimmy Buffet song that I know how to play for a test. pretty much spot on.
 
Not something I have much need for but if you are using Iphone or Ipad this app seems to do a good job.
 
A fun test for me...worth the $3.00....lol

4 YEAR OLD ZOMBIE THREAD.
 

Riffstation for Pete's sake!
http://www.gizmag.com/riffstation-guitar-learning-review/27705/