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I have what seems to be a stupid question to ask. But, I have been playing acoustic
for nearly four years. I am now trying to learn the electric guitar in standard music notation. I can read music, trying to learn the notes on each string in each fret. But, my question is how do you determine the key to play a song in. There are two or more of the same note in the first twelve frets. I may just be having a mental block. Need some awakening I guess. help.
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Hello Gerald :
It's the melody man .
In the melody's beginning where the vocal(s) begin is a good reference point . Some songs however stray from this rule but 90% of the time it's the " Key " note as it is referred too .
HR
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The Key you play in will be at the start where the treble clef is donating sharps and flats.Most guitar tutor books will have all the basics .
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I think Gerald means which *octave* to play in... as written, you'll probably be hanging out around middle C. (I have no idea where that is on a guitar, but I bet someone here will...) As far as effect, you can play it anywhere on the neck you like the sound!
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This may sound over simplified but sing the lowest note you can and then the highest somewhere in between is your vocal range so play any major chord between these and that should give you an idea of the keys you can sing in usually for guys its between C below middle C up to A unless you have had a operation 
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Hi Gerald,
I'm no expert on this as I know that Russell knows a lot more than I in this area. But if I'm not mistaken, most sheet music in standard notation is scored as if it was to be played on piano. Sheet music for guitar in particular will be annotated just below the treble clef with a symbol that resembles the capital letter C. Regular guitar tuning has the 6th string tuned to E below Middle C, and in order to play piano music in the proper "key" on guitar it is easier to capo the second fret and play the chords as annotated on the music score. That is to say a C chord on piano would be played as an open C chord on guitar capo'd on 2. If I have this wrong, someone please set the record straight.... whatever you do do not try to tune your guitar up to fit piano music, severe damage might be the result.
Take Care;
Doug
PS: I just stumbled on to this link provided by Upyerkilt in another section, that might be helpful in determining what key a piece of music is scored in. http://www.myguitarworkshop.com/Theory/ … ong-in.htm
I thought I had something similar bookmarked for future reference, but this one is really good and now resides in my directory.
Thanks Ken for the link.
Last edited by Doug_Smith (2009-11-07 05:32:17)
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I may have misunderstood the question it sounded like you were trying to figure out which key for you to sing in but if not the notation on a a music sheet is one # (sharp) for G, two ## D, three ### for A, four #### E, five ##### for B and six ###### for F# but on a sheet of music the sharps are on the lines or spaces of the staff the same for the flat keys but any basic guitar course has this information 
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