I remember sitting up nights reading a lot of material trying to learn how to read a song, and find out which key a song is in, so that I might easily know which notes to base a solo on. But I haven't found any good guides that sums it all up, just some guides that seem to include some of the material. This is for beginners, to get a grasp of the subject. So I thought I would write a lesson just for getting the basics down. I am a beginner myself(played guitar for just over a year now, and banjo for 2 months) and love playing guitar so this has become a passion for me. Anyways, let's get down to business, shall we? Let us see, let's take a song called "Me and Bobby McGee." The version I play uses the chords G, C andD. Therefore, this song is in G. Now, why is the song in G? Well let me tell you how I knew that, because it had G, C and D in it. Let me write down a chart:
Now what can we see here? Well for startes, 1, 4and 5 are ALWAYS Major chords (G, C, F# etc). 2, 3and 6 are always minors (Dm, Am, C#m etc) and 7s are diminished chords, even though sometimes used as a major in certain songs. So, we have "Me and Bobby McGee," a song which as a G major, C major and D major chords in it. Look down the chart, which songs have G, C and D majorin it? Ah, G has those three chords. Therefore "Me and Bobby McGee" is in G. Lets take another nice country song while we're at it: