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Too Many Keys?


ski219

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So my modern country band made the decision, long before I was involved, to play every song in it's original key. This has me putting capos on, taking capos off, tuning down to drop D, Db... We play songs by a lot of artists in a lot of different keys. Invariably, at least once per gig either I or the other guitarist will start out in the wrong key.

 

I am looking for solutions. Even though I have notes on each song with capo position or key I still manage to screw up. Plus I am trying to wean myself off of the ipad. Songs played sans capo or dropped tunings are no problem. Any ideas?

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take more guitars with you on stage in different tunings...

 

use a line6 guitar...

 

for myself i hate it, if bands transpose covers to different keys, especially the singalongs, where all the audience than fights for the orignal key and the band is playing a complete different song this hurts my ears...

 

that said, i'm not in a cover band and we do only our originals, so we do not have this problem. but we are also only hobbyist with currently only one gig per year :(

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I don't do songs in tons of different tunings, but I always bring at least 2 guitars tuned differently, and then I do my best to lump together the setlist with songs in those keys next to one another. The line 6 guitar idea is interesting, but I have never tried one myself.

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For a half-step or whole step, we tend to just play the songs with the correct voicing and un-capo'd key. E.g. for a song in A that is capo-2 on the album, we'll play it in G. The audience does not have perfect pitch, and will never notice a one tone move. Similarly, if the recording is dropped a half-step (SRV, I'm lookin' at you), we just play it the same, but with a standard-tuned guitar.

 

Capo-on, capo-off all night long is a nightmare - a technical and tuning accident waiting to happen IMO.

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You could always learn to play in all keys.

 

Don't be dependent on only open string chords, learn the movable ones (like barre chords).

 

I used to be in a band where all songs were played in "record key", and back then, record key was often a half step higher than the session people played it because they sped the magnetic tape up to make the song sound brighter.

 

But the philosophy was that people were used to hearing the original key, and the song sounds more authentic that way.

 

There are two schools of thought, original key or optimal key for the singer, both are correct.

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I play bass. My general rule-of-thumb is that you shouldn't drop a song more that 3 half steps from the original if you don't want it to sound weird. OTOH up (especially for a female singer) doesn't seem to have a limitation. I do use a pitch shifter for the one band I'm in that tunes down a 1/2 step and occasionally for other tunes that I know but don't play in that key. I also capo up (on bass!) two half steps for a couple songs that don't finger well in my normal "D" standard tuning (I play a four string).

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How many of you play songs that modulate?

 

Just kidding.

 

It's nice to have modern keyboards. Some songs I learned in the original key long ago, but now that I'm singing them, I transpose a lot of them as part of the set up for each song. Others I've learned in a key that suits my voice, only to change my mind.

 

I can't play all open chord forms in all keys. Depends where the sharps fall.

 

And when a drummer unexpectedly brings a guitar player to a gig who's tuned down a half step, you just push a button.

 

Back to guitar issues. . . . . sorry to interrupt. :-)

 

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The last few gigs we have had 0 screw ups. Just needed more time to get used to the whole capo thing I guess. A lot of thes song's chord voicings only sound right using a capo so in my opinion barre chords are not the way to go.

 

What the heck happened to all the posts on this site? Seems like HC has more technical problems than any site I visit

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The last few gigs we have had 0 screw ups. Just needed more time to get used to the whole capo thing I guess. A lot of thes song's chord voicings only sound right using a capo so in my opinion barre chords are not the way to go.

 

What the heck happened to all the posts on this site? Seems like HC has more technical problems than any site I visit

 

think HC moved to the new Geocities servers.

 

Commodore Vic 20's

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