gmcmurry

I have been having some fun asking my friends about their favorite key for different pieces. Particularly for the standards.

I asked one friend what key he played ONE FOR MY BABY in and he said "the normal key".

That got me thinking. Do most pieces have a "normal key"?

So, if you play ONE FOR MY BABY AND ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD, what key do you play it in?

Greg

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gridjam

ha ha! I am not into the 'normal key' thing at all. In fact, I met Sam Rivers on a plane once and asked him if he minded that I played his tune Beatrice in Bb instead of F. He said, go right ahead young lady, whatever works best for you.
I spend a lot if time fiddling with keys to find what tonality fits my expression needs best. Have Joni Mitchell tunes in five or six keys on my laptop...
have fun and keep this one going trumpet cats.
Off to the festivals and busy getting it together to play my exciting new Monette trumpet!
Go to Monette.com for details

Best from the west-(for today)
Ingrid

tatakata

Wow Ingrid is on Monette!

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tromj

Sometimes on Club Dates the sax player will complain cause I call a song in a non traditional key. When he says "wrong key," my response has two parts:
1. I make the same mistakes in every key.
2. There are 12 keys. I did not know some are right and some are wrong.

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Rick14A4A

I was just commenting on this the other day to some people I play with at my church. Use to everything I played was either in C or not more than 2 or 3 flats and never over 2#''s. Now days the stuff I'm playing is mostly written for strings or string reductions. E and F# is the norm most of the time. Did a song the other day that had a key change from E to F and almost fell on my face.
I did a good bit a research once on old BeBop bands back in the 20's and 30's. I was surprized to find that a lot of this music was played in Bb Major so I guess in those terms you would have a normal key so to speak. Of course they played improv's in harmonic and melodic strings which added accidentals. I've tried to learn to play in the minor keys and the brain just doesn't want to do it. I'll eventually get it, but like with anything it just takes a lot of doing it.

veery715

Working on a gig for my Mom's 88th birthday, with a trio backup, and was practicing I can't give you anything but love.... In my Aebersold it's in Eb Concert, and in the Real Book it's in G. Which should I go with? (trio will do either).
What makes a composer pick a particular key anyway? For a standard type tune?

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Trumpets:
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Selmer Rad 2 / Yamaha 8310Z
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Easyplay mini-trumpet (????) / Chinese Special / Benetone
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Piano, keyboards, vibes, congas, guitars, yada yada

bagmangood

Composers pick keys that think will work well with their instruments (or to give a challenge to themselves and other players), it is kind of arbitrary for those of us without perfect pitch except in the tonal qualities of instruments throughout the registers
I'd say play in whichever key sounds better with your instrument and easier for you

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Jon Kratzer

I know Ingrid already hit this, but it's a good idea to know Standards in all possible keys, that way there are no surprises when someone calls a tune. I've known Sam Rivers for about 7 years, and I can just imagine Sam saying just that! I've seen Sam take traditional tunes (Straight No Chaser in B? lol) and just take them way out there and sound great!

Ingrid, you should see some of things I've done with KD Lang :-p

Good Luck in your pursuit gmcmurry

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siarr

I think there's a certain logic and value to learning tunes in their original key first - after all, that's the key the composer decided on, and it's a base to work from. Then, of course, one is free to explore the 11 other possibilities.

Best,
Chas