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When reading music if you can't C# you will Bb.
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11-28-2012 04:55 PM
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Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
C (major) is not a sharp key but it is not a flat one and several bright, cheerful standards (Sunny Side of the Street, All of Me, Don't Get Around Much Anymore) are in C. (The lyrics of the latter two songs aren't chipper but the feel of the songs definitely is.) Would Sunny Side be as sunny in Eb?
Who would play Stormy Weather or Lush Life in C?
Someone messaged me privately and said that piano players wrote many of the standards and the flat keys 'lay out' better on piano. (I'd never heard that before.)
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"D minor is the saddest of all possible keys": Nigel Tufnel, Spinal Tap.
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
So it was like 1980 or 82, and I was in the audience, getting a round in at the bar at half-time, and I found myself elbow to elbow with the performer himself, Slim Gaillard (the man who put the 'Switcheroony' into 'Satin Doll'). So I said, great gig, loving it, he said glad you like it as if he wanted more conversation, so I said how nice it was to hear jazz played in guitar-ish keys, and he said he didn't understand. And I said, you know, E, A, keys that are natural on the guitar (blank look), as opposed to Bb and Eb, horn keys like that. And he looked even more blank, as if he'd genuinely never heard this, and said something like "Never thought of that before," which made me feel particularly stupid. The people at my table were anxious to know what my conversation with the great man had been, by which time I was at the floor-swallow-me stage of embarrassment - fortunately I was spared because the second set was starting, but that lasted no time at all because the first thing Slim Gaillard said as he slipped his guitar strap over was, "This is for a guy in the audience, it's gonna be in the key of... zee."
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Originally Posted by bako
Here's a clip of him talking about his discovery of using voicings with open strings.
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Open strings are applicable in any harmonic area once the thinking advances beyond 1, 5 and possibly 3 but as Sid says our concern with symmetrical forms that cover 12 keys pulls our attention away from the highly individualistic sounds possible with open strings.
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Great clip, thankyou Mark. I have that Sid Jacob Bill Evans book but haven't dug into it much.
An improvisational task I've spent some time with over the years is to pick an open string and assign it a function within a key - so maybe the open B as the minor 3rd in the key of Ab...and then explore with that in mind.
I was just thinking today that it would be fun to take some time, at some point, to get more systematic about it and really explore each open string as all 12 possible um 'scale' tones within different keys (B as the root of B, as the b2 of Bb, the 9 of A, etc.)
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Couple of thoughts.
There are so many standards in books in the flat keys [to a degree] probably determined by keys comfortable to the range of horns and singers. My guess is they were leading the bands and picked the keys that made them sound good and they ended up being the 'standard' keys in fake books. The tunes that end up in the book are not necessarily the original key. Most of us play Girl from Ipanema in F. I have worked with a singer who plays it in Eb and another in D. I once asked some bandmates if they wanted to do it in the original key - they all presumed F, but it was in Db. Anyone else play it in that key? Someone publishes the Bill Evans version of My Foolish Heart in Bb. Bill Evans played it in A [and it didn't sound country].
There are some interesting open string things that can happen working from flat keys. There's an interesting recording of Frank Vignola playing Donna Lee in Ab, but using some great open string ideas, especially on the head.
I have my students try several keys when picking a tune to feature them - plus we play tunes in the 'standard' keys - and then transpose a lot.
Modulating on the gig can be fun and musical if you trust your band. If something like Take The "A" Train gets called, I'll play the head in C, solo in Ab, then E, then bring it back to C, hand in off to the next guy in Ab. On the next tune we may start up a half step and play in three new keys. After four tunes, we have played in 12 keys. It can get risky. A couple of weeks ago, the tune that got called was One note samba - fast. The key in rotation in our little game was B major. It made some things easier other things harder. It was fun. We'll do it again next week-end.
Bert Ligon
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jobim's autograph manuscript for girl from ipanema is in F...
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randall: I should have made clear that by original key, I meant where many of us heard first heard Ipanema- from the Getz-Gilberto recording.
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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Originally Posted by JohnRoss
I never heard it. Great story!
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Ron
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Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
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Not sure if this is relevant but:
Williams and Monk presumably wrote it in Gb. Most written versions are in Gb. Williams played Trumpet; Monk played piano.
Wes played it in Gb.
DG
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In a Joe Pass video (from memory The Blues Side Of Jazz) he advises not to play consecutive tunes in "guitar friendly" keys (E, A, D, G) in a set as the ringing sound of open strings will make songs in flat keys sound dull. Not sure of his exact wording but it's along those lines.
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I have heard that Irving Berlin wrote all his tunes in the same key, that he had a special keyboard (a transposing piano) and wrote everything he wrote in Gb. I don't know if he picked that key for ease of playing or ease of singing.
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Originally Posted by Dave70
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Originally Posted by JakeAcci
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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Originally Posted by Subfeeder
But, maybe that was just my take ...
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Originally Posted by randalljazz
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Originally Posted by M-ster
Last edited by Subfeeder; 11-30-2012 at 03:13 PM.
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Originally Posted by M-ster
Good old Joe
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Originally Posted by AmundLauritzen
dearmond 1100 reissue vs original which one is...
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