recently there was a thread about Martin Hayes tuning down a whole step and some discussion about the different tambre and whatnot.
Then I picked a tune off of a Pat O'Conner recording I have, and it turns out it was in the key of C, so for once I actually played a fiddle tune in C, and started thinking about the Martin Hayes thread and I was wondering...
Do you guys ever play tunes in other keys ? Is this just something Martin Hayes does, or something just Clare fiddlers do, or do whistle players, box players, and everybody play tunes in other keys when they are just playing by themselves?
I'm asking because I tried a few tunes that I know in the key of D down a step in C and it made them practically different tunes! I kind of like it, but is this something everyone does, or am I just some kind of nut?
I can see how this won't fly in a public session, but if you are working with somebody you know well and play with regularly, I could see how folks could work this out. Do people actually do this, or am I off on my own tangent here?
No, it's not just you. It's very nice to play familiar tunes in other keys, like you've discovered, it can bring them alive. Plenty of people play in unusual keys. I've got recordings of Paddy Canny playing the Boys of Ballisodare in G then F, Tommy Peoples plays in difficult keys on several recordings. Lots of tunes can be re-invigorated by changing key. I rarely hear Out on the Ocean played in G anymore - most people I know play it in A - and few complain about it being tired and 'easy' if you play it in F. Lots of the London crowd seem to like playing in E these days. I guess it's a question of familiarity with one's instrument, and being used to playing outside of the few so-called 'normal' keys.
C Is an old favourite. The pipes were in C until fairly recently and the Clarke tin whistle that everybody learned on in the old days was also in C. So it would seem that most of the music was played in that key. I think that the move to concert pitch D was only made around the '20s when the move from house sessions to Dance halls needed more volume (clearer sound.)
Started a couple of yrs ago to play with an old friend who learnt all his stuff from his dad on a single row Box, but just got more and more into it, now I only ever play stuff in Standard keys when out and about. It just makes old tunes spring back to life , After 25 yrs of playing old warhorses like the Silver spear, taking them down a tone gives them a new lease of life and new opportunity for slurs, ornaments etc etc. Whats more this then reflects back when you play them again in a standard key, you then have a whole new serious of possibilities present them selves. I particularly like the way the A can be droned in F tunes. Also its often much more comfortable fingering.
Of course whistlers just play a C whistle.
Pretty much everything I learn these days, which is a couple tunes a day, I take down a tone. Which however might cause trouble when sessioning back in D. But then as the years/decades go by I have less and less interest in typical pub sessions and more and more interest in the tunes .
....and besides , I live on the cusp of East Clare/ East Galway, Its traditional, though its sad so few seem to care any more. Someone has to carry the Flame.
Let's not forget Bb. A lot of tunes fit very comfortably in this key without any adaptation or position changes.
I like the fact that transposing tunes using different fingering (as opposed to retuning the insrument) opens up different possibilities for variation and ornamentation - especially as the open strings fall on different degrees of the scale.
Bb as well! I havent found much there, could you name a few tunes that fit well? Any F tunes would fit easily, but I find the depth of tone diminishes volume so in a way its a trade off. Scordature and drones are typical ways of making a fiddle seem louder, fuller. This is, IMO Important, not to sacrifice projection for tone too much. In a crowded bar I find tunes in A cut through. So in that scene I would play high tunes.
So playing in C will sacrifice projection but by using drones its possible to fill out the sound a bit, create a driving rhythm even though the tone is deeper.
For my own amusement I often play D tunes a string down in G, and A/ A mix in D and G.
I recently put for example; the Cock of the North into Fmix from A mix . works well, very different feel and automatically I varied the melody a touch to suit the key/ fingering. So this is also a possible benefit, the way the fingering tends to influence the melodic flow.
thanks fellas! I was wondering if this wasn't more popular around County Clare and if it was a part of the tradition
I had noticed how the ornamentation changes, too. 3rd finger rolls become 2nd finger rolls, etc...
I did The Mountain Road down a step and the string crossing stuff completely changed!
so thanks again. Those are good points about the projection of different strings in noisey rooms, too. I hadn't really thought that the key of D might be one of the louder keys to play in. I honestly thought the key of D came from whistles being made in that key, but it seems there is more to it than that
yep and now the high B becomes an A, which you can roll! and the High E becomes D which you can roll, plus the Low D is there for reinforcement. Possibilities are endless. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezZ1A53Wmpc
"Bb as well! I havent found much there, could you name a few tunes that fit well?"
The Silver Spear, The Mountain Road, any D tune that doesn't drop below B, really - although I find the change between F on the E string and Eb on the A string (equivalent to G - A when playing in D) a bit awkward for the fingers.
OPC
Ok I got you, 'adaptation or position change.'.. yep right now I see what you mean. yes nice, the SS is sweet there .
Thanks I ll give a few other tunes a whirl and see what happens.
I never got the mountain road, I have a Charlie Lennon tune that is very similar but better IMO! I do play that one in C . no $ I think.
Truth is I often find that its easier to transpose using the ABC, using here http://www.slainte.ch/abc.asp
then here http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html
Even with tunes I know well it often helps to get the general picture/read it from the dots at first.
But on that site if you go down 2 steps it takes you to B ,. cant go down 1 1/2 steps!
So thats why I haven't started playing tunes in Bb. and also I dont know anyone else who does either.
Its easy to blend tunes together mistakenly when transposing in my head, while with the dots in front of me it makes it all a bit easier. for example Ive played Banish misfortune for 25 yrs but when I tried to play it in C mix... I got all mixed up. so I did it on paper first.
This process is in fact getting a lot easier to do in my head now but its taken a couple years.
I will say though that some tunes are definitely harder, Say Dmix pipe reels, are def trickier in C mix, Im not sure its really worth the extra effort for some tunes.... They dont seem to fall under the fingers in the same way that some tunes do. IMO its well worth taking a few that transpose easily for the craic and the influence that these can have on your 'normal' playing .
I love playing single row style, and since I have a B/C box, that means playing in C. But other than that, I tend to stick to the more standard keys--still plenty of challenge for me without learning things in alternate keys!
Irish music has always leaned towards D, G, and their relative minor keys, owing to the influence of the pipes, starting with the O'Farrell collections, published about 200 years ago, which had tunes primarily in these keys; O'Neill owned these books and followed their example, as did an earlier collector, Canon Goodman, whose manuscripts were only published recently. Other 19th century tunebooks like those of Elias Howe's have more of an international emphasis, and more tunes in the flat keys.
One very interesting story I read about the use of flat keys in East Galway music traces it back to a piper, Dinney Delaney, who was active in that area a century ago. He played a set pitched in Bb; rather than retune their fiddles they learned to play in Bb and Eb. The single jig The Old Hag in the Kiln was learned by modern musicians from a wax cylinder recording of Delaney, which may be heard here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/music/index.html
Delaney's Bb M Egan pipes wound up in Australia, where they were copied by pipemaker Geoff Wooff, and have since been used as a template by other makers as well.
Interesting,Of course concert pitch was only recently standardised. The convention for D and G could have been simply be for transcription purposes? The old D could easily and possibly was, actually closer to our modern C.
.
Also previous to the Union pipes were the pastoral pipes with C as the home note. We can find old trad Irish tunes that require a low C, such as Brian Boru . But possibly[ presumably?] this was a warpipe marching piece?
Interestingly, playing along with Dinny there I found the 'C' fiddle then played with C fingering, there for in Bb, far easier than playing along with the D fiddle.
As we know typical East Clare/Galway tunes are often in Gmix, with the natural E perhaps the fiddles were detuned to C, then played in C fingering? or would the standard D, have been effectively our C?
Unseen122: " I can't believe no one has mentioned Eb, it is a favorite amongst us Flute players as Eb Flutes are much more fun to play. Bnat is nice as well."
Yeah, it's easy enough for you flute players - all you have to do is pick up a different flute. Perhaps the reason it has not been mentioned is that it takes a bit more work for fiddlers. But it can be a great fiddle key if you can get your fingers round it. (I speak as a mandolin player who fiddles a bit - and I find Eb challenging even *with* frets). There are tunes in Eb attributed to fiddlers such as James Scott-Skinner and James Hill (Their authorship may be disputed, but presumably, they at least *played* the tunes) :
The main factor, I think, that makes certain keys attractive to fiddlers (as opposed to violinists, perhaps - classical music is a whole nother ball game) is the availability of open strings - in the keys of D, G, C and F (and related modes), all the open strings fall somewhere in the scale. In A and Bb, all but one do (and in both keys, the remaining open string notes sometimes come up as accidentals). In Eb, only two of the open strings are in the scale, so it means more work for the left hand. But perhaps what attracted virtuosos like HIll and Scott-Skinner to Eb was partly the *lack* of open strings, the 'closedness', which gives the key a very different character from the more 'open' keys.
You can, of course, crank the fiddle up a semitone to match the flute - as Tommy Peoples and Frankie Gavin do - but that has a very different effect from playing in Eb in standard tuning.
Tis true enough I play a bit of mandolin as well so I know how difficult Eb is on GDAE instruments, and as you know you can't tune a mandolin up a semi-tone if I want to do Eb I reach for the old capo. But there really ain't nothin like Eb Flutes, and I think there is a certain appeal for box players with C/C# and D/D# boxes. Loads of players actually do play in Eb aside from just Tommy and Frankie and I would think that tuning up to be a better option than trying to play in actual Eb at normal speed.
To get back on subject C is a lovely key to play in, a friend of mine has a C set of Pipes and the sound is fantastic. If only my C Flute would get here quicker...
When I am working as a bass player, I prefer to play in keys such as D, A, G, etc. where I can use open strings. C isn't one of my favorite keys but it is easier to play in than flat keys.
The first fret is always uncomfortable, as the string puts up its most resistance near the ends. I imagine this is even more pronounced on a bass, with suck thick strings.
As far as anglo concertinas are concerned, it is nice to get them into as low a key as possible to make use of "growly" notes.
Many tunes in F work out well for this as they don't have the Bb (I never learn't modes so can't tell which it is).
Yes, OrganicPeatCreature, it is more pronounced on a bass which is why I prefer not to play in first position and try to avoid it if possible. First position is the one closest to the top end of the instrument.
I can play all sorts of genres in all keys.
The exception is when backing Trad irish. I don't use a capo so getting the right intervals and chords in "funny" keys is a problem. Because backing in an unusual key (e.g. C or F or Gm) isn't just a question of "transposing the chords" as there are not any chords as such, to transpose in the first place. If a tune is in a new or "funny" key, I have to approach it from first principles as I can't use all my familiar fingerings and voicings.
OrganicPeatCreature, thick strings don't suck or blow unless they are on a wind instrument.
Wasn't it Elvis Presley's bass player who got "All Strung Out"?
Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
recently there was a thread about Martin Hayes tuning down a whole step and some discussion about the different tambre and whatnot.
Then I picked a tune off of a Pat O'Conner recording I have, and it turns out it was in the key of C, so for once I actually played a fiddle tune in C, and started thinking about the Martin Hayes thread and I was wondering...
Do you guys ever play tunes in other keys ? Is this just something Martin Hayes does, or something just Clare fiddlers do, or do whistle players, box players, and everybody play tunes in other keys when they are just playing by themselves?
I'm asking because I tried a few tunes that I know in the key of D down a step in C and it made them practically different tunes! I kind of like it, but is this something everyone does, or am I just some kind of nut?
I can see how this won't fly in a public session, but if you are working with somebody you know well and play with regularly, I could see how folks could work this out. Do people actually do this, or am I off on my own tangent here?
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by Nate Ryan
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
No, it's not just you. It's very nice to play familiar tunes in other keys, like you've discovered, it can bring them alive. Plenty of people play in unusual keys. I've got recordings of Paddy Canny playing the Boys of Ballisodare in G then F, Tommy Peoples plays in difficult keys on several recordings. Lots of tunes can be re-invigorated by changing key. I rarely hear Out on the Ocean played in G anymore - most people I know play it in A - and few complain about it being tired and 'easy' if you play it in F. Lots of the London crowd seem to like playing in E these days. I guess it's a question of familiarity with one's instrument, and being used to playing outside of the few so-called 'normal' keys.
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by Dragut Reis
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
it lends itself beautifuly to Open C guitar-tuned backing, which is nice on occaison but i prefer the usual defaulf D setting as the norm
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by lisaniska
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
even 'default'
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by lisaniska
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
C Is an old favourite. The pipes were in C until fairly recently and the Clarke tin whistle that everybody learned on in the old days was also in C. So it would seem that most of the music was played in that key. I think that the move to concert pitch D was only made around the '20s when the move from house sessions to Dance halls needed more volume (clearer sound.)
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by murcu
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
Started a couple of yrs ago to play with an old friend who learnt all his stuff from his dad on a single row Box, but just got more and more into it, now I only ever play stuff in Standard keys when out and about. It just makes old tunes spring back to life , After 25 yrs of playing old warhorses like the Silver spear, taking them down a tone gives them a new lease of life and new opportunity for slurs, ornaments etc etc. Whats more this then reflects back when you play them again in a standard key, you then have a whole new serious of possibilities present them selves. I particularly like the way the A can be droned in F tunes. Also its often much more comfortable fingering.
Of course whistlers just play a C whistle.
Pretty much everything I learn these days, which is a couple tunes a day, I take down a tone. Which however might cause trouble when sessioning back in D. But then as the years/decades go by I have less and less interest in typical pub sessions and more and more interest in the tunes .
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by the wicked hacker
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
....and besides , I live on the cusp of East Clare/ East Galway, Its traditional, though its sad so few seem to care any more. Someone has to carry the Flame.
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by the wicked hacker
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
Let's not forget Bb. A lot of tunes fit very comfortably in this key without any adaptation or position changes.
I like the fact that transposing tunes using different fingering (as opposed to retuning the insrument) opens up different possibilities for variation and ornamentation - especially as the open strings fall on different degrees of the scale.
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
Bb as well! I havent found much there, could you name a few tunes that fit well? Any F tunes would fit easily, but I find the depth of tone diminishes volume so in a way its a trade off. Scordature and drones are typical ways of making a fiddle seem louder, fuller. This is, IMO Important, not to sacrifice projection for tone too much. In a crowded bar I find tunes in A cut through. So in that scene I would play high tunes.
So playing in C will sacrifice projection but by using drones its possible to fill out the sound a bit, create a driving rhythm even though the tone is deeper.
For my own amusement I often play D tunes a string down in G, and A/ A mix in D and G.
I recently put for example; the Cock of the North into Fmix from A mix . works well, very different feel and automatically I varied the melody a touch to suit the key/ fingering. So this is also a possible benefit, the way the fingering tends to influence the melodic flow.
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by the wicked hacker
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
thanks fellas! I was wondering if this wasn't more popular around County Clare and if it was a part of the tradition
I had noticed how the ornamentation changes, too. 3rd finger rolls become 2nd finger rolls, etc...
I did The Mountain Road down a step and the string crossing stuff completely changed!
so thanks again. Those are good points about the projection of different strings in noisey rooms, too. I hadn't really thought that the key of D might be one of the louder keys to play in. I honestly thought the key of D came from whistles being made in that key, but it seems there is more to it than that
good stufff!
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by Nate Ryan
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
I have some recordings of Joe Burke playing Bflat (G/G#) box. Very warm tone
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by zippydw
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
yep and now the high B becomes an A, which you can roll! and the High E becomes D which you can roll, plus the Low D is there for reinforcement. Possibilities are endless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezZ1A53Wmpc
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by the wicked hacker
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
Which are they zippy, Commercial releases?
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by the wicked hacker
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
"Bb as well! I havent found much there, could you name a few tunes that fit well?"
The Silver Spear, The Mountain Road, any D tune that doesn't drop below B, really - although I find the change between F on the E string and Eb on the A string (equivalent to G - A when playing in D) a bit awkward for the fingers.
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
I can't believe no one has mentioned Eb, it is a favorite amongst us Flute players as Eb Flutes are much more fun to play. Bnat is nice as well.
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by Why Bother?
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
For Eb I tune up a semi tone.....
OPC
Ok I got you, 'adaptation or position change.'.. yep right now I see what you mean. yes nice, the SS is sweet there .
Thanks I ll give a few other tunes a whirl and see what happens.
I never got the mountain road, I have a Charlie Lennon tune that is very similar but better IMO! I do play that one in C . no $ I think.
Truth is I often find that its easier to transpose using the ABC, using here http://www.slainte.ch/abc.asp
then here http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html
Even with tunes I know well it often helps to get the general picture/read it from the dots at first.
But on that site if you go down 2 steps it takes you to B ,. cant go down 1 1/2 steps!
So thats why I haven't started playing tunes in Bb. and also I dont know anyone else who does either.
Its easy to blend tunes together mistakenly when transposing in my head, while with the dots in front of me it makes it all a bit easier. for example Ive played Banish misfortune for 25 yrs but when I tried to play it in C mix... I got all mixed up. so I did it on paper first.
This process is in fact getting a lot easier to do in my head now but its taken a couple years.
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by the wicked hacker
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
correction; >> [Charlie Lennons] no 4 I think<<
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by the wicked hacker
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
I will say though that some tunes are definitely harder, Say Dmix pipe reels, are def trickier in C mix, Im not sure its really worth the extra effort for some tunes.... They dont seem to fall under the fingers in the same way that some tunes do. IMO its well worth taking a few that transpose easily for the craic and the influence that these can have on your 'normal' playing .
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by the wicked hacker
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
C ya.
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
I love playing single row style, and since I have a B/C box, that means playing in C. But other than that, I tend to stick to the more standard keys--still plenty of challenge for me without learning things in alternate keys!
# Posted on September 19th 2009 by AlBrown
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
The William Vickers fiddle manuscript, published around 1770, is chock full of tunes in flat keys. This isn't a new phenomenon: http://www.northumbrianpipers.org.uk/books/vickers.htm
Irish music has always leaned towards D, G, and their relative minor keys, owing to the influence of the pipes, starting with the O'Farrell collections, published about 200 years ago, which had tunes primarily in these keys; O'Neill owned these books and followed their example, as did an earlier collector, Canon Goodman, whose manuscripts were only published recently. Other 19th century tunebooks like those of Elias Howe's have more of an international emphasis, and more tunes in the flat keys.
One very interesting story I read about the use of flat keys in East Galway music traces it back to a piper, Dinney Delaney, who was active in that area a century ago. He played a set pitched in Bb; rather than retune their fiddles they learned to play in Bb and Eb. The single jig The Old Hag in the Kiln was learned by modern musicians from a wax cylinder recording of Delaney, which may be heard here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/music/index.html
Delaney's Bb M Egan pipes wound up in Australia, where they were copied by pipemaker Geoff Wooff, and have since been used as a template by other makers as well.
# Posted on September 19th 2009 by Kevin Rietmann
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
Interesting,Of course concert pitch was only recently standardised. The convention for D and G could have been simply be for transcription purposes? The old D could easily and possibly was, actually closer to our modern C.
.
Also previous to the Union pipes were the pastoral pipes with C as the home note. We can find old trad Irish tunes that require a low C, such as Brian Boru . But possibly[ presumably?] this was a warpipe marching piece?
Interestingly, playing along with Dinny there I found the 'C' fiddle then played with C fingering, there for in Bb, far easier than playing along with the D fiddle.
As we know typical East Clare/Galway tunes are often in Gmix, with the natural E perhaps the fiddles were detuned to C, then played in C fingering? or would the standard D, have been effectively our C?
# Posted on September 19th 2009 by the wicked hacker
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
Unseen122: " I can't believe no one has mentioned Eb, it is a favorite amongst us Flute players as Eb Flutes are much more fun to play. Bnat is nice as well."
Yeah, it's easy enough for you flute players - all you have to do is pick up a different flute.
Perhaps the reason it has not been mentioned is that it takes a bit more work for fiddlers. But it can be a great fiddle key if you can get your fingers round it. (I speak as a mandolin player who fiddles a bit - and I find Eb challenging even *with* frets). There are tunes in Eb attributed to fiddlers such as James Scott-Skinner and James Hill (Their authorship may be disputed, but presumably, they at least *played* the tunes) :
Here are a couple:
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/922
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/8290
and there are many more Eb tunes, if you search under 'F dorian' (the key search options don't include sharps or flats).
The main factor, I think, that makes certain keys attractive to fiddlers (as opposed to violinists, perhaps - classical music is a whole nother ball game) is the availability of open strings - in the keys of D, G, C and F (and related modes), all the open strings fall somewhere in the scale. In A and Bb, all but one do (and in both keys, the remaining open string notes sometimes come up as accidentals). In Eb, only two of the open strings are in the scale, so it means more work for the left hand. But perhaps what attracted virtuosos like HIll and Scott-Skinner to Eb was partly the *lack* of open strings, the 'closedness', which gives the key a very different character from the more 'open' keys.
You can, of course, crank the fiddle up a semitone to match the flute - as Tommy Peoples and Frankie Gavin do - but that has a very different effect from playing in Eb in standard tuning.
# Posted on September 19th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
Tis true enough I play a bit of mandolin as well so I know how difficult Eb is on GDAE instruments, and as you know you can't tune a mandolin up a semi-tone if I want to do Eb I reach for the old capo. But there really ain't nothin like Eb Flutes, and I think there is a certain appeal for box players with C/C# and D/D# boxes. Loads of players actually do play in Eb aside from just Tommy and Frankie and I would think that tuning up to be a better option than trying to play in actual Eb at normal speed.
To get back on subject C is a lovely key to play in, a friend of mine has a C set of Pipes and the sound is fantastic. If only my C Flute would get here quicker...
# Posted on September 19th 2009 by Why Bother?
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
unseen122 - Apologies for the long memory but
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/4069/comments
6th comment down the page.
The fervour of youth, no doubt.
# Posted on September 19th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
'and as you know you can't tune a mandolin up a semi-tone'.
I can do so on mine without any problems.
# Posted on September 19th 2009 by Floss the Tethers
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
"'and as you know you can't tune a mandolin up a semi-tone'.
I can do so on mine without any problems."
I've done so a few times by accident, when I've not had any reference pitch to hand, being neither blessed nor cursed with perfect pitch.
# Posted on September 19th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
When I am working as a bass player, I prefer to play in keys such as D, A, G, etc. where I can use open strings. C isn't one of my favorite keys but it is easier to play in than flat keys.
# Posted on September 21st 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
The first fret is always uncomfortable, as the string puts up its most resistance near the ends. I imagine this is even more pronounced on a bass, with suck thick strings.
# Posted on September 21st 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
As far as anglo concertinas are concerned, it is nice to get them into as low a key as possible to make use of "growly" notes.
Many tunes in F work out well for this as they don't have the Bb (I never learn't modes so can't tell which it is).
# Posted on September 21st 2009 by geoffwright
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
Yes, OrganicPeatCreature, it is more pronounced on a bass which is why I prefer not to play in first position and try to avoid it if possible. First position is the one closest to the top end of the instrument.
# Posted on September 21st 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
I can play all sorts of genres in all keys.
The exception is when backing Trad irish. I don't use a capo so getting the right intervals and chords in "funny" keys is a problem. Because backing in an unusual key (e.g. C or F or Gm) isn't just a question of "transposing the chords" as there are not any chords as such, to transpose in the first place. If a tune is in a new or "funny" key, I have to approach it from first principles as I can't use all my familiar fingerings and voicings.
# Posted on September 21st 2009 by yhaalhouse
Re: Playing Tunes in the Key of "C"
OrganicPeatCreature, thick strings don't suck or blow unless they are on a wind instrument.
Wasn't it Elvis Presley's bass player who got "All Strung Out"?
# Posted on September 22nd 2009 by fauxcelt