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How to find the right Key to sing in.


onewilyfool

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Do any of you pickers and grinners have any advice for finding the right key to sing in? I have a few songs I would like to sing, but the key they are played in on the radio is too high or low for my vocal range (if you want to CALL it that!!) Was just wondering if you had any "rules of thumb" or any advice. Sometimes I have a song that REALLY sounds good with certain chord progressions, which I would like to keep, but the vocals are wrong. Thanks....

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Hey One...,

I was looking for information on how to sing on the net a few weeks ago. I found a video series on You Tube called, Kim's Techniques on How To Sing Properly. Go to you tube and check it out. I found some of the lessons very useful.

Good Luck

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Band In A Box is a useful tool for singers, you can type in the chords of a tune, and then transpose with one click to see which key suits your range.

I do a lot of jazz gigs with a singer, and it's been invaluable for her when working out keys for standards.

 

Capos? That's what my first finger's for.... :-s

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Thanks for the heads-ups....if that is a word......TWilson.....funny......By the way, a while back there was a thread about...."when singing covers up bad guitar playing....." LOL.....there were some good points there, but I really like to sing WHILE I play, and it is just fun for me, but my "virtuoso" guitar playing skills may be suffering, as a hobby, it is just enough....lol....thanks again for the support

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Thanks for the heads-ups....if that is a word......TWilson.....funny......By the way' date=' a while back there was a thread about...."when singing covers up bad guitar playing....." LOL.....there were some good points there, but I really like to sing WHILE I play, and it is just fun for me, but my "virtuoso" guitar playing skills may be suffering, as a hobby, it is just enough....lol....thanks again for the support[/quote']

 

What should I do if both my singing AND my guitar-playing are really bad?

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Do any of you pickers and grinners have any advice for finding the right key to sing in? I have a few songs I would like to sing' date=' but the key they are played in on the radio is too high or low for my vocal range (if you want to CALL it that!!) Was just wondering if you had any "rules of thumb" or any advice. Sometimes I have a song that REALLY sounds good with certain chord progressions, which I would like to keep, but the vocals are wrong. Thanks....[/quote']

 

I chase it around with a capo. For my natural voice I usually start in G. The key of G is the open tuning of my bluegrass banjo. But, I too have made the dog howl.

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If I win the Lottery, there will certainly be a "run" on nitrocell-black in Bozeman !

 

Hmmmm, black J-45, black AJ, black LC-1, black J-180, black J-185, black SWD, black SWD cutaway,............

 

At least they won't have to change or clean the paint guns in the Custom Shop for a while.....

 

:^o/

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Last night I learned a new song. "Mr. Moonlight" The version I was learning was a cover by the Beatles and it was sung originally in Bflat. Since I literally hate doing songs with Bflat and Eflat in them (lol) I started capoing the heck out of this song. Paul really strained his voice on this song, and I wasn't about to do the same. Finally after trial an error, I found I could sing this song in either A or G. Since most of the music I play which goes with my limited voice, is in G I stuck with G, and found it was perfect, so....another one bites the dust.....thanks for all the advice guys...and gals....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18WXmuZxyCI

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Capos are great for raising the pitch, but if the song is too high you need to lower pitch. I'll usually try to transpose the song to the 4th or 5th. If I have sheet music/tab showing the song in G, I'll try C or D. Sometimes you have no choice but switch to differant chord shapes, but I try to avoid this if the chord shapes are critical to playing the song right.

 

You can capo up quite high if necessary. For example the Beatles "Here comes the sun" is generally played with capo at the 6th fret in the key of G. This gives you a G chord that frets like a D chord.

 

drive-south

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If I win the Lottery' date=' there will certainly be a "run" on nitrocell-black in Bozeman !

 

Hmmmm, black J-45, black AJ, black LC-1, black J-180, black J-185, black SWD, black SWD cutaway,............

 

At least they won't have to change or clean the paint guns in the Custom Shop for a while.....

 

:)/ [/quote']

 

Always... what a wall that would be?... promise to post a pic...

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Do any of you pickers and grinners have any advice for finding the right key to sing in? I have a few songs I would like to sing' date=' but the key they are played in on the radio is too high or low for my vocal range (if you want to CALL it that!!) Was just wondering if you had any "rules of thumb" or any advice. Sometimes I have a song that REALLY sounds good with certain chord progressions, which I would like to keep, but the vocals are wrong. Thanks....[/quote']

 

 

I find that in order to sing out properly, the song has to be pitched so it's a little bit of a push to reach the notes - that is to say, if I'm half-mumbling quietly along to the guitar I won't be able to reach them but if I get a bit of oomph behind it I'm OK.

 

If you find a pitch you're comfortable with at home, you might find you'll need to capo up 2-4 frets to sing in public.

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