I am a keyboard and sax player who doubles on bass guitar and upright bass. I have several digital keyboards (Kurzweill, Korg, Roland, etc.) The digital keyboards have a "transpose" button -- a VERY handy device which allows the user to press a button and play a tune in the key it's written but have it sound in any other key. (I'm sure you are familiar with that). This comes in VERY handy at jazz gigs when a vocalist is present who likes to sing the tune "a fifth down" or whatever, and sometimes even when a horn sits in and he wants to play in the concert/written key so everyone else has to transpose.

Is there a "digital bass guitar" equivalent -- a bass guitar with, in essence, a "transpose" button? It would solve the following problem, which comes up a LOT at the gigs I get. I am playing bass guitar in a jazz trio (piano, bass and drums). We are playing out of one or another fakebooks. Then, a vocalist wants to sing a song, in a different key from what's in the fakebook. The pianist -- no problem, he just hits the transpose button, plays the tune in the written key, and it sounds in the vocalist's key. The drummer -- no problem -- he doesn't care what key it's in. But here I am, the bass guitar player, and I have to "sight transpose" the chord chart in my head (I'm not proficient at that) because I don't have a transpose button on my bass guitar or on my effects pedal.

Has someone made something that addresses this, so, as the bass guitar player, all I need to do is the equivalent of hitting a transpose button in order to play in the written key but have it sound in a different key?

I don't think it's been done on a regular bass but you could probably do that by using a bass with a MIDI pickup and getting the sound of your bass coming through a Synth or a MIDI box. In other words you have to use the sounds of the MIDI box instead of the sound of your bass.

Guitar players have an effect called armonizer or something like that I guess that they can do things like this with this effects.

How about a capo?

I am a keyboard and sax player who doubles on bass guitar and upright bass. I have several digital keyboards (Kurzweill, Korg, Roland, etc.) The digital keyboards have a "transpose" button -- a VERY handy device which allows the user to press a button and play a tune in the key it's written but have it sound in any other key. (I'm sure you are familiar with that). This comes in VERY handy at jazz gigs when a vocalist is present who likes to sing the tune "a fifth down" or whatever, and sometimes even when a horn sits in and he wants to play in the concert/written key so everyone else has to transpose.

Is there a "digital bass guitar" equivalent -- a bass guitar with, in essence, a "transpose" button? It would solve the following problem, which comes up a LOT at the gigs I get. I am playing bass guitar in a jazz trio (piano, bass and drums). We are playing out of one or another fakebooks. Then, a vocalist wants to sing a song, in a different key from what's in the fakebook. The pianist -- no problem, he just hits the transpose button, plays the tune in the written key, and it sounds in the vocalist's key. The drummer -- no problem -- he doesn't care what key it's in. But here I am, the bass guitar player, and I have to "sight transpose" the chord chart in my head (I'm not proficient at that) because I don't have a transpose button on my bass guitar or on my effects pedal.

Has someone made something that addresses this, so, as the bass guitar player, all I need to do is the equivalent of hitting a transpose button in order to play in the written key but have it sound in a different key?


why don't you just move the song pattern up so that the 1 is in the key that you want it to be in and just play from there the same as you would in th original key?

How about a capo?
+1000

Get a keytar, cheater!

:spit:

How many times do you plan to ask the same question (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=292729) ?

How many times do you plan to ask the same question (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=292729) ?

+1

why don't you just move the song pattern up so that the 1 is in the key that you want it to be in and just play from there the same as you would in th original key?

+1google Learn the fretboard, your transpose button should be in your head.

Guitar harmonizers normally combine the original note with one at some higher or lower interval, but you might be able to find one (or wire one up) so that only the interval sounds.

Better yet...if you play a 5 you can normally learn to play tunes so that you don't use any open-string notes. Then it becomes easier to transpose by just sliding up or down the neck. I'd imagine that'd be true of URB as well.

I write the number value of the chords in my books right away 'cuz someone is ALWAYS gonna want another key. You can do a whole book in a few hours while watching TV. Then when you need to transpose it you just play in the root position of the key & think in numbers. Ex: I, 7Maj., 6mi, etc., etc.