I'd just like to know if "oddball" key signatures like C#, F#, and G# are that common in rock music. I've been trying to learn new styles, and some recent albums had an unexpectedly high number of tracks like this. It's kind of, "That's a cool bass style," and then, "Darn, it's in G#." If you see what I mean.

We're transposing stuff for now, but I wonder if it could become a bad habit to transpose or if it's overkill to be able to play in every key. We're doing mostly cover music, but later on, we plan on creating our own style and sound. We're kind of simple-progressive right now, but we hope to drift to that classic 70's style sound. I'm also trying to break the habit of playing repetitive basslines and start doing things that are less predictable.

I'd also like to know which bands tend to stress doing all the key signatures.

This is my first post on TalkBass!

A lot of modern rock music is tuned down half a step, so if you're playing standard tuning and it's in G#, a lot of times they're playing in A position.

It's never overkill to play in any key :D

be glad your not a pianist. there are some horrible keys to play in when you cant just shift your hand up or down a fret or if necessary tune down. in rock music, bands tend to play in keys their singer is comfortable singing in, so very few bands will use all the keys.

If your band doesn't have horns or keyboards, there's really NO reason to not play things in any key. The singer's range/comfort zone should determine the key, not whether the guitar or bass player is more comfortable playing in G vs. Db or F#.

You will all be much better players if you get comfortable playing in any key.

We don't have a keyboard player for now, but we were thinking of one joining in shortly. We'll have to query him about "oddball" keys too. Since I'm not deeply familiar with keyboards, at least I'm aware of it.

But at the same time, the bands that did these oddball keys all used keyboards. The DVD we watched, and our drummer noticed a lot of "black keys" moving. The fellow members disagreed over how common this was.

I never took formal lessons, and was thinking about doing so. This might make me bite the bullet. I get decent sounds, but I spoke to a potential bass teacher who told me being "key limited" is the downfall of most musicians. He thinks if I'm fortunate to be in a successful rock band, it may not be a problem. But it's requisite for studio work.

If your band doesn't have horns or keyboards, there's really NO reason to not play things in any key. The singer's range/comfort zone should determine the key, not whether the guitar or bass player is more comfortable playing in G vs. Db or F#.

You will all be much better players if you get comfortable playing in any key.

If your band doesn't have horns or keyboards, there's really NO reason to not play things in any key. The singer's range/comfort zone should determine the key, not whether the guitar or bass player is more comfortable playing in G vs. Db or F#.

You will all be much better players if you get comfortable playing in any key.

As a good musician you should be able to do whatever you do in whatever key you need to use. Choice of key should be made for vocal range, instrument range and/or tone.

BTW the key of G# (theoretical key, C#, G#, D#,A#, E#, B#, Fdouble sharp... yea, a double sharp in the key sig)is rarely used... Ab will do quite nicely.

I don't see that it's any more difficult to play bass, in any one key, rather than another...:confused:

So I'm playing a line in C - then somebody says - no we're doing it in C# .

I'm not going to say - oh no, that's too difficult!! :eek:

I would just say - no problem, I'll just shift everything I was going to play, up one fret! Easy ! :)

I'd just like to know if "oddball" key signatures like C#, F#, and G# are that common in rock music.

c#,f# and g# in rock music were almost certainly played as D,G and A, but with the band tuned down a semitone. Bet you're getting lots of Eb's too...

About 50% of the stuff we play (classic heavy rock) is tuned like that (Van Halen, GnR, Thin Lizzy, Metallica are all Eb bands).

You can either tune down yourself, or just play then a semitone higher - they'll sound more authentic if you use the original fingerings even if you are tuned differently. Trying to play them on a regulary tuned instrument so they sound at the original pitch is a dead loss.

I use two basses for learning songs - one in E, and another in Eb. It becomes pretty obvious which tuning you're supposed to be using. For gigging I just use one bass (usually in Eb) and play thing fingering I've learnt - you could use two, and switch but it really doesn't make much difference.

Ian

I'd just like to know if "oddball" key signatures like C#, F#, and G# are that common in rock music. I've been trying to learn new styles, and some recent albums had an unexpectedly high number of tracks like this. It's kind of, "That's a cool bass style," and then, "Darn, it's in G#." If you see what I mean.

We're transposing stuff for now, but I wonder if it could become a bad habit to transpose or if it's overkill to be able to play in every key. We're doing mostly cover music, but later on, we plan on creating our own style and sound. We're kind of simple-progressive right now, but we hope to drift to that classic 70's style sound. I'm also trying to break the habit of playing repetitive basslines and start doing things that are less predictable.

I'd also like to know which bands tend to stress doing all the key signatures.

This is my first post on TalkBass!

First there are no "Odd ball" keys only keys you don't know. Rock and Slapper like to take advantage of open strings so you will see lots of things in E and A because of that. You play with horn players your will be playing a lot of Bb and Eb since reeds are usually Bb or Eb instruments. You work with singers your will be in all sorts of keys some keys better for males than females besides indivisual singer's range. Then as a musician learning to play everything in twelve keys introduces techinical challenges as well as sound differences.

Want to show you know your stuff on bass, take a tune you like that stays basically in one position. Now in that position, plus one or two fret up or down play the same tune in twelve keys. You do that, you have a good knowledge of the neck.

Take this with a grain of salt, as I am not all that good on bass yet, though it isn't my first instrument...

I pay the most attention to what the chord progression is and what the bass line is relative to that chord's root. I also pay attention to how the chords relate to each other and because of that I usually know the key. When we are playing blues or classic rock, there is a lot of I/IV/V with the occasional ii or vi thrown in and it is usually pretty obvious which chord is the I. But there have been a few times I would learn a song by the guitarist telling me the chords and it would not be obvious to me which was the I. It's kind of funny when that happens and then someone asks if we can play in a different key and I say I probably can but first I need to know what key we were in. I generally try to keep bass lines for a given chord to 3 strings so I have more freedom in where I can map them to transpose. That last bit may be something of a hack, but it has made me okay with every key.

This approach works well if you are approaching the bass as a rhythm instrument. If asked to solo, I either do pentatonic off the root of each chord or arpeggios an octave higher than I normally would (add a little distortion, hold the notes a long time and make a face like you're passing a stone :D ). I think the better solists are more key aware.