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Device to help practicing songs in transposed keys?

#41
I agree that learning to think in relative harmony (nashville numbers, interval relationships) vs specific note names will help you be much more comfortable moving between keys. If you know ahead of time, though, it's always a good idea to practice in the key you'll be performing in. I'm also among those that say don't use a pitch shift pedal for this. They have their places, but I don't think is one of them.
 
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#43
Not sure if these are still available - it was a lifesaver for me many years when joining a band with gigs lined up and had to learn 3 sets rapidly. So easy to use - put all the mp3s on an SD card, plug in your bass and play along. It allows you to speed up and/or change pitch. the changing pitch is great, and when you want to practice through a set quicker, you can speed it up (or slow down to learn tricky parts).

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#45
I personally use Logic Pro for Mac, but this is a paid program. I’m sure the free ones mentioned also work well.

I get that many are suggesting to transpose on the fly, and that is a useful skill, but the question was about practicing to a different key than the recording. Which is a very normal scenario. I would not feel great about only practicing to the recorded key, then going to a perform in another key.
 
#50
Tune down to D and use a capo would be my suggestion

However, for me, I just keep at it and had been doing so for a while. It's more rewarding to play it in the difficult original key.
Or learn the Nashville Number system
Also possibly down the road transcribe in standard notation
 
#52
dbsfgyd1 said:
I’m not a master of technique by any stretch of the imagination, so all I can suggest is what has worked for me for almost half a century. Basically I memorized the intervals on the fret board and play by position rather than by note names. Don’t freak, there aren’t that many intervals to memorize.
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Playing by position and thinking about it that way is definitely the way to go. I'm a bit rusty but I've been able to transpose on the fly and I'm sure I can get back to doing that. Learning more theory would be a great thing for me as well.

Moises won out, at least for now. It's simple, cheap (free, at least for a few songs) and does everything I need. Yeah, songs sound kind of weird in playback when transposed but I'm not worried about that. The tempo is right, or can be changed if needed. I can pull out the bass track, or the drums if that's what I'm playing. If I have to pay for it, it's about the price of a set of strings for a year (I think/hope). Maybe I'll find something better down the road, but for now this is a great tool. Appreciate all the responses!
 
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#53
JRA said:
sorry, i'm not getting your difficulty: if you "re-learn it in the new key," what's the difficulty "later?" TIA
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Without Moises or something like that, if the recording is in E and we're doing it in F#, then I don't have a way to practice it in F# other than when the band runs through it. I'd learn the song in E as usual. Then transpose on the fly up two steps. But then I'm a little afraid to go back and practice it in E so I don't confuse myself and jump to the wrong note (by two steps) while playing it live in the new key. Hope that makes sense. It's pretty tough to play along with a recording two steps higher than what you hear, at least for me.
 
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#54
high mileage said:
Playing by position and thinking about it that way is definitely the way to go. I'm a bit rusty but I've been able to transpose on the fly and I'm sure I can get back to doing that. Learning more theory would be a great thing for me as well.

Moises won out, at least for now. It's simple, cheap (free, at least for a few songs) and does everything I need. Yeah, songs sound kind of weird in playback when transposed but I'm not worried about that. The tempo is right, or can be changed if needed. I can pull out the bass track, or the drums if that's what I'm playing. If I have to pay for it, it's about the price of a set of strings for a year (I think/hope). Maybe I'll find something better down the road, but for now this is a great tool. Appreciate all the responses!
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Thank for your response. That app sounds like a very useful tool to get you where you need to be, especially when you can work on your own. In my case, over the years I’ve found it seems like most of the time when the need to change keys arises, it’s “on the job” at gigs and or at rehearsals.

Best wishes.
 
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#55
I'm definitely in the Nashville number system camp (or just Roman numbers for jazzers)
I just learn the tune, do a quick number transcription (if the song is more than 3 or 4 chords or more than just an A B A form) and I'm good in any key.

I've had a ton of experience over the decades of playing with singer songwriters who seem to want to transpose on the fly to match the state of the voice in the moment, so I'm really used to transposing.

The only times I've used a pitch change app, unless the change was just a 1/2 or whole step either way, it made the songs sound really odd to me and IMO/IME was just not worth the trouble.
 
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#56
If you can get a local copy of the audio files (MP3 etc), pull it into Audacity (free awesome program), change the pitch, and save it to disk, you are all set. Sometimes I use (free) Moises to add a music file, adjust the instruments the way I want (bass emphasized) and save that adjusted file, then use Audacity to change the pitch and save a changed version to disk.

If you are having trouble directly saving video or audio from YT, try this using your audio interface:
- Start Audacity - tell it to listen to your audio interface for input. Hit Record.
- Play the video - when video completes, stop the recording in Audacity.
- Edit the audio in Audacity and Export as desired.
IMO this is a valid Fair Use of the audio - I am only using it to learn the song. I would never sell this. I always try to purchase original music that we play (usually some time after we learn it). Artists deserve compensation.

I keep both original and modified copies of music. Here's an example (of a GREAT song my band is now ready to gig):
Duran Duran - Ordinary World Austin City Limits Orig B.mp3
Duran Duran - Ordinary World Austin City Limits Orig B Enhanced Bass.mp3
Duran Duran - Ordinary World Austin City Limits xposed minus2 A.mp3 (just an example - we're playing original B - what a GREAT song!!)
 
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#57
pklima said:
Modern DJing software does a decent job live on the fly. Try Virutal DJ, which is free as long as you're not using it to make money and don't need to connect a hardware controller.
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I use Virtual DJ all the time. Totally free. Does it all on the fly. Stems feature is brilliant to simply remove a bass line so you can practice over it, or just isolate it to learn a new part. Great program. Tried out Anytune recently and it didn't do as good a job as Virtual DJ for isolating instruments and that aspect. Trying to find a better program but haven't yet. Will give Audacity a go however, especially if it now has a stems style plugin.
 
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