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Ever Play a Song in the Complete Wrong Key?

#21
The best screw up I've done this year by far was during a jam session with my band. We started off a song and I thought we were in G..turns out the rest of the band decided to play in Ab.

10+ minutes later (this is all recorded too) I hear my guitar player yell "Dude, wrong key, half step up"...no wonder things sounded so flippin odd.
 
#23
My band once played for a wedding where a friend of the bride wanted to sing a Beatles ballad (I forget which one, but it had a lot of changes). The band had rehearsed the song and was ready to go. We did an instrumental intro and the singer starts into the song. About halfway through the first verse the audience began to notice what the band had realized immediately -- she was singing 1/2 step above the key the band was playing in. Unfortunately, we didn't have the ability to adjust on the fly. She sang the whole song that way, in her own key. I've never been more happy to see the end of a tune.

To her credit, she was on pitch (within her key) throughout the song. She obviously had the kind of ear where she heard it that way and that was how she was gonna sing it, but for the band and the audience it sounded like cats being castrated. I don't I could do that sort of thing even on purpose.
 
#24
Before you read this.. I"M NOT A BASS SNOB!

I was called by 3 guys to come audition for this band... emo/punk originals *insert gag emoticon here* anyway.. they said "here are the charts, let's go through some songs" ... I said okay ... now the charts had the changes on them (obviously) .. BUT they also had the key up top .. so it's basically idiot proof.. we play the first 5 measures... each in different keys O_O... I check everybodies charts to make sure they were all the same.. I then went around and asked everybody what the scale was for said key.. and got 3 different answers.. I picked up my stuff and walked out without saying another word.
strange thing was, the changes on the charts were correct per the key on top .. so me' thinks those 3 had nothing to do with the creation of those charts lol
 
#27
Ohhh how I hate to fess up to this one. Opening song in a first time gig with a bunch of guys a lot younger than me. It was a song that was 90% on the E string. As soon as we kicked in I knew we were really freaking off and I was getting upset thinking the guitarist on my side of the stage (there were 2) was way out of tune. Muddled through the song and as soon as it was done the sound man said (hopefully through the monitors only), "Bass player, you're a half step out of tune."

Ouch.

Just my E string - must have hit something that I didn't know about.
 
#29
Had a good out of key one at a gig a few months back. Guitarist forgot to capo, when the bass came in a few measures into the song it sounded off and I looked back at my rack tuner to make sure I didn't bump a peg.

The keyboardist figured it out in a few measures and flashed me an A. I saw the capo clipped on the guitarists headstock and jumped down to A with the keys; about the same time the guitarist noticed the missing capo and clipped it on going up to B with me and keys down in A. Knew it sounded wrong after about 2 measures and pulled it off as me and keys heard the change and moved up to B as he was pulling the capo. We jump back to A and the guitarist hears we're following and finally capos to B and stays there. Was quite comical actually...:D
 
#30
Am I the only person who wants to murderate the person who decided the following notes should sound identical when yelled out while playing: B, C, D, E, G? We were futzing around during a gig (a long, long drawn out limbo) and the guitar yells out "D!" which I heard "E!!" so I changed and I suddenly say "***?"

Why couldn't they all have distinct sounds? Grumble.
 
#31
Played with a wedding band a few months ago and they called I Wish by Stevie Wonder. I thought cool, I know this one it is in Eb. Well we kick off the tune and the keyboard player is doubling the signature bass line except he is in C. They failed to tell me that they had hanged the key to accomodate the vocalist. It was a train wreck until I figured out what key they were in. The same thing happened with the same band on a later gig with What a Wonderful World.
 
#32
threshar said:
Am I the only person who wants to murderate the person who decided the following notes should sound identical when yelled out while playing: B, C, D, E, G?
Why couldn't they all have distinct sounds? Grumble.
Click to expand...

Why not yell phonetic alphabet:
alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, foxtrot, golf?

heh heh, I don't really do the playing in wrong keys, so much as i do the under calculated bass slide and have the very obvious hitting a note half step off.
oh, and i've been 3 for 3 the last few gigs for taking a clumsy step backwards and pulling out the 1/4 plug, but now i pin it under the amp.
 
#33
I was playing a song in an original band and I thought it was in Em. I'm playing along and something's not quite right - it sounds almost right. Work around a little bit - Oh! It's in Bm.

Another time in a T-40 band, before 5ers were popular, I tuned drop D for a Journey song and forgot to retune for the next song. Nice blazing first chord -- OOPS! A flick of the peg and all better.

First concert in jazz band in high school. I'm walking around backstage with my bass hanging over my back thinking I was hot s***. Went to play the first song and somehow the A string had gotten knocked out of tune. Humble pie!! Mom thought I turned white because of stage fright ........uh, no.
 

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