I find a 5- or 6-string make this so easy, I can play along with stuff and never even think about what key it's in. Just change where you start the pattern.
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Switching to another key; what is the best technique?
- Thread starter CaribooBass
- Start date
I read the chord chart and convert to numbers in my head. If the song is in G... G=1, Am=2, Bm=3, C=4, D7=5, Em=6 F#dim=7. I then start at the 1 "root" and play numbers. If the song is in Bb, I put my middle finger on a Bb and that is 1 and I start there. When I first started learning that, I would take a chord chart and write the numbers above the chords. I don't have to do that anymore. I have practiced that quite a lot and don't usually have any problem doing it even to odd flat keys like Db or Gb. (seriously our Music director will put songs in those keys somtimes.)
I have spoken to several piano players in our church and this is foreign concept to them. They transpose by reading the notes on the staff in a different position, or by moving up or down a minor 3rd, major 3rd, or whatever. The one keyboard guy that plays with the chord chart instead of the sheet music struggles greatly to transpose some intervals even though he is a lifelong musician and music teacher with a masters in music. He knows the intervals, but doesn't think of the chords that way.
My struggle with transposing that way is when there are non-diatonic chords in the mix. That rarely happens with run of the mill praise and worship music, but does with hymns and Christmas music.
I have spoken to several piano players in our church and this is foreign concept to them. They transpose by reading the notes on the staff in a different position, or by moving up or down a minor 3rd, major 3rd, or whatever. The one keyboard guy that plays with the chord chart instead of the sheet music struggles greatly to transpose some intervals even though he is a lifelong musician and music teacher with a masters in music. He knows the intervals, but doesn't think of the chords that way.
My struggle with transposing that way is when there are non-diatonic chords in the mix. That rarely happens with run of the mill praise and worship music, but does with hymns and Christmas music.
I used to just work out the fingering pattern for the song then when they would capo up 2 frets I would slide the pattern up 2 frets etc.
JeezyMcNuggles
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- Feb 23, 2018
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Another vote for the Nashville Numbers system and not just for key changes:
Our keyboard player didn’t have time to learn a song for rehearsal so I just told him “key of C, 1, 3, 6, 2, 6, 2 then it’s a walk up from F” meaning “I, iii, vi, ii, vi, ii then a walk up from F.” He played it fairly well on the first try and we could all run through the song with no issues.
Our keyboard player didn’t have time to learn a song for rehearsal so I just told him “key of C, 1, 3, 6, 2, 6, 2 then it’s a walk up from F” meaning “I, iii, vi, ii, vi, ii then a walk up from F.” He played it fairly well on the first try and we could all run through the song with no issues.
I got a book on the Nashville Numbers system, as a total non-reader/"by ear" musician, when I joined a classic western swing/country band--mainly for fun, I thought "what the heck, let's learn how those cats did it". Turned out to be one of the best things I ever did for my musicianship in any genre of music. I still can't read notation, but I write out numbers charts often, and sometimes for the other players as well. Super useful skill.
Stop thinking in terms of chord names. Think in intervals. Note and chord names just get in the way most of the time. They’re starting reference points, vocabulary for discussion, and little else.
You are playing relative patterns on your instrument. They can easily be moved to nearly any other key. Bass players have no excuse for not being able to transpose in their sleep. It’s the easiest instrument in the world to do it on. Pianists have it rough, because every key LOOKS and FEELS different. Bass? You just move the same pattern anywhere. No need to even know the notes, once you are in the right key to start.
I have been playing since 1988, and I, very literally, haven’t thought in terms of note or chord names while playing since probably around my second or third month in. Yes, I know my notes…but I also realize they’re effectively useless outside of conversation with others or as reference points. The sooner you can ditch them from your thought process, the more seamless EVERYTHING will be when playing the instrument.
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Number system, playing anything and everything for countless years and BIG EARS.
The theory that helps is Functional Harmony.
Do you know the I IV V vi way of naming chords?
Transposition: The Musical Way to Transpose Harmony - Piano-ology
Chord and Harmonic Functions in Music (A Crash Course)
Get an App that can change keys of recorded music songs.
Change key.
Try playing by ear & see how you go.
Write out the chords in original key.
write out the I IV V for each chord
Try writing out the chords in the new key.
Now play along transposed key and see if you get it.
Let me know how you go with these steps. Should get you 80% of the way there with a few weeks practice.
Do you know the I IV V vi way of naming chords?
Transposition: The Musical Way to Transpose Harmony - Piano-ology
Chord and Harmonic Functions in Music (A Crash Course)
Get an App that can change keys of recorded music songs.
Change key.
Try playing by ear & see how you go.
Write out the chords in original key.
write out the I IV V for each chord
Try writing out the chords in the new key.
Now play along transposed key and see if you get it.
Let me know how you go with these steps. Should get you 80% of the way there with a few weeks practice.
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Wow! Thanks for all of the replies to my thread.
I have more questions soon but for now, what “patterns” are some of you referring to?
I have more questions soon but for now, what “patterns” are some of you referring to?
Thinking of chord changes as the chords being numbers in relation to a key center helps me. And knowing all the chord positions around those ‘centers’ helps me navigate much easier.
This is why the Nashville number system became popular for chord charts. Instead of chord letters, it uses numbers. Then you can call out any key and don’t need another chart. The only catch is that you still have to learn your scale degrees but that’s just math.
Learning the NNS is key...especially given guitarists' tendency to blithely capo things and not tell the bass player....
Easy. The guy i play bass for is a capo junkie. Learn to play by position or pattern. If he is playing “G” chords capo‘d 3 frets up you play your G pattern 3 frets up. Dont think about it.
Since it’s April 1,
For the last 3 days I’ve been waiting to say “move your hand up a fret or 2”
For the last 3 days I’ve been waiting to say “move your hand up a fret or 2”
.I asked earlier about patterns and what they are referring to. As in some of these replies have said “some basses are pattern players”.
Am I right in saying that if you change the one to the root note of a key and play the same pattern, it will work?
That makes sense to me if I change the word patterns to progressions.
When I learned music theory it was while I was playing wood winds in big bands.
It was never taught as a pattern for we had to know each chord and what it’s structure was, being one note at a time non chordal instruments.
Yes a triad pattern on a bass will give you triads all over the place. So will scale patterns.
I write it all out for I want to know the chords involved. It makes more sense to me to think this way than pattern position.
Am I right in saying that if you change the one to the root note of a key and play the same pattern, it will work?
That makes sense to me if I change the word patterns to progressions.
When I learned music theory it was while I was playing wood winds in big bands.
It was never taught as a pattern for we had to know each chord and what it’s structure was, being one note at a time non chordal instruments.
Yes a triad pattern on a bass will give you triads all over the place. So will scale patterns.
I write it all out for I want to know the chords involved. It makes more sense to me to think this way than pattern position.
Yes, you got "patterns" right - generally the same finger movements, just starting on a different fret for a different key.
I still like the "numbers" approach, referencing the positions of chords relative to the tonic, whatever it may be. A simple and elegant system.
I still like the "numbers" approach, referencing the positions of chords relative to the tonic, whatever it may be. A simple and elegant system.
Patterns CAN work out, but sometimes they can’t. Total reliance on them is highly NOT recommended by me. They’re fine at first, but I think you should move past them as soon as possible.
