Is that I can only get through about 2/3 of them before my wife or kid interrupt me, bah!
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The problem with practicing in all 12 keys
- Thread starter nonohmic
- Start date
Play it in metal speeds. /fixed.
Start with a different key every session.
- Apr 1, 2000
- 17,398
- 9,830
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Roscoe Guitars, DR Strings, Aguilar Amplification
I only change keys once a week, every Sunday. With so much going on within a key, it gives me ample time to explore everything contained in that key. Not only scales, but arpeggios, inversions, functional harmony (major and minor), chord progressions and on and on. There's no way I could go thru all twelve keys in a single practice session. So it takes me 12 weeks to go thru all of the keys, but I can get into the intimate details of within each key. Compound that with the number of years you have been and will be playing you will still get an enormous amount of time with each. YMMV
I will confess that I don't practice in all keys. I'm very practical, and I'm an older guy playing in two guitar-oriented bands in which everything we play is in the "guitar keys" of C, G, D, F, or their relative minors. I realize that I'd be a more "well-rounded" bass player if I practiced in all keys, but the reality is that I will never be called upon to play a song in any of the flat keys (except, rarely in F) so I don't practice them. Call me a heretic if you'd like, but I don't care.
It's more about getting the sound and feel of a phrase or passage under your fingers properly. At least it is for me right now.
Duct tape is a solution for just about everything
For this I'm just running a phrase/lick/passage through all 12 keys in fourths. Takes somewhere on the order of 2-5 minutes depending on the length of the phrase. But apparently that's far too long for me to be left alone.
Ahem.... F has Bb -- that is not a guitar key, You forgot A and E specially E -- very important in them geetar
Once I played with a woman who had songs in the Real Book v2 and 3. She decided to go through all 12 keys for St. Tropez. My head is still dizzy.
I used to study with Anthony Wellington (of Victor Wooten fame). He told me to practice in all 15 keys. When I questioned him, he replied that there are 7 sharps, 7 flats and the key of C. So yeah, a few enharmonic keys, but when sight-reading, it actually makes sense. 
Love it!!I used to study with Anthony Wellington (of Victor Wooten fame). He told me to practice in all 15 keys. When I questioned him, he replied that there are 7 sharps, 7 flats and the key of C. So yeah, a few enharmonic keys, but when sight-reading, it actually makes sense.
I once got thrown by sightreading the chord Cb/A.
It should be Cb7/Bbb. I can see why they wrote it that way.
The app iReal b has a setting where it can change keys with every repeat of the chord chart. Set it for 1 semitone up each repeat FTW.
Be REAL glad you're on a stringed instrument where all the notes are played on the same surfaces.
Because believe me, playing in F-sharp or C-sharp major on this . . . .
. . . is QUITE the handful ! C-sharp major is (starting with the left of the paired black keys) is the two black keys then E# (the white F key) then the three black keys then B# (the white C key) then end on the first paired black key (C#) going left to right to go up, or right to left to go down.
THIS is why some electronic keyboards have that TRANSPOSE button !
Because believe me, playing in F-sharp or C-sharp major on this . . . .
. . . is QUITE the handful ! C-sharp major is (starting with the left of the paired black keys) is the two black keys then E# (the white F key) then the three black keys then B# (the white C key) then end on the first paired black key (C#) going left to right to go up, or right to left to go down.
THIS is why some electronic keyboards have that TRANSPOSE button !
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Haha! Yes, of course you're right. I should've just left it at "guitar keys" without trying to enumerate them all. But I did include F on purpose since it's the one flat key I regularly practice: Although I rarely need to play in F major, I often do in D minor.Ahem.... F has Bb -- that is not a guitar key, You forgot A and E specially E -- very important in them geetar
Let this be a lesson to all you kids out there: Don't drink and post!
[when time is an issue] Instead of practicing in all keys, practice keys/modes that utilize different fingerings incorporating the open strings. This is where most learning/muscle memory is utilized.
For ex: practice all modes in keys E, F, A, Bb, D, Eb in open position... then finish out with a 'moveable fingering'—any key above the 2nd fret: G or C etc. Remember to switch order and keys every day.
And it goes without saying; they should be played ascending and descending—as 1/4 and 1/8 notes with a metronome.
This shortens the exercise by half but focuses on the 'difficult/blind spots'
For ex: practice all modes in keys E, F, A, Bb, D, Eb in open position... then finish out with a 'moveable fingering'—any key above the 2nd fret: G or C etc. Remember to switch order and keys every day.
And it goes without saying; they should be played ascending and descending—as 1/4 and 1/8 notes with a metronome.
This shortens the exercise by half but focuses on the 'difficult/blind spots'
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