Finding the key…on the fly

[Dirk McCall]

So when I am sitting in with a band and playing a song I don’t know…where exactly should I be listening to find the key to begin playing in? I usually try to hear one note…but that is not always there. Is it the bridge? Chorus? or does it matter? Sometimes it just won’t work at all and I sit back. If I know the melody I play so much better of course. I ripped on a Michael Jackson song in a club…but I can’t stand his music!
I play bari sax, so I usually try for 2 or 3 note hits, but we all solo and that’s where it goes wrong.

[john]

Dirk, the chorus and bridge usually go to a chord other than the 1 so don’t rely on those. For me the easiest way is the verse because they mostly start on the 1 chord which is the home chord and the tonic note will tell you the key. I should probably do a video on this to show you but start simple with a 12 bar blues. with a 12 bar you know there will only be 3 chords, the 1 4 and 5. and you know the 1 changes to the 4 on the 5th bar. then after 2 bars back to the 1, then on bar 9 it goes to the 5 chord and on bar 11 back to the 1. practice listening to these changes. once you can hear them go to a pop song which isn’t a 12 bar but still has simple and few changes. this takes practice like anything else but we can train ourselves to do it.

[Michael]

That would be a really good video to make. Also, it would be cool–some of us had talked about this before–to make a video regarding the Saxophone player’s role on a band; some of the do’s/don’t do. When we got together this past Wed., they showed me the video that I’m posting below as an example for me. Some of my friends here had relayed experiences to me of very talented musicians who got dropped off of the band because they seemed to think they were the reason why everyone was there to watch the band play…it’s the vocalist who people want to really hear–they’re not saying that people don’t like to hear the Saxophone player have his spot by any means, but they we’re telling me how important it is to know when to take your time to solo and then know how to blend back in with the band.

[Author]

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