I could care less about the keys. I suppose that's the upshot of growing up and playing guitar without any theory aside from knowing chord names. Which, for years I didn't even realize that knowing chord names meant that at the same time I know the notes on guitar, I thought you have to know it in do re mi fa... format. So I think to me it's just about the relative distance between the chords and notes. Where they sit on the guitar is completely irrelevant.
You don't care about keys because you are a guitar player. Flat keys are annoying on the other non chordal string instruments. Just as sharp keys are annoying for winds. My sax buddy would groan when I told him the next tune was in E, or G or A or D. "Of course it is", he would say. It was a rockabilly band. Playing the bass in the keys of A or D is easy as sleeping. All open strings ;).
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Solution -- play most songs in Ab! I'm sure the violinists will love it.
Ab isn’t that bad for me but I hate Db, eg “Body and Soul”..
... or even worse, Db minor eg “Tickle Toe”
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
As a former bass player... **** Daggers****
I could care less about the keys. I suppose that's the upshot of growing up and playing guitar without any theory aside from knowing chord names. Which, for years I didn't even realize that knowing chord names meant that at the same time I know the notes on guitar, I thought you have to know it in do re mi fa... format. So I think to me it's just about the relative distance between the chords and notes. Where they sit on the guitar is completely irrelevant.
Except if you see the dots!
You don't care about keys because you are a guitar player. Flat keys are annoying on the other non chordal string instruments. Just as sharp keys are annoying for winds. My sax buddy would groan when I told him the next tune was in E, or G or A or D. "Of course it is", he would say. It was a rockabilly band. Playing the bass in the keys of A or D is easy as sleeping. All open strings ;).
@littlemark yes, I'd think keys wouldn't matter to guitar players. But yet it's not entirely the case.
My sax buddy would groan when I told him the next tune was in E, or G or A or D.
Sounds like he needs one of those C soprano saxes for those tunes.
Or else a C melody sax!
They can be had for about a hundred bucks online, according to my sax buddy, who buys them, repairs them and re-sells them online.
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
I prefer to have dots on both the 9th and 10th frets to avoid confusion.
C melody saxes are notoriously or of tune. Probably the reason they didn't catch on. Also the tone and timbre... Yeuch