datamusicata

A week or so ago, I had the extreme pleasure of seeing Paul McCartney do a concert at the Hollywood Bowl.   He had a five piece band and he was tight, rehearsed, prepared…in a word, professional.   

He delivered the goods just as you would expect.   And from his enormous catalog, he sang songs that spanned five decades, and every song was familiar.   Quite an amazing feat.   He played for three hours and there were still so many songs I would have liked to have heard him sing.

And he still does them in the original keys, as far as I could tell, and now that he is 68 instead of 21 some of those songs went pretty high.  

To be truthful, he missed some of those high notes, but in a three hour concert, who is going to nail every single note, and do it while he’s rocking on a guitar, bass or piano at the same time?   

I was talking to my friend and a wonderful songwriter, Thom Bishop, today on the phone and I mentioned the thing about the original keys.  He suggested that I share this with you, so... 

Almost all of my songs I still do in the original keys, but I said that I had transposed several of my old songs to lower keys now that I’m in my sixties, as I don’t really serve them that well in the original keys.

And that’s what I want to talk about today.   When you write a song, sometimes you fall so in love with the guitar or piano part you created in a specific key, that you leave it there, even though it’s not the best key for your voice or for serving the song.

If you wrote a song thirty years ago and it was high for you then, I suspect that it is even more difficult to reach those high notes now that three decades have gone by.

I never use a capo (probably because of arrogance or ego, but I like the fact that I don’t, so there…) so transposing songs to different keys for me requires actually learning new chords for that song.

If you use a capo, then this should be easy.    Move it around until you find the place where your voice really resonates with the song.  Sing it there.

If you don’t use a capo, then you are in for a fun surprise.   As you try to recreate the voicings you used in the original key, you find new and fun voicings in the new key.

And if you use a lot of open strings against three and four note chords on the guitar as I do, you will really find a fresh window into an old song.    

Try it out.   Find the key that bests serves your voice and the song.   You’ll have a great time and be glad that you did.