Changing a song’s key live: What’s the most drastic key change you make?

RocknRollDave · May 2022

As per title, really.

Got asked for Sweet Child O’ Mine recently, dropped it to B (I tune to Eb and ‘played it in C’).
Original is C#, so I was a tone lower…but still too much of a stretch for my voice, so I think I’ll drop it further next time.

Any drastic key changes for you guys doing covers with silly high vocals?

(And don’t even start me on the last chorus of Living on a Prayer, where it modulates from Em to Gm…oouuch!)

DrCornelius · May 2022

RocknRollDave said:

As per title, really.

(And don’t even start me on the last chorus of Living on a Prayer, where it modulates from Em to Gm…oouuch!)

JBJ hasn’t been able to manage that for many a year so I wouldn’t beat yourself up for that one !

RocknRollDave · May 2022

DrCornelius said:

RocknRollDave said:

As per title, really.

(And don’t even start me on the last chorus of Living on a Prayer, where it modulates from Em to Gm…oouuch!)

JBJ hasn’t been able to manage that for many a year so I wouldn’t beat yourself up for that one !

I’m not sure I believe he ever managed it. Wouldn’t surprise me if the studio version was manipulated from a lower key.

fastonebaz · May 2022

I had to play Roxanne by Police in key of Em (original in Gm) and that created some interesting transposed chord shapes

lustycourtier · May 2022

Luckily I work with an incredible singer who can go from Glen Campbell or Morrissey to Bon Jovi, A-Ha or Zeppelin in a heartbeat. We even do Sweet Child in concert pitch, not flat (D). We do do have you ever seen the rain a semi tone lower though, which Ive never understood.

shufflebeat · May 2022

I reckon most songs are arranged to suit the singer, so - new singer, new rules.

I work with a band who try to keep songs in original keys, unfortunately if no-one in the band has the right voice then it sounds awful, strained and unmusical.

Drop a semitone, two, three, everything falls into place. If you now can't reach the low notes either let someone else sing or drop the song.

The paperwork is the least important part of a performance (apart from the gig contract, of course).

p90fool · May 2022

We dropped Toxic by Britney Spears from C to G.
Funnily enough we find radical key changes easier to mentally reconcile than just a semitone or tone - it seems to break the link and stop your brain searching for the original key.

Musicwolf · May 2022

fastonebaz said:

I had to play Roxanne by Police in key of Em (original in Gm) and that created some interesting transposed chord shapes

We do exactly the same, Gm transposed down to Em. In a previous band I think that we took it down to Dm.

slacker · May 2022

In the covers band we transpose one from g to e and play a couple without a capo where the original was capo 2.

In an acoustic trio trio we transpose most of them down a tone.

It depends on the singer. If I'm the singer I'll pick songs I can sing. I can manage a couple in A but I put them in strategic positions. A lot of songs are in E.

Roland · May 2022

I once had to transpose Living on a Prayer down a 5th because the singer wanted to play it, but hadn’t got the range. It didn’t really work because that guttural voicebox sound had to be transposed upwards, and became more of a soprano squeak.

thecolourbox · May 2022

I play a lot of White Stripes songs, at home it's fine as nobody is listening and I stay in the original key. But as the vocals are high pitched but the guitar's largely low fret E or A barre chord shapes I tend to transpose upwards a 4th or 5th then sing a 5th or 4th lower respectively, when I need to sing them in public

TheMadMick · May 2022

DRASTIC - that's nowt. I had a song written in high Bb and transposed it down to D so folks could sing it.

JayGee · June 2022

The band I’m currently working with do Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop in B rather than the original E.

I honestly have no idea why because neither of our two singers have any issues with other songs which cover a similar range but that’s how they’ve always done it so I have to live with it…

Kebabkid · June 2022

Nothing drastic but a lot of classic rock songs we used to do in standard tuning now require us to tune to Eb. On that note, how good are those Drop Tune pedals or that facility on multi-fx? Do they work? Does it sound artificial?

Fez · June 2022

We have two singers so a couple of songs we play in a key to suit the one that is singing lead. So Creep in G for male and C for female, Wishing well in A for female easy for bass just move across a string he does put an octave pedal on to thicken some bits. Knocking on devons door up a fourth for the lady actually works quite well and we have stopped doing it in bombastic GnR style.
A mate of ours who works the old people's homes circuit changes the key of almost every song he plays.

Cols · June 2022

The other singer asked for a song to be moved from F# up to D to suit her vocal range. We compromised on A and the bass player still forgot...

DefaultM · June 2022

Sweet Child o Mine in A, tuned standard and played in different position.
Don't Stop Believin in C but a Drop pedal. I don't care very much for that one, it's too low, but no one in the pub seems to care.

viz · June 2022

In terms of mid-song modulations, the most slippery one I’ve come across is Misty, which starts in Bb and miraculously slides up to B after the first verse.

It’s actually deceptively simple for the singer to do, it almost does it on its own; and so long as the pianist, guitarist and bassist remember, it goes fine. The crazy thing is that nobody notices because it’s so natural.

0:46 here, but you have to listen from the beginning to get the full effect.

https://youtu.be/rPOlakkBlj8

CarpeDiem · June 2022

Kebabkid said:

Nothing drastic but a lot of classic rock songs we used to do in standard tuning now require us to tune to Eb. On that note, how good are those Drop Tune pedals or that facility on multi-fx? Do they work? Does it sound artificial?

I use a Digitech Drop, only down 3 semitones so far on chords, and it sounds good to my ears.

CaseOfAce · June 2022

viz said:

In terms of mid-song modulations, the most slippery one I’ve come across is Misty, which starts in Bb and miraculously slides up to B after the first verse.

It’s actually deceptively simple for the singer to do, it almost does it on its own; and so long as the pianist, guitarist and bassist remember, it goes fine. The crazy thing is that nobody notices because it’s so natural.

0:46 here, but you have to listen from the beginning to get the full effect.

https://youtu.be/rPOlakkBlj8

that's extremely subtle - and very very easy to miss....nasty...

in terms of most fun mid-song modulation in our set - I guess it's Needles and Pins - starts in A and ends up in Db... (via descending chords E -> Eb -> Db -> B -> A -> Ab)

We pretty much do all our cover band stuff in the original key - the benefits of having a female singer - it makes learning the stuff easier from the record and you can bet your bottom dollar the original key chosen was "right" for the song (I remember the guy who wrote Eye of the Tiger wrote it a tone and half lower(?) but when they shifted it up it completely transformed the song).

Where it gets tricky for me is Alannah Myles Black Velvet - it's in Eb - but I'd guess the guitarist just tuned down in the studio to standard to use E minor pentatonics.
I don't wish to carry an Eb tuned guitar for just one number so do it in Eb on standard tuned guitar - not nice - and I usually just hack thru it in box position 1 at the 11th fret or thereabouts for the noodly bits...

Man I Feel Like a Woman uses A and D first position boogie chord riffs but is in Bb - so on goes the capo at 1st fret - but the solo catches me out as a result with the positioning sometimes cos everything is shifted up...

roberty · June 2022

I do my own songs in D standard now

fretmeister · June 2022

I had to play an instrumental version of the Blues Brothers' "Gimme some loving" that was a 5th up.

It was done that way to help rookie players of transposing instruments but in fact it just made it sound weak and generally awful.

guitarmangler · June 2022

Summer of 69 from D to A ( with the keyboard player telling me to do the keyboard riff).

The most extreme ( tho unintentional) was when I fell backward while sitting on my amp playing bass (jazz gig outside , amp on the grass). Keyboard player saved me from falling completely, but in doing so managed to hit the transpose button on his keys. The next song was, er, interesting!

newi123 · June 2022

Kebabkid said:

Nothing drastic but a lot of classic rock songs we used to do in standard tuning now require us to tune to Eb. On that note, how good are those Drop Tune pedals or that facility on multi-fx? Do they work? Does it sound artificial?

I know other love them, and to be fair I`ve got friends that use a digitech drop and I can`t tell in a band situation.

Personally I hated it and it`s been sat in a box ever since. If you want to try it let me know!

EricTheWeary · June 2022

I know this isn't my story but my old mate Andy has never joined here so I'll tell his...

His covers band used to do LZ's Rock and Roll. Their singer made them transpose it to some unlikely key but it was just one song in the set so ya da ya ya da. They played a wedding and a guest got up to sing Rock and Roll with them. The guest was Robert Plant. So Andy has the story of playing guitar for Robert Plant but in the wrong key.

Generally speaking my bands have had a bit of a Rex Harrison approach to vocals so keys have never seemed that important. One short lived project did have a decent singer but the band was put together by the keyboard player and I slowly realised that songs were chosen in or transposed to about three keys only. Ones with the fewest black notes. We attempted a version of The Thrill is Gone in A minor (the original is in B or Bb I think) which didn't really matter but it's not standard 12 bar changes although he played it as if it was. Twat.

viz · June 2022

Love the impossible-to-follow modulation from F#m to Gm in Nik Kershaw's The Riddle. I've bolded the last F#m and the first Gm:

F#m E/G# / A B

F#m E/G# / D A

Bm7 A/C# D E

G C / F Bb

Am D/F# G F / Esus4 E Am G/B C

D D7/C Bb Eb / Cm Bb/D Eb F Gm

In fact loads of Nik Kershaw has fun progressions and modulations:

https://youtu.be/fpD19zBWimY

midiman1962 · June 2022

EricTheWeary said:

I know this isn't my story but my old mate Andy has never joined here so I'll tell his...

His covers band used to do LZ's Rock and Roll. Their singer made them transpose it to some unlikely key but it was just one song in the set so ya da ya ya da. They played a wedding and a guest got up to sing Rock and Roll with them. The guest was Robert Plant. So Andy has the story of playing guitar for Robert Plant but in the wrong key.

Generally speaking my bands have had a bit of a Rex Harrison approach to vocals so keys have never seemed that important. One short lived project did have a decent singer but the band was put together by the keyboard player and I slowly realised that songs were chosen in or transposed to about three keys only. Ones with the fewest black notes. We attempted a version of The Thrill is Gone in A minor (the original is in B or Bb I think) which didn't really matter but it's not standard 12 bar changes although he played it as if it was. Twat.

The “Rex Harrison” approach to vocals ! Brilliant

flying_pie · July 2022

The biggest key change I've ever done was 2 octaves up

Granted that was because the previous song was Killing In The Name and I'd accidentally turned my whammy pedal back on.

I've done loads of major changes for covers such as Crazy Train in E rather than A for an acoustic version with a laid back vocal rather than rock squeal

PolarityMan · August 2022

Weve moved a few songs up from b to c# just to avoid needing a different guitar for one song.

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Changing a song’s key live: What’s the most drastic key change you make?

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