[Dixielandjazz] Keys, in general

[Don]

James Kashishian wrote:

>>I personally don't like playing in C. Do prefer Bb, Eb,Ab. Or F.
>>Must be my limited musical skills !
>>Peter De Bruyn Sr
>>    
>>
>
>Peter, it's not "limited musical skills", rather a matter of "doing it
>often".  If you played in C a lot, it would become more comfortable.
>Same thing goes for "them guitar keys"!.  I've known trombonists that
>gigged all the time with guitar based bands and manage quite well in
>those keys.  
>
I have the opposite problem.  Years ago I became involved with 
bluegrass/old timey string band music and learned to play guitar, then 
fiddle.  I never disciplined myself to read, and played by ear.
I joined a noontime jam group that started out with bluesgrass/old 
timey, but somehow morphed into 20's-40's pop/show tunes.  I found I 
could play most of them by ear having grown up hearing them all the 
time, but we were still in "them guitar keys".  Later I returned to my 
first love of OKOM, and sometimes play my fiddle (now jazz violin) in 
society jam sets.  But now we're in "them horn keys", and I had a hard 
time finding the notes on my fiddle.  It's mostly a matter of practicing 
flat key scales, and I'm getting better at it.  Like Jim says, it's a 
matter of playing in those unfamiliar keys.

Don Robertson
Napa, CA