[Dixielandjazz] Keys in set list

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

Definitely that different keys will inspire different riffs.  Reminds me of 
the early days when everyone knew about 5 tunes and you would do a blues 
then change keys and do it faster --now next time with words ok then we'll 
do it as a bossa etc.  I still think that unless your guys are really in a 
rut that it would make not much difference.  If you did five blues tunes in 
a row at the same speeds  that could happen.  I wouldn't get bored with the 
key it would be because we did five blues tunes in a row.  I tend to do a 
lot of tunes in the same key because I sing in concert F or C depending on 
the tune so If I take a vocal chorus it will have to be in those keys or I 
run out of range easily.  It's easy to vary a play list with speed and style 
in OKOM.  It's harder for a blues band to do it I would think.  When I was 
playing with country and blues bands the keys were usually E, A, G or D. 
Mostly E but those guys would do a shuffle then a belly rubber then 
something fast and mixed it up that way.  The only way I got to play in 
different keys was because they tuned to whatever and one night I would play 
a tune in G the next night it would be in F# or even A.  A lot of those guys 
before tuners came along were about as accurate as spitting in the wind.  I 
thought my mouthpiece was a slide trombone it went in and out so much. 
Sometimes they tuned to a piano but most of the bars that had pianos 
expected the tuning to be still OK from the factory 35 years before.  Who 
knows what the pitch really was.  There was one advantage and that was you 
learned tunes in a lot of keys and it sharpened your ear.

Some of these guys were idiots.  They would only hire  tenor players and I 
didn't have the money for a tenor so I got a C melody for $15.  They thought 
it was a tenor and I didn't tell anyone any different.

By the way that's a way I vary the sound is by changing horns.  I take 
three, Clarinet, Tenor and Soprano Sax.  I can't play everything on my 
clarinet any more but I can do about a dozen standards and If I do a dozen 
clarinet tunes in an evening that's enough to make it interesting.  Changing 
horns also changes the licks and style too much the same way that changing 
Key will.
Larry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 11:38 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Keys in set list


>
>
> Larry Walton wrote:
> Someone made a comment about changing keys. I don't think that the general
> public has a clue.  Personally I wouldn't take that into consideration at
> all.
>
> The audience won't necessarily have a clue, but several 32 bar tunes, all 
> in
> the same key, will start sounding the same to them.  The main reason for
> varying the keys is for the band.  Helps spark different ideas when
> improvising, as does tossing in a song with breaks, or variations on the 
> 32
> bar songs.
>
> Jim
>
>
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