[Dixielandjazz] FW: What a difference a key makes

[Jim Kashishian]

David Richoux wrote:
Sometimes we start out on the "wrong" note and do the whole song in another
key (but rarely a sharp key ;-) or modulate back to what we usually do it
in.
It can get interesting...  but I can only think of one or two times when we
actually stop the song and start over in the "correct" key.


We start a lot of our songs with a piano intro (& sometimes a trombone
intro), and a few times he (or me) has started in a key that was not the
"chosen one".  Various things have happened......we all come in on the new
key, or we all plan to come in on the new key, but he suddenly realizes his
mistake & modulates...we hear the modulation (all's fine), or don't catch it
& come in on the original key while the pianist is back to the correct key
(not so fine, but a real laugh!).... & so on.  Or, everyone catches the new
key except, say, the trumpeter, who is daydreaming & comes in on the
"correct" key while we are all playing the new key....etc., etc.  Maybe
we've had to stop two times in the history of the band as the whole thing
was just unrepairable!  Makes for a good laugh!

I practice tunes in other keys, but that can cause one to slip into an intro
in a different key quite easily with the above results.  No, I don't bother
practicing in really weird keys.  Got enough to do with the more normal
ones, thank you.

Jim