In the trenches,,,

[TommyS]

Friday gig,,, singer calls ' Desafinado',, in E ,,,I"ll be back on solid food in a couple of days,,,

[richforman]

With no forewarning? I learned that song last year for a wedding gig where we had been asked to play a bunch of Latin jazz, but before that I wasn't familiar with it at all, hadn't heard of it. So that sounds to me like a pretty high-level gig if the players were expected to just know it. Lovely song, fun to play. It's in the Real Book, yes, but I would expect that (to the extent people know it at all) they would be familiar with and expect to hear something close to the Ella Fitzgerald arrangement.

 

 

[Bobadohshe]

This is why iRealPro is a handy tool. Yeah you should be able to play everything in all 12 keys, etc etc. But if not, just pull it up on your phone.

[Reezekeys]

Tough to do if you have no chart and have always played it in the stock key (F). Dare I say it - this is exactly what a transpose button is for! If I was the singer I would have a chord chart to hand out, it's obviously not a good tune to call on the spur of the moment, especially if it's a pickup group or folks that don't play a lot of gigs together; that's just common courtesy.

 

I've played this tune for many years. For grins I sat down at my piano and tried it in E and got through it OK. But that's only because I've been playing this tune many years!

 

Ipanema is another example of a tune that can throw you for a loop if you're suddenly asked to play it in an unfamiliar key â it's tougher than Desafinade, imo.

[PianoMan51]

Now 'I" wouldn"t do this, but I"ve heard of pianists like me who, upon hearing a standard called in a 'guitar key" a half-step off of the stock key will just smile and kick it off in the normal key. Those 'other" pianists never got a complaint or even a quizzical look from the singer. Just saying.

[MathOfInsects]

I play everything with exactly the same skill and facility in every key, every time, no matter what.

 

It's not true, but damn it was fun to get to say that at least once.

[cedar]

From my memory, Desafinado doesn't have a particularly challenging range. One would think the singer could adjust a half-step.

[Reezekeys]

I don't sing but agree that a half-step shouldn't be enough of a difference to a singer to risk a train wreck playing a song. I also wouldn't deliberately start playing it in the stock key (and what if a guitarist is on the gig and starts it off?). Instead, a polite request to do it in the more familiar key should suffice, if the singer is reasonable about things. If the singer is not the reasonable type, well then imo they will deserve what they get when the chips fall!

[MathOfInsects]

Obviously this isn't relevant for a piano gig, but if your fingers are going to be in a different key from the singer's preference anyway, why not just hit the magic en-changerator and have the best of both worlds? Play it with your hands in the key you prefer, and let the singer sing it in the key he or she prefers? It doesn't change anything for you but helps the singer stay maximally comfortable.

[PianoMan51]

I, I mean 'my friend", didn"t bring Irving Berlin"s upright to the gig.

[MathOfInsects]

I, I mean 'my friend", didn"t bring Irving Berlin"s upright to the gig.

:roll: :roll:

[cedar]

How about stories where the singer THINKS they know the right key for them but don't? I am not referring to situations where they don't know their own range. I mean the scenario where the singer wrongly assumes that the key is whatever the first chord happens to be.

 

But I digress....

[Morizzle]

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