Re: [Harp-L] Just what exactly is 'key'?

[michael rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>]

Joel,
I want to publicly apologize if I sounded harsh in my original
response.  I rarely see sheet music and it seemed like the question of
how do you find the key would not exist if there was sheet music.
Michael

On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 12:20 PM, Joel B. Chappell
<joel.b.chappell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Fawooosh [Sound of old electrical engineer entering deep water over his
> head]; It seems to me we have been missing one of the main reasons for "key"
> differences. Aside from 12th root of two spacing and the circle of 5ths math
> based rules, most music is assigned a tonic root to accommodate the range of
> soloing vocalist[s], and is transposed on occasion to suit the vocal
> artist's range. Also to be considered is the fact that various transposing
> instruments have dissimilar tonic roots. There are horns in F, trumpets in
> Bb and C, Tubas in F and so on with strings and reeds as well. It's the job
> of the orchestral arranger to try to get them all reasonably in pitch on any
> one given performance. Have we been looking at this thread with "harp
> colored glasses" and lost sight of the needs of other fellow musicians?
> Uhhhhhh [Gasping for air as I return to the safer water of electrons].
>
> Note to Michael: Most of the material I attempt to play here at home is in
> song books or sheet music with key signatures. One senior citizen group I
> jam with even has their own song book which includes key signatures and
> guitar notation. There is a group I jam with that plays mostly old Irish
> tunes and I improvise with my #65 Echo Harp in C/G.I try to sit next to the
> accordion player and I can usually find all the chords she is playing :-)
>
> Joel B. Chappell
> 21 Billings Street
> Milford, NH 03055
>
>