Comments on: Transposing ‘Guys Songs’ Into a ‘Girl Key’

By: Rebeccavandijk

Rebeccavandijk — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 22:51:00 +0000

That is great. Another great thing to do is teaching/ learning the Nashville number system with your band. That way you never have to worry about transposing anymore and you are more free to ‘go off the page’ and play spontaneously and still sound tight.

By: rawkalways

rawkalways — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:42:21 +0000

got it, maybe vocal lessons arent for everyone, but my point is, once you improve your range you can sing in keys that most people can sing in.

mandy! that is a great idea, and i would never have thought of it!

By: Sacredise

Sacredise — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:24:30 +0000

Mandy, that's great advice. The point here, for me, is about ensuring that the key is the most comfortable for the congregation – not for the worship leader. Your strategy for choosing keys is a great one for making it comfortable for all. I think I'm going to have adopt it

Rawkalways, vocal training can help the worship leader, but unless you're taking your whole congregation on a vocal training course (not a bad idea I suppose!), then training the worship leader only makes the problem worse, in a sense – the worship leader can then sing even more stuff the congregation can't manage.

By: 1amMandy

1amMandy — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:57:10 +0000

I have always thought that picking keys and also more generally picking songs that actually work for worship is really important. I'm an alto and I'm always changing the original key. It's a process though and once I find the key I like I go and find a guy to I see if the key is comfortable for him. This usually results in adjusting the key a little to find a sweet spot for both of us. What's important to note is this that I never ask the best male singer I know to judge the key with me – instead I ask someone with a more limited range so that I can make sure that most people will feel good singing it. Also there are just some songs that are great but not really suited for all types of corporate worship. For example, the vocal range required to sing some of Chris Tomlin's songs is just too big. I think it's a better choice to not use a really popular song if it doesn't suit the group you're singing with.

By: rawkalways

rawkalways — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:25:34 +0000

if that issue should arise, i would highly recommend trying vocal exercises to expand your range a bit.

By: gskodacek

gskodacek — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:12:40 +0000

This is a brilliant idea!

By: johnvandelaar

johnvandelaar — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:32:03 +0000

Hi Vicky,

Thanks for your thoughts here, and for the awesome work you do.

I have just one question about deciding what key to use in worship. I hear a lot of talk about setting the key to the worship leaders voice, but I'm not sure I buy it. Surely worship is about getting the people to participate. Our congregations are not trained vocalists, for the most part, and so their vocal ranges are limited. I hear lots of worship leaders complain that their people don't sing well. Could it be because we're setting the song to suit our voices, and not the peoples'?

If we're performing - doing a show to entertain - then we can set the song in a key that makes our voice sound good. But, if we're leading worship - getting the congregation to participate in an encounter with God - then surely we should be setting our songs in the key that makes the congregations' voices sound good? That encourage them to sing and participate and enter into the worship experience?

I worry that we're making worship leading about sounding good musically, and not about facilitating an encounter with God. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Grace
John

By: Stephanie Hillier

Stephanie Hillier — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:27:36 +0000

Thanks Vicky! This is such a big help! One of my favourite songs is “Above All” by Michael W. Smith, but it's sung WAY too high…definitely going to give this a whirl!!! Thanks again! God Bless!

By: rawkalways

rawkalways — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:07:02 +0000

if have to transpose on the fly, try using basic bar chord shapes to find the right key. let say your music is in the key of C but D is a better key for you, a D shaped bar chord is exactly the same as a C, just 2 half steps up, if you dont feel comfortable playing with bar chords thats when you capo 2 with C shapes.

if anyone has any questions about transposing feel free to ask, i'd be happy to help!

By: dawnkurtz

dawnkurtz — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:21:34 +0000

That is soooo cool!