Why can't singers sing in the original key?

[tonyquipment]

Just play the tune in whatever key it's supposed to be in. Tell the singer that you've changed the key.

If it sounds wrong then tell them it's their fault.

[wateroftyne]

Presumably the OP is tongue-in-cheek..?

If not.... *shakes head*

[la bam]

* Yes, I'm being tongue in cheek.

Just drives me mad when considering all the songs in the world, they choose ones they can't sing!

To be fair though (on a serious note), a lot of riffs etc don't always have the same effect when the key is changed too. Some really energetic songs can sound drab. It's not always just a case of move the shape up or down the neck and everything will be ok.

[leftybassman392]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1499176799' post='3329714']
Some very odd replies here.

The main reason is simply that people's vocal ranges vary hugely. Think Paul Robeson and Robert Plant.

[/quote]

Bit late to the discussion, but definitely this.

I love this forum, but sometimes I just wish there wasn't quite so much of the 'everybody's doing it wrong except the bass player' around here.

Edited July 4, 2017 by leftybassman392

[gjones]

The singer in my main band has a good range but sometimes the songs she sings sound better in one key than another. Usually her problem is that some songs are too low for her, in the original key, and she'll change the song to a higher key, so that she can get some power into it.

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='la bam' timestamp='1499190344' post='3329856']
To be fair though (on a serious note), a lot of riffs etc don't always have the same effect when the key is changed too. Some really energetic songs can sound drab. It's not always just a case of move the shape up or down the neck and everything will be ok.
[/quote]

Thankfully it's not really an issue for most of the stuff I play - they're not generally riff-dependent. A good tune works in any key :-)

[Norris]

Some of it is also to get through a whole night of singing. They may be able to a single song in the original key, but when you've got twenty odd songs to do, sometimes for several nights on the trot, a slight key change here and there can make all the difference in being able to belt out the encore or having nothing left in the tank

[la bam]

That's a fair point.

[beely]

Have to agree about getting the key correct to suit the singer’s vocal range.

A couple of examples from my own band’s set list are two Tom Petty songs.
I had to take “The Waiting” from D to C, mostly because of one note in the chorus, but raised “All the wrong reasons” from F to G, not just because it suited my voice better, but it also helped the fiddle player.

As Norris says, its not usually the case where you only have to sing one song.
In our entire set there are only about three songs that I don’t sing either lead or BV’s.

We are fortunate that we have four singers, two male, two female who take lead and/or BV’s.

After Bryan Adams/Mel C’s When you’re gone, (original key of C) my voice most definitely needs a rest.

[stingrayPete1977]

It's not by mistake that many covers bands have male and female lead vocals and if they can be combined into another instrument (our male drummer is a great singer for example) it makes the money go further or opens up gigs a five or six piece don't want.

[EssentialTension]

Q1: Why can't a singer sing a song in a particular key?

A: Because the song in that key doesn't suit the range of the singer's voice - and while the range of a singer's voice can be extended with practice, it is also limited by physiology.

Q2: Why can't a guitarist play in, for example, the key of Eb?

A: Because guitarist hasn't bothered to learn all the chords and their inversions.

[Deep Thought]

I've been a 'singer' for 20+ years, and for the past year I've been taking lessons, and it has certainly made me able to sing things I could never sing before. There are still songs I could never sing, I'm just not physically capable of it. My teacher, a professional singer with an extremely impressive CV, can't sing stuff that I can, because it's too deep for her. A singer who can't sing any song, in any key, is not crap or lazy.

[FinnDave]

We used to have a singer who'd ask us to move a song up or down 'half a semitone'. I bought a fretless just to prove the point!

[TrevorR]

There is also the issue of the natural break points within a vocal range. Having two octaves or whatever to play with is all well and good but within that there are different areas where the voice has a different tone... Chest voice, Head voice and Falsetto. Transitioning across those in a vocal line can be problematic or sound odd. Imagine if on the bass you had an octave and a bit range where you naturally played fingerstyle BUT as soon as you got above a certain note the magic bass fairy suddenly put a pick in your hand and made you play with that. And below another note they forced you to play tug bar and thumb like the old country bassists. Awkward. You'd certainly want to arrange your keys and bass lines so they naturally fell within one of those ranges.

Case in point. We've just started doing this country-rock tinged song at church and it's in B - original key. Suits my voice nicely, suits the lead singer nicely. However, when she's not around and the guitarist leads he wants to do the song in A... easy chords! But that places the melody right across my Chest/head break point. If I go up an octave it is right on my head/falsetto point elsewhere and somewhat of a strain. Two semitones but a huge difference in singability for me. So choice... sing too high and strain. Sing too low and sound like Paul Robeson doing Lynyrd Skynyrd and risk puberty-like voice cracking either way. It's a royal pain of a song in A and a rockin' cracker in B... just two semitones...

[Rich]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1499190482' post='3329859']
The singer in my main band has a good range but sometimes the songs she sings sound better in one key than another. Usually her problem is that some songs are too low for her, in the original key, and she'll change the song to a higher key, so that she can get some power into it.
[/quote]
This. It's all about range. Try asking an operatic baritone to sing a tenor aria.

[GreeneKing]

[quote name='the boy' timestamp='1499183281' post='3329786']
the original was composed in a key to suit the original performers voice it's not cast in stone til the end of time.
[/quote]

Good point.

[ivansc]

2 things: For the lazy/incompetent: Get a capo.
For the rest of us, learn the nashville numbers system. Makes trasnsposing to ANY key a breeze.

I sing anywhere from a tone to a natural third below written key on most songs. To be kind to guitarists I used to do House of the Rising Sun in E instead of A.
Happily this means I can do most ladies songs in written key, an octave down.
If you cant transpose to suit a singers range, you arent really a musician, are you?

Edited July 5, 2017 by ivansc

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1499241298' post='3330144']
If you cant transpose to suit a singers range, you arent really a musician, are you?
[/quote]

What's your definition of a musician?

(FWIW, I have to transpose on the fly all the time.)

[ricksterphil]

Every voice has it's sweet spot, where the tonal quality is at it's best, so it makes sense to change key to suit the voice as it's almost impossible to change the voice range to suit the song. Vocal range can be expanded with use and practice, but there is a limit and many songs get tuned down a tone or 2 so that the singer can reach the high notes. Remember Macca at the 2012 closing ceremony...embarrassing. Legend has it that he refuses to change the key of his songs to suit his current vocal range, which has dropped as he has got older.

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='ricksterphil' timestamp='1499242066' post='3330150']
. Remember Macca at the 2012 closing ceremony...embarrassing. Legend has it that he refuses to change the key of his songs to suit his current vocal range, which has dropped as he has got older.
[/quote]every time I have the misfortune to here Macca sing live these days I do wonder why he doesn't drop down a tone he's obviously struggling to hit the notes and there's no shame in it, lots of singers voices go deeper with age, either he just doesn't listen to people or surrounds himself with yes men

[chris_b]

Macca, Roger Daltry and Stevie Wonder still sing their songs in the original keys. That's quite a feat in itself at their ages. I've been told Macca doesn't even warm up. I believe the other 2 take regular singing lessons to keep their voices fit.

With a 5 string bass I can play any song in any key but the original keys can sound better. The riffs mostly sit better in the original key.

At Motown they regularly recorded the songs a couple of keys higher than the singers wanted because they liked the sound of those guys "reaching" for the notes. That might work with world class singers but maybe not so much down the Dog and Duck.

[la bam]

[quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1499241298' post='3330144']
If you cant transpose to suit a singers range, you arent really a musician, are you?
[/quote]

Id say im enough of a musician to use my ears to realise that a lot of songs don't work or simply lose effect when you raise or drop the key, regardless of how good the singer then sings them.

Edited July 5, 2017 by la bam

[casapete]

Good point above regarding guitarists using a capo, although not just because they are lazy / incompetent.
Some songs with prominent guitar chords do sound naff in an altered key, and by careful use of a capo
can be made to sound more like the original.

[Yank]

Some guitarist's whine about changing keys to suit a vocalist who has to sing all night long (maybe 3 nights in a row) without blowing out his voice. Drummers never complain.

[leftybassman392]

[quote name='casapete' timestamp='1499245318' post='3330196']
Good point above regarding guitarists using a capo, although not just because they are lazy / incompetent.
Some songs with prominent guitar chords do sound naff in an altered key, and by careful use of a capo
can be made to sound more like the original.
[/quote]

Indeed. At one time I worked a lot with a female singer (not a full professional at the time but became one later), and used a capo on virtually every song in the set. It was a vocal + acoustic duet and I saw it as my job to do what was best for the singer. The sound did suffer a little bit on some songs, but it was IMHO much the lesser of two evils.