HOW DO YOU AUTO-TRANSPOSE

[lavaboi]

Have you ever been in a gig with a singer and they say "play [any jazz standard not in d# minor] in d# Minor"

 

HOW DO YOU TRANSPOSE WITHIN 30 SECONDS!!!!

WHAT DO I PRACTICE TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT??

 

[Machines]

Understand intervals. 

[ambient]

Harmonised scales, chord progressions and intervals. Jazz has a lot of regular chord progressions, a II-V-I is really common. It’s useful to be able to hear and identify them. 

Just get your real book out, and practice playing through a piece in different keys. Sit down with a lead sheet away from your bass, pick up a pencil and do a harmonic analysis. Write down what’s going on, it’ll help when you’re playing, and help to spontaneously play in a different key. Knowing for instance a II-V-I in G major is Am/D7/Gmaj, In D major it’s Em/A7/Dmaj.

Edited August 28, 2019 by ambient

[skankdelvar]

If one cannot transpose a half step one would be best advised not to play jazz gigs.

FWIW I once found myself depping a jazz gig entirely by accident and without any warning. There was a fearful stramash, hard words were exchanged on stage and the gig ended prematurely.

In this example, I would have been advised to practice saying 'Maybe' rather than 'Yes' to every dep that came along.

[oldslapper]

don’t think so much about the chords, but rather the interval.

The diatonic chord chart is a good starting place.

[jrixn1]

The above replies are all good.  Suppose someone hands you a chart.  Your eyes see this:

|| G     | G     | G     | G     |

 | Gm    | Gm    | Gm    | Gm    |

 | Am7b5 | D7b9  | Bm7b5 | E7b9  |

 | Am    | D7    | G     | G     ||

But your brain needs to think like this:

|| I     | I     | I      | I     |

 | i     | i     | i      | i     |

 | ii7b5 | V7b9  | iii7b5 | VI7b9 |

 | ii    | V7    | I      | I     ||

 

[jrixn1]

In other words, you are thinking not in terms of literal chord letters, but instead the function of each chord and how it relates to the home key.

That's the trickiest bit.  The rest is then applying those changes in the singer's key.  For the example above: the first line is just four bars of the root chord; the last line is just a 2-5-1; etc.  In fact, I think like this even if I'm not transposing.

[lavaboi]

1 hour ago, oldslapper said:

don’t think so much about the chords, but rather the interval.

The diatonic chord chart is a good starting place.

stealing this & memorizing it thank you.

[itu]

9 hours ago, lavaboi said:

Have you ever been in a gig with a singer and they say "play [any jazz standard not in d# minor] in d# Minor"

The question is: How many times you have been in a gig with a singer/guitarist/any instrument and they say, the next song is in d-double flat or g sharp in stead of eb?

Nearly every gig is like that.

Take a fake book and start from the beginning and when you have played it through, start all over again but transpose one up. Repeat until you learned all chord changes. This takes some time, but after some training you will be able to transpose any song in a fraction of a second.

[Woodinblack]

15 minutes ago, itu said:

The question is: How many times you have been in a gig with a singer/guitarist/any instrument and they say, the next song is in d-double flat or g sharp in stead of eb?

I'm guessing this is a jazz thing or something as my answer would be 'never'. TBH, I have never been with a singer who knew what a key was, let alone that it had a flat or heaven forbid, a double flat!

And my other thought would be if you are playing something in e♭ and they want it in d♭♭ can't you just move it down 3 frets or across 1 string and up 2, or a combination thereof or am I missing something obvious ? This is what I have always done.

[Dan Dare]

I assume that by "transposing", you mean you are reading a part in one key and playing it in another. That's a skill you can learn, as you can any other. There's some helpful guidance in the posts above.

If you are playing something you know in a different key, being confused about transposing suggests that you do not know the song/piece, but that you have learned a sequence of moves from a particular start point, that point being the first note/chord. As a result, rather than thinking in terms of intervals and the movement/shape of the melody, you are thinking "This song begins in C, moves to F after two bars, then to G, etc, etc. If you know a piece, the key becomes irrelevant.

To use a simple example, if I ask you to sing a song that you know and give you the starting note or key, you will be able to do it easily (or you should, at any rate). The principle is the same when playing the bass. If the first change is up a fourth, it will be to F if the piece is in C, A if it is in E and so on.

Woodinblack (see above) is right. You must think in patterns, rather than fixed notes. It is helpful that the bass is tuned in fourths - moving to the same fret on the next string up takes you up a fourth, down three frets takes you down a minor third, etc, etc, wherever you start from (and therefore whichever key you find yourself in).

[EliasMooseblaster]

11 hours ago, lavaboi said:

Have you ever been in a gig with a singer and they say "play [any jazz standard not in d# minor] in d# Minor"

 

HOW DO YOU TRANSPOSE WITHIN 30 SECONDS!!!!

WHAT DO I PRACTICE TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT??

 

You cross your heart and pray thanks to all deities whose names you can remember that, as a bassist, you only have to transpose the changes, and not the head of the tune.

[ambient]

Not part of your original question, but it’s useful if you can sightread in treble clef too. I’ve been asked a few times to play the head, and been given the part in treble clef.

[drTStingray]

First step for me is knowing the whole bass fretboard intuitively.

Second step is to know basic triads (eg major; minor; diminished) and particularly their patterns on the fretboard. 

Third step is to be able to play these basic triads based on any root note.

Fourth is practice - as much as possible!

Generally you should be able to use this info and skill to play most chord charts, if you know the intervals and number of bars for each chord. 

I have found it very beneficial, and interesting, to delve into particular standards - an example of one which I have done this with is Girl From Ipanema - to develop a bass part; learn the basic chords; learn the melody - then if someone asks you to play a solo (sometimes happens in jazz gigs) you can do so by using combinations of the various components.

Dont get me on to modes - it's taken me years to know the major scale ones but when you can use, say a pattern based on locrian - well I still don't get it...... such is my knowledge of theory - I know some but not enough!! And my reading is hmmmm laborious and slow I'd say!! 

Edited August 29, 2019 by drTStingray

[lavaboi]

On 29/08/2019 at 08:25, ambient said:

Not part of your original question, but it’s useful if you can sightread in treble clef too. I’ve been asked a few times to play the head, and been given the part in treble clef.

I've been doing treble cleff flashcards for about a month now. Slowly but surely

[lavaboi]

On 28/08/2019 at 19:05, jrixn1 said:

The above replies are all good.  Suppose someone hands you a chart.  Your eyes see this:

|| G     | G     | G     | G     |

 | Gm    | Gm    | Gm    | Gm    |

 | Am7b5 | D7b9  | Bm7b5 | E7b9  |

 | Am    | D7    | G     | G     ||

But your brain needs to think like this:

|| I     | I     | I      | I     |

 | i     | i     | i      | i     |

 | ii7b5 | V7b9  | iii7b5 | VI7b9 |

 | ii    | V7    | I      | I     ||

 

W👁️KE

 

[pete.young]

On 29/08/2019 at 09:44, EliasMooseblaster said:

You cross your heart and pray thanks to all deities whose names you can remember that, as a bassist, you only have to transpose the changes, and not the head of the tune.

And if all else goes wrong, play a bottom 'E' (or better still a bottom 'B') because 90% of the audience won't be able to hear it properly anyway!

[RossHetherington]

Play double bass and do what the hell you like because it just sounds like a woofle noise to the audience

[chris_b]

If you know the intervals of the song, 1, 4,  5, etc you can play the song in any key. This is roughly how the Nashville numbering system works.

I've been given songs to learn for a gig and been told, "Oh, didn't we tell you, we play this in E!" Usually changed to a key that is easiest for the guitarist to play! Finger positions you're familiar with go out the window and you have to rely on remembering patterns and intervals.