Play in all keys -is there a good way to learn this in a short time?

[Paula]

Hi Toril
why not transpose the key board to the key they want to play in  that should work
     Paula

[mikf]

If you look at the original post, Toril has started to play in an accordion band. No transpose possible.
The fact is, although Toril may have asked the question, I think she really already knew the answer, --practice the list of songs they play in their keys until its comfortable.
She was hoping someone might have a short cut, but that doesnt exist on an accordion.
Toril already plays better than many on here, she can handle it.
Mike

[Paula]

If you look at the original post, Toril has started to play in an accordion band. No transpose possible.
The fact is, although Toril may have asked the question, I think she really already knew the answer, --practice the list of songs they play in their keys until its comfortable.
She was hoping someone might have a short cut, but that doesnt exist on an accordion.
Toril already plays better than many on here, she can handle it.
Mike

sorry I didnt read the original post ....  Troil playes very well in my opinion and so do many on this forum as well... :(I dont believe that it was necessary to add that she plays better then many on this forum  people play at different levels I have listened to many posts on this forum and find many play very well
      Paula

[Toril S]

Thank you all for your good advice and encouragement! I am happy to have such wonderful friends!! And Mke is right, I was kind of hoping for a shortcut, but at the bottom of my heart I know there is none😀 Unless I buy an electric accordeon, but that is not allowed in this band. I just had my old accordion serviced, and some black keys were responding badly. Guess why😀Ha ha, I say no more....😀

[Paula]

Thank you all for your good advice and encouragement! I am happy to have such wonderful friends!! And Mke is right, I was kind of hoping for a shortcut, but at the bottom of my heart I know there is none😀 Unless I buy an electric accordeon, but that is not allowed in this band. I just had my old accordion serviced, and some black keys were responding badly. Guess why😀Ha ha, I say no more....😀

Hi Toril
I hear ya no easy fix.... I also dont read music and when I had bought a Lowery Organ way back....I was playing for a benefit  my younger sister played drums a fella came up who sang and played rhythm guitar he asked if he could set in with us ,  no pay was involved different people were here playing for this benefit in our small town.... the fella who set in with us had just bought a bar he asked if we could get together and play .... well I did learn to play in some different keys and it was country music I did some polkas  and we played at that bar every weekend for five years we packed the house people danced and many nights it was so packed you could hardly move we had fun also and got paid as well, and that old fella visits me a couple times a month  yet and this old lady and that old fella  still remain friends ...I am no big time accomplished key board player although it has been many years of playing and bringing others joy as well..... Happy New Year ...sorry I dont  get here to post often but I do keep up with many music posts
   Paula

[Toril S]

Yes, Paula, music is FUN, we wouldn't do it if it was boring Hope you will post some music again soon, miss you. I have never played witn others before, so very nervous as to how it will be, but I say to myself that no one is going to shoot me, so I will at least try. Me and my green, old accordion from the wonderful sixties, both of us!

[Paula]

Yes, Paula, music is FUN, we wouldn't do it if it was boring Hope you will post some music again soon, miss you. I have never played witn others before, so very nervous as to how it will be, but I say to myself that no one is going to shoot me, so I will at least try. Me and my green, old accordion from the wonderful sixties, both of us!

I  think you will do good Toril, depending on what type of music they play In my experience most guitar players like  G D A C ...depending on what instruments are played what you can do if your not required to play all lead you can back off and play the cords so learn the cord runs first , if you get lost on a song back out and let the rest of the group take over .... you can do it I know you can
  I like to have fun with an audience usually at the end of my gig I say .... thankyou I had a great time and thanks for not throwing rotten tomatoes at me , that usually gets a rise out of them , guess what if you screw up blame it on some one else just look innocent (HAHA) have fun dear Toril,

[Toril S]

Thanks Paula

[janamdo]

Hi Toril
I hear ya no easy fix.... I also dont read music and when I had bought a Lowery Organ way back....I was playing for a benefit  my younger sister played drums a fella came up who sang and played rhythm guitar he asked if he could set in with us ,  no pay was involved different people were here playing for this benefit in our small town.... the fella who set in with us had just bought a bar he asked if we could get together and play .... well I did learn to play in some different keys and it was country music I did some polkas  and we played at that bar every weekend for five years we packed the house people danced and many nights it was so packed you could hardly move we had fun also and got paid as well, and that old fella visits me a couple times a month  yet and this old lady and that old fella  still remain friends ...I am no big time accomplished key board player although it has been many years of playing and bringing others joy as well..... Happy New Year ...sorry I dont  get here to post often but I do keep up with many music posts
   Paula

Well, to  get solve this problems.. learn to read music ..its not that hard  ..so come on and go to learn to read music
For a arranger keyboard easier than for a piano i think.

[Paula]

Thanks Paula

I edited my previous post did you see it ?

[Toril S]

Good point, Janamdo! But too challenging when you have very little eyesight, so I read a little, but can not read from a sheet when playing. Usually I do fine with my ears

[Paula]

Well, to  get solve this problems.. learn to read music ..its not that hard  ..so come on and go to learn to read music
For a arranger keyboard easier than for a piano i think.

Hi
Toril cannot see well enough to read music

[janamdo]

Good point, Janamdo! But too challenging when you have very little eyesight, so I read a little, but can not read from a sheet when playing. Usually I do fine with my ears

Perhaps using a computer widescreen monitor behind the keyboard placing and then zooming bigger letters for the pdf songs
Can that help ?

Recently a while ago i bought a gaming monitor from AOC, it has 144Hz refreshingrate and is  a 27 " inch screen (if i am  correct) and this screen is much higher then a widescreen and not as wide as a widescreen
Seems to me very suitable for music reading

But all depends if your eyesight is strong enough?   

[Toril S]

Tried it. Still no good. But my ears work fine😀😀

[mikf]

Well, to  get solve this problems.. learn to read music ..its not that hard  ..so come on and go to learn to read music
For a arranger keyboard easier than for a piano i think.

Well apart from Toril's sight impairment, and the fact that it's not an arranger but an accordion she is playing, it is no trivial task to learn to proficiently sight read full sheet music in every key. And in any case the group she is playing with don't have music, they all play by ear. And if she did find music for some of the songs they play, and could sight read proficiently it probably would not help since it almost certainly would not be in the key they play. ☺️😂
Mike

[Denn]

Hello Toril, I love your playing. The easy answer to your question is to obtain a 5 row chromatic accordion as I have. No matter what button you start on the fingering is the same. So playing in "odd" keys is no problem - or is it? Sometimes I start playing in the key of A which is the third button down on the outside row. Then, as I go, sometimes I get to hit the C button which is the 4th button down. As the C is also in the A key I just continue in C.
This is me and my accordions
https://youtu.be/zmr_o-Fu9_4
Kind regards, Denn

[travlin-easy]

Toril,

The best advice I can provide is to play the chords that are comfortable for you and just have fun playing. I am going blind from Macular Degeneration and there is no cure. I, too,cannot read music, at least not enough to hamper my playing. I have played with many groups or pro musicians, guys and gals that were educated in the best music colleges, and just transpose to the chord they are playing in. Everything works, both for me and them - and they really don't give a damned as long as it sounds good and timing is correct.

Have fun, and don't worry about the petty stuff - it just makes  you older, but not wiser,

Gary

[mikf]

It's an accordion Gary, there is no transpose button. She has to learn to play in their key, no shortcut. I have every confidence she can. It's not all that hard when you have a good ear and many years of playing experience like Toril.
Mike

[Toril S]

Thanks friends😀

[panos]

Hi Toril,
up and down the scale with your right hand, the same way we have learned to play the C major chord and it's relative the A minor chord so the fingers get used to each scale.
(There is a need for a different finger position for each scale  and that is why over time the fingers will... find their way home by themselves)
Your ears will correct your fingers if they press a note out of the scale.
It will take some time, but your fingers will get used to it.

How many sharps or flats or black keys any scale or mode has, I don't remember either

The only thing that I try to remember is that 3 semitones(keys) to the left is the relative minor of a major key and when I also forget even this, I just go down from C4 to A3 to count the semitones(keys) to find it. (Easy to remember the two scales that you don't have necessarily to use any black keys when you improvise in Western music (C Key and Am key).

[janamdo]

it is no trivial task to learn to proficiently sight read full sheet music in every key.
Mike

That is for the real pianist to play in all keys, but for the hobby keyboardplayer not needed
Or you must like to play piano songs too ( i like, but its too difficult for me at the moment  )
Yes, the G major key and F major key are the easiest scales ones to use.
I do have some starters studymaterial for keyboard and it goes not further than one  sharp and one flat, that's it
I do have some more advanced keyboard lessonsmaterial and it revolves around these two F and G keys to play from in one series of lessons.
I don't see more keys in my advanced keyboard lessons
Playing in minor the A minor and D minor is also present there
Aminor has no flat or sharps and Dminor  has one sign.
So its all easy 

[mikf]

Jan
Relative beginners learning to read simple stuff in easy keys from lead sheets in private might is not too difficult. But when you are playing a wide range of music on piano or accordion in public, there are no crutches, nowhere to hide, no room for stumbling through, and the music would not be a simple arranger lead sheet. So sight reading at that level needs real proficiency gained over many years. It's neither easy or common, even among some quite competent players.
Mike

[janamdo]

Jan
Relative beginners learning to read simple stuff in easy keys from lead sheets in private might is not too difficult. But when you are playing a wide range of music on piano or accordion in public, there are no crutches, nowhere to hide, no room for stumbling through, and the music would not be a simple arranger lead sheet. So sight reading at that level needs real proficiency gained over many years. It's neither easy or common, even among some quite competent players.
Mike

Mike
That's a professional musician
To improve your playing is practising , like all pro players do and if you are talented it makes it easier.
Of course to be a professional musican is not for every one to be achieve that
Not me.. i  will be a hobby player for always.

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi
Do you not agree that some songs are better played in a different key. I mean easier.
Take Vangelis Chariots of fire, easier on the black notes, with a couple of whites!!! 
Just a different point of view. It just takes a little extra concentration  and you can do it.
It is like learning different moves on a chess board really


All the best John

[mikf]

That can be true, but when playing with others there is often no choice, you have to play in whatever key they play or sing in. If you know in advance you can practice, but sometimes it's just thrown at you in real time. The arranger players on this forum usually play alone and can prepare everything they do in advance for a public performance.  But it's not like that for most musicians playing traditional instruments. When I sat in local bands we never rehearsed, sometimes you had not even met the others in the band till you get to the venue. If you were lucky they had a vocalist who was halfway organized with a set list and the keys. Real luxury would be a set of lead sheets. Otherwise they just shouted the name of the tune, key and we go! All the people I played with in bands could handle this effortlessly.
Used to play in pubs in my young days and you don't know the key till they start singing. Then you have about half a bar to find it and be with them. Sometimes the key seemed halfway between Ab and A. Try finding that!🙄
Mike

[Toril S]

Oh my! I am in for some trouble!! Went through my list of songs that I play on the accordion today. It is G, C, F and Am all over the place, I just olayed the comfortable keys. So wish me luck. Today I purchased a used Zero Sette b26 accordion! And have started the task of learning to play the songs in their right keys! And I have asked for a song list from the band so I can be prepared. Taking on too much? Yes, but what the heck. I can always play for my dog if they kick me out😀 I still take piano lessons and compose songs on my keyboards. And I have you wonderful forum friends. I am lucky😀