Is there a lesson on tips and tricks to switch keys on a mandolin melody. It seems to happen a lot where I know the melody in one key and when the song is announced I get excited only to hear the key is different than what I know and my head just drops. I can’t really find anything online that helps learn to switch keys of a standard melody easier.
Thanks!
I guess it’s called improvisation. Learn to play in different keys. Just be glad your not a 5 string banjo player we have to swap a capo and peg the 5th string.
Check out the course Learn To Play in Any Key:
https://banjobenclark.com/courses/learn-to-play-in-any-key
Also the lesson Moving Mandolin Licks:
https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/moving-mandolin-licks-mandolin-intermediate
These are both more centered around moving licks, phrases and improv IIRC, but the concepts apply to moving a melody as well. There are also some lessons that teach the melody in more than one key, like Jingle Bells and Bury Me Beneath the Willow.
I know this is kind of basic info but I think if I understand it correctly, if say I know how to play the melody on Cripple Creek in the key of A using the first 5 frets. If I use the same pattern but move everything back two frets on the same strings I will now be in the key of G (yes if you can’t move it back you have to go to the next string 5th fret). Also, if I use the same pattern of frets but move everything down (play A string notes on the G string) two strings, I will still be in the key of G, but an octave lower. I mapped out the first dozen notes and that seems to hold up. Am I understanding this right?
Thanks,
Jon
You’ve got it exactly right!
It also really helps to know where your major scale notes are for the keys you need to play in, and be able to find the melody with them by ear. It’s a process of trial and error but you get faster and faster at it as you go.
Some keys are really easy to transpose to (like transposing something from A to D) while others will give you a headache (like transposing from A to E flat or something).