"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 13:32:20 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:


"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
. ..
On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 12:59:50 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

3) Same jam session: I finished playing, and an excellent 80 year old
pianist who was next on the list to sit in with the house band. He had
just
one problem: He only knew how to play things in C.

Which is exactly my point - C is the easiest key to compose in and the
easiest to build around.

Real skill and creativity is needed to work beyond C which is why I
said what I said.

We have to work around the vocalist and the particular song. Otherwise, we
could accomodate some of these people. Even so, it would be deathly boring
to play everything in the same key. And, some songs need a certain effect
from the bass or the guitar. Maybe the rhythm really needs to have a
certain
note in order to move it along. In one of our songs, it's an open E on the
bass that seems to make the thing work. Nothing else does the trick.

Back in the day when I used to sub as a studio session man in New
Orleans, I learned a lot from one producer who knew this stuff cold.
He could change the whole impact of a song just by a subtle change in
emphasis, or change a bass line here, or guitar chord there - amazing.

Yeah...that's a cool skill. A couple of weeks back, my drummer suggested
that I play two eighth notes instead of a quarter note in a certain spot. It
made a huge difference - a sound that lasts a split second, just 4 times in
the song.