I was reading a review of the Yamaha CP300 keyboard and one feature was the ability to transpose the output into any key. Usefull for beginners who might only know a song in one key.
Is there a a similar hightech Capo for guitars. So if we learn a song in one key but a last second change in singers, perhaps in middle of a song throws you into another key then you can just hit your pedal without thinking how do you hit this chord or I have to hit thrid fret from the capo not the third fret.
I think Fender has a new guitar coming out with electronics that might accomplish some of this. I'd wager it's expensive.
Well we all shine on--like the moon and the stars and the sun.
-- John Lennon
This feature is very usual in synths and useful. The Zoom G2 has a similar effect but it is no so good... or probably I don't know how to make it work correctly. Basically you select how many semitones (up or down) you want to modify the original tone. The effect is called "Pitch Shifter". I never used it but this Boss PS5 pedal is similar (with alot of more options... I guess... my Zoom is cheaper than that pedal).
The new Fender Strato VG has a similar feature, you can change the tuning from a normal tuning to a Drop-D, for example. Probably they also could add a completely different tuning simulating a capo.
Maybe I'm missing something, but surely the whole idea of learning and playing the guitar is to do exactly that; play the guitar - play the music you want to play.
The whole concept of thinking
"I don't have to play the 'hard', barred F# (or even learn HOW to), I'll just play an 'easy' open E and the pedal will make it sound like an F# for me"
is just....odd, and seems to take away from the need for actual ability on the part of the guitarist.
Maybe its just me?
Pete
ETD - Formerly "10141748 - Reincarnate"
Maybe I'm missing something, but surely the whole idea of learning and playing the guitar is to do exactly that; play the guitar - play the music you want to play.
The whole concept of thinking
"I don't have to play the 'hard', barred F# (or even learn HOW to), I'll just play an 'easy' open E and the pedal will make it sound like an F# for me"
is just....odd, and seems to take away from the need for actual ability on the part of the guitarist.
Maybe its just me?
Pete
Well, yes and no, I picked up the Digitech Whammy pedal a couple days ago and I love it. Now, I don't use it to transpose music (I don't really think it would really work that way) but it's really neat because you can bends notes up and down over 2 octaves to give you sounds you can't get on a guitar. It also functions as a harmonizer, I like to use the octave function on that. When I use it with my guitar that has a whammy bar, I can get some REALLY neat sounds.
Steve-0
Maybe I'm missing something, but surely the whole idea of learning and playing the guitar is to do exactly that; play the guitar - play the music you want to play.
The whole concept of thinking
"I don't have to play the 'hard', barred F# (or even learn HOW to), I'll just play an 'easy' open E and the pedal will make it sound like an F# for me"
is just....odd, and seems to take away from the need for actual ability on the part of the guitarist.
Maybe its just me?
Pete
The original review was in using the keyboard with a worship band. While yes we are learning how to play we also are performing or leading others.
In the church setting, especially in small congregations the musicianship level may be so low that such handicaps exist that must be overcome. At my particular church the lead player sees using the capo as a crutch and is fine with Nashville style charts. Others with less skill and experience need the actual chords written for them and can capo. When I play guitar, I just started playing bass for the team, I have to remind myself what the capo position is with every chord change.
Maybe someday I will be able to change key in my head and know the open and barre fingerings for any situation but I'm not nearly there yet. Yet I am called to help lead the worship service.
Well, yes and no, I picked up the Digitech Whammy pedal a couple days ago and I love it. Now, I don't use it to transpose music (I don't really think it would really work that way) but it's really neat because you can bends notes up and down over 2 octaves to give you sounds you can't get on a guitar. It also functions as a harmonizer, I like to use the octave function on that. When I use it with my guitar that has a whammy bar, I can get some REALLY neat sounds.
Me too. I didn't use that effect so much (really, I don't use effects usually). When I do I try to achieve the same effects than Steve-O. Specifically you can emulate the sound of a bass guitar playing with you the same notes or even only the bass guitar lowering the volume of the guitar (the original sound).
When I played keyboards I remember the use of the feature was very usual between other players (some friends and friend's relatives). Some of them played as studio musicians for more or less known bands here. The effect is much better on keyboards because it is a simple change of the tone that must emit the electronics, on guitars it is different.
It's an effect and as such you can use for some reason. Obviously, I agree with Pete, the barre chords and transposing theory must be learned too.
Don't bother using pitchshifters on full chords, it'll sound like crap no matter what settings. These effects work much better on melody/bass lines where it only has to track one note at a time. A difference between piano and guitar is that as soon as you can play the basic barre-chords you can somewhat play in all keys. On a piano it's a bit more complex, which is why many beginning pianists (like myself) try to avoid some keys whereas it doesn't particularly matter that much to beginning guitarists (like me). :P
It would seem to me to be easier to change key on a keyboard. You just need to get over the mental block of hitting a black instead of a white key. Its not like they have to account for open strings
Well, it forces you to change the position of the hand. It's probably a matter of taste but I prefer keys that have a medium ammount of sharp or flats. When running up the scale of Cm it is, to me, easier to make room for the thumb-crossing, then with C-major: the middle-finger going to Eb just makes it a bit less crowded compared with the white E.
