A friend and I had a disgreement recently about the most common blues keys. From my experience as a listener of blues for 25+ years, A and E are the king keys. My buddy says C and G are common.
I asked him for clarification and he agreed that by blues we mean: John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, Charlie Musslewhite, etc. NOT Blues Traveler type stuff.
What do you think
You're both right.
E and A are very guitar-friendly keys, so a lot of guitar based blues is in those.
But if you have soloists on other instruments, you accomodate them. Lots of harmonica-based blues is in C or G - if a harp player only has one or two harps, you play in the keys he's got (actually you play a fifth above his key for cross-harp blues, so if he has a C harp you play in G)
Horns like flat keys. F, Bb, and Eb are common keys if you have any brass players.
And jazz bands do blues in all keys. Keeps the pianist on his toes.
Musselwhite's the only non-guitarist you list... a lot of his tunes are in D (using a G harp); he also plays in A, E, and G.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
A lot of blues that I play is E & A based. But some of it is in flats so it's Eb & Ab.
Vacate is the word...Vengance has no place on me or her...Cannot find a comfort in this world.
It's the keys with the open strings that are most common.... So, E, A, sometimes D. The flats keys mentioned above are likely due to drop key tuning.
PK
Open strings assume a string instrument is the lead. I've played plenty of blues in F, Bb, Eb, etc. when working with sax players etc.
Whatever instrument is the lead (including vocalists) sets the key, and everyone else follows.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
IMHO, the most common keys for Blues is E and A. And as others said, the main reason is that both have many open strings when using the Minor Pentatonic or Blues scale.
But of course, there are Blues in every key. Many old Chuck Berry tunes were in F and Bb, because his piano player helped him write the tunes.
I would say that G and C are the most common Country keys. This is exactly for the very same reason. Country guitar players use the Major Pentatonic much more than the Minor. So a Country guitarist playing the Major Pentatonic in G would be using the exact same notes as a Blues player in E. And a Country player using the Major Pentatonic in C would be using the same exact notes as a Blues player using the Minor Pentatonic in A.
So Blues is mostly E and A, and Country is mostly G and C.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Looks like everyone has pretty much answered the question.
That's kind of a tough question to answer for me. I've play'ed for and with so many different musicians and bands over the years, they all had something special to say. I play'ed whatever key I was asked or what was on the sheets infront of me. To become a professional guitarist you need to able to play in all the keys. I would have to say more times than not tuned 440, E, G, A, B. Lessor ones would be F, C, D.
Joe
The bulk of the old Delta blues was played in Open G in the key of G. Early Muddy Waters electric slide stuff was done the same, as was some of Howlin' Wolf's. D's another good blues key. Open D and Open E are the same, a tone apart in pitch, and are the basis of lots of great slide blues.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
i like E and A also, not only for blues, but most rock guitarists love E and A 8)
even god loves rock-n-roll
