mr zed Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Started a song at a gig last weekend in the wrong key. This is a song we've been playing for ages and it starts on an F sharp. Started it in F. What a knob! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigman Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Been there Done that Often mistaking the 7th fret for the 5th fret or vice versa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil.c60 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 You're in good company - Guy Pratt tells a story about playing a gig on a big stage and starting a song a semitone out. He continued that way all the way through the song while other band members looked at him and he looked at them, all trying to get a grip on who was playing it wrong! He admits now that it was him, whether he did at the time....who knows! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Bay Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 It seems to make the lead sound worst though so even if it's our fault people tend to look elsewhere for the culprit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigman Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 I know of a bass player who tuned his G string a semitone out, just the G string...he played a song which used the 4th and 2nd frets of the G string a lot (as well as the other strings) and didn't even realise it was out of tune...got this story from his guitarist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulWarning Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 [quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1496163705' post='3309272'] Been there Done that Often mistaking the 7th fret for the 5th fret or vice versa [/quote]you and me both, and I can't hear the guitarist very well, ear plugs and all that, so it can take me a while to realise anything's wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
la bam Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 I once started the complete wrong song! Looked at the set list and it started with "C" so waited for the intro to finish the band kicked in and I started playing "chasing rainbows" ..... rest of the band were playing "cigarettes and alcohol". Took me a full verse to work out what was wrong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil.c60 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 So did I and I'm ashamed to say it was [u]really[/u] embarrassing as it is such an easy song: "Jesus Left Chicago". Come in on G, stay on G for a while, briefly A, then C. Repeat. Not remotely difficult, but for some reason I had complete brain fade and started playing the riff from something else completely. In C. God knows why. Guitarist looked at me in a strange way, Harp player who normally relies on me for timing, keys etc. because he usually can thought he'd dropped a huge b****ck and got a bit of a puzzled look on, but after a few bars I realised I was playing the wrong song, picked it up on a turnaround and we continued from there. I recorded that gig with my trusty Zoom, and with the power of Audacity chopped out the offending beginning and if you listened now you'd never know..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 At least you were able to correct yourself. Unlike Van Halen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjx_GjyXCs4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil.c60 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Wow. Just wow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Played a song not long ago that the singer/guitard uses a capo for. We started, and it was terribly apparent from the word go that one of us was half a step out. He kept shouting "In D!", which is correct, and what i was playing. Unfortunately, his acoustic doesn't have front dots, and with the lights I couldn't see properly, so it took me a verse to work out it definitely wasn't my tuning, and he'd put his capo in the wrong position...D flat it is then... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goblin Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 That can only be Noel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 How did you guess? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beely Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 The funniest thing about when something like that happens is the puzzled, almost panic-stricken looks exchanged between band members. Something is badly wrong and no one can quite figure out who or what is wrong. And yes, it has happened to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkandrew Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 (edited) You can't talk about being in the wrong key without mentioning Jemini at the Eurovision Song Contest finals a few years ago... http://youtu.be/Eu5kgSeZHfw Edited May 30, 2017 by darkandrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr zed Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 On another occasion, one of our guitarists started in the wrong key. I twigged it straight away and transposed on the fly. The other guitarist looked totally confused when he came in so swapped to his back up guitar thinking that his main guitar had gone out of tune. This also sounded wrong. He was still fiddling with his tuner at the end of the song when we had a chance to tell him. We fell about laughing about this one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrunoBass Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 [quote name='darkandrew' timestamp='1496174014' post='3309376'] You can't talk about being in the wrong key without mentioning Jemini at the Eurovision Song Contest finals a few years ago... http://youtu.be/Eu5kgSeZHfw [/quote] Thanks very much. I watched the video, and now I can't get the bloody chorus out of my head.... 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazzbass Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 that Van Halen clip, he wasn't in the wrong key, he was in the wrong band ....and state. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SICbass Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 [quote name='bazztard' timestamp='1496201876' post='3309493'] that Van Halen clip, he wasn't in the wrong key, he was in the wrong band ....and state. lol [/quote] I heard that they'd gone out on tour without a keyboard player and all the keys were on a sequencer. I don't know if there was a power failure or what, but somehow the sequencer reset itself to the wrong sample rate (i.e. 'in the cracks' tuningwise). Being as the entire intro is on keys and they were less than a semitone out of tune, no one noticed until the band kicked in, by which time it was too late. You could hardly stop the song and start again on what was probably the last encore. I can only presume that Dave Lee Roth had mostly keys in his in-ears as he seems relatively unphased. Poor old EVH's deperate efforts during the solo make my teeth itch. I feel sorry for the bloke, although I'm sure that after the gig they had a few beers and a laugh over it.......... perhaps after sacking the sequencer tech? 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SH73 Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 [quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1496166484' post='3309299'] At least you were able to correct yourself. Unlike Van Halen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjx_GjyXCs4 [/quote] It's like cat mating season.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazzbass Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 I will NEVER ever again be embarrassed for playing a wrong note hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oopsdabassist Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 Depending on whether I play my Yamaha (24 frets) or my Fenderish's (21 frets) basses means the common fret positions are in slightly different places in front of me, it takes a while to get settled if I swap basses and can easily result in stuff being a tone out of whack.....I'm learning to love the panic stricken faces around me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 Hohner B2 cricket bats were always my nemesis. No so much now I am more used to them - they are just so handy to carry around as a back up so I persevered. At first, 2 octave scale plus no head meant that my subconscious mental map of note positions was all over the place. Always seemed something of a lottery which notes I would actually be playing as my hand never seemed in the right spot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Steve Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 not quite the same thing, but my last band were getting a bit frustrated at the singer insisting that we de-tune the guitars by two steps to make it easier for him to hit the notes, and on a five string bass the strings were just flapping about and the guitars didn't have quite the zing they wanted from being at concert pitch. So one week we all tuned up a semi tone, and didn't tell him. Three hours of the singer looking slightly puzzled - he knew something was wrong but couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. he never worked it out, and we never went back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc S Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 Being in several bands, I've had those moments too - where you start playing a song with one band, and realise you're playing it in a key you play with a different band! Also started the wrong song once or twice too We've all done it mate - you are not alone, so don't worry lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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