Can soemone please help me find my key?

[jaminor]

i have a problem that i hope you guys can help me with..
i have been playing for a while now and can play in any key, can play any song that i hear..but my problem is if someone just gets up to sing i have a hard time finding what key they are in..are there any tips or excercises i can do to get over this burden
God Bless

[aljeres]

YOU CAN RUN UP THE NOTES...IN HALF STEP INTERVALS,STARTING AT THE LAST KEY YOU WERE IN..,LISTENING FOR THE HIGHEST NOTE.......

YOU CAN ALSO,WAIT FOR IT TO FALL......OR DROP SO TO SAY.....LIKE.SAY THEY ARE SINGING..PASS ME NOT......YOU CAN CATCH IT AT..........THE WORDS.."NOT"....OR "SAVIOR"........THOSE ARE SPOTS WERE IT FALLS AT.....I MEAN WERE THE KEY IS......BUT NOW SOME SONGS START ON ODD BEGINNINGS LIKE....ON THE FOUR....WHICH IS TO SAY THE F CHANGE IN C.....LIKE" SEARCH ME SEARCH ME LORD".....IT ACTUALLY STARTS ON A PASSING CHORD....GOING TO THE F CHANGE.....THEN YOU WOULD WAIT UNTIL IT FINISHES TO CATCH IT...SO I HOPE THIS HELPS AND NOT CONFUSE......ONE THING THAT REALLY HELPS IS TAKING A BREATH AND RELAXING......FROM SONG TO SONG....CANT GET NERVOUS.....IT WILL RECK YA EVERYTIME.....AND ALWAYS START ON THE LAST KEY...SORRY FOR CAPS!  GIERES...

[thekeynote]

Great response from Aljeres---that's how I do it---wait for the "resting tone"  or "resolving" note at the end of a verse or phrase.  It was hard for me at first because I play for a jazz vocalist who knows her keys!!  I play the intro, she starts singing--NO STRESS..lol  

I've often said that I wish church singers knew their keys---when they come up, why can't they tell the musician "Pass Me Not please in Eb??"  That's not so hard to do.  Carry a songlist of tunes & the keys in their wallet or purse?  When I play for guests soloist, after church I tell them the key they were in and say: In the future, you will know what to tell the musician!  

Be Blessed!
Lisa

[itsallpeach]

Another thing...you can do like I did (and still do from time to time).  If you can sing, play the scale (C major scale) in and sing along about 100 times until it registers in your head and then try doing it without music while remaining in pitch.  Eventually you become accustomed to which note sounds like what and you can run up the scale or "guesstimate" in your head before you ever start playing.  The only time my "so-called perfect pitch" does not work is when somebody is singing in G or Ab, or F or F#...I always mistake one for the other, but I know it's at least one of the two instead of having to make 11 more wrong guesses!

That's just my penny (not even worth two cents)!  HAHAHAHAHA!

[jaminor]

hey guys thanks for the helpful advice...i play for churches at 9:30am, 11:00am and at 6:30pm, i am sure i will put your advice to the test on Sunday, thanks again