You know in praise and testimoniy service you never know what key someone's gonna start a song in, so you at least need to take a bar or 3 to figure out where they are. I've played with a one cat a few times (not my MoM) in that sort of situation. He has some skills, but doesn't always have a good ear, it seems. A song starts and, as usual, I hear the key and play accordingly, and everyone in the church was singing a song in this particular key (which can be a minor miracle in it's own right). But this dude took off running from the opening few notes, playing in his own key. It's happened before, and I can usually get his attention and put him on the the correct key and we get on the same page.
This particular time, however, I get his attention and tell him the correct key, and he kinda responds like "huh? oh... umm... I can't play that in key" and kept on going just as he was. So I can either A) match him so the whole band sounds off comapred to the singing, or B) match the singing so the band sounds divided.
I chose option "C". After the first verse of the song sounding a hot mess in 2 keys that weren't even close, I gradually faded out then completely stopped for the rest of the song. I looked over at my drummer (who was sitting out to let one of the youngsters get a shot), and he just looked at me like "man, I know".
..ya see this is why I prefer guitar...you can tinkle your way out of anything...and people will call you Benson afterwards...just for a few strategically placed riffs!...
LOL!!!!