playing in all 12 keys

Electronic Transposition: The Consequence of Indecision

In a previous article, we considered two approaches to transposition – electronic transposition (mostly bad) vs mental transposition (always good). Here’s the reason why you’re not playing in all 12 keys.

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12 Reasons To Learn All 12 Keys

Since I’ve been promoting my “Instant Transposer” software lately, I thought I’d share this list of 12 reasons to learn all 12 keys. Check it out! Reason #1 – Versatility: Nothing feels better than knowing you can play a song or accompany a singer in any key you want. If the singer cannot reach certain notes and […]

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New Tool Teaches How To Play In All 12 Keys

Everyone talks about how important it is to learn all 12 keys as a musician. Not only does it give you the flexibility and fluidity to play any song you hear on the radio (as you’ll find songs spread across all 12 keys), but it ensures you’re never caught in a situation where you’re dumbfounded because you can’t follow along in the unfamiliar key.

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The Most Practical Way To Master All 12 Keys

I’m often asked the best way to learn all 12 keys and while I’ve advocated many methods in the past, the most practical way is to adapt my “3 x 12” rule.

Simply put: Take 3 songs you know and learn them in all 12 keys.

It helps if they are songs that utilize a variety of different chords. That’s why picking 3 is important because between them, you should get a good mix of chords off every tone of the scale…

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Here’s another interesting way to look at major scales

By now, you should know your major scales. If you don’t, there’s plenty of lessons on here to get you up to speed. But that’s not what I want to talk about today.

I want to talk about an entirely different way to look at scales. A way that will help you to learn and understand chord progressions a lot faster! (Isn’t that what we all want? Chord progressions create SONGS!).

Don’t get me wrong… scales are great. I’m a great advocate of learning scales in the beginning. I just don’t like when people get wrapped up into playing them just to “warm up” (and stuff like that). I think they are much more important than that…

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How I quickly learn songs in all 12 keys

So this isn’t going to be easy but if you’re committed, you can learn to play in ALL 12 keys… not just one. I’ll lay out 2 ways to do it. One way, I learned about 16 years ago and still use at times. The other way is more involved, but will help your understanding of music a lot better…