Hi all

I am havin a lot of fun singing with vocal harmony to the Style of " Have you ever seen the Rain- C.C.R. "..
My question is this....I am playing in the Key of C...But to sing comfortably I have to transpose it up " 5 "...Does this tell me that this is the key that is best for for my singing ( and I mean this loosely :-)) )? And what is this key? Is it the key of E ?

As always Thanks
Ron

That would be F..five 1/2 steps up from C.

If you have to transpose in any direction to make it comfortable to sing then do it, and if it works then that is the right key. The first thing to do with ANY song is to find out what key suits YOU. It's your voice and singing in the wrong key is the easiest way to ruin your voice and sound bad at the same time.

Experiment. Some songs that I sing (with my partner in a duo) do not sound right at the "comfortable" key. We sometimes do "Hungry Eyes" (Eric Carmen, from Dirty Dancing). The comfortable key for me would be Bb, giving a top note of F. However, singing the song in this key sounds flat, so we play it in the key of C - top note G - and then it sounds good because of the extra effort required to sing the song.

Hey Ron,

And if the song is orginally in the key of C and you go UP 5 steps, I will assume that to be comfortable, you sing the lead part an octave lower.(?) Of course, maybe you're the next Neil Sedaka or Frankie Valli.

I usually have to go down a step or two (or three) to be comfortable. I leave the high notes for somebody else.

-mike

Thanks for all the advice....This still is a great site for advice and knowledge..I am glad to be a small part of it..

Ron

Ron,

It's important to always sing at a comfortable level and never, never strain to hit the high notes. A good rule of thumb is to find the highest note in the song and transpose until you can hit that note comfortably. If you have to strain to hit the high notes it can result serious health issues such as vocal cord nodules and blisters, both of which can become cancerous.

Cheers,

Gary

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