website with keys for popular songs?

[charlief]

Does anyone know if there is a website or resource that tells you the keys in which specific popular songs are most often played?

I am a beginner on tenor and just starting to play along to CD's and jam a little with friends. Ideally I would like to know chord progressions as well but am reluctant to purchase large numbers of fake books to cover all the songs I need.

Eventually I would hope to be able to recognise much of the above by ear - but i'm afaid I'm not quite their yet!

[Bud]

Try songtrellis.com in your browser and you will have available over 1000 tunes with chord changes etc. Hope this helps..............Bud

[Tom Goodrick]

You should just pick one fake book and then download the free notation program called Finale NotePad that lets you create written music with your mouse. Pick songs you like and enter them into your computer's memory using your mouse. Then you can transpose them into any key you might like and make a print. You don't have to buy a lot of fake books to get so many songs this way you'll be busy for years. It takes me about 30 to 40 minutes to enter a song. It takes five seconds to transpose it into a good key for tenor sax. It would be equally easy for alto sax.

I punch 3 holes in them and put them in a notebook.

Most songs published in books are in a key that singers like. That is seldom the same key we horn players prefer. There is no "right key". But there is probably one key that fits you and your horn best. If you don't get it on the first print, you can easily make more prints in different keys. That whole process takes about 5 minutes.

[Frank D]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but Tom, can you tell me if Finale NotePad makes it easy to transpose a different key every measure? I'm trying to make an exercise book by notating different riffs and phrases, then transposing them into all keys. So far this isn't practical on any of the music notation applications I've been using.

[Tom Goodrick]

Unfortunately, no, not in the free version of Finale NotePad. I do not know about the versions you pay for. I would imagine this is possible at some level. But, a significant drawback of NotePad is that you cannot change the key signature in the middle of a song. It is very easy to change the key of the entire song, but, each song must be one complete key.

The next verion up above the free level is about $65.

[Frank D]

Thanks for the feedback. We now return to our regularly scheduled program....................