what key do i sing in?

[vishalchoure]

Hello people, I usually am comfortable singing with a capo on 3rd and 4th fret, usually the 4th fret, and use A C G E F Am Em and F7. So I am just wondering what key do I sing in when I sing also why am I only comfortable with singing with these chords only, I don't sound good on the chord D.
Thank you in advance

[crikey]

Welcome, vishalchoure. The real question is: Do you dance? When you can answer that, all else will be revealed.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by vishalchoure

Hello people, I usually am comfortable singing with a capo on 3rd and 4th fret, usually the 4th fret, and use A C G E F Am Em and F7. So I am just wondering what key do I sing in when I sing also why am I only comfortable with singing with these chords only, I don't sound good on the chord D.
Thank you in advance

Well, it's going to depend on what chord form you start and end on. If you're capoed at the third fret and you're playing chords in A formation, starting and ending on an A major chord, that puts you in the key of C natural. However, if you're playing in C formation while capoed at the third fret, using C, F, G and A minor chord forms, that puts you in Eb natural.

Move the capo up a fret and it puts you a half step higher. C formation chords at the 4th fret put you in E natural, and A formation chords at that capo position put you in C# natural.

If you could tell us some of the songs you sing there and chord progressions you use on them, that would make it easier to be exact about this.


Wade Hampton Miller

[dcmey]

Do you have a capo chart? That could help you identify what key you are singing in. The first chord in your songs can help identify the key.

[Tico]

Originally Posted by vishalchoure

Hello people, I usually am comfortable singing with a capo on 3rd and 4th fret, usually the 4th fret, and use A C G E F Am Em and F7. So I am just wondering what key do I sing in when I sing also why am I only comfortable with singing with these chords only, I don't sound good on the chord D.
Thank you in advance

IMO you're thinking about this incorrectly.

Songs may have notes that range from below your singing range to above your singing range.
No capo position or key change will change that.
Don't sing those songs.

Find songs that don't have too wide of a pitch range.
Next just sing the song with no guitar.
If it goes too low in pitch start over singing it a little higher in pitch.
If it goes too high in pitch start over singing it a little lower in pitch.

When you find where it fits in your vocal range figure out what key you've been singing in by starting the song in one capo position, keep changing the capo's position till you are playing in the key that fit your voice for that song.

For the next 10 songs the best capo position and or key may be all different.

[MrMartyr]

Its called the key of Ryan Adams. lol

[stanron]

People don't sing in any one key. What you need to do is identify the highest and lowest notes you can sing without straining.

Then when you find a song you want to sing and go through it finding the highest and lowest notes in the song.

You then find a key where your highest note is below or at the highest note in the song. Sometimes you will have to change the key and sometimes moving the capo will do.

Different songs have different highest and lowest notes. A solution that works for one song may not work for the next. You have to experiment.

[Lacks Focus]

I'm not sure I understand the question. If you know the key you're playing in, you know the key you're singing in.

[Rudy4]

As a way to try to re-state the process simply:

Find your natural range by singing the song without the use of an instrument. Most folks will easily find where they can comfortably sing an entire song.

Pull out your guitar and match the chords to the key that you naturally sing in. Once you ascertain the key you can capo or adjust chord selection as necessary for easy accompaniment to your selected vocal key.

[The Bard Rocks]

Tico and Stanron have the right approach. Sing the highest note that you are comfortable singing and duplicate it on the guitar. Then do the lowest note, and you will have established your range. Songs that go beyond that stretch are probably not good ones to try to learn. You will find most songs will be doable if you play them in the correct key for you.

For instance, my high is an E and the low is an A below the staff; that's 12 whole notes. I should be able to sing any song that has that has a range of that or less. Most do. Then I adjust the key I play a song in so that I do not exceed either end of my range and, when I can, try to center it some if the range is less than my 12 whole notes.

I can either use a capo or just switch to a different key to make it fit me. I am comfortable fingering in quite a few keys so I usually just change the key. But there are some I don't like to play in (think C#...). For those I get out a capo to bring the notes where I want them to be yet still be able to use a fingering that I am comfortable using.

With some practice, this will become second nature once you know what your range is.

[muscmp]

using your keyboard, sing the notes as you go up and down the scales. that will give you your range. or, sing notes into your guitar tuner that has a built in microphone. that will also work but may not give you the "key" you sing in.

play music!

[jessupe]

It's not what "key" you have what is called a key range, which really is dictating your pitch range. You could sing in several keys, between the octaves of x and y, your really describing your pitch range and where your voice feels comfortable.

For example, I'm a metal singer, I am very comfortable singing over the key of C, but only within my range, If I try to sing in the key of C an octave above, stil in the key of C, it's not going to happen....

Most "household name" singers are tenors, which is why when I first started out as a kid I couldn't understand why I couldn't really sing along with most of my favorite songs, as I was in the bass range, I did discover that I could sing with them, as long as I dropped my voice down an octave, but that I really had to develop my own songs and style to go with my voice, as "Screaming for vengeance" just didn't have the same "feel" and octave down.

western music is "key centered" once a center is choosen, say A, then the major or minor, which will set up progression options, you have the choice to sing in "key" in the key of A as far as your range will let you go, in the key of A singing super low, or in the key of A super high or anywhere in between. It's all still the key of A

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by vishalchoure

Hello people, I usually am comfortable singing with a capo on 3rd and 4th fret, usually the 4th fret, and use A C G E F Am Em and F7. So I am just wondering what key do I sing in when I sing also why am I only comfortable with singing with these chords only, I don't sound good on the chord D.
Thank you in advance

Here's why your question doesn't make sense. You say that you don't sound good singing over a D chord. The D chord contains the notes D, F#, and A.
You can find a D note in a G chord.
You can find an A in the A, Am, F, and F7 chords.

As others have pointed out, we sing in different keys. We don't have a key that we always sing in. The key that works for you on any song will be dependent upon the range of notes in that particular song. And that will change from song to song.

[jessupe]

for those who lack understanding in theory a simple "real world" test you can do is find a piano, find the middle C {the one in the middle} and then start playing the white keys going down and sing along with them, eventually you will start to hit low notes that you can't sing, go back to the last note you could sing, and try the black key next to it {if there is one} as there is no half step between B/c and E/F {if you find yourself on an F or C} anyway your trying to see if you can get that last half step down or not, lets say you made it all the way to A and you could just get the A flat G sharp, so, that is the lowest note you can sing, then repeat the process, but this time going up from middle C, find the highest note you can sing....that is your vocal range, and or you can sing all the notes in between the lowest and highest note. The next step is establishing your sweet spot and or comfort zone, this is the range contained in your maximum range that the quality of your voice sounds good in, although keys are relative to your question, it is more about vocal range and your comfort zone with in it, which is usually in the middle of your range in its entirety.

[Wade Hampton]

Guys, I think you're throwing out a little too much music theory for Vishalchoure to really grasp at this point. He finds himself capoing his guitar at the third and fourth frets and using a few chord forms to play the songs that he knows. Let's start there and try to answer the question he actually asked before we go further afield.

As I wrote earlier, Vishalchoure, it would be helpful to know what songs you're singing and what chord forms you're using to play them with. Once we have a better idea about that, we can sort of reverse engineer things from there.


Wade Hampton Miller