Grateful Dead Music Forum

On the remastered Blues For Allah album there is an extra track called "E to Ab Jam", or maybe "Ab to E Jam"....

Well anyway, its a jam and it jams from one key to another. Can anyone give opinters on how to jam from one key to another?

It's not all that much of a key change.

In fact, it's a very common whip in a few tunes:
Eyes of the world - goes from Emaj7 to Abm
Cassidy jam - goes from E to Abm (after rockin to F# for a measure)

Okay, there is one very simple, but oh so important tip for making smooth and seamless osunding key modulations on the fly. Find the common tones the two keys share, and accent them in your lines leading up to the transition.

I don't have a guitar with me right now, but do this: if both the keys in question are major, play the E major and Ab major scales. Make a note of which notes are common to the two keys. There will be some, guaranteed. Now, when you are playing your lines , make those notes the center of attention. When you finally finish the transition and are fully into the seconnd key, then you may seamlessly slip into the rest of Ab major.

Ah I see!

Damn scales. Is there anything they can't do?

Agreed, wisedyes

I'm doing this quickly so forgive any errors:

E maj = E F# G#(Ab) A B C# D#
Ab maj = Ab Bb C C# D# F G Ab
Common notes = C#

E maj = E F# G#(Ab) A B C# D#
Ab min = Ab Bb B C# D# E F# Ab
Common notes = E F# G#(Ab) B C# D# (so it's really just the E maj without the 5 (or A) or if you think about it differently it's the E scale with a 'flatted 5th')