What key best suits your voice and your playing?

[Mike $]

I was very happy to find out that it is easy for me to sing while playing the Ukulele. I sing in the areas of Bb and C, or Eb and F. All of these keys are relatively easy for me to play on the Uke. When I play banjo I have to throw on a capo to be comfortable playing all the licks I usually play in C, D or G in the keys I want to sing in. But I find the Uke to be very comfortable.

How about you guys, which keys are easiest for you to play and which are easiest for you to sing?

[ksiegel]

Depends on the day - for my voice, that is.

Used to be C, then in the late winter/early spring, I lost my bass voice. Just... gone. So it is now mostly F for singing, with an occasional E or A. Playing, not really an issue - I can use barre chords any time I need to.

[plunker]

When people hear me sing they say it is in the key of "L". Or at least they say it sounds like.

[Jim Yates]

It depends on the song. It's the range, rather than the key that determines what suits my voice. Some songs are best in C, some work in A, and some in E. . . Some songs with a narrow range will work in several keys. Sometimes I can sing a harmony, but the melody is the wrong key.

[xommen]

I'm with Jim on this:
It depends on the song. It's the range, rather than the key that determines what suits my voice.

[Uncle Rod Higuchi]

Yup, range of note more than the actual Key.

I've found that many 'simpler' songbooks use the Key of C, may I say it, 'too much'
probably because the chords are easier to form and play.
While that can be a good thing, for singers it can be problematic when the range
doesn't coincide with what the singer can comfortably manage either on the low end
or the high end.
For example, I encourage my students to learn Happy Birthday in the Key of F even
though it has a Bb, because I think many, if not most people can sing it in F. The Key
of C might be easier to play, but I think it is more difficult to actually sing... for most
people
I set up the Boot Camp Practice Sheets so those who use them can learn the chords
that are more frequently used in the Keys of C, F, G, A, and D, as can be found in many
of the current Ukulele Songbooks used by Song Circles (I believe).

Anyway, for me the 'key' is the range/pitch more than the actual Key

keep uke'in',

[Mike $]

Yes, of course it's the range, which is why I included my 2nd sentence "I sing in the areas of Bb and C, or Eb and F". I find that 2 or 3 keys are much easier for me to sing most songs in, not every song, just most. And you can see, these groups of keys are about half way apart from each other.

[Choirguy]

Just a note: many songs seem to work well in F and G for children; I usually start there as a teacher and move as necessary.

[UkingViking]

I transpose after my vocal range.

I can't go very high. I am not sure of the octave numbers, but the highest melody note I want to sing I usually want to be between G and B, depending on whether the song is supposed to sound like crooning or stretching it. I think I can sometimes hit a C note if the circumstances are just right.

When I transpose songs to suit this, I end up playing in the keys of D and A more often than any other individual keys. I don't know if there is some trend of the melody line usually peaking a special place in the scale relative to the key they are in :-)

[Nickie]

I like to sing in G, it's usually easy to fingerpick a solo to go with it.