In what key is Gershwin's "Summertime"?

[Dale]

I have key issues. In what key is Gershwin's "Summertime"?

[fearfaoin]

I have key issues. In what key is Gershwin's "Summertime"?

Good question. The guitar chords that I can find from a google search put it in either <a href="http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/getso ... crd">Am</a>,
or possibly some <a href="http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/getso ... d">version of Dm</a>. I'll have to wait till I get home so I can play along to see
which is accurate.

The Dminor-ish chord progression looks much more complicated, so that's probably the
correct one...

Edit: Oops, that first progression is Am, not Em. With Jsluder's post (Am has the same key
sig as C) that probably confirms it

[jsluder]

They key signature on the sheet music is C, but the description at Sheet Music Plus says it's in A Minor. Ah, just transpose the thing to whatever key you want.

[GaryKelly]

I thought it was customary to ask the singer what key they wanted it in?

[izzarina]

I thought it was customary to ask the singer what key they wanted it in?

Actually, this is what I was going to say...usually in a piece like this, it depends on what key the singer is comfortable in.

[Denny]

I thought it was customary to ask the singer what key they wanted it in?

or, as an instrumental, it depends on the treatment and the key the instrument is in... Some keys are easier for hot or cool...depends on what ya feel like at the time.

[jsluder]

I thought it was customary to ask the singer what key they wanted it in?

"And here's Summertime, in the key... to YOUR NEW CAR!"

Sorry, channeling Bob Barker there...

[Scott McCallister]

No Sharps, no flats. A minor. (the relative minor to C major)

Should lie nicely in B minor on a D whistle. (start on f#)

[emmline]

A ridiculous key. I took a voice class once in which that was one of the available songs I could choose to sing. And a lower key was available to those who could not manage the uber-soprano of the operatic original.

[Flyingcursor]

According to my Readers Digest collection it's in Am.

I play it on a Dm harmonica but I'm not sure what key I actually play it in.

[fearfaoin]

I thought it was customary to ask the singer what key they wanted it in?

Actually, this is what I was going to say...usually in a piece like this, it depends on what key the singer is comfortable in.

I assumed Dale was asking because he was trying to figure out what whistle to use to play
along with a recording of the song. But, you know what happens when you assume...

[mvhplank]

According to my Readers Digest collection it's in Am.

I've become skeptical of popularly available printed versions. I couldn't find them or wouldn't pay for them so I learned to play along with the recordings. There was a particular Simon & Garfunkle tune a guitar player and I were trying to do--only to discover we were in different keys. I had learned my version from the record, but he responded in amazement that his key "was the way it was written" because he had found sheet music for it--apparently in an "easier" key.

I'm sure we reached a compromise somewhere.

Poor soul, he was a beautiful young man, and talented, but committed suicide some years later. So sad, such a waste. Spare him a kind thought today.

M

[Dale]

I've heard it in different keys but I didn't know if Uncle George had one in mind. To my ears, it sounds right played in A-minor.

[Joseph E. Smith]

I play it in Amin.

[SteveShaw]

I thought it was customary to ask the singer what key they wanted it in?

I've played along with two different (male) singers and used a C diatonic harmonica for both. I think that works out as A Aeolian mode. I can't think that all female singers would want that pitch though.

Steve