The Reality of "Practice in All 12 Keys": A Practical Approach for Jazz Musicians

If you study jazz, no doubt you have seen jazz educators suggest that you should play this or that exercise "in all 12 keys." I feel about this the same way that I feel about the idea of eliminating all sugar from your diet, or walking for two hours every day - undeniably good advice, but perhaps unrealistic.

For those of us with limited practice time, it might be more valuable to consider the musical situations we're likely to encounter in the real world. For jazz musicians, much of our playing time takes place within the context of the standard repertoire - the tunes that all jazz musicians are expected to learn and play.

The Keys That Matter Most

At The Jazz Workshop, we often work from a list of 187 of the most commonly played jazz tunes. In this list, certain keys tend to predominate. This is likely due to the musical preferences of piano players and horn players over the last century. While any of these tunes could theoretically be played in any key, tradition generally dictates that there is one "most common" key for every tune, and that's the most important one to know.

Curious about the actual distribution, I analyzed our repertoire list to see exactly how many tunes fell into each key category. The results were illuminating!

What I Discovered

First, I excluded nine tunes for which the notion of "key" is simply irrelevant, as they are extremely chromatic and don't conform to any one key. Those tunes are: "Countdown", "Fe Fi Fo Fum", "Freedom Jazz Dance", "Giant Steps", "Inner Urge", "Maiden Voyage", "Tune Up", "Speak No Evil" and "Yes Or No".

That left 178 tunes. After noting the standard key for each, I compiled the data into a graph:

The analysis revealed some fascinating patterns:

• 74% of these tunes are in just five keys: F, C, Eb, Bb, and G

• The most common minor keys are C minor and D minor, each accounting for 6% of the list

• Some keys appear only once: Eb minor ("Take Five") and D major ("Wave")

• Only two tunes on the list are in Bb minor: "Nica's Dream" and "Love for Sale"

• The least common major key is Db, with just four tunes: "Stablemates", "Body and Soul", "Stompin' at the Savoy", and "Things Ain't What They Used To Be"

  
  

Finding Balance in Your Practice

Let me be clear - I do believe in the value of practicing in unusual keys. When I practice saxophone, one of my favorite exercises is taking a bebop head and playing it a half-step lower and a half-step higher than the standard key (very slowly!). On piano, I'll often choose an awkward key for a familiar tune and work my way through it. These are excellent technical workouts.

However, I think we can go easy on ourselves regarding the idea of practicing everything in "all 12 keys." For most jazz musicians, time is better spent practicing and internalizing tunes in their standard keys, playing them enough that we can feel confident even without sheet music.

Happy practicing!

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Written by Paul Pieper, Director of The Jazz Workshop, where he helps musicians of all levels develop their improvisation skills through practical, real-world approaches to jazz education.