By: Jan Geerts, Sacred Harp singer from Edinburgh.
Published on 25.5.2022.


Diary of a keyer.

I hope this an inspirational story to an aspirational keyer!

What is keying?

Imagine acapella singing. A choir. Typically four voices: soprano, alto, tenor, bass. Shapenote music is a little different but the basics are there.
Each voice needs to be given a starting note. If you had a piano to hand, perhaps easy. But we are voices only. No piano nor instruments.
Each song can be sung a bit higher or lower, but needs to be at a pitch so all voices can comfortably sing. We call it the “key of convenience”. “Comfort” could be a relative term: the key often sounds best when it is at the edges of singers’ capability, which gives it a certain zing and energy and allows basses to shine.

One person is the assigned keyer for a 45-minute singing session. For each song, 20 or so, this person gives the “choir” their starting notes, so that we’re all in tune. Normally no instruments are used, but I have no problem with someone using a tuning fork or pitch pipe. I just don’t know how to work those. I use my own body. I also can’t remember what key I just gave, which has it’s own challenges when leaders decide to give a speech after the key, just like a pitch pipe requires you to know a target key or so I presume.

I remember being asked to key in 2017 at an all-day singing. I said yes, and made some grave mistakes. I apologised to some singers for messing it up so bad. The only way to learn is to do it! In 2018, someone told me to “always sound the tonic”. Now, I learned about that when I was 10 but it never meant anything. I shrugged my shoulders and thought: what do I do with that info? Then it slowly dawned on me that things like “A major” or “A minor” indicate the tonic. If no key is indicated, then usually the last note of the base section indicates the tonic. Good tip if you’re a composer! All of a sudden, the key of a song has a meaning. You can ask me about my perspective on it if you’re curious. Suddenly, all this stuff that I was made to do at the age of 10-17 made sense. That’s half the battle. As keyer, you are responsible for 2 to 250 people, or more. Why I would be a keyer is beyond me, but I’ve always gravitated towards it.

Now, fastforward to 2022 and I’m asked to key at a convention. Two days of singing. It’s a big deal. I don’t want to let people down with bad keying at a big event, but we come to some vague agreement of putting me in a spot of least damage. (I have complete confidence in what that might be.)
The evening before the convention, I finally meet people I’ve known for ages but never actually spoke to. It’s a glorious meeting. We love sci-fi. In a drunken haze it is confirmed that I will key that weekend. Alright! At some point the next day I ask: when? My sessions of least damage would be Saturday late afternoon, Sunday early morning or late afternoon: singers are either tired, or still waking up. Sunday morning will be my session!
So I arrive nearby at a coffee shop and spot another singer. We have breakfast, talk, relax for about 1.5 hours. I didn’t want to be late. I’m certainly not late.

I key from the tenor section because that makes most sense, even if I’m not a tenor and haven’t sat in the tenors for years. I sing scales up and down, a bit higher, a bit higher, higher, then back lower, just to gage where my voice is and make sure my voice is actually working after the previous day of song and drink. Right or wrong, the only way I can key is based on my voice: if I can reach the lowest note in the altos, then I’ve got the right key. There’s a bit more to that, but that’s my general method. My voice, by this time, is an angel, all good! The person arranging the keyers kindly asks if someone should sit next to me to help me if things go bad. By this moment in time I decline. I can do this! If I need help, it will come from someone in the crowd! You sit where you like. Turns out they sat next to me anyway to fill the front bench, which was in many ways just delightful! I was surrounded by two people of great experience and voice!

Thus, for 45 minutes, I keyed song after song with fairly little trouble. Years ago a fellow singer said “yea, but you make eye contact with others”, which I still do. One song felt a little too high and I got sight of someone in the trebles to say, yea, it’s on the high side. We probably could have done it alright, but I lowered the key. On another occasion, I left it where it was and I think it was a tad too high but still within limits. I sang treble during the notes and thought: that’s alright, you can handle it, trebles. I do love that invisible communication between keyers in different sections. I also enjoyed having the courage to change the key. You don’t want to do it as it interrupts the flow of songs, but at the right time, you just feel how much better the key is even if just a semitone different.

That said, after every key I felt: I got away with it. Another lucky dip! Now here comes the best feeling: your last key, the last song, you can now collapse in a heap of human rags and be at rest! The rush that release gives is beyond words!

Happy keying!