Why not just take a tune for each key, E and B and learn those
two tunes.
I have 2 such tunes I have used.
1) Someday My Prince will come in B
2) Emily in E. I have a solo piano arrangement I play where I play the head
in Eb, modulate to E for the solos and take the tune out in F.
I have a similar weakness for A because I have not as yet picked a tune
for A. I have a nice tune I wrote in A but I usually just play it
as solo piano without taking a solo . See http://www.justjazz.com/beautev.pdf
My teacher Richard Hindman says it's good to have one tune for each
key.
I'm not sure whether he means the minor keys too. I'll have to ask
him the next time I see him.
I've heard that Dave McKenna used to just play his arrangements up
and down a half step to get better at the various keys.
Something interesting is that if you transcribe Bill Evans stuff,
for the first ten years of his career he is just playing in:
C, F, Bb, Eb.
He even put tunes in non standard keys to make life easy. For example
he played "Conception" by Shearing in C (usual key is Db).
Later he learned some specific tunes in unusual keys but almost always
before starting the solo section he would modulate to a comfortable key.
reed
>
Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com