benefits:
-the lowerered pitch is the obvious one....if your singer's range doesn't facilitate a certain song, you're stuck either a)relearning it in a new key with totally new fingerings (which will sometimes lead to have to play things up an octave when they shouldn't be), b) canning the tune, or c) tuning down
-it's like a reverse-capo. It's the same reason why certain songs sound way better with a capo (mostly for open position chords to work) rather than re-voicing a chord in a way that doesn't sound as good. Some singers strongly prefer the sound of a certain chord voicing over another. Also, let's say, for example, that you're playing in a 3-piece (drums, bass, and you on guitar) or, even better, an acoustic/vocal duo and you're doing in a song in Ebm (your singer can't sing it in E). You're going to have a lot more space to fill and you're going to find a big sounding open Ebm chord way better sounding than a barre chord in 6th position.
-to emphasize once again....a singer might not have the range or just might not want to sing a song in a particular key. Like it or not, singers will always have the final say in the matter and it's easier for you to tune down than for the singer to magically make a few extra notes appear.
-Color. A lot of people firmly believe that each key has a very distinct flavor to it. The whole "d minor is the saddest of all keys" thing has a lot of merit to some people (in a lot of cases, I'd be one of those people myself). Tuning down can often give something a different character beyond the fact that it's just lower in pitch. You could make a correlation between this concept and how most orchestral string players DO consider F# and Gb to be completely different in more ways than spelling
-This one wont apply to as many people, but when you're on recording sessions, filling in with a band that you're not entirely familar with, playing in a house band, backing up a singer, doing a reading gig, etc.....tuning-down is often an easier and safer alternative to having to transpose a song on the spot. Trust me, if you're on a gig where all you're doing is sight-reading and a tune comes up in the key of Gb, it can be a lot easier to tune down a half-step and read it as though it were in G. Another big one is if a group you're in decides to do a song that you've known for years, but in a different key than you know it...easier to tune down and play the fingerings you've always known than to have to focus on essentially re-learning the tune in real time. I've run into both on several occassions. 2 years ago, I filled on for a friend's jazz combo one time and I only knew about 4 of the songs and was reading the rest. The saxophone player called "take 5" which is in Ebm. Though I'd heard the tune, I'd never played it before. I had to play the melody in unison with the sax and didn't want to mess up because of the key signature, so I tuned down a half-step and read it like it was in E minor. I should note though that this could be a problem if the tune in question has a lot of accidentals in it (found that one out the hard way
).
Thanks though, I appreciate the kind words. Glad I can help...it helps me a lot too. A lot of music-related topics can be really hard to put into words (especially via the internet with no way to actually demonstrate things), so having to explain them that way is great teaching practice for me and forces me to view the same topics from all kinds of different perspectives to better understand not only the topic itself, but how others perceive it. Teaching is something I'm fairly passionate about, so it's VERY flattering to hear your compliments.
