(This post is taken from Jeremy’s blog here.)
Call me crazy, but I firmly believe every musical key has its own unique identity.
They are like different people to me, each with their own distinct personality.
My scientific-minded friends may say “Look dude, it’s just a difference in frequency”. But nope, in my opinion every key has personality.
I believe when you’re a composer and you’re choosing a key to compose in, it’s more than just about i) whether it fits the singer’s vocal range or ii) whether it’s easy to play (like C Major, yeah baby!!!). No, there has to be far greater consideration than just that.
(But I’ll have to be honest and admit that there are many times when I choose a key because of its simplicity to play.)
Have you ever sung a song in a certain key, and then one fine day you decided to transpose to another key just for the fun of it, and you suddenly felt that the song had a totally different “feel” to it? I certainly have.
Anyway, without further ado, let me now talk about what I think of some of the keys which are closer to my heart.
Of course, the way I perceive these keys may be different from the way you perceive them. It’s a personal perception kind of thing…like how the names “Cindy” or “Kelvin” might conjure up different thoughts to different people.
…
C Major
The evergreen. This key never gets old. The safest-sounding, never-goes-out-of-fashion key you can think of. If it were a colour, it would be white. Easy to play, easy on the ear, and easily recognisable. Clear, concise and clean-cut sounding. You can never go wrong with C Major. It’s almost like the “universal” key.
Difficulty Level: 0/5 for piano, 2/5 for guitar
Notables: Sonata in C Major K545 (Mozart), Etude Op.10 No.1 (Chopin), Let It Be (The Beatles), Imagine (John Lennon), One (U2), Don’t Look Back in Anger (Oasis)
D Major
The romantic key. In my opinion, D Major is the key of “romance”. If you wanna write a love song, it’s a good idea to use D Major. It’s got a warm, intimate, sentimental feel to it. Maybe it’s the F# in the third degree of scale, I dunno. Nothing beats the feeling of hearing a D chord go to F#m (and then to G and A).
Difficulty Level: 2/5 for piano, 1/5 for guitar
Notables: Canon In D (Pachelbel), Open Arms (Journey), Think of Me (Andrew Lloyd Webber), Pass It On (Christian Fellowship song)
F Major
Classic sounding. Good for church hymns and epic songs. There’s a certain element of “spirituality” and “richness” to this key, for some reason. F Major is like your grandfather’s leather couch – quaint, old-fashioned and classy.
Difficulty Level: 2/5 for piano, 4/5 for guitar
Notables: Hark The Herald Angels Sing (Christmas Carol), The Lord’s My Shepherd (Church Hymn), Bridal Chorus (Wagner), Hey Jude (The Beatles), Ben (Michael Jackson)
G Major
Slightly less romantic than D Major, but brighter-sounding. It has a more optimistic quality to it. Valued for its “brightness” of tone. Apart from C Major, I think G Major is one of the most popular keys to play music in, cos of it’s relative ease to play on both the piano and guitar.
Difficulty Level: 1/5 for piano, 1/5 for guitar
Notables: Ode To Joy (Beethoven), Making Love Out Of Nothing At All (Air Supply), The Times They Are A-Changin’ (Bob Dylan), Live Forever (Oasis), I Remember You (Skid Row)
A Major
A Major is not a key which I encounter very often. Hence, I find it a bit unfamiliar and awkward. However, I do feel that it has it’s fair share of “brightness” to it. I think it’s because of the C# note in the tonic chord.
Difficulty Level: 4/5 on piano, 3/5 on guitar
Notables: Ticket To Ride, Here Comes The Sun, In My Life (all by The Beatles), The Greatest Love of All (Whitney Houston), Love Will Keep Us Alive (The Eagles), Polonaise in A Op.40 No.1 (Chopin)
Gb Major
Tread with caution! Because of its treacherous difficulty level, Gb Major is hardly ever used unless really necessary. It is used when G Major is perhaps a bit too “bright”, and the key just needs to be brought down ever so slightly. It naturally has a slightly darker and more “mellow” effect than G Major…but that being said, it’s amazing how Chopin managed to bring out the full brightness and brilliance of the key in his famous “Black Keys” Etude.
Difficulty Level: Are you kidding me?!?
Notables: Candlelight Carol (John Rutter), Impromptu in Gb Op.90 No.3 (Schubert), Etude Op.10 No.5 “Black Keys” (Chopin), Etude Op.25 No.9 “Butterfly” (Chopin)
Bb Major
A good alternative to C Major. Bb Major might be commonly used when perhaps C Major is a bit too high for the vocals…so Bb Major is a nice key to bring it down to. There is a bit of a “mellow” and “rich” quality to Bb Major which I like. You can always feel the difference whenever you bring down a song from C Major to Bb Major.
Difficulty Level: 3/5 on piano, 4/5 on guitar
Notables: For the Beauty of the Earth (John Rutter), Edelweiss (Rodgers & Hammerstein), I Could Have Danced All Night (Lerner & Loewe)
Eb Major
I have a particular fondness for using Eb Major when composing. Not necessarily in the main key of the song, but sometimes I modulate to Eb Major in the middle portion of a song (I’ve done that at least twice already). Sometimes I just plain compose a song in Eb Major. It has a special quality to it which I can’t really describe, to be honest. It’s slightly “romantic” at times, and it also has its fair share of “clarity” and “brightness” because of the Eb and Bb in the tonic chord. All in all, I am quite fond of Eb Major. It never fails to create some magical surprise whenever I use it.
Difficulty Level: 3/5 on piano, 5/5 on guitar
Notables: Can’t really think of any at the moment!
hi this is a really interesting post. I am wondering if you plan to cover Db, Ab, B and E in a future post? I am very curious as to how they fit in with the other key personalities and the difficulty factor you accord them.
I’ve heard some say E is very emotional?
Out of 12 songs on my first CD, 4 are in Db, which has a real mysterious quality to me (and also is an easy capo, one fret up to mix up that C!
–Jannie
Hi Jeremy,
This is very educational. Maybe you might consider producing a little manual on this for Songcrafters. :D
Hi Jannie: Thanks for leaving a comment! Hmm, I haven’t really thought of covering the other keys, but I guess if I gain enough experience working with those keys, I could write about them! Problem is I very seldom work with Db, Ab, B.
Yes, I agree…the key of E major can be very emotional. I’m thinking of Chopin’s Etude in E (or better known as “Tristesse”), as well as Robbie Williams’ “Angels”. Both are very emotional songs.
Lingfeng: A manual…haha! I wish, I wish.
This website really helps me as a beginning student on learning where the exact pitches are to be at when playing a piano. I am also an beginning pianist and also a chrours teacher and I would like to thank you for this amazing site!
Thank you for the kind words Briana.
Thank you for the interesting commentary. I am writing a song in Eflat. I have read it is best to transpose down and one half step. Would you agree? What chords should I use to get from Eflat to D?
Thanks
Don Meyers
Hi Don,
Thanks for leaving a comment.
Well, I would say that D major might be a better key to go to only in the respect that it is generally easier to play songs in D major on both the piano and guitar.
However, with regards to whether it would sound better to go from Eb major to D major, I think that is a matter of personal preference. It’s hard to say for certain which key sounds better. Some songs seem to work better in D major, while others seem to work better in Eb major.
Lastly, with regards to the chords, well, Eb-Gm-Ab-Bb-Cm would translate to D-F#m-G-A-Bm respectively.
Cheers!
What a nice little guide. I dabble in improvisational piano, and I found this quite helpful. I love that song by Journey, “Open Arms,” by the by.
Heavy emphasis on that “dabble” part though, as I tend to be too busy with other areas of academia to focus too strongly on music. >.o It’s difficult to swing that whilst attending university intent on a degree in computer science with possible minors or even multiple majors in psychology (or possibly neurology instead) and physics. Sometimes I dislike how very many things interest me… it just leaves too little time to do half the things I want. I love storywriting too.
Anyways, most of that ramble was supposed to be leading up to the comment that scientifically minded people don’t really have to deny the inherent character differences in different keys and other such musical patterns. As a person with heavy gearing in both the hard sciences and in psychology, I think that certain aspects of human perception, both learned and instinctive, play a major role in how we receive music. I’m actually hoping to study some of that more rigorously so I can try to design a game that uses EEG technology to do some low-level analysis of how someone feels while they’re playing a game and factors that in as it generates dynamic music that reflects the gamer’s experience more directly. x3
Ack! I’m sorry, this message was longer than anticipated…. >.> I’m just a real geek about some of these things.
Hey,
Nice post.
It’s pretty clear that music is somehow strongly connected with emotional states, so I like this approach.
I’ve heard that some people associate specific colours with specific keys or notes (e.g. people with perfect pitch). Do you have any comments on this?
Once I was a little stoned when playing guitar (sorry, guess I’m not the first) and I also experienced this effect. If I remember well, G was kind of greenish in colour. Sorry if this sounds a bit wacko but it’s an interesting phenomena. Does anyone else also think there is an association between notes or keys and specific colours?
The only time I can remember seeing this connection made (apart from in a book about the roots of musical ability by the neuropsychologist Oliver Sacks) was in the Buddhist literature. They also associate notes with colours and emotions.
Check http://www.holographicsound.com/chakra-colors.html for example.
S
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