Does the song key matter?

[DocAtlas]

Oh come on; if it sounds right, then it is right. Rules are made to be broken and where music / self composition is concerned, there are no rulez.

Exactly! If it sounds ok to you, it's fine.

Here's an explanation of equal temperament, and why different keys sound different in non-equal temperament: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament.

[V'ger]

A lot of the classical and baroque works don't have "proper names" as such. JS Bach didn't write just one Prelude and Fugue but dozens of them. Mentioning what key it is in kind of narrows it down so people might know what you are talking about (although there can still be multiple possibilities). Otherwise you have to know the opus number of the piece.

Ah right, that explains a lot of it.

[xtp]

When I write a tune it is always in a specific key, the key being whatever notes match what I hear in my head.

I never arbitrarily pick a key and proceed onward from that point.

Same as with timing, i record a rough then work out the key sig changes after, and give it more formal accurate structure.

I am extremely particular about chord structure, as [to my hearing] different inversions give different color to a piece.

If you cannot hear the difference between a tune played in different keys, or if your feeling for the tune is not affected by the difference of key, then I would suggest it is not important for you.

And if that is the case I would assume the best key to pick would be those easiest to play for your particular instrument or combo.

[tapler]

Stuart Isacoff's book, Temperament, is a fascinating, entertaining, and well-written book on the topic of equal temperament. Written more for the layperson than musical academics, I'd recommend it as a thorough introduction to the fascinating history of this topic: Amazon link

[jof]

I've read that before equal temperament became the standard that each key had its own distinct feeling. I think that the adoption of equal temperament changed that by a large degree.

Yes, with equal temperament, all keys sound the same. The classical way to tune keyboard instruments is to tune the C-E major third almost pure and tune the other thirds gradually more dissonant the farther away from C they are on the circle of fifths, so that F#-A# is the most dissonant.
If you tune this way, keys with many sharps or flats are more dissonant than those with fewer. Here is an interesting description of all the 24 major and minor keys:
http://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html

You can use ZynAddSubFX to play around with this tuning. Just load this scale:

Code: Select all

! young1799
!
Youngs temperament from 1799
 12
!
93.890142
195.845143
297.800144
391.690286
499.877572
591.935141
697.922572
795.845143
893.767715
999.755145
1091.812714
2/1

[yellowfever]

I usually start with a white note.

[tapler]

Yes, with equal temperament, all keys sound the same. The classical way to tune keyboard instruments is to tune the C-E major third almost pure and tune the other thirds gradually more dissonant the farther away from C they are on the circle of fifths, so that F#-A# is the most dissonant.

Wow, that is really interesting. Do you know how most virtual instruments/sample libraries handle this?

[xtp]

An experiment worth trying is writing a 25 sec melody/riff/tune and then transposing it to a number of different keys , paste them end on end into the same file, put in on repeat , close your eyes for 1hr or so, and see if one particular key version takes your interest.

After doing this a few times with different tempo pieces you will come to your own conclusion.

I have done this a few times in the past [when i asked myself if key mattered], and found that for me there always seems to be one i like better, and that i can always identify that particular one with my hearing/feeling.

[xtp]

Yes, with equal temperament, all keys sound the same.

Hi Jof, are you so sure about this.

compare Bb and G.

They sound completely different to my ears.

Maybe with equal temperement the overall intervals are similar between keys, but the notes resonate at different frequencies.

I was just thinking about this and playing a few notes.

Try playing a major 3rd, first from g then from d and listen to the 2 intervals

To my ears the g->b movement has a mellow feel, compared to the d->f# which has a feel of tension. [you may come up with different words to describe the movement]

so i would use each of those movements in context with the piece i was writing.

I think this is particularly important when soloing.

[lerxst]

AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.

Remember too, that apart from equal temperament, A above middle C = 440 Hz is a fairly recent innovation. Back in the times that many early composer and musicologists wrote, that A varied wildly, so talking about a certain key having a sad, or mystical, or heroic quality probably doesn't apply to the modern era keys.

Wikipedia has an interesting article on the origins of pitch standards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_%28m ... tern_music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_%28music%29#History_of_pitch_standards_in_Western_music)

[jof]

Wow, that is really interesting. Do you know how most virtual instruments/sample libraries handle this?

I forgot to write that the scale I posted is in the Scala format, so you should save it with a .scl extension. This format is supported by many virtual instruments, like Pianoteq for example.
The Scala program can also send tuning to many hardware synths.

Maybe with equal temperement the overall intervals are similar between keys, but the notes resonate at different frequencies.

Yes, maybe I should clarify what I mean: in ET, a particular interval has exactly the same width in all keys, so in this sense all keys sound the same.
Then there are of course differences in timbre between different notes played on an instrument because of the way the instrument was constructed, but I think of this more as a property of the physical instrument than a property of the key itself.

Remember too, that apart from equal temperament, A above middle C = 440 Hz is a fairly recent innovation. Back in the times that many early composer and musicologists wrote, that A varied wildly, so talking about a certain key having a sad, or mystical, or heroic quality probably doesn't apply to the modern era keys.

That is true, but if you look at historical descriptions of key characteristics (such as the one by Schubart on the website I mentioned) it is clear that they are talking about the the difference in dissonance of keys - more dissonant keys are generally described as more disturbing, with the most dissonant minor key (D# minor) the most horrible of all.
These differences are the same regardless of the reference pitch (and they are lost in equal temperament).

[KVRdataminer]

In classical music, it's like the law to point out what key the piece is in, but why should this matter at all to the listener?

Is it really true that the key decides to some extent the feeling of a song, and if so, how?

Is anyone here actively using certain keys for their pieces? With me it's completely random what key I will use, although I try to mix it up to check if it is a factor - so far I can't really tell if one makes a difference over another..

Sometimes certains intervals in the melody will sound weird/awkward in one key but not in another. You hit a note and its sound weird, you go looking for another nearby note but can't find it. Then you change the key and that particular note within that scale sound right or better.

[wrench45us]

Beatles albums by song key

you cab see how your gifted guitar player progresses from the sharp key side of the wheel of fifths


http://www.mikemake.com/media/72772/Key ... full_o.gif

[HTBoogie]

Oh come on; if it sounds right, then it is right. Rules are made to be broken and where music / self composition is concerned, there are no rulez.

If it sounds good to you, great, no problem. The best way to learn is to experiment.

Nonetheless, this statement is cr*p. Most of the time this attitude ends up resulting in a big forgettable mess of noise that is often just plain painful. When it does comes out sounding truly good, if you look closely, the rules were actually followed - but, since knowledge of the rules was missing we have quite the happy accident.

[yellowfever]

Oh come on; if it sounds right, then it is right. Rules are made to be broken and where music / self composition is concerned, there are no rulez.

If it sounds good to you, great, no problem. The best way to learn is to experiment.

Nonetheless, this statement is cr*p. Most of the time this attitude ends up resulting in a big forgettable mess of noise that is often just plain painful. When it does comes out sounding truly good, if you look closely, the rules were actually followed - but, since knowledge of the rules was missing we have quite the happy accident.

Keep your personal comments to yourself. It works for me and I dont think my music sounds a big forgettable mess of noise.