The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

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    Do you believe the statement that different keys vary in terms of happy/sad?

    I don't really hear it myself -- admittedly my ear is still not great. And for that matter, I don't hear minor chords as sad, except in some inversions.

    It's hard to believe going from Gb to G would be a dramatic change.

    And yet, sometimes a sharp key does have a different vibe from the usual flat keys we play in.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    D minor which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why.

  4. #3

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    Fun/interesting (and contains Spinal Tap content!):


  5. #4

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    A piano tuner posted this:

    "First, this is a fixed-pitch instrument phenomenon. (keyboard) All orchestral instruments, etc, micro-adjust their pitch on-the-fly, to try to get the purest intervals. The piano gets tuned, and the performer doesn't have any way to influence the tuning during performance.

    In equal temperament, the tuner tries to fix all of the half steps an equal amount of distance (measured in cents) from each other, based on the optimum octave width for each particular piano.
    We can't hear cents, but instead hear beats between mistuned intervals. Now, here is the tricky part: Even though all of the intervals will be the same width, measured in cents, they can beat differently. For example, to fit into a 12 note chromatic system, equal temperament mis-tunes each major third by almost 14 cents from a pure sounding third. (a chromatic half step is about 100 cents) BUT, every third will have a different beat-rate. As technicians, we may set the F-A third below middle C to 7 beats per second. The octave above will beat at 14 beats per second. (beat rates double with each octave) Every beat rate, from really slow to really fast will exist in the keyboard, based on where you play a third. I call this the piano vibrato effect.

    So, music played in different keys, even in strict equal temperament will have different beat rates from each other, creating an indivudual "flavor" to the music, with each third beating a little bit faster then the one just below it.

    Stick with me just a little longer and we can complete this story...

    Composers are certainly sensitive to this effect, look at the difference in how they voice certain chords... dark, slowly beating, muddy in the bass, bright, lively, fast beating in the treble. They don't even need to know about the beats of the thirds, or sixths, they will just intuitively find the match for the sound in their head.

    Flash back a hundred years, when equal temperament might have been an idea, but certainly was not in general use. Look at the graphs of the historical temperaments at:

    www.rollingball.com

    Even without understanding anything about tuning, a pattern is easy to spot. Historically, the structure of tuning placed faster beating intervals in the remote keys, and slower beating intervals in the simple keys; in the same range of the piano. I believe the reason that we don't find composers writing about the temperament, was that it was just one of those intuitive things that they responded to... No matter which one of those temperaments their piano was set in, similar contrasts were to be expected in other pianos. Sad keys, happy keys, noble keys; that is the historical record that came down to us to let us know that they were responsive to the tunings available to them.

    Alternate temperaments are just an easy, low-cost way to add a little contrast to the music, especially appropriate to music written before 1900."
    Ron Koval
    Chicagoland"



  6. #5

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    Yes, I absolutely notice a difference between the sound and vibe or mood of different keys, beyond simply having them sit in a different tessitura. I do notice a general difference between the darker flat keys and the shinier sharp keys. The weirdest key for me is A because it sounds all shiny and corny. I'm on keys so that might affect my perception more. Also I play in 1 major key and its relative minor for 2 days and then go up a half step, so I get a sense for all the keys.

  7. #6

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    I don't, but I've done a lot of playing with vocalists, and you learn quickly any key is game, and that "Body and Soul" is always going to sound melancholy, no matter what key you play it in.

  8. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
    Yes, I absolutely notice a difference between the sound and vibe or mood of different keys, beyond simply having them sit in a different tessitura. I do notice a general difference between the darker flat keys and the shinier sharp keys. The weirdest key for me is A because it sounds all shiny and corny. I'm on keys so that might affect my perception more. Also I play in 1 major key and its relative minor for 2 days and then go up a half step, so I get a sense for all the keys.
    Have you ever "tested" this? E.g. have someone play the same song\chord progression in 3 different keys; C, one flat key and one sharp key. If you did, I assume you were able to pick out which key was C, flat and sharp.

    If you haven't how can you be so sure? (i.e. it could be confirmation bias).

  9. #8

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    Because their character always sounds the same to me since I noticed it.

  10. #9

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    Here are a couple of references. You can take them with a grain of salt but I tend to agree with what they say.

    Musical Key Characteristics & Emotions | LedgerNote


    Musical Key Characteristics