Non-musician obviously.
I hear Do-Ray-Me…etc but can’t get the rest.
Thanks- love music and looking to understand it better.
In: Other
So when you sing Do-Ray-Me what note (pitch or frequency) do you start on? Whatever it is, I am sure you can imagine that if someone else were to sing Do-Ray-Me they might start their Do on a different note, a different pitch, a bit higher or a bit lower perhaps and then carry on from there with every note being a bit higher or lower than yours. If they do, then they are most probably singing in a different **key.** Even though their Do-Ray-Me will go up in steps just the same as your does, each note will not be the same as yours, it will be a bit higher or lower depending on where they started.
**Lets start with notes**
Notes have names : A, B, C, D, E, F & G. There are also some other notes in-between those. For example, there is an F# squeezed in between the F and the G. In fact the whole set of notes numbers 12 in total and looks like this:
A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, and then A gain.
If you start on a C and make that your Do then as you sing up the Do Ray Me scale, the notes you will be singing will be C,,D,E,F,G,A,B and finally a higher version of C. This is known as the key of C Major because you started on a C.
But if you were to start on a G instead, this time your Do-Ray_Me sequence would result in you singing G, A, B, C, D, E, F# and then G again. This is the key of G major. [You may wonder why an F# and not an F? This is because the notes in your Do-Ray-Me scale are actually not evenly spaced. You dont notice the problem with a C major key because the spacings match but when you start on other notes than C you start noticing the differences].
So thats two keys, C major and G major. But in fact you could start your Do-Ray-Me scale on any note and that would result in you singing in a different key named after the starting note. So since there are 12 possible places to start then there are 12 possible major keys:
C major, C# major, D major, D# major, E major, F major, F#major etc etc.
OK, that seems to have covered it except for one remaining question: why is it a **major** key? Are there other types? Yes, there are also **minor** keys.
**What are minor keys?**
When you sing your Do-Ray-Me scale you may not realise it but that is a *major* scale. As a result when you play that scale starting on different notes you get a whole bunch of different major keys.
But there is a sequence that is similar to Do-Ray-Me but sounds a bit different. This is a *minor* scale and the gaps between the notes are in slightly different places. The effect when you sing this scale is that whereas the Do-Re-Me scale is quite cheery and optimistic, the minor version is a bit more moody and slightly sad. However, it works just the same way, you can start the sequence on any note you like and the result will be a key named after the starting note. But this time it will be called a minor key. So there is:
C minor, C# minor, D minor, D# minor, E minor, F minor, F#minor etc etc.
**So whats the point of it all?**
Well, there are practical reasons for having different keys. Since people have different types of voice, some prefer to sing in one key rather than another because it suits their voice better. There are also some instruments that sound better in one key than another. But even on instruments where you can play in *any* key (like a piano) there is a different in “mood” between one key and the next. People argue about these differences but many people reckon that C major is the sunniest key to play in and D minor is the saddest. I find A minor always sounds mysterious.
[Note: What about sharps and flats?
The # symbol I have used is known as a sharp. So C# is called C sharp. It means “half a step higher than C”. You will also see a *b* symbol known as a “flat”. This means “half a step lower”. So you can see that all the in-between notes could be named in two different ways: a C# is the same note as a Bb. To make things simpler I have kept to using only sharps in this explanation]
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