My middle school band class knowledge of music states that changing the key signature changes the number of sharps and flats in the piece. Fine.
But how exactly does this so radically alter a compositions?
When you switch a piece to a major or minor key it sounds completely different. Major keys are happy, minor keys are sad, as I understand it.
I really don’t understand what “happens” to a piece when it’s key signature is changed aside from the number of sharps and flats or why such a shift affects such a dramatic change.
I’ve seen videos of famous pieces put into different keys than we know them in and the change is both drastic and amusing. Any chance someone could help me understand this?
In: 1
Changing key generally doesn’t include completely changing from major to minor. It would typically be from maybe c major to b flat major.
Everything moves down two semitones. The overall piece sounds the same, just lower. All chord progressions from 1 to 4 are identical, as an example.
If you change to a minor key or vice versa then the chord progressions are no longer the same. The note progressions are no longer the same: c to e in major is 4 semitones but c to e (flat) in minor is 3 semitones. This changes the overall flow of music such that it sounds different.
Note that this may not really work for all pieces, composing in the minor key isn’t as simple as just pretending its major then flipping it. If you do that for most pieces it will probably not work well and sound both different and weird.
One reason you might want to transpose is for different instruments. A trumpet, for example, is typically sounded in b flat despite being written in c. If you try to play matching trumpet music on piano it won’t work unless you transpose. Alternatively, a singer might just have a deeper or higher voice than normal and needs the music put up or down to match.
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