I know next to nothing about musical theory. Torturous, mandatory participation in musical endeavors in youth taught me how to read music and the very fundamentals.
Why does changing the number of sharps and flats in the key so dramatically change the entire sound of the piece? Why is the key so important that famous pieces of music are billed as “Such and such in G major” or whatever?
I mean I know that some of the notes will be half a step higher or lower depending on what the key falls for. But I can’t imagine why that changes so much. I’ve heard songs like The Star Spangled Banner and other famous works played in a minor key and it completely changes the entire sound. How?
In: Culture
First of all, lets explain what exactly is “a musical key”.
A key has two main elements:
1. The tonal center, which is the particular note that feels like “home” or where the songs resolves to.
2. The quality, which is either major or minor.
#Tonal Center and Pitches
Is you listened to a song you’ve never heard before that has C as its tonal center, you wouldn’t be able to tell it is in C unless you have perfect pitch, and that’s quite uncommon. If we waited a day and played you the very same song but this time we used D as the tonal center, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Why? Because the current musical system uses a particular way to tune instruments known as *equal temperament*. The gist of this tuning system is that [the interval (musical distance) between two pitches is given a specific ratio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament). So, it doesn’t matter which tonal center you’re using, if you’re conserving the intervals, the songs will sound the same.
Back then, there used to be a different tuning system, where the intervals and ratios between pitches weren’t the same. Thus, each key had its own distinctive character. But with the rise of equal temperament, that character disappeared.
A video that talks more about this:
* [Adam Neely, Which key is the saddest?](https://youtu.be/6c_LeIXrzAk)
#Tonal Center and Instruments
You mentioned that you used to play an instrument, so I’m sure you know that each instrument has a natural musical range and, given how the instrument is built and tuned, some notes are easier or harder to play. As such, some particular tonal centers fit better with certain instruments because they’re easier to play or you have access to some particular notes.
For example, the standard tuning for guitar is on E. The lowest note on a guitar is E so, having access to that particular note drives guitarists to play more “E-based music”. If you go back to your music sheets, you’ll notice that violins have more songs “in D” than, let’s say, songs “in Eb”. Why? Because D is easier to play on a violin, considering that one of the strings is tuned to D
#Major vs Minor
This difference is easier to tell than tonal center. You can easily guess if a song is major or minor because major feels upbeat, bright and happy, whilst minor sounds darker and sad.
The change in perception most likely comes from the fact that in a major key the notes have bigger intervals between them (at least the important notes), compared to minor keys. For example, the interval between C and E (major third interval) is greater than the interval between C and Eb (minor third interval). It seems like this is at the core of the issue, because even throughout cultures, the intervals related to the Western minor key have a similar connotation.
A video that talks more about this:
* [Adam Neely, Why is major happy?](https://youtu.be/9rEqrPwVITY)
Latest Answers