What is the best key to play?

C major is good for most instruments It could be said that C major is the most accessible key to use because it has no sharps and flats. On the piano, C major would be a key that uses only white notes which is very convenient if you were not so familiar with the piano and wanted to compose.

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Choosing a key for a song can be a difficult choice, you have to take into account many different factors when selecting the key. Is there one particular better than the rest? It really depends. As a general rule, in equal temperament, the best musical key for composing is the one that supports the music in the most effective manner. This involves the right mode for the mood, and the key based on the tessitura (ideal range) of the melody, with considerations for the instrumentation. We will have to dive into more detail regarding equal temperament and tuning systems prior to equal temperament, to determine the best sorts of key choices.

Before Equal temperament

Equal temperament is a tuning system that divides an octave into 12 equal intervals. Its history dates back to before it was widely adopted but we can say with some certainty that equal temperament became the norm around the later part of the 18th century. Before equal temperament, there was a wide variety of tuning systems employed across Europe, sometimes down to the particular locality or town as each musician would individuality tune their instruments. What was the best key in those times? Well, now it is fair to say that the different keys produced different moods because the microtonal differences of the intervals in the octave, particularly the 3rds and 5ths, would have created some interesting aural colors to the ear. For instance, D major is “triumphant” and C major is “pure”. These are subjective qualities and one should not quickly discount them but it’s clear that many composers carefully selected their keys when composing, in light of these tonal differences. Musical theorists like Kirnberger, Mattheson, and others wrote about these key characteristics in their treatises.

The instruments determining the best keys

Famed classical improviser Sietze de Vries mentions how the instruments themselves will suggest musical ideas. In our exclusive interview with him on the Songbird Music Podcast, he says that the organ itself will generate musical ideas for him to use (At time 27:40 in the interview).

After Equal Temperament

Equal temperament has removed the distinct differences in the ratios between particular letter pitches. As a result, the sound of one key in equal temperament is not going to have an appreciable difference from the sound of another key. Sometimes selecting the best key is due to the limitations of your instruments. Some instruments just don’t like certain keys. For instance, on the guitar, keys that make use of the open strings tend to be more used than the keys that have fewer open strings. This makes chords more uncomfortable to play and then you don’t see many of those unusual keys for guitar-driven artists.

Most used keys on Spotify

Back in 2015, Spotify data analyst Kenny Ning analyzed 30 million songs and discovered that G major was the most popular key and reasoned that it was because it was easy to play on both the guitar and the piano. Other popular keys were C major and D major. For minor keys, the popular ones were A minor, and B minor. The rest were close behind with slighter smaller percentages. Now, most popular doesn’t necessarily mean best but it is helpful in determining what keys are being used the most.

C major is good for most instruments

It could be said that C major is the most accessible key to use because it has no sharps and flats. On the piano, C major would be a key that uses only white notes which is very convenient if you were not so familiar with the piano and wanted to compose. On the guitar, C major uses all of the open strings as scale degrees and has many chords that can be played with open strings, making it convenient for songwriters. However, the chord on the 4th scale degree of C major, the F chord, is a barre chord that could be really difficult to play. Often musicians put capos to overcome barre chords or they use an easier version of the F chord. Similarly, for the other instruments in the orchestra and concert band, C is a pretty good key to select if you want to compose a song that most people in an ensemble play. Of course, for professionals, the difficulty of the key wouldn’t be an issue, especially for a contemporary popular band.

The key that fits the tessitura of the melody

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The tessitura is the best range for a particular singer or instrument to produce its best-sounding timbre. Timbre is the overall tone quality and color of a pitch. For instance, a piano and a guitar could both play the note Middle C (C4) but each note will sound different because of the timbre of the notes. One of the main reasons a certain key may be best is whether the melody shines through in the given key. Sometimes if the key is too low for the melody, it may sound muddled and out of range. If a song or piece of music has a very wide range, you would want the extremities of the melody to still sound good so picking a key that pushes the extremities too far would not be ideal at all.

A capo on the guitar makes any key accessible

With a capo, suddenly all those difficult-to-reach keys become available with a quick clamp down. This is how singer-songwriters find ways to write interesting songs in harder keys, simply by applying a capo. This is extremely common in the folk genre or any songwriter who likes to compose with an acoustic guitar. A famous example of this is Joni Mitchell, who not only extensively uses a capo but also experiments with alternate tunings.

Electronic keyboards can transpose any key to the white notes

Just to continue on this subject of accessing difficult keys with technology, keyboardists have it even easier than guitarists because with a press of a button, they can change the key of their keyboard into anything they want. So what usually happens is a keyboardist will be playing with their fingers over what should be the key of C but the sound coming out of the keyboard is actually something else, like Ab or Eb. So what this means is that instrumental concerns are no longer necessary in key selection if you can compose in C major. Some of the most successful songwriters in history, like John Lennon, were not keyboard virtuosos. Another really interesting historical fact: Irving Berlin predated the electronic keyboards but certainly would have enjoyed the convenience of a transposing keyboard. He was known for composing all his hit tunes in the key of F#(Gb) and had a special transposing piano built to play in other keys while still playing the same keys of F#. It goes to show that a lack of technical facility cannot stop a creative musician from composing hit songs.

Expert players take pride in playing all keys without issue

For many of the top professionals, playing in keys that might be considered uncomfortable is no problem at all because they have practiced enough to equalize the difficulty. This is not to discount the inherent difficulties of playing in tough keys for certain instruments, but if you asked for instance a skilled jazz musician to improvise in a relatively difficult key, they would be able to handle themselves well. Famous fingerstyle master Chet Atkins sometimes composed songs in difficult keys. His tune “To B or not 2 B” was written in B major which has 5 sharps.

In-between Keys

Perhaps a composer may want to produce music that can’t be easily played without a lot of retuning and this is done by adjusting the pitch of a recording up or down by half a semitone (half step). Imagine a listener of streaming services listening to song after song of the most common keys. Perhaps choosing a key that’s “in-between” may provide a degree of listening freshness that stands apart from all of the other songs that are being listened to. A famous song by the Beatles called “Strawberry Fields Forever” is somewhere between A and B♭ and it shifts throughout the song.

What about people with synesthesia?

To someone with musical synesthesia, playing in different keys may evoke different sensory colors for them. An individual with synesthesia perceives musical notes in color. This is a rare sensory ability and there doesn’t seem to be consistency among individuals as to what color represents which note or key.

Alexander Scriabin is a famous example of a composer who possessed synesthesia.

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So for particular people who view keys in color, a particular key may be extremely important but for most people, it isn’t a huge deal affecting the overall sound.

Is D minor the saddest of the keys?

The best key to making someone cry? If you want people to weep, would you pick D minor in particular?

Certainly, a minor key is going to have a more “sad” overall sound than a major key. There is a famous line from the comedy film Spinal Tap that D minor is the saddest of all the keys but really you cannot differentiate much between keys of the same mode in equal temperament. D minor is going to be about as sad as C minor. The real difference is the composition itself. A well-written composition will evoke the right emotions. You could even say a wistful song written in a major key could evoke a more melancholic emotion that an uptempo song in a minor key.

What keys do jazz musicians like to play a blues in?

In the world of jazz, the blues and rhythm changes are two of the most common song forms used on the bandstand, with the blues probably being the top. What is the best key to play a jazz blues? Well, as we know best is subjective, but the keys of F, C, Bb are extremely popular. Particularly the key of F. The F blues is perhaps the most common jazz progression you can find. So if we go by sheer popularity, that would be the best key for a jazz blues. Charlie Parker’s famous “Billie’s Bounce” and “Now’s the Time” is in F, for instance. So is “Straight, No Chaser”, “Au Privave”, and the list goes on.

What about the key characteristics of modes?

As a result of the popularity of modern music theory, modes have become popular again, as an extension of the typical major tonality. By starting on a different note of the major scale, a composer can evoke new moods despite equal temperament. Name of mode Key Characteristic Ionian (Major) Bright, Happy Dorian Sad but brighter than Aeolian because of the natural (not flat) 6th degree Phrygian Dark, Traditional Spanish music Lydian Brighter than Ionian because of the raised 4th degree Mixolydian Less bright than Ionian because of the flatted 7th scale degree Aeolian (or Natural Minor) Sad Locrian Very Dark because of the flatted 2nd and 5th degrees Miles Davis’ best-selling album Kind of Blue employed a modal template as can be seen in a tune such as So What, which went from D Dorian To E♭ Dorian. The modal sound has a less anchored sound because of the lack of the leading tone and viable cadences but it certainly creates an interesting sound palette that may be the best key if you want that effect.

The Best Key?

Ultimately it will depend on 1) Tessitura of the melody 2) Instrumental considerations 3) Wanting to sound different from other songs on the radio or streaming services. For some composers, the key is not so important, for others, it is an important artistic decision. In the age of equal temperament, the particular characteristics of each key have largely disappeared.

So then it depends on what you are writing: A popular song, a jazz standard, a film score, a symphony?

There isn’t a single best key that can cover all genres but probably you wouldn’t make anyone upset if you selected “C” major or a key with a single sharp or flat: G or F. More importantly, how effective the composition is itself is going to determine the impact on the listener.

songbirdmusicacademy.com - What is the Best Musical Key? Here's What Musicians Prefer

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