Piano Guidance
Piano Guidance
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Musicians, (especially pop musicians) are likely to compose music in easier keys. And since most Western music is composed on either piano or guitar, musicians are most likely to play in the key of G which is convenient for both guitar and piano.
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Read More »G Major and C Major rule all other keys. At least that’s what analysis of Spotify’s mountains of music listening data suggests, according to analyst Kenny Ning. The analyst took a deep look at Spotify’s massive user base of 60 million listeners to find his results. Within Western music, there are 12 basic musical tones, and each tone can represent both a major and a relative minor key, making 24 common keys available. Major keys are usually associated with happier emotions, while minor keys are often associated with sadness. Spotify’s library has 30 million songs, and Ning claims his data includes analysis of every track to determine which keys are most popular on the service. Out of all keys available, G Major accounted for 10.7 percent of songs, while C Major made up a slightly fewer mass with 10.2 percent. The initial takeaway from the data seems to suggest that people care for major keys, i.e. happier sounding tunes, more than minor keys on the whole. As for why G Major and C Major dominate, Ning has a pretty simple theory that should ring true to anyone who’s played around on a guitar or piano. “With regard to Western contemporary music (which dominates our catalog), instrumentation is largely based around guitar, piano, or both,” said Ning in his blog post. “So, the hypothesis here is that the key signature should be a convenient key for both guitar and piano.” Musicians, (especially pop musicians) are likely to compose music in easier keys. And since most Western music is composed on either piano or guitar, musicians are most likely to play in the key of G which is convenient for both guitar and piano. As for C Major, the key is by leaps and bounds the easiest to play on a piano (no black keys), making it pop-song writer’s paradise when it comes to convenient piano composition. Meanwhile, some keys that might be easy to play on one instrument, aren’t so easy on the other, ruling them out as an overall winner. Ning notes, for instance, that while E is convenient for guitar, it’s not so easy to play on piano (lots of those tricky black keys). In short, popular songs are typically happy and in relatively easy to play keys. Ning does make sure to note that creating music is not all about the key signature, though. “It’s no surprise that songwriters would write their chords so they could focus their energy on more important things… melody and lyrics.”
G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B♭, C, D, E♭, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is...
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Making unauthorized copies of copyrighted music recordings is against the law and may subject you to civil and criminal liability. A civil lawsuit...
Read More »Identify the first note of the melody. After listening to the song, hum the first note and try to find it on your instrument. If you have to, listen to the opening of the song on a loop a few times until you manage to find the first note. Once you find the first note, write it down.
This article was co-authored by Michael Noble, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Megaera Lorenz, PhD . Michael Noble is a professional concert pianist who received his PhD in Piano Performance from the Yale School of Music. He is a previous contemporary music fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation and has performed at Carnegie Hall and at other venues across the United States, Europe, and Asia. This article has been viewed 316,722 times.
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