Just curious here as to what difference a certain Key makes to a song ? To keep it simple lets just talk Major keys. EG why would SBW choose F for 'Help me' and not say E? I know that singers will usually choose a key that suits their vocal range but is that the only reason? Are songwriters looking at other reasons for their Key choice?
Great question by the way. Perhaps in some cases, some keys may be dictated by the use of horns. Bb and Eb and F make horn players lives easier. Some piano players don't like playing in E or A. Just guesses really.
Certainly if you're playing with horns there are certain keys that they like to steer clear of, if possible. I play tenor sax too and E is not great - although as a guitar player I love it! However, I would say it's the range of the vocalist that has the most influence on choice of key. That and the sort of effect the player wants to create. ---------- Harpeaux Edwards
There are a whole bunch of practical considerations about mechanics and layout and range of various instruments including voice.
This question of ‘character’ interests me. What’s that about? It seems to be a thing often implied or taken for granted but given the relative and seemingly arbitrary nature of things I have a hard time convincing myself such a thing exists. Perhaps character of a key is more about the instrumentation and arrangements which suit particular keys.
I certainly think the "character" of a key has meaning where harmonica is concerned, certain keys of harp sit in a sweet spot for expressiveness for certain numbers, to me. I mean, it's not necessarily the ease of playing where standard diatonics are concerned, as the layout out is the same, it's just the "rightness" of the pitch in certain circumstances that works.
I was thinking about this the other day in relation to tenor sax, funnily enough. I'm a big fan of hard bop and soul jazz - those classic period Blue Note albums. They often start with an out-and-out bluesy groover (think Watermelon Man, the Sidewinder, Do It, etc.) and more often than not they're in concert F. Why? Well, the blues scale seems to fall easily under your hand on tenor sax in concert F (and C, G and Bb), plus I know from talking to my double-bass playing friend that grooving in F is very comfortable on that instrument, and I think piano players favour it too (drummers, i'm not so sure of!). So it's comfortable and allows you to stretch out and groove. But is it more than that? Speaking personally, I find that playing the blues in F on a tenor just sounds good - just something about the way the key is centered on the range of the sax......? ---------- Harpeaux Edwards
@ Gareth So concert F is common with horn bands?? I did not know. BUT When we play cross harp in F, we grab a B flat harp, and yes, tenor sax and trumpets are B flat instrumnets.
Well, indeed Jim - and I think tbe Bb harp in 2nd on an F blues really does hit that "sweet spot" I was talking about. In fact one of the things I'm interested in is incorporating blues harp into those jazzy groovers I mentioned. If you click on the link in my signature to my Bandcamp page you can hear what I've done with Watermelon Man. ---------- Harpeaux Edwards
Key is a frequency relationship that we perceive just like chords and progressions. We feel minor vs major similarly. The same kind of perception exists in the character differences in key. It's more subtle but "F" is a way different neighborhood than "B". I don't mean to suggest you don't already know this but I'm trying to say it in a different way.
In the woodshed it's more like, "Hell no, T-Bone made it Bb because it is, Bb".
Last Edited by Littoral on Aug 28, 2018 8:01 AM
I think what has been said about horn/keyboard keys and vocal range are very right and are probably the two main considerations. Harp players may look at low vs high pitch harp to better capture the mood of the song (sad story, lower key harp?); or if it's a recorded song the key the harp player prefers is often a factor of the original recording.
I write and publish songs. Here's part of something I wrote to explain my writing.
"...I don't write songs 'for harmonica'. Sure, if the lyrics have a Sonny Boy or Junior Wells feel, the groove, tempo, and key will probably echo what I'd expect they might use. But I typically write for the 'ensemble'. On something soulful I'm hearing piano, bass, and horns, as well as vocalist so the key will consider all of those 'instruments'. If the song is a sophisticated old blues/RnB style I'm probably hearing horns and maybe T-Bone Walker style guitar so Eb or Bb might be logical keys" .
"I play around with the key as well. I may initially "hear" a song as being in F, Eb, Ab, etc., but if I try it out at a jam and the guitarist only plays slow blues in G, it may, at least temporarily, be in G."
But as a writer, as I write and re-write, I actually "hear" the song in different keys as a factor of feel and anticipated instrumentation. I don't read music so what I do is based on feeling and what sounds right to me.
For bands, keys are most commonly a factor of singer's vocal range, but also avoiding certain keys the musicians hate (F for guitar, C for harp, etc). On the album I'm recording I have 14 original songs in 11 keys but that's not the norm. ---------- BnT
In the specific case of "Help Me," that tune is based on the groove of "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MGs. Green Onions was in F, and so was Help Me. Seems like they heard the record, copped the groove in the same key, and Sonny Boy went with it.
Simple answer- some songs sound better in certain keys. A person's "like and dislike" do enter into the equation, as does the listener's perception. To me not complicated, it's about what moves you and helps you move people. ---------- Music and travel destroy prejudice.
Sometimes it might be a matter of convenience and out of the hands of the harp player. There are those Muddy Waters concerts from the 70s where just about every song is in G because Muddy had a capo on the third fret of his guitar and he played those open string riffs as if he was playing in E.
jbone: sure, but "it just is", still has a basis in physics, biology and culture. I-IV-V is a similar concept. It resonates with people physically. I think it's more than the strong familiarity factor. Biorhythm.
Delivered by the deities of your choice.
Just like the incantation put on diatonics at the crossroads that turned them into chromatic instruments. They were never designed to bend much less overblow and overdraw. Poof !
Last Edited by Littoral on Aug 29, 2018 5:28 AM
Did the painter use blue, because she felt it would communicate a feeling she wanted to convey in the art? Or was blue the only color left in her pallet?
My opnion You can choose a key because it's easier to play. You can choose a key because it's easier to sing. BUT Don't choose a key because "that was the key on the recording." Don't choose a key because "songs sound better in that key"
I find the key that works for me (or us), and I use trial and error to find what I like. ---------- theharmonicaclub.com (of Huntington, WV)
There's a dividing line here between sensible, practical answers to the question and esoteric, useless answers.
In the case of the piano, you get people whose hearing is so acute that the equal temperament affects the way each key is heard, so if you transposed something from E to F, they'd hear the tonal/harmonic difference (they seem to be most sensitive to the minor keys). I'm glad that no-one has attempted to discuss that, as SBW would have drawn his knife against them, and they'd have deserved it, lol!
Last Edited by Andrew on Aug 29, 2018 6:58 AM
If you learn perfect pitch a la David Burge, you will ascribe a certain in the mind/ear's eye "color" to each key.
When the concept of different modes was "invented" in ancient Greece, they ascribed a "feeling" to each mode - happy, sad, lustful, etc....so if you wanted to evoke a certain emotion, you chose the mode for the music that fit that feeling.
So, even with the newer concept of equal temperament, a similar "feel", "emotion" or "color" may be ascribed. Some composers did choose a key based on this mind set.
If you want to understand how basic emotional feel works in its simplest form, consider Major Key = HAPPY, Minor Key = SAD. ---------- The Iceman
1) Statistically, very few audience members have perfect pitch, so that should not be a determining factor in song key choice for a performer/band.
2) Choosing a key in the range of the vocalist should be the priority, then the ease of playing certain riffs. No one wants to hear a vocalist strain or keep switching octaves to perform a song. Also, certain guitar licks are best played in certain keys.
NOTE: I have performed with musicians with perfect pitch and they do not complain when a key is changed to fit the vocalist's range. In a band with a vocalist, the singer determines what key will work.
2) Historically, chords in different keys and modes WERE very different sounding BEFORE equal intonation tuning on instruments. Those differences would be audible to more of the audience than just the small minority of perfect pitch listeners. If your instrument has a sweetened (just intonation) tuning for certain keys the instrument will sound off when played in a key far from the sweetened keys. This is why just intonation harps are not good for extended position overbend playing and equal intonation tuning is preferred for that purpose.
If the instrument is tuned equally, any differences in chord sound in different keys would be unnoticeable except perhaps by a rare few. The overall quality of vocal and instrumental performance takes precedence over any potential audible difference due to key changes.
3) Major and minor key differences DO carry different emotional content to the listener, regardless of the key/pitch of the tonic. The intervals and chords convey emotion.
The major/minor issue is a separate phenomena from the choice of tonic!
4) If a half step difference totally changed the emotional import of a song, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix changed lots of musical emotional content, and they still made good music. Tuning down 1/2 step allows for ease of string bending on guitar. The ease of expressive bending is the difference, not the 1/2 step difference in the tonic.
5) If you change the key to cover a song vocally more than a couple steps difference from the original, the different pitch of the vocalist MAY become apparent to even some less sensitive/non perfect pitch listeners. However, if the vocal performance and musical performance is good, most audience members will not mind the change. They are listening to the singing and the music, not the key.
That being said, it is still good to vary key, major/minor, groove type, and tempo during performances to keep things interesting.
I think that often someone comes up with a phrase, melody or interesting string of harmony that they were noodling around on with little regard to what key they happened to be in. They wrote a song around that and that was it. For those that do covers then the original key may have not been known or vocally a key change was needed. I think in many instances, keys are just happenstance and as others have mentioned subject to the limitations of the instrument and instrumentalist. There are those that perhaps specifically target a key for it's timbre but I still think in many cases it's just where the idea "originated" from.
Higher keys are easier to play fast in on harp, and it's easier to cut through the mix with.
As for specific keys having a specific sound to them, there probably is some association in our minds with certain types of music and certain keys from years of exposure. I think with modern tunings it's much less dramatic though. Historically there were different tuning schemes that used slightly different tunings in each octave which gave each key a very distinctive sound. With modern keyboards being programmable there are some people digging back into classical tunings and revisiting some of those old Temperaments, but I think with modern tunings it's just not that big an issue. Audiences may expect to hear a standard in its original key but mostly got more to do with what instruments are easiest to play in different keys. C is simple on piano because it's all white keys, guitarists like E, unless they are into alternate tunings, horns like Bb or F... Personally, I like Bb and A, but that's because they lay out well for my vocals. I use D for Celtic stuff, D or C for stuff that I want to play really fast on (higher than that and it gets a bit high for me.)
Slate had a good article on old temperaments, but unfortunately the sound samples aren't online anymore which takes something away from the article. Still a good read though.
Adam Neely gives a pretty thorough yet concise explanation in this video. Some of these points have already been touched on by other commenters, but still well worth watching all the way through.
