begginer's question

[romantic_confidence]

Hello, i need some help on this:

Is there a fundamental difference between any 2 major scales?

I can see that all major scales can be produced starting from any of them
and simply pushing all notes up or down, one semi-tone at a time.
E.g. (C major) + (5 semitones) = F major.

So why not just have 1 major scale? And the same with minors.
Please help!

 

[sulphent]

There's not really any difference between major scales obviously. But if you are working with a singer for example they may find singing in G easier than C. It would get boring easier if there was one major scale.

[romantic_confidence]

I can understand that for singers there are physical limitations.
But how about this: A piano piece starts in C Major (no sharps), proceeds,
and at some place the scale changes to ,say, B major (5 sharps).
To the ear it sounds different. But is it really?

For it is true  that (C major ) + (11 semitones) = B major.
So, from one point of view, only the pitch has changed.
What is really going on?

[Bob]

The frequency has changed.  I would think the listener would have some awareness of the highness/lowness whether they have perfect pitch or not.  The notes would also fall in a different part of the instrument's range which would change the color too.

[tac-tics]

I asked this same question a while ago.

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,16464.0.html

[romantic_confidence]

I can see there is already some discussion on this subject.
What seems to me as really important is the disctinction
between "key" and that mysterious unity that our mind
grasps as a musical idea.

Some thought shows that a change in the one does not
necessarily imply a change in the other,

Only musical ideas really exist. Keys are just a way of 
describing transitions from one to another, just as mathematics
can be used to describe gravity.  But why does the rain really fall?

 

[tac-tics]

But why does the rain really fall?

Because rain is in Eb minor instead of C major.

The answer to this question isn't so obvious if you only play piano. The piano is set up so anyone can immediately play melodies in C major. It has a great bias towards that key.

Now imagine a violin. Unlike piano, playing in different keys requires much less creative fingering. There are no black notes at all. Playing G major, D major, or A major requires exactly the same fingering. Which key should *all* violin music be in, then?

And of course, the answer to that is, it shouldn't all be the same =-) Or something like that.

[romantic_confidence]

Having no particular instrument in mind,
 i think that a change even from one major key to another, 
really is a change in idea, a change in structure,
not simply a transposition by a certain number of semitones.
This is the issue i wanted to discuss.

[jas]

Just to put a further spanner in the works, some old keyboard works would have been written for an innstrument without equal temperament (ie. the semitones weren't all identical intervals apart). In this case, each key has its own "character" because they do sound slightly different to one another because of the slight differences in the intervals. But I wouldn't bother about that unless you're very into early keyboard works. Bach came along, wrote the WTC and the rest is history.

Having no particular instrument in mind,
i think that a change even from one major key to another, 
really is a change in idea, a change in structure,
not simply a transposition by a certain number of semitones.
This is the issue i wanted to discuss.

Unless you have perfect pitch it doesn't really matter, though. I always think A major is quite a sunny key, moreso than other majors, but I think that's more down to the pieces I associate with it than any sound inherent in the key itself.

Jas

[romantic_confidence]

I totally agree about  A major being sunny or not, and other associations
so frequently heard about certain keys being obscure, or mysterious etc.
It's not the key it's the piece. I bet there are pieces in minor keys which sound
like paradise!