favorite key?

[jicjac123]

what is your favorite key?

[chopincat]

I would say A flat Major. But maybe I just listen to too much Chopin 

[brogers70]

I agree Ab major; it just fits the hands very well.

[pianoguy711]

major: B major
minor: F minor

I'm curious, do you guys think all keys are interchangeable? like do you think transposing a piece to a different key changes it?  For me each key has a different "quality" (cant think of a better word).

[chopincat]

I absolutely feel like each key has a different quality. When I hear pieces transposed they sound extremely different musically to me. I've always thought this had something to do with having perfect pitch, since individual pitches sound massively different in "quality" to me as well. For me, A flat major has always just sounded like... warmth. I don't know of a better way to describe it.

[dima_76557]

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[ted]

As an improviser, the key has never mattered much to me except in the purely haptic sense, some positions of a given figuration being easier than others. However, even this aspect has little significance now after playing for sixty years, and the notion of a key plays little part in my music these days anyway; one position is as good as another for any given partition of notes.

Having said that, I do develop, as I think most improvisers do, what I have come to term "attractors", recurring ideas which are played through a combination of preference, musical potential and sometimes just habit. They come and go with varying frequency over the years. A disproportionate number of my long sessions seem to conclude on some subset of the Db scale, which fact has no musical reason at all that I can think of, so it must just be habit.

A similarly large number of my early compositions in conventional styles seem to favour Db major and E major but again I haven't the slightest idea why, as even when I did use keys I consciously viewed them all more or less equally, a precept instilled in me by my teacher, coupled with a youthful learning discipline of playing new formations around the key circle for practice.

[j_menz]

Key? How quaintly old fashioned. 

[verqueue]

E flat minor / D sharp minor. I just love it's "mood" and it fits my hands.

[lisztmusicfan]

C Minor. Can't beat it. Ocean, Revolutionary, op. 48 no. 1, Pathetique, first measure of the first ballade (just for fun). It's got a great resume (of mostly Chopin) plus it's sad and dark without being brooding and scary, like Ab minor or something like that.

[visitor]

C Ukranian Dorian (ie altered dorian).
C enigmatic (ala Verdi) ie ve Maria (sulla scala enigmatica)" (1889, revised 1898

 

[goldentone]

Good question.  Supremely, though, above the mortal ear, K Omni Major.

[vixxa]

what is your favorite key?

C major, F major, and D flat major.

[iwagman18]

I absolutely feel like each key has a different quality. When I hear pieces transposed they sound extremely different musically to me. I've always thought this had something to do with having perfect pitch, since individual pitches sound massively different in "quality" to me as well. For me, A flat major has always just sounded like... warmth. I don't know of a better way to describe it.

I cannot agree with you more. I think it does have to do with our having perfect pitch, because I hear different keys achieve different moods and feel certain keys are more appropriate than others at times. The flat keys (particularly B-flat through A-flat Majors) seem like grandiose, high-energy keys, which is perhaps why they are popular keys for march-like movements. The sharp keys (particularly two sharps through five sharps) seem more expressive and passionate to me. In my opinion, the most expressive key of them all is E Major/C-Sharp Minor. I don't know why, but I always find myself using this key signature in the slow, expressive movements of my symphonies, piano concerti and orchestral suites, whenever I want them to sound particularly beautiful. But my favorite key signature in general has always been F-sharp minor, every since I was like five. I guess I liked it just because it sounded cool and was hard to play.

This is from a composer's standpoint, not a performer's. I'd say my favorite keys to play in would be the flat keys, E-flat through D-flat; they're just comfortable to play in. I'll tell you that despite being my favorite key to use, F-sharp minor is my least favorite to play in. I don't know why; it's just awkward. I also think it's funny and ironic that Rachmaninov wrote piano concerti in both F-sharp minor and D minor, and the D minor concerto is more difficult than the F-sharp minor! And D minor is a really easy key! Only Rachmaninov is capably of that.

[bonesquirrel]

G Minor. Liszt Sonata <3

[j_menz]

G Minor. Liszt Sonata <3

You mean the Bm Sonata, but only if it's transposed?

[bonesquirrel]

Sorry. I didn't observe correctly. When it meant key I thought it meant literally a key on the piano as in a note. When I said G Minor I was referring to the begginning of the piece, if you listen to it or look at the score you will know what I mean

[j_menz]

Sorry. I didn't observe correctly. When it meant key I thought it meant literally a key on the piano as in a note. When I said G Minor I was referring to the begginning of the piece, if you listen to it or look at the score you will know what I mean

Gm can only be a key, not a note. G as a note can be G natural, G sharp, G flat, double sharp, double flat (triple.... quadruple, though if any prospective composer tries it, I'll hunt you down!).

[j_menz]

This is from a composer's standpoint, not a performer's.

I like the key of your 5th Prelude, though I fear it's an omission rather than a statement.