Favorite key! (poll)

[Rach3]

It had to be done...

[pseudopianist]

It all depends...

Eb flat is a very soft key with a lot of depth to it while the B major is the total opposite, very sharp and hollow.

My top 3 keys are

1. B major - So brilliant, to bad it is rarely used
2. D flat major - Very soft, yet very clear, romantic but not overromantic like C# minor
3. A flat - Very round key and it is relative minor, F minor has a really unqie sound.

[raymagini]

so for those with perfect pitch or some other key sensitivity, how are key usually described???

i kno i have heard that E-flat is very stately and B major is humanic, but i can never really tell the difference

[Derek]

question: why do you have both F# and Gb up there, for example?

just kidding...giving you a hard time

[Rach3]

question: why do you have both F# and Gb up there, for example? Smiley

They do sound different. And I'm not being stupid - there's a big difference between F# as V/V in E or for example Gb as IV in Db. Or if you're not listening to a piano but an instrument with intonation (strings), they do sound like different keys.

-Rach3

[apion]

B Flat and d minor.  No question. 

[Rach3]

Brahms concerti?

[Tash]

cheers to the D-flats! i was actually having a discussion about pieces in Db the other day with my teacher, and they're all nice. and it's my fave scale to play too
yes there is a difference between G# and Ab. i hate G# and love Ab. i like flats in general...

[apion]

Brahms concerti?

(you caught me)

 

[ted]

As with the chord poll, I find this one impossible to answer. I don't think I have a "favourite" pattern or sound of any kind on the piano. I might go through phases of using a particular formation, but the whole process is here today, gone tomorrow.

[Rach3]

I changed my vote from Eb to Bb! (In case you didn't notice, this poll allows you to change your vote freely).

[IanT]

Definitely c# minor.  I like almost everything written in this key, with the possible exception of the bloody FI.

Ian

[whynot]

I have preferred keys for different kinds of things, but overall I love B major the best, but I don't hear it as a brilliant sound at all, as posted above.  It's funny how different we all are.  (Funny in a good way, I mean.)  The key feels dark and warm to me, very intimate.  I love Db also, and have the same impression about it, and Ab I like because it seems very lyrical to me.  Fun question! 

[Ludwig Van Rachabji]

My favorite key would definitely be A Quadruple Sharp Major. Yep, that's it.

[Floristan]

Despite all the Bb lobbying, I'm sticking with Eb! 

[Kassaa]

C# minor, HR2, Moonlight, Chopet 10/4 etc.

[donjuan]

Despite all the Bb lobbying, I'm sticking with Eb! 

YES!! I agree!  Look at all the great music that came out of Eb major -Liszt concerto No.1, Grand Galop Chromatique, Beethoven's emperor concerto..

[Chrysalis]

Either E or Ab for me

[alraydo]

My vote's with B.  I love the way it fits the hand!

[rhapsody in orange]

Hmm so I'm the only one to go for g minor? Hmm somehow that key makes me feel... nostalgic.. and sad too. But I like it anyway =)

[Etude]

Looks like everyone's different when it comes to keys.   
I put I dislike tonality but thats not true, its just everything I do seems to be atonal these days (piano & composition)

[Tash]

interesting how Db is so popular, yet its enharmonic equivalent C# is completely rejected...
personally i prefer flats to sharps, i like yellow

[Floristan]

Another reason why I like Eb.  The prelude to Wagner's "Das Rheingold,"

The 136-bar prelude begins with the eight contrabasses sounding a p E-flat, achieved by half the contrabasses tuning their lowest string a semitone lower, the four other contrabasses doubling the E-flat an octave higher. At bar 5 these are joined by the bassoons sounding a p B-flat, and at bar 17 the first of the eight horns, also playing p (the rest of the eight horns, in staggered successive entrances, repeating the first of the eight, and thereafter all eight continuing immer p for the remainder of the prelude), adds the E-flat-major-triad-establishing G-natural as it sounds the rising E-flat major arpeggio that is Das Rheingold's and the Ring's first leitmotif.

It kind of sticks with you. 

[stormx]

I have no idea because i am unable to recognize a piece key!!
 

[happyface94]

F minor by far :

Chopin's 2nd Concerto
Bach's concerto in F minor.
And countless other.

It was also Gould's favorite tone.

[gorbee natcase]

Interesting I suppose its down to what mood you are in.

[happyface94]

Perhaps, but nearly all the pieces I enjoy are in minor tones.

In fact, I can only think of few pieces that sound major tones that I enjoy listening to :

Goldberg Variations
I dont know if we can count the middle mouvements of minor concertos or sonatas too.
I guess some liszt arent too bad in major tunes too. As well as some schubert sonata.
But really, only the goldberg variations quickly come to my mind, the rest are all minor.

[Rach3]

My key is winning! E-flat major leads by a margin of 1.4%...

[Bouter Boogie]

Lol, what's this poll for? 

[daral]

Originally I went with C major, but I'm gonna have to change that to b minor. 

[bachmaninov]

Although my favorite key is Db, I find that whenever I improvise or compose, I feel most comftorable in g minor.... dunno why.

Db.... Go Hungarian Rhap 6!

[chev_bigblock]

Hmm so I'm the only one to go for g minor? Hmm somehow that key makes me feel... nostalgic.. and sad too. But I like it anyway =)

This topics already dead, but I must add g minor is also my favorite key, and I'm not even joking.  For some reason g is my, well I guess you could call it my natural pitch.  Whenever I hum a pitch, just the pitch that I naturally hum, I go over to the piano, and surpise it's a g.  The minor part is just because I like minor keys.  Last semester in my music theory class we had to write a short competion, and of course I wrote mine in g minor. It's such a marvelous key.

[Fugue]

same here; Every fugue I have written so far is in g minor.

[chev_bigblock]

Hey that's amazing.  Do you also seem to have a "natural pitch"?  I thought I was the only person that has a sort of natural pitch.  Does anyone else here seem to have this same type of thing going on?

[jhon]

(BTW, I have this same post in Piano Society and just wanna share it in this thread.)

Before, I taught I could just transpose any piece in any key that I like; but I realized this is easier said than done. I learned from my teacher that each key signature has its OWN set of "PLAYABLE" passages that is BEST (if not ONLY) suit to be executed in that specific key signature. For instance, the left-hand passages in Revolutionary Etude is almost impossible to play when the piece is transposed to C#m. Or just imagine a Fantasie-Impromptu put in Cm. In this case, a greater strech is needed for the left hand and the right hand is another story.

Thus, the conclusion is, there are passages that is PIANISTIC for one key but UNPIANISTIC for the other. (We say "pianistic" to mean how EXECUTABLE a passage is as far as FINGERING is concerned.) This is primarily the reason why often you will notice SIMILAR passages among pieces having SAME key signature (even if they are of different compsoer).

This theory cannot be easily noticed yet in Baroque music but is very obvious in Classical and Romantic music whose compsers are great geniuses that they know what key is best pianistic for a specific piece they compose - especially Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff. However, some Modern/20th Century composers became unpianistic, somewhat deviating to this norm by composing "FREE FORM" music such as ATONAL pieces - pieces not necessarily having a specific key.

All in all, I learned that it is not really true that you can just transpose any piece in any key you wish. In fact, it is unscholarly, unprofessional, and unpianistic to do so!

Now, I believe the best key signature is the one having the MOST pianistic and playable passages. The obvious contenders are Cm, Eb, Fm, Ab, Bbm, and Db. But since they are overused, I prefer to like underrrated keys such as C#, D#m, and F#m (or Gbm). Anyway, I vote for B and its relative key G#m/Abm as my favorite keys! (BTW, the G#m/Abm scale is the hardest scale to execute for me!) 

[ronatello]

Here are my fav. keys listed in no particular order (except for D) and some of the moods it evokes in me
D - a key that brings serenity / refreshes (Pachelbel's Canon in D)
Db - a majestic and soothing key (Enya's Storms in Africa, Book of Days, River)
G - A key to me that has a "cool" feeling to it.
A - A key that has a warm, cheerful feeling to it.
E - A bit on the powerful side.
B - A key that I don't hear much in music. To me it sounds cheerful but a bit high strung.
Bb - It has some of the warm characteristics of A and some of B. A lot of church hymns are in 2 flats (most are in flats, period).
Ab - A bit less forceful than A.
Eb - A bit darker than the key of E

The majority of the Minor keys sound either dark, angry, sense of foreboding, or sad to me. Personally, I don't care for minor keys very much...

[lau]

Definitely c# minor.  I like almost everything written in this key, with the possible exception of the bloody FI.

Ian

c# minor is my favorite to, but the reason :I like this key is because i got use to it while playing Fantasie Impromptu.

[crazy for ivan moravec]

as of the moment i like fm because most of my recital pieces are in that key, brahms quintet in fm, liszt TE in fm, Bach PF in fm. 

[amanfang]

d minor for me.  Second choice would be E-flat major.

[turner]

A-flat major for me.

I don't have a perfect pitch, so in my early years I don't understand why a piece in C Major couldn't be written in B Major, a half-step below and do the same.  It was through many years of accumulating pieces with specific composers for the piano in my repertoire that I gradually formed opinions on different tonalities.

Someone earlier stated A major as the favorite.  Compared to A Major, A-flat major can be just as graceful, but because it's just a step below, it's mellower.  It's also a very "pianistic" tonality to me--it fits well under the hands--especially the left hand, probably because I've played quite a few in this key that are just a joy to play.

I'm thinking of Chopin's Harp Etude (op. 25, no. 1), his short but amazing Posthumous Prelude, his 1st Impromptu.  Also, the 3rd of Faure's Romances sans Parole, and his 3rd Impromptu.  Beethoven wrote a Sonata in this key in his middle period (op. 26?) where the 1st movement theme-and-variations and the last movement have some great pianistic passages.

 

[queenrock]

I don't have perfect pitch and don't really understand how and why people can prefer different keys to others if anyone knows why this is or if it's just random. In any case i still feel i like Eb major, no idea why i just like it!

[franzliszt2]

I love Ab major, its feels nice, and sound nice

[kriskicksass]

G-flat major. Not only do you have all the black keys to sink into, but it's closely related keys (D-flat and C-flat) also have all the black keys. Also, it's great for improvisation because it's naturally over a pentatonic scale that covers any ugly tones you might accidentally make.

[elevateme]

Db major all the way, brings us great pieces like raindrop prelude & sospiro.
AND it has a brilliant relative minor.

[fencingfellow]

Consider how present it is in the voting, I'm surprised so few posts mention d minor.
The darkest key.  Come on, does nobody else enjoy it?

[pianorama]

YES!! I agree!  Look at all the great music that came out of Eb major -Liszt concerto No.1, Grand Galop Chromatique, Beethoven's emperor concerto..

Don't forget Somewhere Over the Rainbow! (hehe... Though I am serious.)

[Waldszenen]

D Flat Major and C Sharp Minor.


I think I may be the only person here who does not associate a particular emotion or character with each key signature...

[pianorama]

Consider how present it is in the voting, I'm surprised so few posts mention d minor.
The darkest key.  Come on, does nobody else enjoy it?

I like it because there's only one accidental to remember!

[emmdoubleew]

D Flat Major and C Sharp Minor.


I think I may be the only person here who does not associate a particular emotion or character with each key signature...

Hahha no, same here.

I think it's bull imo (for the piano, possibly not for ensemble): there are two reasons you use different keys: pitch and technicality.

I can't beleive C# is somehow  "darker" or "moodier" than C or whatever. They'r ejust a half tone apart, and the piano is an equally-tempered insturment, hence the distances between the pitches are exactly the same. Same frequency ratio, why different moods and feeling?

I think it's just about what pieces we are used to hearing in specific keys.

[Waldszenen]

Hahha no, same here.

I think it's bull imo (for the piano, possibly not for ensemble): there are two reasons you use different keys: pitch and technicality.

I can't beleive C# is somehow  "darker" or "moodier" than C or whatever. They'r ejust a half tone apart, and the piano is an equally-tempered insturment, hence the distances between the pitches are exactly the same. Same frequency ratio, why different moods and feeling?

I think it's just about what pieces we are used to hearing in specific keys.

I agree with you very much.

People say that if you transcribe a certain piece into a different key signature, you change its feeling and its character. This is only because you're used to hearing it in the key it was written in.

For example, if Chopin had written his Revolutionary in... A Minor rather than C Minor, you'd all have been used to hearing it in A Minor. If it was changed to C Minor then you'd think it's not authentic.