What's your favorite key?

I find it interesting that people are partial to the sound of different keys. I myself like Cm and Dm (not necessarily the relative majors).

What do keys do you guys like?

Why do you think different keys have different sounds?

Sorry, if something like this has been posted before, I did a search and couldn't find anything.

Different keys have different sounds because they're relative pitches are actually slightly different (unless you're working with a piano, in which all intervals are tuned exactly the same).

My favorite major keys are D, Db, and Gb. My favorite minor keys are C#m, and AxHarmonic minor :)

On piano I really like Db with a lot of sevens and thick harmony, sometimes Gb. For minor, D minor.

Horn: F major, Bb major, D minor, perhaps A minor. I do not like written C for some reason.

Trumpet: written C major and D minor. I also like C minor sometimes.

Flute.... E phrygian (and minor) is fun and I like D minor, sometimes F major.

For recorder, I really like G major.

Tuba: doesn't really matter. Bb is as easy as all heck, though.

Clarinet: I HATE written Bb, I like A minor, D minor, and C major (for New Orleans stuff ;) )

Guitar: A minor, D minor, or E minor, in that order. (not like I can really play guitar, I only dabble)

I just like all those keys because those are the ones that feel very comfortable underneath my fingers.

For violin, I have no preference.

Db Major is great for piano.

For guitar, I rather like D Major.

And most of the time, I write in E Major.

I like me Major keys. :D

It's tight underneath my avatar E FLAT!

This is like asking which of your 24 child you like best. Each one has a glory and charcteristic all its own.

I work mostly on the piano so I am partial to Eb and Db major. I find them easy to play in.

This is like asking which of your 24 child you like best. Each one has a glory and charcteristic all its own.

You can't tell me you don't have a favorite child.;)

E and D minor seem to be my preferences, for some reason i wind up composing in them alot unintentionally =D

I like the easy ones. On the keyboard at least.

Seriously, I have never used a key signature above four flats or sharps... and most of my music has less.

You can't tell me you don't have a favorite child.;)

Ain't none them Kits mine! I ain't payin no Child-support! :D

depends on the instrument I'm playing.

For clarinets, written F major.

For C Flute/Bass Flute, G major/E minor.

For Piccolo, Bb/Eb major.

For Alto Flute, written D minor.

For Oboe, F/G major.

For English Horn, written D minor.

For Saxophones, written F major/E minor.

For Bassoon, C/D/F/G major.

For singing, E major.

F. Gonna have to go with F. The pastoral key... the most sentimental... most pathetic, and most loving key. I love F. Today.

I've got to go with C minor, A major, and G minor. Mainly because they spell out my initials. I mostly like minor keys but I really enjoy A major, I don't know why.

They all sound the same to me, it's just transposing the same thing up and down a set range of frequencies. It also depends on how you tune your instruments, and sometimes different frequencies have different properties on different instruments. So uh, "D major" sounds brighter on X instrument, but it has nothing to do with the key. Just a property of the instrument, at that specific range.

In fact, I don't really care for keys, all's just transposition. When it comes down to it, there's really only a minor and a major scale (as far as this "keys" thing is concerned). So that's sort of old and tired.

So, yeah.

I really like C# minor. Also Ab minor. My performers hate me though, haha.

I like to switch back and forth between Em and GM.

Eb, both major and minor, but then again, I don't write in keys a lot. When I play saxophone I like G phrygian (sounding pitch) a lot for some reason though.

Ooh, thank you Flint, I forgot to mention singing! :w00t:

I don't really sing, but when I'm humming or singing a tune (improvising without an instrument) I usually reach over and try to pluck the notes out on the keyboard and find that I was singing in B one quarter sharp.... between B and C. Almost always, without fail. It's like I have an obsolete, flat version of perfect pitch when I'm not thinking about it!

Different keys have different sounds because they're relative pitches are actually slightly different (unless you're working with a piano, in which all intervals are tuned exactly the same).

Once you establish 'do' every key is the same. They are only different in fixed tuned intruments - like piano and harpsichord. They just had a different tuning system [before] that made more chromatic keys (in relation to c major) sound different.

Most people don't have perfect pitch. If I wake up in the morning and hear a diatonic C Major melody, and then the next morning hear the same melody in Db, it will sound the same.

G minor and then C minor...

I like the easy ones. On the keyboard at least.

Seriously, I have never used a key signature above four flats or sharps... and most of my music has less.

Any key can be "easy", it all depends on your familiarity with it. I (and I'm sure many other accomplished pianists will agree with me) find C major one of the most difficult keys to play in as you have no bearing of where you are, no black keys to align yourself with. On the same note, Db can become one of the easiest keys to play in as you know your only white notes are F and C.

^That's very much true. I'll admit that keys with more flats/sharps are harder to read, but when improvising, I'm perfectly comfortable in, and usually prefer, Db Minor, Ab Major and the like. I probably couldn't really tell you what I was playing, but black keys aren't inherently more difficult to play.

What is interesting to me... is that I usually don't use keys, or I shift in and out of keys without using them!

Once you establish 'do' every key is the same. They are only different in fixed tuned intruments - like piano and harpsichord. They just had a different tuning system [before] that made more chromatic keys (in relation to c major) sound different.

Most people don't have perfect pitch. If I wake up in the morning and hear a diatonic C Major melody, and then the next morning hear the same melody in Db, it will sound the same.

You've got bad "ears" then, because I can definitely hear transpositions and the like very clearly. Are you saying if you're listening to, say, a Beethoven concerto, all the shifts through key centers sound the same to you?

I can only improvise in F sharp minor or A major... but for flute i like A minor, piano C sharp minor and organ F minor...