Composers: What do you think...

is the hardest key to compose in?

The best key most beautiful key to compose in?

The worst?

As an aspiring composer, I want some insight from others.

well... with todays modern notation software it really doesnt make that much of a difference,,, but of course for modulating and changing keys and that it can be simpler to work in keys with fewer sharps/flats. Personally,, I like the sound of Bb major. I dont know why,,,just sounds good to me.

is the hardest key to compose in?

The best key most beautiful key to compose in?

The worst?

As an aspiring composer, I want some insight from others.

Why would any key be hard to compose into? Even if it has all the flats down to C.

For instance take this example. D minor, it appears easy, only B flat to worry about. What if you have Db minor? You get the Db, Eb, Fb, Gb, Ab, B double flat, and Cb. This makes it all sound so much more complicated then the nice clean D minor, but in fact it's only hard if you look at it compared to D minor.

Meaning, the Db is a D altered downwards by a half-step ... which it is. But you can also look at it as being Db. A normal Db, unrelated to D by half step, or B double flat by a a major third. It is only Db.

What would the difficulty be in doing anything? Say, you write tonally. Ab is still the dominant degree. If you look at the note itself and ignore the flat alteration, you can easily construct a v2 chord. It's G, A, C(third), E. C should come to your mind instinctively as being the third of A. Now note that the key is Db and not D so the notes are Gb, Ab, Cb, Eb. Nothing complicated there. If you want a V2 chord, than the rule of the harmonic minor applies just as easy as it does in A minor. You alter a half-step upwards the third of the V degree. It does not matter if it's B, G# or C double flat. It can be treated as simply the note mentioned altered. In this case it's C natural. So the chord would be Gb, Ab, C, Eb.

Let's say now you want the relative of the dominant's subdominant. (a little joke here, it's actually simple since the dominant's subdominant is the initial chord. :P ) It's B double flat. And we want it in 4/3. The notes names are F, A, B, D. And the actual notes are Fb, Ab, B double flat, Db.

Following this type of thinking ( I hope it was understood), if a note has no alterations or 3 sharps, it makes no difference in the difficulty to compose or read or understand the music.

As far as it goes for "best key" or beautiful, these are subjective choices, but I'd say Db major or Ab major for flats and F# major or...hm I don't really like the sharp keys very much :p.

As for the worst, it's any mode that starts on B natural. The only black white key. :p

http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/your-favorite-key-17207.html

and

http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/what-your-favorite-key-22497.html

Do we really need another "key" thread? If the question was what's the hardest key to write in, I guess it's whatever you're not used to since they're all pretty much the same.

Heh, I tonicize 'B natural' all the time. It sounds perfectly beautiful to me. I think the whole moral of the story though is this: Learn the interval structures of your scales and modes. I think you should intensely study interval relationships within these areas if you feel it's more difficult to compose in one key more than any other.

The interval structure is the same for all 'Major' modes. The C scale, for example, is made up of C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. The whole steps are CDEFGABC, CDEFGABC, CDEFGABC, CDEFGABC, and CDEFGABC. The only half steps are between the third and fourth scale degrees, CDEFGABC, and the seventh and eighth scale degrees, CDEFGABC. So, you have an 'interval structure' of (W=Whole Step or Major 2nd, w=Half Step or Minor 2nd) WWwWWWw. Think of this structure as occurring -between- each degree of the scale.

So, let's apply the structure to another pitch and create a major scale... heck, let's do 'A Major' - hehe

A to B = W, B to C = w... oops, the structure, again, is WWwWWWw... let's try again.

A to B = W, B to C# = W, C# to D = w, D to E = W, E to F# = W, F# to G# = W, G# to A = w

Success! A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A

----------------------------------

Once you have this down, learning your modes is easy.

Let's take each scale degree of the C Major scale to identify your modes. [CDEFGABC] I'll make some notes beside each mode for you, too, and be sure to watch the 'W' move as we go through them so you see how the interval structure shifts from one mode to the next.

C to C in C Major = C Ionian (Build a Major Scale)

WWwWWWw

D to D in C Major = D Dorian (Build a Major Scale, lower the 3rd and 7th Scale Degrees)

WwWWWwW

E to E in C Major = E Phrygian (Build a Major Scale, lower the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th Scale Degrees)

wWWWwWW

F to F in C Major = F Lydian (Build a Major Scale, raise the fourth scale degree)

WWWwWWw

G to G in C Major = G Mixolydian (Build a Major Scale, lower the 7th scale degree)

WWwWWwW

A to A in C Major = A Aeolian (Build a Major Scale, lower the 3rd, 6th, and 7th Scale Degrees)

WwWWwWW

B to B in C Major = B Locrian (Build a Major Scale, lower the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th Scale Degrees)

wWWwWWW

------------------------------------

Okay, so let's just start in the middle with F Lydian. Here we have a scale of FGABCDEF. If you look at the WWwWWWw model for Major scales (from F to F would create FGABbCDEF), you'll notice that the interval between the third and fourth scale degrees [FGABCDEF], A to B, is a Whole Step, not a Half Step like the Major or 'Ionian' mode. You can remember the Lydian mode simply as the Major scale with a 'raised fourth', which simply means in this case that you've 'raised' the Bb in the F Major scale to a B Natural. That's all there is to it... the interval structure for F Lydian becomes WWWwWWw... simply shifting the interval structure of the Major (Ionian) mode.

A good exercise that will help you is to write out every major scale. You can do this chromatically using the interval chart WWwWWWw, or you can build it using the circle of fifths you probably learned about at some point. This is simply starting with the C scale and building off of every fourth scale degree for flats (so, F, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb) and every fifth scale degree for sharps (so, G, D, A, E, B, F#). You should take note that Cb is the enharmonic equivalent of B, that's why we usually stop there in creating scales with flats. Similarly, F# is the enharmonic equivalent of Gb, which is why we usually stop there.

If you were to go on, you would begin creating double sharps and double flats. This is perfectly acceptable in music, but I would steer you now to just keep things simple for the time being until you're more comfortable working within each scale and mode. Happy hunting.

I don't find any key HARD....my favorites now are F# major and C major combined with Ab minor (WEIRD!!! :w00t:)

I don't find any key HARD....

[CLAPPING] That's how it should be !!! :thumbsup: [/CLAPPING]

At least in piano and electric bass, I don't find any key hard either.

I like Db major and D major...not sure why...

I also like Eb minor and D minor. Not sure why either.

[CLAPPING] That's how it should be !!! :thumbsup: [/CLAPPING]

lol. thank you! :P

http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/your-favorite-key-17207.html

and

http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/what-your-favorite-key-22497.html

Do we really need another "key" thread? If the question was what's the hardest key to write in, I guess it's whatever you're not used to since they're all pretty much the same.

Good enough reason to close this thread. Duplication is silly. Topic is silly. Please use the search function -- it's not perfect, but it works.