I’ve been playing piano for decades, all self-taught. As a consequence, I think I’ve avoided some shortcuts that might have made my learning easier. One of these is that I’ve always learned music in the key it was presented, because I simply didn’t know any better.
Relatively recently, two different acquaintances - both play piano - made comments leading me to believe that it is fairly common to transpose music into an easier key before learning it. I didn’t question them, but it got me wondering.
Is this common? Is it ‘cheating’? Does music played in its non-written key sound ‘off’ at all?
mmm
Initially, I was going to say that it was unusual. But, now that I think of it, yes, a lot of sheet music for piano is transposed to simpler keys for beginner’s editions. (For example, I remember seeing “Linus and Lucy” in the key of C. I find it a lot easier to play in its real key of Ab, but C, I guess, is easier to read for some.) But this is only for beginning instrument players, and with pop music. I’ve never seen classical music transposed for easier playing.
C Major is the easiest to read but, weirdly, I don’t think it’s the easiest to play. I tend to get lost in this sea of white keys as far as fingerings are concerned. I find it easier to mind my fingerings with some sharps or flats.
Are you talking about classical instrumental music? Sung music is transposed all the time. I have never heard of musical or qualitative changes to a piece by doing it.
If you want to be a good player, you need to know how to play in all keys. The only time you should be transposing is if you’re singing along and need to adjust the vocal range. For example, if you’re singing a female song but you’re a male, or vice versa, or maybe the high note is just a little too high. Sure, take it down a step or whatever and sing your heart out.
But if you’re playing everything in C because it’s easier, then you’re doing yourself a great disservice. Every key has a different “flavor”, and yes, listeners can tell. Even if they can’t put it into words, they’ll know something sounds “off” if you a play a song in a different key than they’re used to hearing. For evidence, listen to recent recordings of concerts by older singers; they’re probably playing their songs in lower keys. Billy Joel plays Piano Man in B-flat now, instead of C; see if you can hear a difference.
See, I don’t notice that sort of difference. It would have to be a half octave off before I’d notice it, I think. A step up or down? Sounds fine to me.
No perfect pitch. Decent relative pitch, though. I might notice it on a song I am very intimately familiar with, but random pop song? I doubt it. The keys don’t really “feel” any different to me other than there are some I like playing for the way they fit under the hand, or what open strings are ringing on a guitar, etc.
Indeed. The one that “feels” the best under my hands is B. You can just rip through major scales in it, but it’s one of those weird keys nobody plays in (and even I almost never play in it, despite it fitting the handshape so well.) Blues in F is similar for this reason, and it is a key I play often in. Blues runs are just so easy in that key! For stride-ish stuff, for some reason, I like the flatted keys. I feel like it’s easier to be sloppy and still hit the right notes. Maple Leaf Rag (Ab major) always felt real nice under the fingers, but The Entertainer (C major) I didn’t enjoy from a tactile standpoint.
I’ve heard comparisons of transposed pieces and some keys do sound “brighter” or “heavier”. One explanation I’ve herad is related to the physics of sound, harmonics, frequencies etc.
Studies of the characteristics of musical keys have been around a while. Here’s a page with loads of links and summaries. Some are ridiculously subjective.
“To Mattheson, for example, D major was “somewhat shrill and stubborn,” while to Rousseau it was suited to “gaiety or brilliance.””
From Christian Schubart’s Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806) translated by Rita Steblin in A History of Key “Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries. UMI Research Press (1983).
C major Completely pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children’s talk.
C minor Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul lies in this key.
Db major A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at least grimace its crying.–Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key.”
It also important to note that the time periods you are talking about, equal temperament wasn’t the tuning standard, and so there actually were relative differences between pitches, and not just a matter of how high or how low a particular piece was. In other words, different keys really did have qualitative differences to them in a way they don’t today.
The voicing of the chords is different. Some Chords have more open strings. You may have more thirds or fifths in a chord as compared to playing the transposed chord.
The order of the notes will be different. The root is always the lowest bass note. The third and fifth can occur in various places on the other strings.
You’re play in the key. The difference in sound is subtle.
Well, yes (which is what I mean by “what open strings are ringing” in my post, but also the chord shapes and voicings being changed). But shift the tuning to Eb or F, and I doubt most people would notice. I sometimes detune my guitar to Eb and forget about it. I don’t notice it until I try playing along with another instrument or something on the radio. The Smashing Pumpkins, from Mellon Collie onward played all their old stuff a half step down (as Mellon Collie was pretty much all tuned to Eb.) I had no idea until I read about it. Hearing live versions of Cherub Rock in Eb didn’t sound any different (to me) than Cherub Rock in its original key, E.
I don’t think that’s a musical function. It’s the nature of the specific instrument, and your choices about when to use open chords and strings and inversions. Keys don’t sound different on a guitar other than by that effect.
I think pre equal temperament you had to organize your musical universe for the song around one key. All the rest became out of joint, if you went there. So it was possible to transcribe, and play accurately a piece and have it sound correct, but you couldn’t have a key change during the song, if you were playing on one instrument and it was tempered.
I don’t know classical very much. But I assume that the composers were within one key (and that there was no qualitative difference in their understanding of or hearing of the the keys. No offness.) They just couldn’t use one instrument to change keys or transcribe.
I’ve heard experienced singers say that something about the song changes after it’s transposed. It may not have quite the same quality that made it special.
Singers know what I’m talking about. The frustration of changing the key to fit your voice and the song loses something. Whatever made it special is diminished. It’s more noticeable in pop. Gospel seems to work changing keys.
I completely disagree. Watch out for the woo is all I can say. I sing songs in many keys and I’ve gotten much more out of it than lost.
Most of the time I play beatles songs in A. It’s the way I practice. It has no effect on my performance, or on the way I hear the records later on. If I were going to perform to people I would choose a key to sing in and it would make no difference at all which I needed. I have no memory of a discrepancy or difference, and have no confusion about it. Some of them were Lennon songs he made up intuitively and they were in A anyway. Don’t matter to me though. I use barre chords even on the folk songs, if I’m trying to understand things.
It really is one of the most basic parts of most musicians jobs: to transcribe and play the song. Outside of classical it’s mandatory.
