Question for advanced keyboardists. Are certain key signatures typically more difficult to play within than others? If so, which? Im arranging some music and Im having difficulty in certain keys, but Im poorly skilled. The performers will be pros.
No, not in themselves. But some structures lend themselves more easily to the hand in certain keys. The minute waltz works great in Db, so does the presto agitato from op. 27/2 but maybe not something with a lot of root position Lh tenths. Depends, is what it is.
Can you tell us a story or two to illustrate? With guitar, standard tuning drives very specific key choices for Blues. Doing hammer-on and pull-off- oriented rock and blues = keys of A and E. Jazz is more key-neutral because the technique depends less on open-string drones - although I am sure some jazzers can post countless examples where I’m wrong. And then there’s open tunings, typically unavailable to keyboardists and opening a different door in the tuning/temperament conversation.
Sure. Still getting used to typing on a tablet, so bear with some oddness in spelling. Mostly things in improvised music have to do with some problems of reach in LH. RH scales are all equally easy in all keys, but some licks are a little cumbersome in some keys…like…let’s see…I guess anything where you “hammer” on from a white key to a black key from a half step below, like in a lot of sharp keys, where…let’s say you’re in B and want to hit F# on top and the major third crushed with the minor third gets a little cramped to me. The obvious solution is to put the sixth on top, which is a little different sound but easier for me to play.
But then you have stuff like Chuck Leavell’s solo in D on “Jessica.”. Notice he doesn’t do the crush to the third, but hammers on from a whole step below to the third with the fifth on top. A little more country, and much easier to play from the perspective of keyboard geometry, at least to me.
I think a lot of keys players in sharp keys tend to decide for any given phrase on a blues to stick with the minor or the major, like jam on the minor third in octaves for a few beats. Ultimately I guess it’s a matter of habituation. Give me Eb and everything’s where I expect it, but I’d have to waste time thinking a little doing the same stuff in B.
But it’s still odd for me to start a phrase with my thumb on a black note, so that’s another little oddity. Like in B starting on the fifth to make a little run. I guess it’s all personal. The guitarist I’ve played most with would play a jazz tune in Eb much happier than one in F. And he’s not playing campfire chords, so who knows what’s going on.
Oh and there’s something else about parallel thirds separated by a half step, like in a blues it’s easier for me to go from in C e+g to f+a and back again than the same thing in B. It’s all easy enough if it’s written out, but on the fly it’s a little trickier to me.
Also there’s a psychological thing. Db? Great. But people at jams will call like “born under a bad sign” in C# and I have to remember to think Db. I don’t know.
Interesting. Forgive my desire to be spoon fed, but could you link to Jessica on YouTube and point out and example, e.g “at :45 seconds in you can hear it,” type of guidance.
So Eb is a good key for you? I only like it when I tune down a 1/2 step 
I’ll try to find the solo on YouTube. But Chuck uses that little idea a lot all throughout his solo. Hard to remember one specific spot in his solo. Yeah I guess Eb’s a favorite, just from learning a bunch of tunes originally in that key, like a bunch of new Orleans stuff not to mention all the bazillion standards originally written in that key. Just a pretty common flat key that happens to naturally get into a convenient VI7b9#9 and easy to walk up to the V7 from the ii or the II7 from a geometrical point of view and has a nice, kind of isomeric IV chord. Bb is the same way, just convenient and user friendly.
And Bb is proof that Johnnie Johnson had a big hand in Chuck Berry’s songwriting - Bb is an awful key for bluesy guitar but some of his songs originated in that key - Johnnie B. Goode?
Bb is proof that god loves rock piano players and wants them to be happy. And Johnnie Johnson is Muhammed Ali prophet man, RIP. Hey, Jimmy Vivino wasn’t complaining on Johnnie’s HomeSpun instructional video. Actually Bb kind of blows a little on Hammond because of the low C – always disappointing to me. Ok fine I did hear Larry Goldings play “The Break Through (Hank Mobley)” on a live radio festival feed in Bb but he was probably cheating.
Are you talking about the major second-to-major third type of hammer on that he does in the solo? Yeah, that’s a signature riff of country-style piano. You hear it all over the place. It’s kind of mimicking guitar-types of hammer ons, like playing a E-to-F# hammer on over a D chord or B-to-C# on the A chord. (Which are the two chords under the solo. By the way, isn’t Jessica in A, not D?) What I particularly like about that solo is how he goes from mostly major pentatonic-country noodling, and builds to a bluesy crescendo at about 3:26 here.
Anyhow, some keys do fit under the fingers better than others. For blues, especially on the organ or keyboard with unweighted keys, you can just fly in the key of F. B, on the other hand, I just find to be a pain in the ass for blues. I like blues keys where the minor third falls on a black note, so I could just slide my finger from minor to major without having to use a second finger. It’s also helpful if the raised fourth/diminished fifth is on a black key, too, but not quite as important for me (as in the key of F, where the white key, black key, black key, white key, white key, black key layout of the blues scale just fits perfectly under your fingers.)
Also, and this may be my inexperience speaking here, some keys seem to be easier to read than others. For example, I seem to have an easier time reading flat key signatures than sharps. I have no idea why. It’s always been this way since I was a kid.
But this is somewhat personal. For example, I don’t like rocking out in Bb, whether I’m doing some bluesy or major pentatonic. The key just never felt right to me under my hands. I much prefer the guitar keys of G, D, A, and E (in that order) or piano keys like C or F.
Yeah, you’re right I think Jessica is in A. Thanks for linking to the solo – that’s one bad mutha all the way through. I think Chuck was only in his early twenties when he came up with that. Good observations too BTW – I agree it’s all very much a function of what one practices and plays and what’s easier to read or think in. One thing I forgot to mention are the relative minors of keys like Eb – you’re right into Cm if you need to modulate temporarily. For people who’ve shredded stuff like Jimmy Smith’s “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again” it’s a very familiar key to be in. Like a bonus hidden track.
And then when it comes to ballady-stuff, for some reason I like being in flats, like Eb, Db, Ab, and Gb. Once again, no idea why. It just feels right to me. Actually, that might because I played piano in a musical and a musical revue, and it seemed like a lot of the ballad-type songs were in these keys, so I got used to them.
IANAP (I am not a pianist), but I play the clarinet. I’m relatively skilled, having studied clarinet in university. I find keys with many sharps or flats difficult, because music written in these keys will often have double-sharps and double-flats.
As an Intermediate pianist, I like flat keys for the left hand, probably because it’s easier to stab at a black key when doing stride accompaniment. However, sharp keys are easier to chord in the right hand, and the easiest scales are in A/E/B.
Speaking from the blues improvisational side of me…(IMHO, classically trained pianists are much more at home in any key)…I’m with Jaledin. Bb/Eb are comfort keys; the next step in the direction (away from “cowboy keys”) around the circle is Ab, where the min->maj 3rd crush is back to two fingers. G seems to be the best compromise between guitar players and piano players, so all keys in the circle between G and Eb are preferred. For some reason, I think Bb is favored over F for guitarists, too. Each step past G the other way gets progressively trickier, so E isn’t great, B is worse, etc.
I just sat in at an open blues jam where the guitarist asked me whether I could handle a tune in F# (better for him vocally)…I said “yes” way too over-confidently, thinking I would somehow locate the transpose key in the dark and “cheat” on a foreign-to-me board if necessary. Let’s just say it wasn’t my best effort. :smack:
Hah. I did run into that one of my very first times at an open jam, never having touched an electrified piano before – I think it was C# (Db please!). Sounded like dogshit, to quote Howlin Wolf from the London sessions. F# is definitely one where transpose could be…for some people…okay fine I’d do it too…transpose. Hit the button! I think that’s the key I never play in. Just seems weird.
Bill Evans said something once like “Keys don’t bother me so much, but for some of them I’d really have to think about it.” I think it was on his radio time with Marian McPartland. Kind of sums it up for me in a nutshell – anything can be played if enough time is given to think about things. I’d be more concerned if I were writing a part about making really large stretches in one hand or making the score as “legible” as possible from an engraving perspective, since time’s always a factor.
A question (as a non-pianist) - is playing mostly on the black keys vs. the white keys (say Db/C# vs C) physically harder or easier or just different?
No. Not in my experience, at any rate. FWIW I was helping a cousin move some stuff a little while ago and we were talking about one of his kids playing piano – she (or he, can’t remember) is following a method which starts using just the black notes. Makes sense – it’s a nice pentatonic thing, unlike just rolling an orange up and down the white keys to make a major scale. I bet there is some theory of piano technique that has more to say about what you’re asking, but I don’t know. The black keys obviously feel different – they’re kind of spindly and thin, and they make little shapes like monsters from outer space with the diminished scales and the half-whole diminished scales is how I think of them working with the white keys, but that’s not scientific and probably hallucinatory.
Exactly…I don’t like to cheat, but why play to a weakness, given I’m in unfamiliar territory (borrowed axe, etc.) as it is? Would a pitcher throw a knuckleball if he hasn’t perfected it just because the catcher is calling for it?
Sure, give me a day or two practicing blues in F#, and I’m sure I could come up with something passable, but I’m not going to shine - it’s limiting at best. So too for B, E, etc. - improvised solos are going to sound slightly different, & lean more toward the minor side of things, as you mentioned.
It’s why there’s not so many (if any) great country pianists, and most likely why pedal steel/lap steel became the prevalent counterpoint instrument in country-rock/outlaw country/alt-country. Country piano is hokey, Chuck Leavell and Billy Powell notwithstanding. Most of the great, ballsy, blues-based piano solos or riffs you’ve ever heard are probably not being played in E or A.
Uh oh, man. No soup for you!
You done stepped in it now! Nashville doesn’t have any stone cats playing full sessions every day? Old guys too like Al Stricklin and Pig Hargus Robbins. Hey, what about Otis Spann? He got way down in A and E – but yeah on his own records he sticks to G and C and maybe a few others from what I remember. I think it was Memphis Slim who only played in G on his own records. I don’t like to do single-note runs in a kind of jazz/funk bag over a blues in E or B but it does sound kind of sweet to do the Otis Spann patented full chord tremolos and those chorded licks with the minor third up top and various stuff below (you know what I’m talking about, it’s like one of his big inventions).