How important is the key of a song?
Asked by
trychvz (
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April 24th, 2010
I’ve heard that the mood of a song can be completely altered just by changing the key. Is this true? I play the guitar and sometimes I’ll drop the key of a song down a few half steps just to make it a little easier to sing. Obviously there’s a noticeable difference when you hear both versions back to back, or when a key change happens in the middle of the song, but for the most part I can’t even tell. Does changing the key infringe upon the integrity of the songwriter?
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10 Answers
I don’t see a total key change by a few half steps as mood altering. As is often seen, a transition up a half step during the piece is commonly used for the peak of a performance.
Very, if you’re playing with others.
I think it is pretty significant. A change in key certainly can alter the mood of a song, as you indicate. For example, listen to these two versions of Teresa Teng’s song “Airport”. The first, with Miss Teng’s vocals, is a few notches higher in key than the second version, an instrumental version of the same song “Airport”. Because the second version is lower in key, it presents itself as more “darker” or “mysterious” in mood. The first one, sung by Miss Teng, is more dramatic and emotionally explicit because of the higher key.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyRYF_jlaSs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RF7vr9Uw9I&feature=related
key is important and some are prone to brightness and mood.
it is also personalized by the singers range. Singers need to be at a comfort level to get the most out of a song.
Not quite as important today as it was before twelve-tone equal temperament became almost universal in western music. Before Bach, many keys were effectively off-limits to keyboardists and other musicians who lacked the ability to make continuous pitch changes on the fly. Bach pioneered in an era were ‘well temperaments’ were developed to make all keys playable and the fashion in which the intervals were tweaked to banish the wolf intervals gave different keys different properties. But no one well temperament ever became standard, so accounts of how different keys suited one mood or another differed from one composer/theorist to another, depending on what tuning they used or heard used.
Within the system of equal temperament, going up in key typically invokes feelings of increased passion or tension, while going down invokes a reduction of same, IIRC.
It’s a relative shift – so only in context. That is, if I write a song in C, then raise it to E, if you heard the second you would say it sounds more intense, but you might not notice otherwise. Orchestras sort of compete over this in how they tune… ie tuning 5 hz higher (445 hz) to get a slightly more “hot” sound than an orchestra that tunes in the typical way.
Changing key from major to minor or to any mode certainly can make a huge difference.
Yes, it certainly makes a difference. it’s like having your house painted in shades of red and orange, and then repainting it in yellow and green or blue and purple. Every key has its own unique sound.
I do think D minor is a sad key, and at least one of the “darkest” keys.
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