• brezel@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    i don’t really get it. all minor keys are the same and all major keys are the same, they’re just shifted up and down :shrug:

      • valar@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        Even with equal temperament, there is cultural context deep in our brains that affects what each key evokes in us.

        • FishFace@piefed.social
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          2 days ago

          For the difference between major and minor keys, that’s true, and my comment didn’t emphasise the distinction because of the context of the parent.

          But within major keys or minor keys, I don’t think this is true for most people. Most people do not have absolute (aka “perfect”) pitch, so if you play them a piece of unfamiliar music in a particular key, allow them enough time to forget the pitch at which it was played, then play it again transposed up a semitone, they won’t actually be able to tell it’s played at a higher pitch. The brain hears the relation between pitches, not the absolute pitches, and the relations are all the same.

          There are certain exceptions: string instruments sound slightly different when playing the notes of one of the open strings as those strings vibrate sympathetically. Instrument bodies don’t respond exactly the same to two adjacent pitches, so it’s not just the pitch that changes; so does the timbre. But these are subtle effects, especially on an instrument like a piano, and they can disappear entirely on electric or digital instruments leaving only the pitches as the variation.

          And there are certain limits: if I play you a piece you know very well, you’ll have an expectation as to the pitch you hear it at and will be able to tell more accurately when it is played differently. If I play it to you very soon after you’ve just heard it, it will be the same. And even if neither applies, if I play it transposed up an octave, you’d have to be tone deaf to not hear the difference.

          • valar@lemmy.ca
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            2 days ago

            Sure yeah I agree, I can’t tell the difference between notes a semitone apart or whatever. But the part about instrument timbre sounding different is very important. Most guitars are in standard tuning, and Emajor sounds different than Dmajor, even if you shifted up their pitch.

        • bss03@infosec.pub
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          2 days ago

          Yeah, while the individual 8 tones are the same. Once you start chording, A minor still sounds different from C major. On the grasping hand, there are some chords that are effectively shared so a complex piece can “disguise” one as the other.

      • brezel@piefed.social
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        2 days ago

        ok yes you’re right, i hadn’t considered that in 1682 the scales were actually different. thanks!

  • Übercomplicated@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    Oh my god, my favorite key is absolutely destroyed. It used to be D-Minor, but I’ve been using Bb-Minor increasingly and really enjoying it. But now I know the truth, it’s actually “obscure and terrible”!

  • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I always thought of the major keys as gentler and cheerier, like a daisy chain, and the minor keys as darker and stronger, like a deep purple orchid, but Charpentier clearly saw it completely differently.

  • bss03@infosec.pub
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    2 days ago

    My improvisations on a keyboard are always somewhere between A minor and C minor. I only use the 2 minor keys in between for key changes.