When composing music, what keys produce which feelings/emotions?

Question

My music composing program forces me to choose the key right when I start, and I usually just start with a theme and go from there. sometimes though, the key doesn't fit what I have chosen to write about. Which keys produce which emotions? also, how can you tell the difference between the three types of minor keys?

Answer 1

As far as I'm concerned keys don't have "feelings" associated with them. I can make e minor sound "happy" and I can make A major sound "sad."



... as far as you're concerned, the trick would be to play the music, settle on a key, and become proficient _before_ you start the transcription.

Answer 2

Musical Keys And Emotions

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.



RE:

When composing music, what keys produce which feelings/emotions?

My music composing program forces me to choose the key right when I start, and I usually just start with a theme and go from there. sometimes though, the key doesn't fit what I have chosen to write about. Which keys produce which emotions? also, how can you tell the difference between the three...

Answer 4

Dear EmP, This has been a little controversial but there was an 1850s musicologist Christian Schobart who claimed that keys have emotional characteristics. He said C Major was the key of simplicity and perfect for children's music. D Maj was the key of brightness and victory. Hence, Handel's Hallejuhah Chorus was oroginally in D. However, I have seen it in C as the original key was a little high. I think it also depends on the range of voices. Traditionally, keys with flats have been associated with darkness and mellowness and sharps with brightness. I think instrumental composers also select keys according to personal preference. A lot of band music is in B Flat Maj because that's the key that allows the most instruments to speak well within their own ranges. When you consider the transpositions, this key allows for the fewest sharps and flats for all the players to read. Christian Schobart seemed to like most keys except for D Flat Maj, A Flat Maj, and the minor keys. He associated all these with gloominess and ghosts. My fave is G Flat Maj because it seems to have a warm summer like quality. I know this isn't best answer material but I hope it helps in some small way.

Answer 5

I don't know what composition program you are using, but most of the ones I am familiar with allow you to change the key after you have started working on the music.



The general stereotype is that minor keys sound sadder, while major keys are much happier. This mostly comes from the fact that most sad music just happens to be written in a minor key, and the intervals that make a scale major or minor (third, sixth, and seventh) have more of a sad feel in the minor.



Some composers will tell you that all major keys sound the same, and all minor keys sound the same, so you don't have to worry about which specific key you are writing in as long as you have the major or minor right. I disagree with this - certain keys have certain emotions attached to them specifically (this again comes from the fact that most music with one emotion is written in a certain key). For example, a lot of love songs are commonly written in flat keys (E-flat is a common one), songs that should be more majestic are written in keys like D, G, or B-flat. This isn't always the case - I have definitely written music that fits those generalizations, but have written just as much, if not more, that doesn't follow them (including writing happy music in a minor key and sad in a major). As far as I know, there isn't much reason why this is the case except someone one day deciding to write a piece with a certain mood in a certain key and everyone else thinking that that emotion sounded good in that key and did the same thing.



The three minor scales can be told apart based on their sixth and seventh scale degrees:

Natural minor is the one most people probably think of when they hear the term minor - you take a simple major scale and lower all of the thirds, sixths, and sevenths by a half step.

Harmonic minor is the same as the natural minor, but the seventh is raised because this is the third degree of the dominant chord, which needs to be major for the cadence to be correct.

Melodic minor, which is commonly used in classical music, is the most difficult to tell just from listening to it - going down, it is the natural minor scale, but going up the sixth and seventh degrees are raised.



C natural minor: E-flat, A-flat, B-flat (ascending and descending)

C harmonic minor: E-flat, A-flat, B-natural (ascending and descending)

C melodic minor: E-flat, A-natural, B-natural (ascending); E-flat, A-flat, B-flat (descending).

Answer 6

Just start writing. Your song will find it's way into a key. No need to just make some arbitrary decision that you're going to write something in Db major.

Answer 7

They're all the same - at least nowadays.



A couple of hundred years ago, before we used equal temperament (all semitones are exactly 1/12th of an octave apart) we used different systems which WOULD make different keys sound different. There's a (admittedly pretty long) video about it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBt6APk21tU

Answer 8

Generally speaking, minor keys are considered "sad", but that's really an oversimplification.



For more info on minor scales - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_scale

Answer 9

I wouldn't say that different keys produce different emotions,

but different keys conjure up different images.



Since pentatonic Gb major is playable on the black keys on the piano,

the pentatonic mode could be associated with Gb major.

Puccini shows this association in La Rondine and Turandot.



Since e minor is an efficient key on the violin,

and since the violin is associated with gypsies,

e minor could be associated with gypsies.

Verdi shows this association in La Traviata and Il Trovatore.



Since C major is the favorite key for beginners on the piano,

C major is associated with the piano.

Benjamin Britten shows this association in The Turn of the Screw,

and Saint Saens shows this association in The Carnival of Animals.



Since Bb is an efficient key for band instruments,

Bb is associated with bands.

Puccini shows this association in La Boheme.