Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner your least favorite key to play in?

I actually really don't like playing in all white keys. Two of my favorite keys to play in are Db and C#m. Mostly black keys.
And I can play just fine in any key, I just can't improv as well in certain keys. I never improv in Eb, ew

Key West. Key Largo is a much better place to play piano.

Aren't both fairly humid, and tough on the instrument?

I agree. It's much easier to miss a jump to a white note than to a black note because of the gap between adjacent black keys.


Same here! When I was little I came across this short piece by Chopin (can't remember what it is now) and wondered why he had to write it in F sharp instead of G flat.

I have no problem playing in any key, but aurally G major does nothing for me. For me it's plain vanilla and blah sounding.

John

Steven, we have been through this before. I have no scientific understanding of why I hear an announcement on BBC3 of the Beethoven 4th Concerto and I can 'hear' that opening chord in G major before it actually happens (much like the C# minor in Mahler's 5th), but this whole thing was demolished in a thread last year, I believe? (Never really figured it out, I gave up.)

I don't get it all, I don't claim to. But you do back me up in saying that playing in many keys makes 'difficult' key signatures a non-event? It should never be a problem, folks that claim otherwise are outsourcing the fault.

Once again -and sorry for this- being a church musician has really prepared me for this issue. It's rather exciting: the juxtaposition of playing a dynamite church service (at short notice!) coupled with my desire to create an inner edifice of worship (whatever this all means) has resulted in a synthesis of both a challenge to my musicianship, and a challenge to the congregation.

There is something very special about this, though outside the confines of this board.

But I don't claim to have figured it out. Ah, sweet mystery of life...

Transposing Schubert's Op. 90 No. 3 to G major gives such a different sound quality that it makes one wonder if there really is no relative difference at all between different keys.

I remember one semester in college I called the "3 flats" semester because I was playing Beethoven Op 7, the Emperor concerto, some piano trio in c minor...

Don't know how that happened.

I find 1 flats and 1 sharp are the hardest keys for me.

It may be easier to miss a jump to a white key(in the sense of hitting the adjacent note or hitting two notes at once), but I think it's much easier to slip off a black key to an adjacent white key(one can't slip off a white key).



This has been discussed extensively in earlier posts with no agreement among posters. My own feeling is few people could tell whether the piece was being played in G or G flat.

It probably has to do with the nature of the destination note as well. If you were referring to the leap from Eb on 5 to the Bb-Db-G chord on 135 I see how that can be difficult. I was thinking more of jumping to an octave, in which case it's much easier IMO to jump to black keys.


Yeah I did an experiment once with a friend with no perfect pitch, with mixed results. Still I don't know if I'm prepared to say the key that a piece is written in has little consequence other than practicality...

This is what I had in mind. The octave that I miss most often is the D, while the black octaves rarely present a problem.

I agree that jumps to octaves on black keys are not difficult and probably easier than on white keys. What is that piece you posted a fragment of?

It's from the second movement of Ravel's trio - an amazing piece.

totally agree.

Interesting use of a descending wholetone bass line: D C Bb Ab F# E D C, etc., while the upper voice of the each left hand chord chord ascends in contrary motion to the bass line on a diminsihed scale: Bb C Db Eb E F#.

Like I've always contended, many modern jazz players like Solal, Tristano, Peterson, Tatum, etc., were far more influenced harmonically by 20th century compositions than by African/blues influences.

A thorough analysis of the piece will assist its playing. It's also the same as stride piano. If you an play stride and rags, this is a piece of cake.

I guess that's why Lennon/McCartney wrote so much music in E?

As others have said, keys that are heavy on the black notes are difficult at first. I don't recall when I got past my problem with such keys, but it vanished years ago and I've not given it any thought until now, reading your post. I guess it just takes time to learn, and then the problem is gone.

It's funny, but it always seemed to me that my hands were learning more than my brain was learning. It "seems" like it's mostly in the hands. Have you ever had the feeling that your hands know the right notes, even though your brain doesn't?

I hate F# minor. Actually I hate F# major too - I can only play the scales,arpeggios etc if I think of them as G flat.

Well, I certainly find it easier, and I'm guessing Liszt did too when he transposed La Campanella to G sharp minor for its more 'jumpy' final version. But perhaps this is different for every person; you're better at jumping to white keys, I'm better at jumping to black. *starts singing ebony and ivory*