Does the tunes key make a difference?

[Mike t.]

I’m learning the Shelburne Reel, a Canadian fiddle tune on a PA, after hearing on youtube. I found some music and was happily learning it in the key of A, then going back to the fiddle site a few days later I realized they play it in B flat? A song like the Clarinet polka, that I learned as a kid was in B flat then years later playing with some fiddlers they played it in C? Is a key choice set because of the range of the instrument? Just wondering?

 

[Ventura]

professionally, we were always taught to play popular music in
it's original key (that which the author wrote it, OR that which
the famous artist's definitive recording thereof used)

true or not, we believed the "ear" of the audience is somewhat trained
by their exposure to the original key, and so we adhere to that
as we want to always evoke the greatest feeling of authenticity for them.

Other than that, your can play something in any darn key you like,
for any reason you find.. Limitations of your instrument, ease of
fingering, Vocalist range, etc. there is no prohibition or wrong key..

sometimes it is just fun to keep going up a key every chorus of a song
to see how complicated you can go with sharps and flats before your
fingers stumble in a big tangle and your brain freezes

some songs like "Hummingbird" take advantage of that concept

 

[debra]

I try to stick to the original key if possible. Sometimes when I make an arrangement and in the original key it requires a high Bb and on the low side nothing below the lowest F# I may provide a transposed version that fits in the standard 41 key PA keyboard from F up to high A.
And occasionally I just transpose because it is easier. My most famous example is Humoresque nr. 7 by Antonin Dvorak. The original key of this work is Gb major and essentially my choice was to either leave it in Gb major and everyone would find this too difficult so nobody would play it, or to transpose to G major and then it becomes easy and many people will play it. So I transposed to G.
Our well-tempered tuning should make everything sound the same independent of the key it is played in. But of course when you deviate a lot it becomes quite obvious. There are some transposed versions of Music (John Miles) or Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) that just sound awful, even to people who do not have absolute pitch.

 

[Ventura]

well tempered.. ahh yes you gently remind me

of course i was thinking Pop and modern, but
i should not forget the organs with one key for Gb and another for A#
with slightly different pitch.. etc. and the music composed on such instruments,
nor the various tempers and tunings used and in fashion over the centuries
and the music composed with them..

and isn't it amazing that there are Vocalists who do not require periodic
and extensive "tuning" on occasion, but who can just hit the notes with
amazing precision.. i did vaguely know Freddie Mercury had taken
inspiration in classical things for the Rhapsody, but i have not studied
it enough to know that about the Key being critically important
to that song. Another thing i must now research a bit.. i do have that
DVD "the making of B R" but hadn't watched it yet.. perhaps they
talk about it..

 

[Ventura]

and now i also must find my 78 of Liberace playing his
pop version of Humoresque to see what key he was in..

i can still remember the arrangement in my head.. many
liberties with feel and timing, but what a joy to listen to..

absolutely refreshing it was in it's day, and i suppose the first
time that long ago poorboy from Pittsburgh was exposed to the "Classics"

 

[debra]

well tempered.. ahh yes you gently remind me

...

and isn't it amazing that there are Vocalists who do not require periodic
and extensive "tuning" on occasion, but who can just hit the notes with
amazing precision.. i did vaguely know Freddie Mercury had taken
inspiration in classical things for the Rhapsody, but i have not studied
it enough to know that about the Key being critically important
to that song. Another thing i must now research a bit.. i do have that
DVD "the making of B R" but hadn't watched it yet.. perhaps they
talk about it..

I don't know if there was anything special about B R but I have heard accordion arrangements that deviate too far from the original key.
It starts in G minor, and if you change that to something like E minor it just sounds wrong for everyone. A change to F# minor or G# minor would likely not be noticed by most people.
Now, if the original is not in well tempered tuning then to a very critical listener it might not sound well in the same key but with well tempered tuning... But that is splitting hairs to a level probably not intended here.
I have made many arrangements of compositions from the baroque period (Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Teleman, Corelli, etc., etc.) and most arrangements are in the original key, but the original tuning was likely quite far off from A4=440Hz and was may something like Werkmeister III and not well-tempered... Still I like how the arrangements for accordion ensemble sound.

 

[Mike t.]

I’m not much of a guitar player, but played with four others, church hymns last Sunday, all five songs in D. There were some B minor chords and I was playing guitar with the piano player so I capo the guitar and play as if in C so I could easily play A minor chords. I don’t have perfect pitch or maybe just a little of it, I found it hard to play what I call campfire chords to the songs as my ear was telling me the wrong chords. I did notice the guitars playing backup for the fiddle players for Shelburne reel, in B flat capo the guitar for ease of chording, ease of fingering.

 

[murathan]

To add something... Some instruments are transposed instruments. Bb Clarinet's written C is sound as Bb on piano (coming from different reasons). What is written and heard is same as piano are called C instruments. In classical music, you play what you got in the sheet only. But you can do anything with anonymous (Folk, Jazz...) Music. For easier or whatever reason. In a group, you may have a weak player wants that song in C, or singer wants that, so you play as C etc.

 

[Siegmund]

I would worry firstly about who you are playing with (fiddlers are probably going to want everything in G, D, or A; a mariachi band might want everything in Eb or Bb), and then about what keys sound best on your instrument.

Playing by myself, my choice of key is driven by what sounds good on the left hand, more than anything else. If you have a prominent bass run you don't want to hit the octave break on your bass reeds in the middle of that run: my break is between Eb and E, so C-D-E-F in F major is going to sound weird. If you are sensitive to voice leading in chords (which a lot of classical folk are, but most pop folk are not), you'll avoid the two keys where V7-I has a big leap instead of smooth voice leading. (For me these F#7-B and B7-E, where movement between D# and E features prominently.)

Ventura's point about sensitivity to original key probably applies mostly to songs people know from recordings, and less so to traditional tunes, which tend to get played in a different key by everybody who performs it.

I know someday I am going to offend someone by playing the Moonlight Sonata in Bb minor instead of C# minor... but that happens to be the key that puts my bass octave break in the right place, both for the linear motion, and to make all the open fifths near the end be fifths rather than fourths.

 

[Mike t.]

I would worry firstly about who you are playing with (fiddlers are probably going to want everything in G, D, or A; a mariachi band might want everything in Eb or Bb), and then about what keys sound best on your instrument.

Playing by myself, my choice of key is driven by what sounds good on the left hand, more than anything else. If you have a prominent bass run you don't want to hit the octave break on your bass reeds in the middle of that run: my break is between Eb and E, so C-D-E-F in F major is going to sound weird. If you are sensitive to voice leading in chords (which a lot of classical folk are, but most pop folk are not), you'll avoid the two keys where V7-I has a big leap instead of smooth voice leading. (For me these F#7-B and B7-E, where movement between D# and E features prominently.)

Ventura's point about sensitivity to original key probably applies mostly to songs people know from recordings, and less so to traditional tunes, which tend to get played in a different key by everybody who performs it.

I know someday I am going to offend someone by playing the Moonlight Sonata in Bb minor instead of C# minor... but that happens to be the key that puts my bass octave break in the right place, both for the linear motion, and to make all the open fifths near the end be fifths rather than fourths.

That explains to me why I probably have favorite keys on my Italian PA because of the high and lows of the bass side. Am has a great sound to me (old guy with a1/4 of his hearing gone!)

 

[Tom]

Of course music sounds different in different keys. Otherwise what would be the point of playing it in the original key? I transpose to make playing easier, or to fit it more comfortably on the keyboard. But yeah, it is fun to change keys in mid stream to make it more fun for the player, especially if you need to fill the next hour…..

 

[murathan]

In modal (Eastern) music, they call their scales Maqam, its very important you play from which key, and the scale name completely changes with that and got a different meaning in their understanding. I saw in years, that meaning change is also happening in western music including classical music. In western music theory, scales are molds from the same mold, so it doesnt matter they've said. Not to worry much about that in western music though.

 

[OuijaBoard]

I’m learning the Shelburne Reel, a Canadian fiddle tune on a PA, after hearing on youtube. I found some music and was happily learning it in the key of A, then going back to the fiddle site a few days later I realized they play it in B flat? A song like the Clarinet polka, that I learned as a kid was in B flat then years later playing with some fiddlers they played it in C? Is a key choice set because of the range of the instrument? Just wondering?

For yourself you can play the tune in any key you like, of course.

For playing with others, yes, a tune is sometimes played in a certain key due to instrument limitations, often instruments other than yours. Remember, "The Shelburne Reel" is a folk tune, and folk regions, even villages, get to playing,in certain keys for a variety of reasons.

One example from Irish trad areas where pipes were plentiful. tunable instruments played in keys friendly to the pipe tunings dominant in the area, as pipes have limited scope chromaticism-wise. In Scotland, scads of tunes are in "A" possibly due to "A" tuned Highland pipes, possibly due to the open-string ease of fiddling in *A.". Same goes for folk music where one-row button melodeons are a big dance instrument.

Folk traditions get customs as to chosen keys and that gets,known as "the" key for that tune. But there can be variance within one traditional genre. Possibly due to pipe or box tunings, in Ireland there were and still are "flat tunings" and "flat sessions.". In a " B" sesh typically you'll have a piper or pipers with "B" tuned pipes, and fiddlers tune down or bring a 2nd fiddle so tuned. "D" tunes will be played in "B," "G" tunes in"E," relative minors the same. There are also "C" sessions, and "Eb" sessions. This derives from old-school regional traditions and iconic vintage recordings that were not in the now- dominant keys of D, G, relative minors. Some great Irish box players still use Eb boxes (2-row bisonoric). "Flat" pipes and seshes have had a bit of a revival in Irish trad though by no means dominant. It is kewler than kewl for a piper to add a B set to their arsenal.

In Ireland bisonoric with its limited key scope is still the dominant box choice though it's loosening up some, bisonoric also dominates in Canada. That affects tune key, though some button box players carry 2 or even 3 accordions.

 

[OuijaBoard]

The fabulous resource linked below lists this tune as a reel usually played on Eb-tuned fiddle. Note there are *dots" there in A as you (OP) were playing it in A. But there is a note it is sometimes played in Bb with the fiddle in regular GDAE tuning. So the Bb versions out there are prolly driven by fiddlers who don't want to bother with re-tuning to Eb. This is what I mean in my post above about key choices in trad/folk.

Note that this is apparently a "composed tune.". By King Ganam, a Syrian- American fiddler and tune composer born in Saskatchewan, Canada 1914, resident of California, d. 1994. "Composed tunes" are another variable in trad/folk key choices.

All tunes were of course composed by somebody, but in traditional/folk music that somebody is often unknown. In trad music a " composed tune" is one that has entered the storehouse of tunes in that subgenre, but is of recent enough vintage that its creator is known. *Composed tunes" do sometimes diverge from keys conventionally used in that genre by creative choice of the tune composer.

As an aside, "Composed tunes" are appearing more and more of late in trad/folk, often deplorably IMHO, as the trad world is being flooded by fungible noodley-woodley "compositions" by conservatory graduates that don't sound much like traditional folk music.

But this is a nice "composed tune."

The Shelburne

A reel with one setting and three comments.

thesession.org

 

[OuijaBoard]

There are some amazing clips of King Ganam on the 'tube. Here he is doing "The Shelburne Reel.". Gad, I do love the highways and byways and nooks and crannies of trad/folk music history.