“The Landscape of Keyboard Music” (works in C or Am)?
Monday, January 28th, 2008
Most, if not all, piano teachers begin by teaching music in the key of C. Learn the natural (white) keys by their positions relative to the sharps (black).
Over the course of study, we get into all the key signatures, modes, minors, etc.
Recently I was playing a piece in C major and discovered that while still easy, it was more difficult that I would expect because I was playing in the wide open plains of Wyoming (”C”) not in the New York cityscape of “Ab”, the rugged Colorado Rocky Mountains of “E” or even the Appalachian mountains of “F.”
Two-part question:
1. We’ve all heard of Synesthesia (Seeing sound colors), but does any one else relate to the landscape of the keyboard as a city skyline, coastal wetlands, mountains, etc?
2. Do you find it more challenging to play in “simple” keys than “difficult” keys because of the lack of landscape?
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Erunno — You strike close to home. I grew up in southern NH. Mt. Washington, as beautiful and majestic as it is, is small potatoes to the Rockies. It does make me think that I need to put the title “Franconia Notch” on a majestic piece of music. I think that “Kittery” would also be a fitting title for an introspective piece.
I believe that B is perhaps the easiest key to play in, but difficult to get students into a mindset for as they respond, “but it’s got five sharps! How am I supposed to remember all of those?”
Switch ? — the whole “landscape” theme falls apart with strings, brass or winds. Ostensibly each note is “the same” as you produce a harmonic of an open string, or shorten a length of tube. I expect most guitar players to take offense to the idea, since barre chords are a pain in the ****. Outside of keyboard instruments I cannot think of any that have a true three-dimensional physical character. (Perhaps a Theremin, but there you are controlling amplitude and frequency with no physical contact.)
Ian E – Funny you bring up the organ. That’s where the concept of “naturals and sharps” in my question originates. All organ pipes are either natural or sharp … yet most organ literature I’ve seen is written in flat keys; predominantly Bb, Eb, Ab.
Kalibasa – was that in intentional pun at the end? It wasn’t my original intent of the question, but for the most part music in flat keys remind me of cities and in sharp keys calls to mind open spaces. Using “C” (or Am) as the plains or the prairie seemed fitting. Part of this question was triggered by a question a week or two ago about playing with fingers flat or curved. The degree of “topographical landscape” really wasn’t my intention. But seemed to fit the analogy: more sharps more mountainous, more flats more urban (another pun for the UK crowed?). Not that the music in C is particularly difficult, it just seemed more difficult to naturally keep my bearings.
