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Woodshedding - Learning to Play!
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Great discussion.... Maybe changing keys doesn't affect the happy or sadness of a song but what about modal shifts?

A topic from a few years ago here on the forums.....

The modes ranked by brightness




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Pour ajouter de la confusion à toute la question, Debussy était français !...lol

I am happy to see I am not the only crazy one to ask such questions...lol

The whole tone issue made me think. There are only two unique whole-tone scales. One that begins on C and another beginning on D♭. They are symmetrical.

C whole tone scale C,D,E,F#,G#,A#

Db whole tone scale Db,Eb,F,G,A,B

When I play them on the piano they do have a different effect/feel.

The exotic sound of the whole tone scale gained traction in Western art music in the writings of modernist composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries including Claude Debussy (1862–1918), Béla Bartók (1881–1945), Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) and Alban Berg (1885–1935).

I still do not understand why Debussy chose Db but I am sure it was no accident,

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Originally Posted By: Mark Hayes


Here, through the magic of MIDI, this is "Clair de Lune" transposed down a semitone, and so rendered in the key of C Major:

https://soundcloud.com/mark_hayes/clair-de-lune-in-c-major

Have I changed a "dark, mysterious" piece into something very different, something as "bright and familiar" as C Major? I don't hear it.


The magic of that transposition is that I listened again because it sounded different. Worked for me.


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rayc
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I have the app SongBookPro for my Samsung Tablet and I pull songs I want to learn for a live performance repertoire into the app. So I select add a song, select from online, type in the song name, and it links me to Ultimate Guitar site. And it downloads the chords and lyrics to the app. All very convenient and easy.

I have yet to find a tune in Db and these tunes are in the original key as far as I know. For instance

Amazing Grace - F
Box of Rain - D
Desperado - G
etc...

I have over 100 tunes and not one tune in Db. But these are mostly popular/classic rock tunes.

Maybe a bit more common in jazz? After all, for Alto sax, Db is written as Bb which is only two flats. So perhaps the Charlie Parker Omnibook (Charlie Parker played alto sax). I just flipped through the book, about 50 tunes, not one tune in Db.

So many tunes in Db? I'd guess less than 1% of tunes are in Db, probably way less than 1%. I can't find one, but I'm sure there are some.

Another thing is that key and key signature are not always the same thing. Look at All Blues for instance in the Real Book. The key signature, no sharps or flats, but the key (or tonal center) is clearly G.

Edit: I just thought of a tune in Db. The jazz standard Body and Soul, at least that's the key in the Real Book.

Last edited by Frankp; 02/21/23 01:10 PM.

Frank

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Frank Sinatra sang in just about every key signature.
His fake book is in the key he sang the song.
Check out the other keys he sang some of his songs in the second URL.

https://www.amazon.com/Frank-Sinatra-Fake-Book-Books/dp/1423433440

https://inwhatkey.com/song/summer-wind-by-frank-sinatra

A few examples:

I Got You Under My Skin - Db Major
I Thought About You - Db Major
Come Fly With Me - F# Major
Summer Wind - G# Major
The Birth of the Blues - B Major


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