3 ms·

As someone who dabbles in guitar, I'm astonished how pianists happily accept an instrument that so heavily favors specific keys.

yadingus 4y ago
Is this sarcasm? 90% of rock songs are in Em or Am because of guitars.
- dehrmann 4y ago
  Am (especially) and Em happen to be very easy piano keys, too. What I meant is that playing a C major scale is easy, but it gets weird as you work through different keys. There's no consistency, so transposing is non-trivial. Compare that to a guitar and barre chords and capos.
  - abruzzi 4y ago
    all white keys is easy to play a scale without thinking, but I find it much harder to play well than keys that have some sharps or flats. that pattern of 2-space-3-space on the black key shelps to anchor your hands. I'd take e-flat major--its far easier to play than c-major. Transposing is harder, but the vast majority of piano litature is never played tranposed--you play the notes on the sheet music. I've tried some of those new layout keyboards like the Linnstrument, and I'd never try to play a Beethoven sonata on one.
    - yadingus 4y ago
      To be fair, perhaps most sonatas include transposition within them, only it's written out. This actually presents a hurdle for me, because if I learned a theme in G, and now I have to play it in D I feel like I know it, so I don't practice it as much as I did initially and it ends up in this weird limbo where I know what I'm supposed to play, but haven't properly trained my fingers. But there's plenty of stories of Liszt or Chopin transposing music on the spot. Jazz too.
  - yadingus 4y ago
    C major is only easy conceptually, technically other scales are easier, such as B major. In guitar transposition is easy conceptually, but not so much technically, not being able to rely on open strings as much is a big limiter to novice guitarists. And guitar being such a popular instrument, there's a lot of those. On average technical limitations will dictate keys more than conceptual limitations.

yadingus 4y ago

Is this sarcasm? 90% of rock songs are in Em or Am because of guitars.

dehrmann 4y ago
Am (especially) and Em happen to be very easy piano keys, too. What I meant is that playing a C major scale is easy, but it gets weird as you work through different keys. There's no consistency, so transposing is non-trivial. Compare that to a guitar and barre chords and capos.
- abruzzi 4y ago
  all white keys is easy to play a scale without thinking, but I find it much harder to play well than keys that have some sharps or flats. that pattern of 2-space-3-space on the black key shelps to anchor your hands. I'd take e-flat major--its far easier to play than c-major. Transposing is harder, but the vast majority of piano litature is never played tranposed--you play the notes on the sheet music. I've tried some of those new layout keyboards like the Linnstrument, and I'd never try to play a Beethoven sonata on one.
  - yadingus 4y ago
    To be fair, perhaps most sonatas include transposition within them, only it's written out. This actually presents a hurdle for me, because if I learned a theme in G, and now I have to play it in D I feel like I know it, so I don't practice it as much as I did initially and it ends up in this weird limbo where I know what I'm supposed to play, but haven't properly trained my fingers. But there's plenty of stories of Liszt or Chopin transposing music on the spot. Jazz too.
- yadingus 4y ago
  C major is only easy conceptually, technically other scales are easier, such as B major. In guitar transposition is easy conceptually, but not so much technically, not being able to rely on open strings as much is a big limiter to novice guitarists. And guitar being such a popular instrument, there's a lot of those. On average technical limitations will dictate keys more than conceptual limitations.