Mr Mars' Musical Colour Wheel

The Martian Musical Colour Wheel (click for full resolution)

Introduction

Chromesthesia is a type of synesthesia in which heard sounds automatically and involuntarily evoke an experience of colour. Of these people, some see individual notes as different colours, others see musical keys as different colours. This article is primarily about the latter: the association of specific colours with specific musical keys.

There is no real agreement between chromesthesiates as to precisely which colours go with which keys although there are a few general principles that seem to be consistent. One doesn't need to be a true chromesthesiate to appreciate the association of music with colour. We can all make some attempt at this even if we don't actually see the colours.

It is interesting that there are 12 keys that progress in the Circle Of Fifths through all the sharps and flats and come back again to the beginning and likewise there are 12 major hues in the Martian Colour Wheel that progress through the blues, greens and reds and come back once more to the beginning. It's probably just a coincidence but one might as well make some use of it.

I don't know why it took me so many years to put the two together... No doubt it had been bubbling away in my subconscious all this time but at last it bubbled to the surface and I thought it out and produced a wheel that combines the two. I am not the first to do this but hopefully my version is a bit better based that the others and hopefully will be more useful.

If children are taught the scheme at an early age perhaps they will develop a stronger and more consistent association between colour and music, and if chromesthesiates are likewise taught then perhaps their key-colour associations can be trained to be consistent with the others. Then at least we will all be on the same page!

Chromesthesia & What Has Gone Before

Chromesthesia or "sound-to-color synesthesia" is a type of synesthesia in which heard sounds automatically and involuntarily evoke an experience of colour. Precisely which colour is paired with which frequency or key varies with the individual so that THERE IS NO ABSOLUTE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOUND AND COLOUR. Having said that higher pitches tend to be associated with brighter colours and lower pitches with darker colours. Note that this relationship is more about shade than hue.

The phenomenon has been studied but is still poorly understood. There are a variety of theories including the cross-activation theory and the disinherited feedback model. Suffice it to say that there is still much work to be done in this matter.

There have been some notable composers with Chromesthesia, the most famous being Alexander Scriabin, although some doubt whether he actually a chromesthesiate as his musical colour wheel is too perfect compared to the haphazard pairings of true chromesthesiates. Scriabin's musical colour wheel is based on keys rather than pitches and progresses through the circle of fifths. This is similar to mine except that he uses the Newtonian colour wheel rather than the more accurate Martian colour wheel. He also assigns yellow to D major instead of E as I did and progresses in the opposite direction to me.

Scriabin's Musical Colour Wheel

The Rosicrucians also invented a musical colour wheel based on pitch rather than key though which had far too many reds. It also assigned yellow to B. Charles Fourier also had a go using only the natural notes of the C major scale and assigned yellow to G. Check out Charles Lucy's page for more on these pairings.

To cut a long story short there is, (once again), NO AGREEMENT on the pairing of colour with either pitch or key. This clears the way for me to create a sensible pairing based on modern facts. Behold!

The Martian Version

First of all, before any wheel can be produced, one must decide whether to pair colours with notes or keys. A child or a non-musician will probably plump for notes but any quality musician or composer can tell you it is far more useful to pair with keys. Any given piece of music will likely involve a multitude of notes producing a cacophony of colours if notes are used. Assigning colours to keys imbues any piece with a single colour and mood of its own.

Although I don't have Chromesthesia, as a fairly prolific composer who works everyday in all 24 keys I DO have an acute awareness of the fact that each key is different and you CANNOT simply transpose any piece of music into any key and expect it to sound pleasing. I don't know why this is but I know it to be true. It varies from piece to piece too. Some pieces CAN be played in any key and others CANNOT¹. I find that generally there will be certain keys that best suit a given piece and if I am transposing a piece for performance I will try various keys until I find the one that works best. This is not just about suiting the range and character of the singer or instrument, (although this is a factor), but you can take one piece written out in two keys, both eminently singable, and one will work and the other will just sound wrong!

To my ear at least: Flat keys sound sophisticated and rich, especially those with 2 or more flats. They seem well rounded, mellow and civilised. They are the keys of the elite. Sharp keys on the other hand seem more incisive, brighter, freer and more lively, especially those with 2 or more sharps. They are the keys of the common people. I don't know whether this is objectively true though... How could one measure such an inherently subjective thing?

I posit that my feel for keys is formed from a lifetime of playing and listening to music in all keys from all genres. Perhaps there is a pattern to each genre however that builds a consistent feel for keys over time...

The Sharp Keys

Folk music, (which is something very dear to my heart), is the simplest music and tends to be restricted to C and the early sharp keys: G, D and occasionally A. The popular music when I was growing up was strongly guitar based and was thus almost always in the sharp keys, as flat keys do not suit the guitar. In particular E, A and D were very common as they are the natural keys of the guitar. The steel stringed guitar features a fast attack which gives its music a slightly harsh percussive character. Pop music also features a strong drum component with various cymbals which load the sound with many high frequencies and again the percussive attack. This is all music for the common people and perhaps this affected my feel for those keys...

The Flat Keys

Most brass instruments have a natural key of Bb or Eb and therefore the flat keys are their natural territory. Brass bands are mellow in tone, (due to the construction of their instruments), with a heavy bottom end, (due to the instrumental composition of such bands), and their attack is slow, (also due to the nature of brass instruments), all of which means that their music boasts a well-rounded, rich, deep tone. Perhaps that is why I associate those keys with that character...

The Neutral Keys

C is the beginner's key on the piano and features no sharps or flats. It is thus seen as neutral and also as simple. F and G are the two closest keys on each side featuring only 1 accidental apiece. They are the introduction to the sharps and flats and thus do not exhibit the characteristics of their side quite as strongly as the keys a little further along, such as Eb and A.

Just as C is the neutral point between sharps and flats Gb/F# holds the same job on the other side of the circle of fifths. It is neither a sharp key nor a flat key since it holds 6 of either. I choose to call this key Gb. It is rarely heard, due to it's being the most remote key of all and falls most naturally only to Eb instruments such as: the alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, tenor horn and Eb tuba. The alto sax is the only one of these that is a regular solo instrument so Gb is rarely written for.

Gb is playable on the piano, as is Db, (most notably by children mucking around using only the black notes), but pianists tend to stick to what they know and although they will play Gb scales for practice they generally prefer keys that are less remote. Gb is difficult to play on all the members of the string family including violins and guitars. Interestingly, with the use of a capo its chords can easily be fingered on the guitar but folk musicians playing melody instruments will not be able to play along.

The effect of all this is that Gb is so rarely heard that although it is, (in theory), a neutral key, it is felt as something mysterious. Since it is rarely heard in popular music it tends to be associated with orchestras and brass bands and is therefore perceived as rich and well rounded. Serious composers are eventually attracted to it for its unique character and rarity and force themselves to compose in it despite its unfamiliarity. Fortunately it IS playable on the piano and most composers are pianists, so once the mental block is broken down the music will flow. To me the key of Gb sounds distant and esoteric but again that is probably due to its inherent difficulty and consequent rarity.

Orchestral Music

Orchestral music is a marriage between the woodwind and brass on one side and the strings on the other. Most of the woodwind and brass prefer the flat keys and the strings certainly prefer the sharp keys. Classical composers understand both sides and like variety, so orchestral music exists in all keys. An orchestra has a wide range of possible tones depending on which instruments are playing so it is difficult to assign any tonal bias to any key due to it other than to say that pieces that feature strings are more likely to be in sharp keys and pieces that feature brass or woodwind are more likely to be in flat keys, however there are plenty of examples to the contrary.

Constructing The Wheel

I realise that the appreciation and internal association of music is an intensely subjective and personal thing, and that what one person reads into the music is not necessarily read by another, but the above facts have been true for two hundred years and are likely to remain so for the next two hundred, so it is reasonable to base a subjective feel of the character of keys on the tone of the instruments that favour them and the style of music that they play. With this in mind I came up with the following:

Sharp keys are bright in timbre, due to being played by violins and guitars, therefore they should be bright in hue. The brightest key is E and brightest colour is yellow, therefore those two are matched together and the wheel is fixed at that point. Greens are brighter than reds so sharp keys are biased a little in that direction and extend from emerald (G) to turmeric (B). G and B are the first and last of the sharp keys so they are not quite as bright in hue as the others.
Flat keys are dark in timbre, due to being played by played by the brass, therefore they should be dark in hue. The dark hues are the purples and blues and that is where they may be found. The darkest hue is blue and one may argue about which is the darkest key, however my wheel lists it as Bb, which is as good a choice as any.
Everyone agrees that minor keys are darker in mood than major keys, therefore they should be darker in shade when in comes to assigning them a colour. This doesn't mean they will be a different hue, rather that they will simply a deeper shade of the hue of their relative major. This doesn't come from the any of the preceding rationalisation, just from the universally accepted feeling that sadness is darker than happiness. When you have the "blues" it means that you are depressed, since blue is the darkest hue. Taking this to its conclusion would imply that G minor is the saddest key of all, but I feel that that is taking the analogy too far. One should bear in mind that most music combines both major and minor chords and therefore should have a shade of colour somewhere between the two extremes.

Simplistic Explanation

Essentially you just start with E major as yellow and work around the wheel so that the flat keys are on the purple side. Interestingly, this results in C being cyan, aka aqua, or the colour of water, which is perfect for the neutral key, the beginner's key, the key of simplicity. G and D are the greens which is the colour of nature, the rural keys, the folk keys. Gb is red, neither purple nor green, neither sharp nor flat, the opposite pole from C, but warmer and more mysterious. Ab is purple, the colour of royalty. Bb is blue, the coolest colour of all and the natural key of the trumpet.

Mr Mars' Interactive Tables Of Keys And Colours

I could continue to rant on here about this subject but what is really required is a block of colour that I have associated with a given key and a selection of music in that key so that you can decide for yourself whether that colour goes with that key.

I have gone to a great deal of trouble to find musical examples from YouTube in every key. These are not just any pieces; they are amongst the BEST pieces in that key from the entire world of music! And not only that; they are, in my opinion, among the BEST versions of those pieces available online!

Each key has examples in a variety of styles, such as: piano, symphonic, operatic, rock & pop, so that your judgement of key qualities will not biased by instrumentation.

This table can also be employed by those of you who simply want to experience the sound of different keys to garner some idea of their differences without any interest in the colour that I have associated with it. In any event, whatever your reason for checking out this table you are in for a wonderful musical experience as you not only listen to some of the best music ever written but you can also, in most cases, watch the best musicians perform it.

Enjoy!

Table Of Major Keys And Colours

Key	Colour	Specification	Examples	Comments
C Major	Cyan	Simple Neutral	Mendelssohn: Wedding March Sibelius: Symphony #3 Ravel: Bolero Puccini: Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen (first section in C, 2nd in G) Led Zeppelin: Stairway To Heaven The Beatles: Let It Be Billy Joel: Piano Man	The second most common key for popular music. The only key that is easily played on ALL instruments. (All except the Great Highland Pipes...) For this reason it may be heard from orchestral to folk, from rock band to solo piano, and from brass band to opera. It is the first key learnt on the piano, as only the white keys are used. Sadly this association with beginners has a downside in that experienced professionals tend to avoid composing in it so as to avoid sounding amateurish. Nothing inherently wrong with the key though. It is well suited to common untrained voices in songs where the top note is the tonic. Basically anyone can sing a C!
G Major	Chrysolite	Simple Transitional Sharp	Bach: Minuet in G Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik Handel: Ombra Mai Fu (Warning, this is often performed in other keys these days.) Trad: God Save The Queen Scott McKenzie: If You're Going To San Francisco Neil Young: Heart of Gold Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here	THE most common key for popular music. It is especially suited to the strings where it is in all cases an open string. A natural key for the violin, mandolin and banjo and the first key learned on the guitar due to the easy fingering of its chords. It is also one of the 2 keys for traditional Irish folk music. It is a rather awkward for the brass and woodwinds as tenor horns, Eb tubas and alto saxes will be reading the music in 4 sharps and most of the others in 3 sharps. It is well suited to medium-high voices in songs where the top note is the tonic. Many pop songs sung by men follow this pattern. Also well suited to ordinary voices if the high note is the fifth. (The "Skye Boat Song" is a good example.)
D Major	Bright Green	Central Simple Sharp	Pachelbel: Canon in D Mozart: Symphony #35 "Haffner" Handel: The Trumpet Shall Sound (Warning, in recent years this is sometimes performed in other keys.) Parry: Jerusalem Bryan Adams: Summer Of '69 U2: With Or Without You	A very popular key as it is well suited to all the strings. Hence it is often used by rock bands, folk ensembles and string orchestras. Along with G major, it is one of the two keys of traditional Irish folk music. Irish whistles, accordions, mandolins, banjos, violins and guitars are all well suited to this key. Many traditional songs are sung in D if their high note is the tonic, as a high D is readily achievable by pretty much everyone, (provided the tessitura is not too high), pushing the average untrained voice up close to its limit but not beyond. D is also the ideal key for a violin solo as it is an open string on that instrument and is surrounded by open strings on the 4th and 5th allowing open chords to be easily played, harmonising the entire diatonic scale. For this reason many famous violin concertos have been written in this key, including 1 each by: Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Korngold, Paganini & Tchaikovsky. It is not well suited to brass and most woodwinds though: In order to play the wonderful trumpet obbligato to "The trumpet shall sound" the trumpeter must use a non standard trumpet such as one in D.
A Major	Chartreuse	Central Sharp	Mozart: Clarinet Quintet Beethoven: Symphony #7 Chopin: Military Polonaise Puccini: They Call Me Mimi The Beatles: Get Back Everly Brothers: Bye Bye Love Bad Finger: No Matter What	A natural key of the guitar where the primary chords fall easily in the hand and the A and E chords in particular are full of power. In fact the form of those chords are the foundation for most of the barre chords used on the instrument. In that sense one might say that A is THE natural key of the guitar. It is also a natural key on the violin. Along with D it is one of only two keys that are surrounded by the 4th and 5th open strings on that instrument. Hence it is often employed for solos on that instrument. However, as the pitch is quite high it is not as popular for that purpose as D. Very playable on the piano although a little tricky for beginners. The Great Highland Pipes are normally in Bb but their closest folk key is A, so a lot of Scottish folk music is written out in A when transcribing for other instruments. Consequently Scottish folk musicians use this key much more heavily than their Irish counterparts despite the difficulty of fingering a G# on a D whistle. The Great Highland Pipes may even be de-tuned to A for mixing with folk instruments on record where they can play in A or D, an example is "Mull Of Kintyre". A is particularly ill suited to brass and woodwind where most players are reading in 5 or 6 sharps. The clarinetist however, gets around this by switching to an A clarinet where he fingers the piece in C, (as used in Mozart's famous clarinet quintet). A sung high A is a tenor or soprano note and is not achievable by most people, so songs that have a high note which is the tonic are not suited to this key unless the singer is truly high. Nor do songs where the high note is the 5th suit the common man as a high E is usually just out of their reach unless they are trained. For this reason and due to its problems on piano, brass and woodwind it is a little under utilised in general purpose song. It comes into its own in rock bands where the singer is trained and the electric A chords can ring out.
E Major	Yellow	Central Complex Sharp	Antonio Vivaldi: Spring Bach: Partita for Violin #3 Bruckner: Symphony #7 Liszt: St Francis Of Paola Walking On The Waves Catalani: Ebben Ne Andro Lontana Bob Dylan: Mr Tambourine Man (also played in other keys) Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under The Bridge	To my ear the brightest of all keys. Best suited to the guitar where it forms the lowest chord on the instrument. It is very playable on the piano but only if the player has taken the time to become familiar with the notes and chords in that key. There is no shortage of piano pieces written in this key as composers are drawn to its unique character. It is ill suited to brass and woodwinds in general but particularly Bb instruments such as the trumpet, tenor sax and clarinet where it is the most awkward of all keys as it is written in F#. For this reason it is rarely heard in brass bands or horn-based jazz bands. It is playable on the violin and cello but not ideal and consequently is not often used for violin solos. Bach's great Partita for Violin #3 and Vivaldi's "Spring" are notable exceptions. It is a useful key for singers who are well trained or just slightly higher than average, where the high note is the tonic. A high E is usually just slightly out of range of the untrained and inexperienced singer however, unless they have a naturally high voice or are particularly well lubricated. It is well suited to the common voice however if the high note is the 5th and the tessitura is highish. Due to the above voice considerations and its affinity with the guitar E major is a great key for country music. Singer/songwriters can hammer that high B to their hearts content, or if they are low basses, they can hit their low E, all the while crunching out that great E chord on their guitar!
B Major	Turmeric	Complex Transitional Sharp	Delibes: Lakmé - Flower Duet Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Tuileries Verdi: La donna è mobile Doris Day: Secret Love The Stadler Brothers: Flowers On The Wall Simon & Garfunkel: The Boxer Guns N' Roses: November Rain Coldplay: Yellow	Equal 2nd most remote major key. It doesn't really suit any instrument but is quite playable on the guitar and the piano for those who have mastered their instrument. It is quite rare for this reason but striking when you hear it. As is the case with all the remote keys the chords are easily played on the guitar by dropping the tuning or by using a capo. Songs written in C can be made to stand out from the crowd by dropping them to B (although this is cheating...). I'm guessing "The Boxer" might have been an example of this but you'd have to ask Paul Simon to be sure. A different example is "November Rain": In the video clip you can see the writer: Axl Rose, playing a D chord on the piano which doesn't match the audio. Perhaps it was originally written in A and the producer took it up a tone to give it more punch?
F#/Gb Major	Red	Complex Neutral	Beethoven: Piano Sonata #24 Haydn: Graveyard Quartet - Largo Liszt: Benediction of God in Solitude Dvorák: Song To The Moon Michael Jackson: Rock With You Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody Guns N' Roses: Sweet Child O' Mine (Note that it is in the Mixolydian mode, so it appears to be in Db some of the time.)	The most remote major key of all and really only reasonably straight forward on the alto sax where it transposes to Eb. Quite playable on the piano but only if the player uses that key regularly. Ill suited to the strings but just occasionally a composer writes for them in this key for the sake of its unique quality. Sometimes songs are transposed into this key from G or F to make them stand out. Often they just sound wrong when this is done and I suspect, (but don't know), that "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" is one of these. Compare it with Beethoven's Sonata 24 which just sounds right! (You KNOW Beethoven wrote it in F# (Gb)! There is no way he would have transposed one of his sonatas...) You can see in their clip that Guns N' Roses played "Sweet Child O' Mine" tuned down a step. They are fingering it in G where it is straight forward. (Fingering in Gb is possible but too hard for nearly all rock bands who are generally not classically trained.) Abba's "The Winner Takes It All" is also in Gb.
Db Major	Pink	Complex Transitional Flat	Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto #1 - first theme Debussy: Clair de Lune Dvorák: New World Symphony - Largo Stevie Wonder: I Just Called To Say I Love You Rick Astley: Never Gonna Give You Up The Killers: Mr Brightside	The equal 2nd most remote major key. Easily played by most brass and woodwind but not so often composed in by the big names. Quite straightforward on the piano once you get your head around it. Ill suited to the strings and virtually unplayable by folk music ensembles but well suited to the common voice if the high note is the tonic. Like Gb and B, this key is also transposed to at times just to sound different. (1 semitone up from C or 1 down from D.) You can kind of tell when the song just sounds out. U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is also in Db. If you watch the clip you can see The Edge fingering it in D, (presumably he used a slack tuning).
Ab Major	Magenta	Central Complex Flat	Chopin: "Heroic" Polonaise op 53 Elgar: Symphony #1 Beethoven: Symphony #5 - 2nd movement (modulates to C major in the loud bits) Puccini: O Mio Babbino Caro The Police: Every Breath You Take Coldplay: Viva La Vida Joe Cocker: You Are So Beautiful	The equivalent of E major on the flat side (ie 4 flats instead of 4 sharps). Easily played by most brass and woodwind instruments and often used by brass bands as a consequence. Ill suited to the strings and guitars (unless they use a capo or alternate tuning), although if the musicians are skilful enough such problems may be overcome. Quite playable on the piano, (as are all keys if the player uses them regularly). Not suited to the common voice if the high note is the tonic. Pushing it but probably ok if the high note is the 5th, provided the tessitura is not too high).
Eb Major	Violet	Central Flat	Haydn: String Quartet Opus 33 #2 "The Joke" Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 2 Beethoven: Piano Concerto #5 "Emperor" Chopin: Nocturne Op.9 No.2 Bizet: In The Depths Of The Temple The Platters: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water Elton John: Your Song	A wonderfully versatile key. Readily playable on most instruments! Used by numerous composers for a wide range of styles and instruments. Ideally suited to brass and woodwind but still fine on the strings. Not ideal for the guitar, especially on steel stringed acoustics, where the continual barre chords become rather tiring. Painful chord problems are easily resolved however by capoing up to D or C. Quite straight forward on the piano and often composed for on that instrument as a consequence. It is also good for the common voice where the high note is the tonic, as provided the singer is well primed, (and the tessitura is not too high), an Eb is generally achievable. Anthems often use this key for that reason. The Welsh national anthem is often in Eb for example.
Bb Major	Corn Flower	Central Simple Flat	Bach: Brandenburg Concerto #6 Beethoven: Sonata #29 "Hammerklavier" Respighi: Pines of Rome Chuck Berry: Johnny B. Goode Elton John: Rocket Man Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody Patsy Cline: Crazy	The natural key of the trumpet, trombone, tenor sax and clarinet (although clarinets in A are available). Brass bands use this key extensively and anthems are often written in it for this reason although only if the high note is the 3rd or 4th. Australia's anthem is in Bb with a high Eb for example. Not ideal for the guitar, (although still playable), but easily fingered in A or G by capoing up. The Great Highland Pipes are tuned in an odd temperament to Bb mixolydian. They have 3 drones in Bb so the only keys they can realistically play in are Eb and Bb, but predominantly Bb. However this is Bb with an Ab instead of an A, so is it really Bb or is it Eb? The drones will say Bb but... Simple enough on the piano and quite playable on the violin.
F Major	Azure	Simple Transitional Flat	Beethoven: Symphony #6 "Pastoral" Vivaldi: Autumn Chopin: Prelude, Op 28 No 23 "A pleasure boat" Mozart: Queen of the Night aria Bellini: Norma - Casta Diva Fleetwood Mac: Go Your Own Way Glen Campbell: Galveston Johnny Cash: Folsom Prison Blues Louis Armstrong: Wonderful World	Another versatile key for instruments, well suited to the brass, woodwind, strings and piano. Consequently it is a good key for a symphony. Not ideal on the guitar but still playable. The chords can be more easily fingered in D or E with a capo. Can also be fingered in E by tuning up a semitone and this device was often used by Johnny Cash so that he could sing the guitar's low note reliably. Not generally a great key for sing-a-longs if the high note is the tonic as it is a little too high for the average singer. Useful however for songs where the high note is the 4th that have a high tessitura or need to be sung quietly such as "All Through The Night". Also useful for songs where the high note is the 5th such as "Happy Birthday To You" (although lacking the pop of G).

Table Of Minor Keys And Colours

A Minor	Pthalo Green	Simple Neutral	Paganini: Caprice 24 Beethoven: Für Elise Mendelssohn: Symphony no. 3 "Scottish" The Animals: House Of The Rising Sun Bob Dylan: Hurricane AC/DC: Hells Bells	The relative minor of C major and a popular key for angst-ridden teenage beginners, either tearing out their heart on the piano or belting out power chords in a rock band. Hackneyed, but still great if well done. Perfectly suited to piano and guitar but also good for all strings. Also an acceptable key for traditional folk music. Well suited to the ordinary voice if the high note is the 3rd or 4th. Not a good key for such singers if the high note is the tonic however, as it will be either a bit low or far too high. Not ideal if the high note is the fifth either as it may be just out of reach unless the singer is trained or well primed.
E Minor	Brunswick Green	Simple Transitional Sharp	Chopin: Nocturne Op.72 #1 Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto Opus 64 Elgar: Sea Pictures - Sea Slumber Song Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze Bon Jovi : Livin' On A Prayer Black Sabbath: Paranoid	THE most popular minor key. This is to be expected as it is the relative minor of G major which is the most popular major key. Easily playable by most instruments and playable by the rest. A good key for an orchestra. (Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade is in Em for example.) The perfect key for the guitar as the chords are easily fingered and the root note is the bottom note on the instrument. A particular favourite (along with Am), for loud electric guitar: hard rock, blues and heavy metal. A great key for the violin as it is the relative minor of the violin's natural major key. Not quite as good as its relative major however as it lacks the low pitch open string chord roots. It is also a popular choice for folk songs as it suits all the folk instruments. It is almost an ideal key for the ordinary voice if the high note is the tonic as the ordinary punter can just about hit it, but only if they are well lubricated and can really belt it out... Otherwise it is well suited to the singer that is just a little higher than average or well trained.
B Minor	Zucchini	Central Simple Sharp	Tchaikovsky: Symphony #6 "Pathetique" Chopin: Sonata #3 Puccini: E Lucevan Le Stelle Pink Floyd: One Of These Days (had to use this version as the original recordings are all very flat...) Golden Earring: Twilight Zone PSY: Gangnam Style	The relative minor of D major and thus well suited to strings, guitar and piano. Not easy for the brass and most woodwind though... A good key for a rock band although not so often used. Not well suited to the ordinary voice unless the high note is the 3rd or the high note is the tonic and the song has a high tessitura.
F# Minor	Oak Leaf	Central Sharp	Haydn: Symphony No. 45 "Farewell" Scriabin: Piano Concerto in F# minor Op. 20 Chopin: Polonaise in F# minor Op. 44 "Tragic" Pink Floyd: Time Europe: The Final Countdown Led Zeppelin: Immigrant Song	The relative minor of A major. Good for the strings but difficult for the brass and woodwinds. Can be played on the guitar in its standard state but the chords fall more naturally if fingered in Em and capoed up. Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" is a strange case: It sounds to me like it is in the wrong key yet the fingering suits the guitar well, except for the F# octaves with their awkward string crossing. I'm guessing it was written in Em, (where you don't have the awkward string crossing), and moved up a tone to get the great E and A chord combo. You'd have to ask Jimi Page... If my guess is correct, it, (along with "I Wanna Dance With Somebody"), are great examples of the fact that some songs just sound WRONG in certain keys! I know they are both famous songs but I think they would be far better in a different key. "Immigrant Song" would be better in Em. No good for the ordinary voice unless the high note is the 5th. All in all this is not a popular key.
C# Minor	Olive Drab	Central Complex Sharp	Prokofiev: Symphony #7 Beethoven: Piano Sonata #14 "Moonlight" Beethoven: String Quartet in C# minor, Op. 131 Ricky Martin: Livin' la Vida Loca The Police: Message in a Bottle Michael Jackson: Thriller	The relative minor of E major. Not easy on any instrument but most playable on the piano where it has a beautiful, unique quality. Suits the guitar in theory but the lack of open chords puts the lie to that. The chords can be fingered much better in Am capoed up. Well suited to the ordinary voice if the high note is the tonic. With so many difficulties it is not surprising that this is not a popular key.
G# Minor	Milk Chocolate	Complex Transitional Sharp	Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - The Old Castle Paganini-Liszt: La Campanella Goldenthal: Symphony in G-Sharp Minor Metallica: The Unforgiven II Lady Gaga: Poker Face Yes: Heart of the Sunrise	This key is rarely written in. Like it's relative major: B major, it is too distant for most composers, too difficult to finger on any instrument and the fact that it is the minor mode only makes things worse. It can be played on the piano but only by those who use the key regularly. It is well suited to the ordinary voice if the high note is the 4th or 5th.
Eb/D# Minor	Maroon	Complex Neutral	Chopin: Polonaise,op 26 #2 Haydn: Piano Trio No. 41 Puccini: Un Bel Di Vedremo Malmsteen: Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra Kenny Loggins: Danger Zone Stevie Wonder: Superstition Michael Jackson: Beat It	The relative minor of Gb major and the most remote of all the minor keys. The fingering in this key is unusual or difficult for all instruments except the alto sax. Having said that it is not actually impossible on the others and is quite playable on the piano if the player is skilled. In theory it suits the common voice as a high note on the tonic would be readily singable by most people if they are warmed up. However, the lack of instrumental support means that it is rarely used by Joe Average. One can see a pattern here with Michael Jackson: Many of his big hits are in the most remote keys. I don't know, but I strongly suspect, that they were transposed up or down from common keys just to sound different. "Beat it", I'm guessing, was originally in Em. The key is ill suited to the guitar unless the player is exceptionally skilled but even then the lack of open chords makes it undesirable. Capoing up to get the open chords doesn't work well here either as the only suitable candidate is to finger in Am which puts the capo on the 6th fret. This is certainly playable but restricts the range of the instrument. Another solution is simply to detune the guitar by one semitone. This solution is simple for guitarists but the detuned guitar doesn't have the brilliance of the normally tuned version, it also involves having a detuned guitar in addition to a normally tuned guitar on the stage so that the guitarist can quickly shift between them. With regard to the "Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra": Em is the natural key of the guitar and it would have been easy for Yngwie Malmsteen to detune his instrument by one semitone and play in his natural key. (Not so easy for the orchestral strings though, but they're not the ones doing the shredding...)
Bb Minor	Elderberry	Complex Transitional Flat	Chopin: Piano Sonata #2 - Funeral March Tchaikovsky: Marche Slave Shostakovich: Symphony #16 "Babi Yar" U2: Sunday Bloody Sunday Foreigner: I've Been Waiting for a Girl Like You	The relative minor of Db major and one of the 3 remote minor keys. It is ill suited to the strings and folk instruments but fine for the brass and woodwinds. It is also quite playable on the piano, provided the player uses the key regularly and this explains why classical composers do occasionally use it. It would not be used in popular music at all except for the easy ability of guitars to transpose either by the use of the capo or by detuning the instrument by a semitone. "The Edge" is fingering "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in Bm on a detuned guitar for example. All in all it remains one of the least popular keys although you can expect to hear a marching band use it occasionally.
F Minor	Purple	Central Complex Flat	Beethoven: Sonata 23 "Appassionata" - Allegro assai Vivaldi: Winter Bizet: Toreador Song (chorus is in F major) Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit Bill Withers: Just the Two of Us	The relative minor of Ab major and thus has 4 flats in non-transposing instruments. Not well suited to the strings although Vivaldi used it for "Winter" so it is still playable. Quite playable on the piano although still not common. Not used for traditional western folk music. Well suited to the brass and woodwind families and one can thus expect to hear this key used in marching and concert bands. Sadly however, such bands are not sought after by most listeners and thus they have not been able to put this key into the public consciousness. Fairly well suited to the average voice if the high note is the 5th, (although possibly lacking a little pop). Not well suited to the guitar unless you capo it up from Em in which case it is easy. Having said that, it is still not popular though... Despite this key being well suited to marching bands, concert bands and capoed up guitar and playable on strings and piano, for some reason it remains one of the least popular keys of all for popular music. Examples are rare and I was not able to find 3 from the popular genre. It is interesting that an untrained garage band: Nirvana should use this for their monster hit. Maybe it was originally in Em and the producer wanted a bit more spark so he got them to take it up a semitone? Note that although "Just the Two of Us" is technically in Fm it nevertheless contains a lot of major key character in it, so it isn't the ideal exemplar for this key. Alternatives are hard to find though...
C Minor	Spectral Violet	Central Flat	Beethoven: Symphony #5 - 1st movement Beethoven: Piano Sonata #8 "Pathétique" Mozart: Great Mass in C minor, K. 427 Bach: Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor Bon Jovi: It's My Life ZZ Top: Sharp Dressed Man Gnarls Barkley: Crazy Jimi Hendrix: All Along the Watchtower	The relative minor of Eb major which is heavily used. It is also shares its key note with C major, the simplest key and best known key of all. It is playable on all instruments but best suited to brass and woodwind. Consequently it is a great key for orchestras. It is very playable on piano and much written for on that instrument. This key is well suited to the ordinary, untrained voice provided the high note is the tonic or the super tonic. It is not ideal on the guitar but still playable. Open chords are missing but may be found by capoing up from Am. The low C is missing from traditional string basses but that has been fixed with modern 5 string bass guitars and double basses with a C extension. The key is surprisingly popular among rock bands despite the fact that three flats doesn't suit the guitar's natural fingering. A testament to the power of this key perhaps. Overall this key is surprisingly popular across all bands except folk. One may wonder why...
G Minor	Ultramarine	Central Simple Flat	Vivaldi: Summer Brahms: Hungarian Dance #5 Mozart: Symphony #40 "Jupiter" Chopin: Polonaise in G minor Purcell: Dido's Lament Steely Dan: Do It Again Gwen Stefani: What You Waiting For? Deep Purple: Smoke On The Water	The relative minor of Bb major and is easily playable on almost all instruments. It is the natural key of many brass and woodwind instruments and is therefore very popular with brass, concert and jazz bands. Due to its general playability it is also a great key for a symphony orchestra. Whilst playable on the guitar it is not ideal, (like all the flat keys), due to its lack of open strings and open chords. This problem is easily fixed however by placing a capo on the 3rd fret and fingering in Em. Like all the flat keys, (with the possible exception of F major), G minor is not normally used by traditional folk music due to the difficulty of finding whistles and accordions in that key and the lack of familiarity of folk mandolinists and violinists with that key. G minor is ill suited to the ordinary voice if the high note is the tonic but well suited if it is the 5th (provided the tessitura is not too high). This key is also used by rock bands, although not heavily, thanks to its playability on the electric guitar and its minor character. G is also a good low note on the 4 string bass. Overall this is fairly popular key, used across a wide range of instruments, but outside brass, concert and jazz bands, not as popular as one might suppose, considering its broad playability. Why this is so is a bit unclear. Minor keys are less popular than major keys so no doubt that is part of it.
D Minor	Prussian Blue	Simple Transitional Flat	Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor Bach: Partita for solo violin #2 - Chaconne Orff: O Fortuna Beethoven: Symphony #9 Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall Dire Straits: Sultans Of Swing George Michael: Careless Whisper	Well suited to almost all instruments and thus a good key for a symphony, band or solo. Along with D major, it is the perfect key for an unaccompanied violin solo as the root notes of the 3 main chords are the 3 lowest open strings on the instrument. Bach made great use of this in his matchless Chaconne. It is also a favourite on keyboard instruments due to its single flat. Playable by the guitar in its standard state but the chords are more natural in Am using the capo on the 5th fret. Fine for rock bands, although not ideal for 4 string basses, as the tonic is too high for a satisfying root note. This problem is now solved however, with modern 5 string basses and double basses with a C extension. Well suited to the ordinary voice for songs where the high note is the tonic as it is pushes the voice close to its top pitch.