Keys, winds, and strings

Many years ago a good friend of mine who is a very fine euphonium player and currently director of bands at a University in North Carolina mentioned that brass and woodwinds sound better playing in keys with flats. I asked him why he believed that and he reminded me that most instruments are built in flat keys.

For all its complexity and nearly unlimited combination of sounds, music--at least in our American world, given that other nationalities have a broader scale--is comprised of 12 tones before beginning to repeat itself. Because of the natural harmonic series, something that still gives me pause as I reflect on its remarkable properties, after 12 chromatic tones, the pitches sound the same except higher or lower. This is way we have a low A that sounds quite similar to a high A. The lower pitches use a slower vibration rate than the high pitches. When the vibrations double, the pitch sounds an octave higher. Although our system of 12 chromatic pitches has flaws and does not tell the full musical story, it is a fairly established system and gives us the variety of sound we generally require.

Music does not have to be in one particular key or another but most people seem to prefer what we call tonality in music, that is sound with a diatonic foundation to it. Composers and performers often branch out beyond a certain key and alter music chromatically to give it more variety and interest, but in the tonal world of music, they will gravitate to one key by the end of the song or piece. If all music were in the same key all the time, our ears would become desensitized to the same basic sound and we would likely lose interest in music. Being that boredom is the steroid of creativity, we enjoy hearing a variety of keys in music.

Back to woodwinds and brass sounding better in flat keys. I believe it is true. Instruments have the ability to play all the chromatic notes and great players can play comfortably in any key, but because woodwinds and brass are built at the factory in flat keys, the open sounds of these instruments provide more resonance than do sharp keys. Yet the converse is true for string instruments. They are built with open sounds that support sharp keys. This is why bands often play in flat keys and strings often play in sharp keys. The danger comes in the problem of all bands sounding similar due to their predictable usage of keys and all string music sounding similar for the same reason.

Now the issue comes when we mix the two. Excellent composers striving for musical variety yet still getting the best out of the musicians often insist on demanding performance that encompasses all keys and all notes available. This makes great music both challenging and musically satisfying. In the case of My Fair Lady, when we are in flat keys, the predominantly woodwind and brass sound is solid, full, comfortable to the ear. When we jump into sharp keys, the instrumentalists who are all professionals, do not sound quite as resonant, once again confirming the theory that winds and brass sound better in flat keys.

But as all great art must have tension, so too is music reliant on tension and repose. Thus this great musical, My Fair Lady, is strong due to its vast expression of sound of various keys. I applaud the composer and the arranger who put the music together. Now it is our responsibility to perform the music to the best of our ability regardless of the keys or the technical challenges demanded.

But bands need to beware of the problem of putting on the same clothes day in and day out over years. Eventually the clothes wear out and appear dull. So too is the use of the same few keys in band music. Thank goodness for aural variety as presented by great music. Strings have helped avoid the trappings of musical boredom.