Some musicians may have a sense of 'relative key', recognising C major/A minor as a 'home' key and hearing other keys as relative to that. Speculating for a moment, it might even be that pre-equal temperament tunings influenced the repertoire written during those times, with the result that 'darker-sounding' pieces were written in what were then darker-sounding keys those keys are not darker-sounding now (in equal temperament), but the correlation might remain. We might not only be talking about an equal temperament context after all This collective 'musicians experience' might include wisdom passed down from the pre-equal temperament era. So, for what genuine reasons might musicians often think otherwise? After all, if we go round the circle of fifths, the relative movement between F major (one flat) and A♭ major (four flats) is the same as moving between A♭ major (four flats) and B major (five sharps). then pretty much by definition, there's no fundamental, general distinction that can be drawn between flat keys and sharp keys. we're assuming a relative sense of hearing (no absolute sense of pitch or key).There aren't any other tuning oddities (stretch tuning, etc.) and.we're talking in an equal temperament context, and.This may also contribute to a perception that compositions / passages in flat keys sound darker: because they feature dark instruments more prominently!

Of course this too can't be more than a rule of thumb, but there does appear to be some trend that brighter instruments are more comfortable with sharper keys. Saxophones, B♭ clarinets, horns and tubas have a strong preference for flats.Trumpets and trombones have some preference for keys with a few flats.Among oboists and flutist, everybody seems to have different feelings about whether sharp or flat keys are nicer to play.Double bass has no preference for either sharps or flats, I think. Viola and celli prefer sharps too, though not as much a violins do – the strings are one step down the circle of fifths. Other thoughts: different keys are differently well-suited for various instruments. almost always up, although if you raise the entire key by a half-tone it may well be notated with five flats instead of the seven sharps you'd need. Pop doesn't tend to modulate much at all, except for the last repetition of the chorus. Whether this has any relevance to pop music is doubtful. In this sense, a key with sharps is statistically more likely to appear bright. Now, a key with many sharps is more likely to have been reached by modulation from a flatter key, than from one with even more sharps. ( Except when they're not perception is of course highly subjective and often culturally influenced.) This is somewhat tangible: raising accidentals are likely to be perceived as “uplifting”. It certainly holds some truth, irrespective of tuning system, in the following sense: modulating to a key with more sharps evokes a “bright” sensation modulating to more flat evokes a “dark” sensation.

Music keys and emotions