[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Bern

...I believe that everybody's perception of pitch and reaction to pitch is different, therefore, to interpret the sound of a particular chord or key is highly subjective.

Hi Bern...
Not sure that each individual perceives pitch differently or uniquely from all other humans. We do share a lot of physical and emotional similarity with others in the human species.

People in groups at pitch oriented events (called concerts) do tend to respond similarly to the music presented, so there must be some reactions to music which are shared by large groups within society. And there is no denying that audiences at musical events respond in similar fashion - dancing, clapping, tapping etc. This is apparently in response to the music being presented.

Good composers know this and write and arrange accordingly to harness that power. Sometimes they are probably happy accidents that happen to move people.

Often they are in response to cool licks that guitarists or pianists have been working out on their own that moved them - and when they are integrated into compositions and played they seem to move others as well...we call them hooks.

Try playing the chord progression to ''G-L-O-R-I-A'' in another key or on another instrument and it doesn't create the same response as those simple little licks played on the original version by Eddie And The Hotrods.

I know in my ''keyboard phase'' days, that it at least appeared that people in audiences responded to certain keys and the voicings of large fat sounding fill chords played at fairly substantial volumes more than others.

My explorations lead me to think that either certain keys carry more energy and are therefore preferred by certain groups of writers and instrumentalists, or else the instruments themselves are more prone to developing energetic sounding music and therefore are associated with the keys that are easiest to play on those instruments (ie guitars play better in sharps).

A theory floating around the musical community is that sharp keys portray more energy than flat keys, and that flat keys tend to sound more mellow than sharp keys.

It might be that guitars lend themselves better to playing in sharp keys, and those who write with guitars tend to write more energetic songs that create the perception that sharp keys are more exciting.

Or it could be a match made in heaven, sharp keys easily played on instruments which are played more percussively and energetically producing even more exciting compositions.