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Which key is the saddest?

Adam Neely3 HN recommenders · 2018–2020
1.3M views · explainer · evergreen · Uploaded 2017-01-09

Musician Adam Neely examines whether certain keys sound sadder than others, looking at the history of tuning systems and temperaments and at how instrument timbre shapes the emotional character we hear. It draws on historical aesthetics writing and audio examples.

HN commenters recommend it for its historical context on tuning systems and for how instruments influence what music gets composed.

Music theory, synthesis & production

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3 comments from Hacker News

@abakker2018 · in “Where I started might not be useful to you”

Re #2, I'm not a programmer, but as a writer I find the same thing to be true. I work better with a pen and legal pad than a keyboard. I've got this feeling that we have neural pathways built for typing and, subconsciously, we favor phrases, words, and sentences that are easy to type. I know I even have a tic where if I pause to think I'll insert extraneous commas. It's kind of like how musicians tend to improvise around licks and scales that they have practiced a lot. There's something to thinking about the idea of a song on paper that is more creative than unintentionally falling back on chords/forms that are easy to play. (Adam Neely discusses this very well here: [VIDEO] )

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@mafuyu2018 · in “We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?”

I recommend checking out Adam Neely's channel, where he touches on some similar concepts: [VIDEO] [LINK] [LINK]

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@viraptor2020 · in “Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third”

If you're into that, check out Adam Neely's channel. There's been a few videos on that and related topics: [VIDEO] (Spoiler: lots of historical context about tuning systems, but also raising the issue of timbre of specific instruments)

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