Dm as the saddest key

Pierre

Stratologist
I don't get this. How can a key be sad, as all the intervals are the same...? Or did I miss some fundamental bit of theory, or am I right and this is part of the joke?
 
Re: Dm as the saddest key

I dunno ,every note has it's own feeling i think!A tends to sound more "positive an lovely).That's just a feeling ,but i have it!
 
Re: Dm as the saddest key

I don't get this. How can a key be sad, as all the intervals are the same...? Or did I miss some fundamental bit of theory, or am I right and this is part of the joke?

Were you watching the VH1 Classic Albums show where Phil Collins of Genesis mentioned this? LOL
 
Re: Dm as the saddest key

*Attempting to explain some poeple might say this:*

Because it has a different colour to it.
+1

It's the Dm CHORD that's the saddest, not the scale. The flat third is on the high E string and it rings out. IMO that's why it sounds the saddest. lol

It's the same reason why a G note doesn't sound the same open or fretted on the 5th fret of the D string or fretted on the 10th fret of the A string.
 
Re: Dm as the saddest key

To be honest fmaj7 with a minor 3rd and a natural 6th sounds like the saddest chord.
 
Re: Dm as the saddest key

Of course somethign can sound "sadder". Sure the intervals may be the same, but the pitch of the notes aren't.

I think Am sounds really sad to my ears.
 
Re: Dm as the saddest key

Ah as a chord then I get it. I do agree that so far dm, in the right context, does have a rather sad ring to it. Fair enough.


And nah, I just thought of it the first time I watched This is Spinal Tap but always forgot to ask :P
 
Re: Dm as the saddest key

Dm. I'm sure our ears are more accustomed to a certain frequency. For example A is 440. That frequency may set off more electrical impulses in the ear than a note at 350hz (I just made that number up for the sake up example).

Most people are probably used to hearing A all the time (think phone tone), there's probably something to that.
 
Re: Dm as the saddest key

Some of it may depend on the instrument as well. The wood in the guitar will resonate better with different frequencies. I can almost tune my acoustic without a tuner because of this - that is to say, the high E string rings out when it's in tune. The Dm will sound differently than other minor chords because of the tension to the E. Am for instance sounds much brighter to me because of the E in that chord - the Dm sounds darker.

I'm not ignoring the allusion to the movie, but what makes that movie so good is that a lot of what is in it is true. (The knobs on my #1 guitar go to 11 - scary how loud it gets!)
 
Re: Dm as the saddest key

It's the Dm CHORD that's the saddest, not the scale. The flat third is on the high E string and it rings out. IMO that's why it sounds the saddest. lol
IMO, the Dm chord at the 5th fret is sadder than the open position Dm chord. And it's not just when you add the open E string, though that emphasizes the effect.

I have no idea why, but you can play Cm at the 3rd fret, C#m at the 4th, Ebm at the 6th, and yeah they sound like minor chords, but play Dm at the 5th fret and it sounds positively despondent.

Aswith all the musician lore that was lampooned on Spinal Tap, there's a grain of truth to it.
 
Re: Dm as the saddest key

I really doubt specific Hz frequencies have much to do with anything, the average person's ability to remember pitches is pretty hopeless (intervals another matter). Even Mozart was only sensitive to something like a couple of cents (and that's sensing when two different pitches are out of tune by a few cents). Consider that our sense of pitch is sensed by a series of tiny hairs placed on a spiral of increasing curvature...I think you will agree that context has much more to do than absolute positions.

But yeah, open strings are more powerful, richer, and the minorey thing about the minor chord is the b3, so if that's on one or two high open strings, it'll tend to be pretty big.
 
Back
Top