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Which key is the saddest?

Which key is the saddest? on HackerTube: recommended by 3 Hacker News commenters across 3 separate months, 2018–2020.

Adam Neely

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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.

Why Hacker News recommends it

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

people recommended it
3
separate months
3
strong recommendations
0
discussed on HN
2018–2020
“lots of historical context about tuning systems, but also raising the issue of timbre of specific instruments”
— viraptor, May 2020, in “Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third”

What HN commenters said

3 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

viraptorMay 2020Recommends

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

in “Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third” · View on HN

mafuyuSep 2018Recommends

I recommend checking out Adam Neely's channel, where he touches on some similar concepts: ▶ this video [link] [link]

in “We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?” · View on HN

abakkerApr 2018Recommends

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: ▶ this video )

in “Where I started might not be useful to you” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Music theory, synthesis & productiontuning systemstemperamenttimbrekey colourmusic history