Each piece of music, be it a song, symphony or concerto, is written in a specific ‘key’. But what do we mean when we refer to a musical key, why are there 24 of them, and how do composers choose which ...

Switching a song into a different key can entirely change the way that song feels. So what does this chart, which shows which musical keys are most commonly used, tell us about the way we actually ...

Why do tunes in a major key, such as Singin' in the Rain , sound cheerful, while those in minor keys – Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall , say – sound gloomy and depressing? The answer ...

Over the last few decades, popular songs have switched from major to minor keys: In the 1960s, 85 percent of the songs were written in a major key, compared with only about 40 percent of them now.