This is our second story in our series on the characteristics of musical keys. We started with the “people’s key,” C major. From there it’s an easy skip to D, the root of today’s subject, the “saddest ...

Dr Vicky Williamson is a lecturer in Music Psychology at Goldsmiths University. You can read her previous post in the Science Of Music series here Most of the time, when all else is held constant, ...

Much of our music, from classical to contemporary, is written in either a major or minor key (with exceptions, such as jazz, which uses neither). For most, a major key conjures up feelings of ...