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I'm a layperson with regards to all things music. I have some experience with the guitar and took a semester long music theory class in high school, but aside from that and some stuff I've heard from watching Adam Neely and Rick Beato I know nothing, I do however have perfect pitch.

I know different keys tend to take on different sounds and moods depending on the instruments used and the structure of the song, but there are certain keys that will make me feel certain ways no matter the facts about the song, performance, etc.

For instance F major always makes me feel incredibly overwhelmed and upset, to the point where it can be a trigger for depressive and intrusive thoughts no matter how I was feeling before. E minor and F minor tend to calm me down no matter what state I'm in, C minor (in classical music mostly) makes me irritated, like having an itch I can't reach etc.

Is there any psychological and/or music-theory based explanation for why this happens? A lot of my friends who are much more musically developed than I am tend to have likes and dislikes when it comes to certain keys and progressions but so far as I know I'm the only person I've met who overreacts like this. It's to the point where I'm trying to write a script that will automatically comb through the songs in my library and automatically transpose everything to keys I can stand.

Lee Royce-Jenkins
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  • There might be some psychology to this but there’s no music theory related to it. That’s not part of what music theory is about. – Todd Wilcox Jan 13 '19 at 03:51
  • There were feelings or moods assigned to keys before equal temperament became common, because the nature of each was detectable to a trained ear, even without perfect pitch. But equal temperament makes each key indistinguishable for a listener who only has relative pitch. Since you have perfect pitch, you might be describing a synesthetic phenomenon. That’s psychological; not musical. – trw Jan 13 '19 at 05:01
  • Avoid to play F major and C, prefer playing e- and f- minor. – Albrecht Hügli Jan 13 '19 at 06:22
  • Did you listen to traumatically bad music in F major before? Otherwise, I can't explain why F major would make you so upset. I personally find F major to be noticeably calm compared to other major keys. (I also have perfect pitch.) – Dekkadeci Jan 13 '19 at 07:25
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    Frank Zappa: "You have to like D minor a lot to play in our band". Spinal Tap: "D minor is the saddest of all keys". – No'am Newman Jan 13 '19 at 07:37
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    I'm intrigued--how would your script handle music that changes keys? For example, the first movement of Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata is in F minor overall, which would be fine, except a significant portion of it later is in F major, which I'm fairly sure you are programming your script to transpose away from. – Dekkadeci Jan 13 '19 at 07:48
  • Had a fleeting thought that there may be some connection with resonance of body parts. – Tim Jan 13 '19 at 10:37
  • @Dekkadeci that's a good point, sometimes if I'm playing a song and manually transposing it to a different key but that results in another key change I don't like I'll just fudge that part. That or in the case your describing I think I'd try to transpose it to a key where I really like both the minor and its parallel major, so for the first movement of that sonata I might try to have it in A minor and A major. – Lee Royce-Jenkins Jan 13 '19 at 15:23
  • Also @Dekkadeci I'm not sure if there are experience that could explain the F major dislike. I remember feeling that way about it since I was a small child, even if I didn't recognize which key it was back then. Although it could be because of the music they play in stores? The kind of stuff that's really maudlin and arrhythmic that gets people upset so they buy more stuff supposedly. That and I tend to hate stores/areas with large amounts of people in general so given your idea I think that might fit. – Lee Royce-Jenkins Jan 13 '19 at 15:27
  • @LeeRoyce-Jenkins - You might need to try another transposition if your result's use of C major and C minor irritates you too much. (The original 1st movement of Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata starts in F minor, then goes to A flat major into A flat minor, then arguably goes to E major, E minor, C minor, A flat major again, D flat major, B flat minor, G flat major, and a chromatic slide in rapid sequence, then back to F minor, F major, F minor, D flat major, and F minor. – Dekkadeci Jan 13 '19 at 15:31
  • @Dekkadeci good point, depending on the context the offending key can be less irritating so a script probably would be tough since it might just end up being on a case by case basis. Can't win 'em all I suppose. – Lee Royce-Jenkins Jan 13 '19 at 16:47
  • Two related questions: (1) [Why do I hear characters to keys in equal temperament?](https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/93292/why-do-i-hear-characters-to-keys-in-equal-temperament) (2) [Is there any objective evidence that different keys “feel different” or have different moods?](https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/93535/is-there-any-objective-evidence-that-different-keys-feel-different-or-have-dif) – Aaron Sep 07 '20 at 05:36

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The term you have too look up is:

Characteristics of Musical Keys

There has always been a great discussion about the characteristics of scale and keys (which are the basic of chords) by different composers.f

http://biteyourownelbow.com/keychar.htm

There is objective evidence that most requiems are written in d- minor. The modi and temperature are the main factors, but also the conditioning will play a role. There‘s a great amount of subjectivity in this discussion.

https://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html

Ernst Kurth was one of the first who was occupied with music psychology. „This system is approached from three perspectives and three questions: a) chordal fusion, or how it is that we sense simultaneous tones as harmonious ; b) chordal tension, or why we feel tension when hearing simultaneous tones; and c) chordal movement, or what underlying principles govern our responses to the succession of chords.“ (Daphne Tan Dissertation downloadable pdf)

for better understanding:

How does Music Affect your brain?

„Music psychology, which is a branch of musicology, aims to explain the understanding the effects of musical behavior. Many sound frequencies, called pitch, can form a melody. Melody is the part of music that is memorable and music that doesn’t have much of a melody often lacks direction.Corresponding harmonies can produce a variety of effects on a song. Harmonies can range from bright and uplifting to dark and depressing.“ https://mass001.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/the-psychology-of-musicology-the-effects-of-classical-music-on-the-brain/

Albrecht Hügli
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  • Ya know what, maybe my notion that A flat major is the most morose of all major keys comes from A flat major pieces actually being more depressing overall. (I'm an avid classical music fan, which would amplify these trends in music in certain keys I could notice.) – Dekkadeci Jan 13 '19 at 07:45
  • Maybe you‘re traing perfect pitch of a‘ 440 as I did some years ago. Then the bells of the cows ringing on a A flat got me crazy ... – Albrecht Hügli Jan 13 '19 at 07:53
  • I wonder what the music psychology is of certain intervals, progressions, and harmponies are. Considering in a lot of classical music regardless of the key I don't feel particularly moved by any of it. But songs in minor keys with a lot 2nd, 6th, 7th intervals and sustained chords tend to hit hard. – Lee Royce-Jenkins Jan 13 '19 at 15:35