# Did Chopin REALLY REALLY like the black keys best?



## iloveChopin (Nov 24, 2013)

Hi. Newbie here. Chopin fan(atic) but I really don't know that much about his music, so pardon this question if it's too dumb for you experts to bother with!

I could probably look this up somewhere, but I'd bet someone here knows the answer already. As I listen to Chopin's music, I sometimes get the impression that an awful lot of it is in what I'd call the black keys, or the flat keys. G-flat, A-flat, F, B, etc. More so than in the sharp keys, G, D, A major, E major, etc.

Is there any basis at all for my perception? Or is it just my old feeble imagination?

Either way, I sure do love everything he wrote! If I had to create my own desert-island disc and could do so even in fantasyland, one of my discs would be a single CD containing everything he ever wrote!

Thanks.

Tom


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

It might be a keyboard ergonomics thing. I believe Chopin used to teach his students to play the B-major scale (5 sharps) first, rather than the more usual C-major (no sharps), on the theory that one's hands fall more naturally on that combination of keys.


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## iloveChopin (Nov 24, 2013)

Hey thanks for the input! I'm a fiddler, not a pianist, so it never occurred to me that our fingers land on the black keys easier than on the white ones. But once you mentioned it, it does seem obvious, doesn't it! You may be right! Thx again.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

No problem!

Not to tempt you or anything, but your fantasy desert-island disc is a real thing. Looks like first-rate performers as well.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

At this site:
http://www.ourchopin.com/questions.html
the FAQ (your question) No. 8 is answered, showing a table. Count'em up for yourself 
http://www.ourchopin.com/questions.html#8

While Ab major tops the stats, at 24 pieces in that key, you can see Chopin very much "played the field."

ahammel is also more than correct when it comes to the disposition of hand placement and the keyboard layout-- the thumb, with its placement not in a row aligned with the other four fingers -- and negotiating the keyboard. 
(Reminding all that pianist fingering is 1 for the thumb, 2-5 for the other fingers.) 
C# major, or B major both have the benefit of fingers 2-4 and or 5 more elevated, the thumb easier to 'fit' because of that. The C major scale, flat on the white keys, is legendarily most difficult to play perfectly evenly.

Pianists, if they can call themselves that at all, learn early on to read and play in any and all key signatures, and know and treat them all equally. Tradition with other instruments has their players of different dispositions. If my memory serves, a violinist / string player favors reading sharps vs. flats; the transposing reed players are more accustomed to reading flats; a harpist will more happily and readily read and play a Cbb vs. an A#.


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

Chopin wrote a prelude in which all the notes in the right hand are black keys. It is pretty long. The left hand does play a lot of white keys. The prelude is in G-flat major. Sorry I don't have opus number at hand, but if no one else provides it and you ask, I can dig it up.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

It was prior to the Civil Rights Act. Everyone's cool with the white keys these days.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Couac Addict said:


> It was prior to the Civil Rights Act. Everyone's cool with the white keys these days.


Too right! But, ya know, I do think those white keys still lack a certain sorta soul that those black keys, well... those black keys sure can sing.

Gimme a P!
Gimme an A!
Gimme an R!
Gimme an O!
Gimme a D!
Gimme a Y!

Whaddya got?


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