Pro tip: please watch the short video version of this post that I link to here: https://www.guitarsuccess4u.com/idealkey. It will give you a much clearer grasp of what I’m sharing here.

Transcript and diagrams included below.

GUITAR

Finding a Song’s Ideal Key | David Harsh

How do we choose the best key for a song, especially one that has a vocal melody?

There’s a common misconception out there that basically states that melodies in the key of D are higher than melodies in the key of C. Let’s dispel that myth today.

If someone were to argue that a melody in the key of D is higher than a melody in the key of C, they wouldn’t necessarily be correct.

Now, if we’re talking about the same song, then that statement applies. If I sing a melody in C, and I transpose the song that melody is in up a Major 2nd to the key of D, then, yes, I’ll sing that melody higher.

But otherwise, all bets are off.

Why? Because how high the notes in a melody go, is not directly related to which key the song is in. The highest notes in a melody are actually based on the vocal range of the song.

The Italian word for this is tessitura. In simple terms, the tessitura is the range, in this case, of a vocal part, within which most of the tones lie.

Let’s take a hypothetical melody I’ve created, and assume that it spans the entire range of a song. I’ll call this “Song #1” just to give us a point of reference.

Now, the range or tessitura I’ve used for this song is literally a Perfect 4th, from C to F.

This is a very small tessitura, perhaps one of the smallest there could be for a song, especially since a lot of songwriters will utilize higher notes for greater artistic impact. Nevertheless, a Perfect 4th could be the complete range of a song.

Now, let’s look at another hypothetical melody I’ve created, one that has a much larger range. Here’s what I’ll call “Song #2.”

Here, I’ve created a vocal melody that spans 2 whole octaves.

I’ll admit that this is a bit on the extreme end as song ranges go, but I’ve encountered participatory worship songs that meet these criteria, or at least come close in range.

Now, both of these songs I’ve just demonstrated are currently in C Major.

One spans a Perfect 4th. The other spans a perfect 15th.

Let’s say that someone wants to play Song #1 in D Major, instead of C Major. The key of D is a Major 2nd above the key of C. But does that mean that Song #1 in D now has higher notes in the melody than Song #2, still in C?

I think you know the answer. Nope.

What if I transposed Song #1 up to the key of E, or even the key of G? Will I sing higher than the melody in Song #2 in C? Still nope. Even in the key of G, the highest note of Song #1 is a C, which is still a perfect 5th below the highest note of Song #2 if it is still in C.

Song #1 has a long way to go before it catches up to Song #2 in terms of register. Why? Because Song #2 has a much wider tessitura.

Let’s observe a couple things about these two songs. First, Song #1 provides us with some advantages. It can easily be transposed to a lot of different keys and still be what I’d call “singable.” People with limited vocal ranges in your congregation could lock into this melody and have very little trouble accessing these notes.

But as for Song #2 – watch out!

A range of two octaves is a thing to be respected, and perhaps feared. If I start moving this song up by even a few steps, the top high G can easily become a high B or C, which is really high for the untrained male voice.

It’s worth our time to discover what the range is of every song we lead or even present in front of a group of people.

This benefits vocalists the most.

Typically, the bass player doesn’t have a strong feeling about the key. The drummer certainly doesn’t either. Remember, your congregation isn’t filled with bass players or drummers – they’re predominantly vocalists.

So that’s some wisdom for how to find a song’s ideal key. Once you have a better grasp of the vocal range you want to stay in, your charts can be adjusted to accommodate the new keys that you’ll need play in. And that’s a great place to be.

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