256 - The Oxblood Incident

Yes, I know - Ab minor. Many wonder why I use so many of these are in so-called “difficult” keys.

For starters, none of them are any more difficult than any others, they are ALL virtually identical arrangements of whole and half steps, just starting on different notes and different places within the scale. They aren’t difficult, they’re unfamiliar.

In point of fact some of them are actually easier!

Allan’s famous “Allegro Barbaro” etude in F major is made much more physically difficult to play because he deliberately removes a black key, Bb, throughout the score - making the whole thing in the key of F lydian, and without that flat key as familiar landmarks along the keyboard, it’s way more difficult to play than it would’ve been had he chosen some other lydian scale that included a black key or two. But then it wouldn’t’ve been as difficult an étude.

In fact, when it comes to the keyboard the key of C is probably the most difficult to play with accuracy.

For example, when my oldest son was taking piano lessons he wanted to learn the song “Linus and Lucy,” a really famous tune from “Charlie Brown’s Christmas.” You’ve heard it. His teacher bought him a so-called easy version. It was in the key of C, and as a result way more difficult to play than the original in Ab. The opening riff just falls under your natural hand position in Ab but is almost impossible to play with any accuracy in C. Getting rid of four flats might’ve made it easier to figure out the notes, but it made it way more difficult to play. When I saw the music I found a copy of the original which was much easier for him than that “easy” version.

All that aside, I acknowledge some diatonic instruments such as concertina’s can’t access keys with very many sharps or flats, and without using a capo they can be tricky for some string instruments like guitar or mandolin, so I WAS going to add a version of today’s piece in A minor just as a courtesy.

Unfortunately, when it comes to working with keys with 7 flats, easyABC choked on its transpose function. The notes were for the most part correctly transposed but the chord symbols? How does one play an Ab# minor chord? The transposed version was useless so I’m not including it here.

To play this in A minor just ignore the key signature and all the flats on the chord symbols then mentally substitute a sharp for every natural in the chart and, Voila, A minor!

Or just get familiar with seven flats.

Or, if you prefer, G#minor instead:

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