> > I'm arranging some jazz pieces for a quintet which includes viola and > > tenor trombone. What are the keys that players of those instruments > > tend to enjoy playing in the most? > > > Trombonists don't really care, as there are no real technical > difficulties from one key to the next (unless you are low) though > most of them like band keys like C to Ab, but this is just what shows > up a lot. > > Violists, on the other hand, tend to play better in sharper keys, as > lots of flats put them in half positions, say from C to E or so.
On string instruments, it's not really a question of half position, but of how many open strings are in the key. The availability of open strings has two main advantages: 1) flexibility of fingering can make rapid passages easier to play; and 2) the sympathetic resonance of open strings makes it easier to play in tune. Even E major is not that friendly a key for viola and cello, as the lower 3 strings are all sharped (better on violin, which has 2 open strings in E). In this sense, the "best" keys for viola are C, G, F, D, Bb, Eb (for violin: C, G, F, D, Bb, A). But really, for a decent player all this doesn't matter much until you get to at least 5 sharps or flats. Lee Actor Composer-in-Residence and Assistant Conductor, Palo Alto Philharmonic http://www.leeactor.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
