I was doing some warm-up on my guitar yesterday, as I do more often nowadays (Yay!) – when I happened to strum a D minor chord. For some reason, it hit me. I suddenly had this feeling. I was somewhat melancholic. Blue. Bleak. Down. Somber. I started sobbing!!!

Ummm, no not really…

But wow, it finally dawned on me that D minor is, indeed, the saddest of all keys. No wonder I love it! However, I only felt the sadness when I played it in a down-stroke. And this may only apply on guitar as I have tried it on the piano, as well – it’s no different than playing an F minor, really. Could it be the sequential order of every note played on the guitar, perhaps? That, along with the vibrations of the plucked strings? Maybe. Or, could it be the reason why George Harrison’s guitar gently weeps? Probably not. Besides, that song was played in A minor.

I also discovered that D minor doesn’t sound as sad hearing others play it as much as when you embrace the guitar and strum the chord yourself. Oh, what a thorn in a musician’s flesh. As if you’re sad to see someone cry, but not nearly as sad as when you’re the one crying.

Oddly enough, one of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard in modern music is a song called She’s Gone… by Black Sabbath, nonetheless. This could have very well been performed by Pavaroti, if you could only manage to take Ozzy out of your thoughts. Because of the classical influence in the music, it feels like a requiem or something from Mozart. Beautiful, though.