What are the right tunes for that Friday feeling?

A few people have said to me that they like to listen to music whilst they work but that finding the right tracks can be a bit hit and miss.

Thinking about this a bit more I started to wonder whether it might be possible to come up with a set of mixes that set the right mood for people’s working days.

But what would be the right tunes and why?

Moods and keys

Music theory tells us that the key of a piece of music has a huge impact on the emotions it evokes. I’ve long wondered whether if we can work out what type of mood is needed for different times in the working week, we can use the keys of tracks to help find the right tunes to help establish and maintain it.

I did say in a previous post I was a bit of a geek, so I’ve decided to conduct a bit of an experiment to see if it works.

The keys

I decided to pick on Friday morning and afternoon as the two easiest sets of emotions and moods to start with. Based on my own week as a starting point, I’ve identified the following keys that correspond to the mood I’m looking for:

• Friday morning (“the weekend’s nearly here!”):
  • F# major (2B on the Camelot scale): “Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief uttered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has fiercely struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key.”
  • Bb major (6B): “Cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world.”
  • C major (8B): “Completely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children’s talk.”
• Friday afternoon (“we made it!”):
  • E major (12B): “Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E Major.”
  • D major (10B): “The key of triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key.”
  • A major (11B): “This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one’s state of affairs; hope of seeing one’s beloved again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God.”

The key descriptions come from this paper – it gets more interesting when you know what key some of your favourite tracks are in and compare with the theory. Handily most DJ software will analyse your tracks now.

The mixes

Using the keys above for each, I’ve made two initial mixes to test the theory. I’ve gone with the working title of House Work (get it?) as I’ve stuck with my usual genre of soulful house/nu disco and tempo. If it works, I’ll make more for the other (likely more difficult) days and times.

Try them out and let me know what you think. If we think it works, I’ll do the rest of the week.