My mother wished to sing ‘Bless this House’ in E flat major, but only had the sheet music in C major. She has an electronic piano with a transposition capability so I went to help her make the changes. After some difficulty understanding what the Yamaha manual meant, we got the transposition working. We were not sure from the instructions that by pressing the desired keynote, the intended shift would take place. I was sure that I would be able to tell as soon as I played in the new setting which key we were in. Disturbingly they all sound bland and free of any distinguishing character, except for vapid F major. E flat major, E and D had no distinguishing features to my ear. We had to work out that we in E flat major by working out how the interval between the two key notes had changed. I then accompanied my mother as she sang the sentimental song in E flat. At no time did I get any sense of key: my fingers were playing in C major and all I knew was that the music was not sounding in C. Bland, papery, deadening.