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My previous riddles weren't hard enough,
so I decided to draw from this experience.
I didn't want it to be too black,
so it's half way in-between.
Is that not fine with you?

My style may elicit some pointed comments,
but the answer to my last riddle was a key on the keyboard,
so I wanted to make a big change,
and I hope you rank it highly.

(Oh, I guess it turned out to be mostly black after all).

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I think it's

The F# major scale.

The first part:

This is referring to:

An F-grade pencil. The HB scale goes from Harder to Blacker (9H, 8H, ..., 2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B, ..., 8B, 9B). The harder the pencil's lead grade, the lighter the mark. The softer the lead, the darker (blacker) the mark.

My previous riddles weren't hard enough,

The pencil is graded on the hardness of the lead.

so I decided to draw from this experience.

Drawing with a pencil.

I didn't want it to be too black,

The pencil isn't in the B section.

so it's half way in-between.

The F rating is an arbitrary letter chosen to mark the midpoint between H and HB.

Is that not fine with you?

"F" is an arbitrary letter. It doesn't stand for "fine", as is often thought.

The Second Part

My style may elicit some pointed comments,

It's sharp.

but the answer to my last riddle was a key on the keyboard,

The last riddle was about the letter "K" and letters close to it on the keyboard.

so I wanted to make a big change,

This is a change in scale and involves keys on a piano.

and I hope you rank it highly.

The rank Major in the military, and major vs minor scale.

(Oh, I guess it turned out to be mostly black after all).

The F# major scale on a piano is played with more black keys than white keys.

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  • $\begingroup$ Your interpretation of the clues in the first paragraph is exactly correct, but the complete answer is not a pencil, or anything to do with pencils. The second paragraph gives clues to the rest of it. Note: The last line in brackets is a check, when that makes sense you'll know you got it. $\endgroup$
    – jhabbott
    Feb 4, 2016 at 13:37
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    $\begingroup$ That's some good stuff there with fine $\endgroup$
    – Raystafarian
    Feb 4, 2016 at 18:46
  • $\begingroup$ @Raystafarian cheers. Did you have any ideas to progress it further? $\endgroup$
    – jhabbott
    Feb 5, 2016 at 13:22
  • $\begingroup$ @jhabbott I've been poking around and I stumbled across the album F♯ A♯ ∞ by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I'm not convinced enough to write it up with the clues at the moment but I wanted to raise it as a comment to see if there's any merit in looking in that direction. $\endgroup$
    – Samthere
    Feb 5, 2016 at 13:26
  • $\begingroup$ I struggle to answer this without giving it away, it's not the right answer, but you have made some progress. $\endgroup$
    – jhabbott
    Feb 5, 2016 at 13:31

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