Key of the song?

[Icetickle]

I didn't go to music school and until now I didn't even know what key means when it comes to music.
Now I'm wondering what is the key of the tune that is started making recently in my DAW, and how much is it even important?
Should I decide what key should my song be in when I start producing? According to the statement on the website I found, a key is a collection of notes that sound good together.
And my tune sounds damn good to me! Also am I going to notice if the track is "out of key"?

I know it's too many questions but please try to answer some of them If you have some time...

[charles1]

I've never had any formal music training either but this is what I know from my own reading. Key is related to chords and scales, if you're familiar with them. For instance you can have major and minor keys, and more specifically you can have a C# major key or a B minor key, etc. It's just a set of notes that tend to sound good together universally throughout music, and the patterns correlate to the same patterns that exist with chords and scales.

It's not absolutely necessary to understand music theory in order to make electronic music. It would definitely make things easier and quicker though. In the end the best method you should be using is your ears. You are allowed to break the rules and if it sounds good, then it sounds good and that's all that matters. You won't necessarily notice if a note is "out of key", but sometimes it will be very apparent. To put it simply, if something sounds bad, then it's probably out of key. This is obviously a benefit to being a trained musician - you are more likely to notice if something is out of key.

[Icetickle]

I've never had any formal music training either but this is what I know from my own reading. Key is related to chords and scales, if you're familiar with them. For instance you can have major and minor keys, and more specifically you can have a C# major key or a B minor key, etc. It's just a set of notes that tend to sound good together universally throughout music, and the patterns correlate to the same patterns that exist with chords and scales.

It's not absolutely necessary to understand music theory in order to make electronic music. It would definitely make things easier and quicker though. In the end the best method you should be using is your ears. You are allowed to break the rules and if it sounds good, then it sounds good and that's all that matters. You won't necessarily notice if a note is "out of key", but sometimes it will be very apparent. To put it simply, if something sounds bad, then it's probably out of key. This is obviously a benefit to being a trained musician - you are more likely to notice if something is out of key.

So when I'm making a chord I should just look into keys, pick one and choose notes from it?
Also when I'm making patches in my synth, how does pitch on oscillators work when it comes to being out of key? Only thing that could make the whole song out of key would be whole parts (lead, chord, pad..) of the song not being in the same key?

Also thanks for responding..

[BrightLights]

I would just go by ear. Keys are basically just building blocks and a structured set of notes that you can choose from to create your melodies. It might make things a little more organized to go by a certain key, but for the most part keys are subjective. Different cultures use completely different scales and keys than we use in the west, we have just gotten so adjusted to our particular scales that other scales usually sound strange at first, but it mostly all subjective. Except for mabye our particular frequencies in our scales are backed up by mathematics, so might be a little more stable since the overtones in the notes blend together, but as long as it sounds good to you and still expresses your idea it should'nt matter.

[charles1]

After writing everything below, I want to first say this - I do not know the exact difference between key and scale, but I know they are very similar. Hopefully someone else will comment on that. I think that scale refers to major, minor, etc, and key specifies the note that the scale is being applied to (ie the "C# major key"). For more reliable info I suggest you read this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_%28music%29. This is the best explanation I could find:

Although many musicians confuse key with scale, a scale is an ordered set of notes typically used in a key, while the key is the center of gravity, established by particular chord progressions.

Anyway....

So when I'm making a chord I should just look into keys, pick one and choose notes from it?

I mean you don't have to. It's not a bad idea, but I don't usually bother to pick a certain key or scale that my entire song is going to adhere to. but if it works for you then by all means go for it!

the bottom line is to make music that sounds good. if something sounds good, but it is technically out of key, and it sounds bad when it's in key, then stick with the way that sounds good. don't do something solely because music theory says you should. that said, music theory serves as a fantastic guideline and is very precise and yes it is backed by science and mathematics. the vast majority of the time, things that sound good are "in key". so it's relatively unlikely that you would be in the position to go against it, but I'm sure it does happen.

not to mention there are all sorts of scales and chords (as I said above, I'm not so certain about keys. hopefully someone else will comment about the specific keys), so just cause something is not in the major or minor scale does not mean it isn't in the melodic minor or harmonic minor or half diminished or any of the other various scales you can read about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mu ... _and_modes.

Only thing that could make the whole song out of key would be whole parts (lead, chord, pad..) of the song not being in the same key?

when people use the term "out of key", that can refer to an entire part, or it can refer to a single note.

So when I'm making a chord I should just look into keys, pick one and choose notes from it?

personally I have only memorized the major and minor chord formulas. I usually try to be creative when I make chords and not follow formulas, but I do sometimes use simple major/minor and sometimes I have consulted charts for more complex chords, like minor 7th (table for that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_seventh_chord). But that comes with a tradeoff because it takes me a lot of trial and error when I make chords, very time consuming. If you stick to simple major or minor formulas, then writing chords should be relatively quick and easy.

not sure if I'm telling you something you already know, but an octave has 12 semi-tones (C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B). all chords have a root note. major/minor chords have 2 additional notes (more complex chords can have many more). the formula for a major chord is root note +4 +7 semi-tones, and a minor is root note +3 +7. so a C major would be C +E +G and a C minor would be C +D# +G. hope that makes sense.

how does pitch on oscillators work when it comes to being out of key?

you can program the octave and semi-tone of each oscillator. they follow everything I said above (ie they have 12 semi-tones). remember that the pitch of the oscillator is relative to the MIDI note that is triggering it. I personally would rather do my chords in MIDI because I typically don't follow formulas, but if you choose to do it with your oscillators, then your MIDI should only be playing the root note. make sure one oscillator is playing the root note (+0 +0) and that your other ones are playing the additional notes (eg +4 +7 semi-tones for a major chord). There is an advantage to doing it with your oscillators as opposed to your MIDI - you can change your MIDI note and that will give you the same type of chord but with a different root note. If you've programed the octave/semi-tones of each oscillator properly for a certain key, then the final result shouldn't be out of key. I hope that answers your question.

[BrightLights]

By scale I usually mean the pythagorean scale we use in pretty much all music in the west. As in the particular frequencies chosen for the notes we use as A,B,C,D,E,f, and G, since some other cultures use completely different frequencies as their main notes. I might be wrong, but by putting 2 and 2 together I think keys are just particular notes from the pythagorean scale used in either major, minor, or whatever form, and played with another 4 notes out of the 7 main notes we use. I'm not completely sure though. I know there are chromatic, penatonic, and harmonic scales though which is a certain pattern of notes as well so you could probably take the key of C sharp or something and then play the minor harmonic scale or something, i think?

[Icetickle]

...

I owe you big times.

[frenchboy]

A simple trick is to play a long sustained note on the keyboard while your song plays. The note or notes that fit throughout the song the best will be the Key or relative keys. Songs can have multiple keys in different parts and can also modulate between keys. They can also borrow notes from other keys. So knowing your key isn't that important, but knowing the key and relative keys is very important.

Example a song in A minor uses the exact same notes as a song in C major so you could easily make a mash up of these songs. The key of F Major uses all the same notes as the key of C execpt for 1 note so you could interchange between those 2 keys easily. Same with the key of G has the same notes has the Key of C except one.

Which means if your song is in C, the sustained notes that would sound the best throughout your song are C, G, F and A. So knowing that your using the key of C isn;t that important, but knowing that these 4 notes are the most important of your song is very important.

[Efrafa11]

In western music pitch is divided in to 12 notes...
I'm gonna assume you already know them. (C,C#/Db,D,D#/Eb, ect.)
We play different combinations of notes called scales...
Scales have starting note or a "root note"
This is where the "Key" is derived from.
A root note is the base note or the "home" note your song resolves around essentially.
The key can be furthered defined by what scale it is.
In classical usually either this is major/minor.
To pick help chords you have a thing called scale degree which tells you what type of chords (major/minor/diminished/ ect.) a note lands on in major and minor scales.


exta: In classical music, for orchestras they generally didn't say just say this key is in D flat major or whatever so if they play a song in a different key
You could just look at the key signature on the sheet music and count how many sharps or flats and say... 0 sharps or flats I must be in Cmajor or Aminor.

[charles1]

oops

[Icetickle]

Soundcloud

Is this lead out of key, and what key it should be / is anyway?
Is it even possible for a lead to be out of key? (does it only apply for chords?)

Everything is so fucking confusing.

[Efrafa11]

Soundcloud

Is this lead out of key, and what key it should be / is anyway?
Is it even possible for a lead to be out of key? (does it only apply for chords?)

Everything is so fucking confusing.

To be simple if it sounds right your in key if it is overly dissonant your not in key..
You can choose any key to write your song in but it is best to keep your instruments in the same key.
Your lead is fine now you can use the notes your lead plays( and other ones) to choose your chords if u haven't already.
I don't have any ear for tuning so I can't tell you what key your in but don't stress about it so much.

If you look up "music theory" in the search function there are a lot of great resources from other threads on beginner theory.

[YeahItsMe]

Dubstep is not for music theory snobs lol. Remember, this is dubstep, not your parents rock or your baby sisters pop. Don't follow "rules", use "rules" as guidelines to start. Every pop/rock song takes notes from different keys. Don't get hung up on "being in key." Being in key is most important for individual phrases or 2/4/8/16 bar sections.

Say you like many notes in F Major , that gives you F, G, A, Bb, C, D, & E to work with in that key. (Let's be honest, dark phat basses are slammin from E-G) you can easily make the E into Eb and it would sound fine, it's more of where in the phrase that "out of key" note is placed. It's good to know what range you want each sound to hit. Still thinking about F Major, you can have a lead hitting higher notes in the scale say from Bb-E while your bass is slammin that F. It's good to set a guideline for each sound, like how high/low in the octave the sound will be hitting. Also, take note that there is only 1 different note in the key of F Major when compared to C Major (C, D, E, F, G, A, B), the Bb. It's easy to switch between the those 2 keys.

Like someone said above, knowing the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 7th of the scale you're usin is super important for transitions. F Major is F, Bb, C, & E. You can play one phrase in F Major hitting a C as the last note and turn the next phrase into C Major from there and music theory wise, that is a perfect key modulation.

Don't forget, music is all about how it sounds, so don't get hung up on music theory when you should be more focussed on writing phrases and sound design. My nusic theory professor who has been studying it his whole life and teaching it for half his life and analyzed classical music, classic rock, and modern rock; he says everyday "we make music, only a theory snob will sit there listening to a song a say 'that F# doesn't belong in A Minor'." Those theory snobs don't appreciate music, they only appreciate how notes/keys function.

If Was unclear or you want more details, hit me up

[Benji]

Just pick/make a scale and make sure all the notes in your song are of that scale, you can even add random notes in if you want