Making songs in a certain key?

[zee_werp]

Hey all,

 

I've heard a few times people talking about a song being in a certain key. What does this mean? And how do I make a song in a certain key?

 

Is it to do with scales, chords, or what?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[mumble]

Phew, such an open ended question. Everyone who knows anything about theory has been where you are now. Because of that fact there are an incredible number of free resources on the internet to learn what you need.

 

Music theory (which is what you want to know about, to some extent), can be very deep and complicated, but there are simpler things you can do to start. I'm not going to give you a deep explanation about theory here because it is covered countless times on the internet. Just go to google and search for something like "music theory lesson", "scale lesson", or "chord lesson".

 

I recommend if you're going to make psy and you want that "mysterious" sound, to start by learning one or two "minor" scales, which are a set of notes you should play and not stray from (until you learn a little bit more, then all rules are off). There are many types of scales, and some are heard in psy more than others, but for that introspective, moody, sometimes sad, sometimes dark sound, minor is an easy way to start. Major would be for your carebear psy.

 

Of course major and minor are actually related, but thats too much for now... :-)

[ukiro]

Screw minor, go phrygian =)

[mumble]

Screw minor, go phrygian =)

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I thought about trying to decode that for him but learning modes before major/minor scales seems strange don't you think?

 

It is where you want to end up next though, zee. That and stuff like mixing melodic/harmonic/hungarian minor and diminished.

 

Could try starting with phrygian too ... if you just stick to the notes in the scale...

[ukiro]

Could try starting with phrygian too ... if you just stick to the notes in the scale...

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yeah this is what I do. I have no musical schooling and I'm not making any serious efforts to become a musician. So I just use phrygian and move to a base note that sounds good with the bass sound I'm using... although I guess I will learn more some day, like whenever I bother buying a midi keyboard =)

 

Anyway, phrygian C is:

 

C, C#, D#, F, G, G#, A#

 

the half-tone intervals (C, C# and G, G# in this example) is where you want most of the action for that really goan vibe.

[zee_werp]

Thanks guys, I'll go do some reading through google...

 

But just to clarify...say if a song was in 'C', does that mean that each note of a melody etc. is a note from the C scale?

 

This whole business of making music just gets more and more complex just when I think I'm getting the hang of it theres another huge thing to learn! Oh well I guess it's all about persistence...keep on truckin!

[mumble]

Thanks guys, I'll go do some reading through google...

 

But just to clarify...say if a song was in 'C', does that mean that each note of a melody etc. is a note from the C scale?

 

This whole business of making music just gets more and more complex just when I think I'm getting the hang of it theres another huge thing to learn! Oh well I guess it's all about persistence...keep on truckin!

244677[/snapback]

Yeah man, and really there is no end to what you can learn about music or production. It's up to you how far you want to take it.

 

If something is in a "key" of C, it means that it uses mostly notes from the "key signature" of C, which includes the notes of the C major scale. It also usually means that the "tonal center" of the song is C, the "home base". So yes, you pretty much have it.

 

The thing is that most interesting music strays from a strict key by employing notes that are not in the key. Some interesting ways to do this are by playing other "known to sound good" scales (of which some are these "modes" that we're mentioning, phrygian) over your C key chords, or whatever. There are a million ways to break the rules. Good music is about breaking the "rules" in a way thats pleasing to the ear. :-)

 

It's really a long road so for now just have fun with it... make a song with E phrygian using all white keys starting on E and ending on E... or in Am (A minor) using all white keys from A to A.... read about it on the net in your spare time and figure out how the hell these could be the same notes in C major, which is C to C all white keys.

[Negrosex]

>Useful Link<

[Platigreg]

Hi Guys !

 

Well, all the advices are good. But I think it would be more easy to start with:

 

- C major key : C - E - G

- C minor key : C - D# - G

 

From these two basic examples, you can build almost all the usual keys, simply by shifting the notes (eg D minor key : D - F# - A)

 

And once you get all these, you can try to improve them to add more things.

See you.

 

Greg

[Telepatu]

Ahh, no no no.

 

Or is it my english that is wrong, but C-E-G is a tonic (right word?) chord of C major, and C major is the key. Notes in that key are C-D-E-F-G-A-H (B if you are in new continent, and in many music programs)-C, and C-bE (=D#) - G is C minor, with notes C-D-bE(d#)-F-G-bA(G#)-bH(A#)-C.

 

Why D# equals to bE is because there's one whole note in between them, so rising D by one half-note (symbol #) leads to same note than lowering E by one half-note (symbol b ). There is whole note between all two notes except E and F, and H (or B ) and C. The key then tells you which notes you need to rise or lower to get the correct steps to make desired scale when playing from a base note of a key. More from that below.

 

When purging deeper you can see that scales construct from different sized steps from one note to another. In western musical theory they are represented in seminotes, or half-notes if you prefer, and whole notes. In any major scale the steps are 1-1-½-1-1-1-½, and in any minor scale the steps are 1-½-1-1-½-1-1. That's the baiscs of major and minor scales.

 

If you want super goa vibe you can go with hexatonic scale, from C it would be like C-bE-E-bG-G-H-C. (1½-½-1½-½-1½-½ in note steps) Or make any own scale, I used to do that alot. They all have names, but who cares if you can play them without?

 

If you are going to know keys and scales you better start learning chords too. Because melodies never exist without chords, even if they aren't played.

[zee_werp]

Thanks a lot for the input! Yeah, I already learned chords a couple of months ago, drew up some charts with them that I look at from time to time. Its all good to know!!!