can someone school me about "keys"?

i dont know what people mean when they say a song is in a certain key.


also if i sampled somethin for a beat, i couldnt go and sample somethin else from a different song to add to that beat because the 2nd sample might be out of key, right?

that is correct

Db75 wrote:i dont know what people mean when they say a song is in a certain key.


also if i sampled somethin for a beat, i couldnt go and sample somethin else from a different song to add to that beat because the 2nd sample might be out of key, right?

first off a key is the 'tuning' of a samples. IF you play any type of music,
you have to play something thats in the same key as the other instument
otherwise it's gonna sound wrong, a bit like singing out of tune over a song, it sounds horiible. use you tuning to get it in the right key and do some research into different scales and the notes that fall in them.

hope this helps.

The concept of key is central to Western music, it's a basic music theory concept. Here's my version of what it's about, why you need to know a bit about it.

When you make a melody, you are choosing certain notes in the melody, and you need to understand Keys to make things sound a certain way, right or wrong, instead of just "atonal" noise.

On a piano keyboard, the notes repeat in groups of 12:

The Cs at either end are "the same, but one is higher". We say they are an "octave" apart. (The frequency is doubled.)

So if you play all 12 notes in a row, what do you hear? Just 12 notes in a row. They don't have a "feel" or a "colour" to them. But play all the white notes from C to C only, it sounds "normal" or "regular".

(click bigger)
This combination (C D E F G A B C) is called a C Major Scale. When you play a melody using notes from this scale - any notes, any octave, in any order - you are playing in the Key of C Major.

Not very interesting, is it? But what can we change?
Try this:

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It's still a C scale, but we've changed the "color" from Major to Minor. It sounds more "mellow" or "sad".
- It's still a C scale
- It's still eight notes,
- But it's different notes - the gaps between notes are different. We have "flattened" (lowered) three notes, the 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes.
The combination of gaps between notes is what makes a scale major or minor.
- If we shift the whole thing up or down, but keep the same gaps, we keep the scale (color) but change the root note. Example: move C Major up 2 notes, we get D Major. (D E F# G A B C# D)
- If we keep the root note, but change the gaps, we are changing the scale (color). Example: we can go from D Major to D Minor (D E F G A A# C D) by flattening the same three notes.(3rd, 6th, and 7th).
- There are many more Scales and Keys you can learn about. You may also hear them called Modes, which can get verytechnical!
- Even better, some composers in the 20th century decided "we don't need no stinking modes" and started doing "12-tone" music, some of which was good, some of which sounded like twelve cats on crack fighting inside a piano falling down the back of the Sydney Opera House...

Want more theory? http://www.smu.edu/totw/toc.htm is a very nice place to start. Have Fun!

yo stereoroids

thanx a lot for this post !

yall will learn to LOVE the piano. literally


love it love it love it love it

i heard that

thanks a lot stereoroid

if you sample, When you tune your bass tone to fit the sample, that is changing the pitch, so its in the right "key" ...so it matches and blends well.

^yeah i dont think i have a good ear for keys because normally my basslines are off

but sometimes if a sample has it's own bass in the background, speeding it up can make the note of the bass stand out more.

key = tonic or root

as mentioned above it's largely a western concept born out of the church choir. you don't have to play 'in key' with all parts : jazz is a perfect example of this. you can think in modes as well : get a used college text book on theory 101 and never sell it.



nice detail stereoroid!

It gets even more complicated if your trying to choose your CHORD progression for your particular KEY.

The way I understand it is this...

Your Chords might be called C, G MAJOR, F etc.,

But so long as the share the SCALE for your KEY your good to go, but eventually you want to end on your root note...

Any Peeps with info on this ?

I look at it like this - which might be oversimplifying matters, but hey...

You have your song's Key: say C Major. So "in key" means you use notes from the C Major scale: C D E F G A B C
Take a few chords:
C Maj = C E G = in key
G Maj = G B D = in key
F Maj = F A C = in key
D Maj = D F# A = one note out of key. This is not automatically a no-no, it can be a good effect - whatever sounds good to you. Plus the root of the chord (D) is in key.
B Maj = B D# F# = two notes out of key. Don't sound too good against a C Major Key.
Bb Maj = Gb Bb Db = all black keys. We've found a chord that is totally out of key. Arty!

So you're playing a sequence of chords, C, D, E. But you want to stay in key, so you change notes as you go.
C E G = C Maj
D F A = D Minor . We've flattened the F# to F to bring it back in key.
E G B = E Minor. Ditto.
So now the "color" (mode) has changed, you've gone from Major to Minor, happy to sad! So it's a trade-off: keep the out-of-key notes, or change the "color".

Have a look at this page: http://www.petethomas.co.uk/jazz-chords.html and the linked "Chord Progressions" page. (I know it says "Jazz", but don't let that bother you.) Also keep an eye on the "Cycle Of Fifths", which shows the way notes are harmonically related.

(Any music teacher would shoot me if she read this!)

yeah modes are definitly cool for jamming with..i like inversions and moving bass notes too...

just wish i could play the piano...

greg

the quick and dirty aproach is to listen for what sounds like home base in a tune. what note feels like the main one, the beginning, the one. try humming a few notes to yourself while listening and you'll run into it quick. 9 times out of ten that will be the key you're in. and the reason its the key is that the rest of the notes in the tune are defined more or less in relation to that home base note.

also, even without knowing much about music theory, if you know that most scales are built from whole steps (skip a note) and half steps (next note in line) like WWHWWWH for a major scale, and youve found your home base note, then you can trial and error out a nice musical scale or two off it. especially when you take that above pattern (WWHWWWH) and use it not as a line but a circle.

so if you stay with that pattern you can "hop in" at any point (for example (HWWWHWW). various uses of that give you maj. min. and modes which most of western music is based on.

you can also invent your own scales and give this treatment and you'll find alot of indian and middle eastern sounds in there. but thats another story.

bottom line is remember WholeWholeHalfWholeWholeWholeHalf if you haint already.