What's the point of key?

[Hink]

a lot of great answers here...but I think I can sum them all up...why keys? It keeps music interesting

[Melkor]

hasnt it been overlooked that even a single line melody "must" have a key ie it must be more or less diatonic ..... or else it will be full of tension without resolve

Of course the melody will retain its contour in each different key , whatever key that is, but it must still be mostly diatonic.


You cant just randomly spew notes regardless of key just because there is no one else to harmonize to.

In Fact ... I reckon the "soloist" would have to work even harder in this context ..... because he/she must "imply" a key/keys as they solo.

[nuffink]

hasnt it been overlooked that even a single line melody "must" have a key ie it must be more or less diatonic ..... or else it will be full of tension without resolve

Of course the melody will retain its contour in each different key , whatever key that is, but it must still be mostly diatonic.


You cant just randomly spew notes regardless of key just because there is no one else to harmonize to.

In Fact ... I reckon the "soloist" would have to work even harder in this context ..... because he/she must "imply" a key/keys as they solo.

First "diatonic" has a number of meanings depending upon context.

Strictly it means belonging to the major scale, it's transpositions and modes. Clearly, not all melodies are (this kind of) diatonic.

Another possible meaning is belonging to the major scale, the melodic minor and the the two harmonic scales (including their transpositions and modes). This excludes all 66 possible pentatonic scales, all 80 possible hexatonic (including the blues and wholetone scales), the remaining 62 heptatonic scales and all octatonic and greater scales (70 in total). So I'm sure that isn't what you mean.

Then there's the idea that diatonic means belonging to the scale of the piece regardless of what that scale is. Ok this definition might, possibly, allow for what you posted. Except that much modern music uses the idea of chord scales. There is no overall key, just the "key of the moment" determined by the current chord. Melodies in this form often cross from scale to scale (more strictly mode to mode) as dictated by the chord changes.



Then there's that bit about tension and resolution... in a melody...

[xoxos]

m - we're talking about 14ET right?

[Melkor]

well said xoxos

its true what you said about chord melodies and multiple modulations in a song (metal does this out the arse) ...... but even metal stays tonal, however much it straddles the fence .......

However i was refering to "a Cappella" style soloing on an axe.

Keyboard players have the luxury of their left hand ,ie they actually have something to solo over ....

But a guitarist soloing in this fashion is not so well off ....... he/she must constantly imply harmony ...... and the only real way to do this is to play diatonic scale based music.

VH's "Eruption" modulates left right and centre, and and is festooned with passing notes........but it is still in a key(s)


[/i]

[tamahome]

I prefer the key of electricity, 60 hz. (It's close to a B.)

[jplanet]

A lot of compositions, especially classical or musical theater tunes, have a climactic point in the song where the top note reached has an important effect on the listener. Search Youtube for any performance of Nessun Dorma with the famous "Vincero!" climax...transpose that down two or three full-steps, and the climax is a let-down.

Same goes for compositions that use an extreme bass tone at a certain point for a specific effect...move the whole piece up, and that effect is gone. Try playing the theme from Beethoven's Fifth a few steps higher...it goes from sounding late fate knocking at your door to a toothpaste commercial.

[ughnonumus]

Interestingly, many people attempted to explain music by using only music.

Did it ever occur to you that everything in creation contains a musical element? Even the human body is constructed in musical intervals! For example, our circulatory system is rhythmical.

IMO, one is not in error because one is speaking about musical theory, but because one believes that one can find the laws of music (infrastructure and essential nature) in the outside world.

[Cordelia]

Ok so it seems like I'm basically on target then. Good stuff.

Um, have you read the responses?
Seriously wishful thinking, jimmymus.

I followed a link a month or so ago, I believe it was posted here at KvR. The research was on key memory. The results showed that people, non musicians as well as musicians, have an excellent memory for key. A song learned or heard long ago could be recalled by the subject and reproduced in the original key. When subjects got it "wrong", they were only 1 or 2 half steps away from the original key.

I think it's more important than we even understand at this point.

Anyone who plays guitar, (and, for me, harmonica especially) understands that key is critical to the mood of the song.
My feeling is that your hypothesis is wrong.

[Meffy]

I prefer the key of electricity, 60 hz. (It's close to a B.)

"Slightly lower in Canada."

[AdmiralQuality]

I prefer the key of electricity, 60 hz. (It's close to a B.)

"Slightly lower in Canada."

That's voltage you're thinking of, Canada is 60 Hz too (if it wasn't electric clocks would run behind and our Hammond organs would be out of tune). It's lower in Europe (50 Hz) I believe, at least in the UK (where your Hammond has a different motor than in North America.)

[Cordelia]

Which brings up a mystery-
The fluorescent lights in my kitchen (as well as in the music store I worked at many years ago) hum what is audibly the note Bb. I used to tune the store's guitars to it.
Yet, I've read that fluorescent lights are flickering at 100 cycles per second, which should put the note somewhere between a G and a G#.
What's up with that?

[AdmiralQuality]

Which brings up a mystery-
The fluorescent lights in my kitchen (as well as in the music store I worked at many years ago) hum what is audibly the note Bb. I used to tune the store's guitars to it.
Yet, I've read that fluorescent lights are flickering at 100 cycles per second, which should put the note somewhere between a G and a G#.
What's up with that?

They buzz at your wall current frequency. And they may very well have a harmonic twice the frequency -- kind of the same as how you can use a full wave rectifier to make an octave-up effect (Octavia). So if you're in Europe then the flourescent lights may indeed buzz at 100 Hz, but that's just the octave above 50 Hz, the 2nd harmonic. (And if it sounds bright like a buzz instead of dull like a hum, there'll be more a lot more harmonics than that.

Here in North America, they buzz with harmonics of 60 Hz. They flicker too, I can see it in my peripheral vision. Just like how most people get eye fatigued working on glass monitors scanning at 60 Hz.

[Meffy]

@AQ: Thanks, I'd been thinking Canada used 50 Hz. And yes, that clock is beautiful.

[Cordelia]

AdmiralQuality-



Of course! Bb is, what? 58 Hz?

That's been bugging me for years.

Thanks.

I hate fluorescent lights. They use them a lot here in California because apparently you can recycle them. But I swear after a few years in art school drawing under fluorescent lights, my 20/20 vision went to hell.