Choosing the key note

[Teeleh]

I just got my midi keyboard, so I'll be learning music theory soon. One thing that I've been wondering for a while now is how do I choose the key that a song is going to be in? Is there any reason for picking a specific key or is it just random?

[Jbravo]

I just got my midi keyboard, so I'll be learning music theory soon. One thing that I've been wondering for a while now is how do I choose the key that a song is going to be in? Is there any reason for picking a specific key or is it just random?

well some keys are a lot easier than others , C major or A minor for example. Other are more complicated and you'll need know which black notes to use, but if you're confident about using all the keys, just go with the one which sounds right to you. If you don't think it's cheating you can also retune all your instruments up or down so you can play them in an easier key.

[jancivil]

Is there any reason for picking a specific key or is it just random?

there are reasons, from a singer's range and/or preference, to the composer's preference for the 'color' or feel of a key, to the fact that instruments, wind instruments are built in such a way that there is a basic key. Bb trumpet for instance; and a player on the instrument reads music according to that, distant keys are more problematic as far as making your way around it. much as there are more black keys for a keyboardist.

[Teeleh]

Well, I make melodic downtempo / dark ambient, so there's no need for restricting myself based on actual notes. So, basically, there's no music theory reason for choosing a key note? It's all just preference?

[Bronto Scorpio]

Well, I make melodic downtempo / dark ambient, so there's no need for restricting myself based on actual notes. So, basically, there's no music theory reason for choosing a key note? It's all just preference?

In that case it's really just a preference.
One tipp though: If you have a deep drone or something in your track, try on which key it sounds best! Sometimes you'll get an awesome bass drone at a G while the bass is to low on an F and not really "bassy" on an A.
Choose the G in that case and base your track around that (In G minor or major or whatever)

Cheers
Dennis

[Teeleh]

So melodic parts should start on the same key and static parts can start on whichever note you want them to?

[tapper mike]

Theory is not fact. Theory means things we know that have yielded positive results. Theory is plural meaning there are several therums to choose from. You can play all the notes available to you in any order you wish and call it music. That is not to say I would call your end result music or I would find your efforts musical. Most of the ambient music I enjoy does make use of keys and motific development harmonic conciousness and counterpoint. But hey if you want to throw a lot of noise out there and consider it freeform that's your business.

[Teeleh]

I am looking for the right path; that's why I'm asking. I want melodic parts to work together, but I don't necessarily want to tune a field recording with no fundamental frequency.

[tapper mike]

Keys are personal. People have developed identities around keys. They aren't in and of themselves emotive.

Here is a perfect example Eb and Bb Guitarists rarely choose those keys unless they are into tuning down a half step. I'm the exception because I've played a lot of trad jazz. They are my "soft keys" When I want to write something that's romantic I'll choose Eb or Bb every time because I know a lot of standards in those keys. E and A are rock keys. When studying the piano most students learn ideas in C starting out but rock and blues examples are usually in A or E. So either of those keys work well for classic rock and basic blues. People play in keys they know well. People know keys by practice. G is the compromise key. When a guitarist and a keyboard player gets together for the first time they usually work out in G. As a result it's popular for both blues and jazz.

I'm an oddball guitarist because I'm well versed in all my keys. I like being well rounded and as a session musician I'd often work with vocalists who sang better in certain keys. Being able to work in all keys because I've done my homework so I don't have to stop and think things through makes me an asset in situations where I have to transpose the material to suit the singer.


The right key is the key that works for you in that particular situation. No musician can go through a musical career with just one key. However one can get by very well with 4 or 5 keys in a specified genre.

The key is only part of the story. Rhythm harmony and melodic diction also are factors to consider.

[Ogg Vorbis]

Here's a simple way I think about it (or actually, not think about it),

When I sit down to improvise/develop/play the song for the first time, whatever key I pick usually becomes "the key."

[jancivil]

key choices might have less significance to a keyboardist than elsewhere, guitar for instance

on a guitar, your 'rock keys' have a resonance factor owing to open strings as a fundamental. there is no real equivalence to that on a piano. There are people that believe that the use of a capo is done just out of laziness; no, you preserve open string vibrations with it; you can work in Bb and have similar to G in the relationships, sticking a capo on the 3rd fret.

someone with an Eb saxophone doesn't love E as a key and wouldn't gravitate towards it usually. There was the pejorative phrase for bop players, for a sharp key like B major, 'hillbilly key', and there is a connotation if you want it.

I do things in a key I would_not_approach in another key, it isn't the same. As far as 'theory', there will be things to observe, physical things, I think, but to put theoretical ideas in front of the process of such a decision isn't so useful as far as I can tell.

[jancivil]

No musician can go through a musical career with just one key.

I would recommend eschewing unqualified terms such as 'no musician'. Indian classical musicans are definitely musicians and many will have never changed key in their lives, nor is 'key' even a consideration. You have *your tonic* as a singer and there isn't anything more to say about it. Generally an instrumentalist nowadays has a tonic around Db; Ravi Shankar when he began collaborating with western musicians gravitated towards D as it's less of a hassle. The tabla drum's resonant spot is a clear pitch to correspond with an important note formally in the raga, as per melody; so there is a need for consensus, in the construction of the instruments there can't be a lot of variance.

Hendrix tuned down a half-step for a couple of reasons; he came up playing blues with horn players and it's convenient, they don't have a lot to say usually in E. And the way strings bend (more easily), and the way the whammy bar behaves. It's a different set of resonances.

If I think 'blues key', I think F. Which seems to be a middle ground.

I have done some music which doesn't have a central key; while there are implications all over the place in so-called 'atonal' music, defining a key isn't useful, it wosn't dwell. This kind of musical thought is a function of equal temperament and the extreme chromaticism that's possible (hence desirable?). Nonetheless, transposing it involves a set of problems of resonance, owing to spacing. It wouldn't be too meaningful up a half step or step, but up ten semitones, it would tend to be.

[t3toooo]

Keys are personal. People have developed identities around keys. They aren't in and of themselves emotive.

The right key is the key that works for you in that particular situation. No musician can go through a musical career with just one key. However one can get by very well with 4 or 5 keys in a specified genre.

inspired me a lot today,thanks.

well,then there must be "dangerous" combinations as well,in term of how many people (you) want to listen to your music,like, how "crazy" is the key combination you (want to) choose.

[stimresp]

I found these lovely descriptions useful at the start:

Affective Key Characteristics
http://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html

[wrench45us]

I'm learning bass and picked up a few bass blues books. More than one book points out that guitarists who play blues tend to learn those guitar keys EADG (those notes seem so familiar somehow) which are sharp keys, but blues players who play in horn bands learn the flat keys because horns play in those keys.
Same but different tradition


My favorite fake book 'The Frank Sinatra Fake Book' (Hal Leonard) has a lot of standards transposed to keys that suited Sinatra's vocal range. I tend to like those arrangements because they're a little lower and sound a little richer to me -- maybe it just suits the old piano I'm playing on. A lot of tunes in Ab which I just like -- maybe because I've learned some approaches that hit the 3 and go to the 7 on the right hand and so it's a c minor over an Ab