Is any professional music out of key?

[ARNK]

From my hobbyist perspective, say my song is in F Major - I try and use the notes available in F Major, however, some of those notes don’t sound right while others, those not in key, do sound right in context.

This might be a clue that, despite your best intention, the melody is not really in F major. This happens to experienced musicians as well! A bit of theory knowledge is helpful for figuring out what is happening in such situations; for example, it can reveal which other keys are consistent with the parts that sound "right".

And this is, really, what theory is for; not for saying what you should do, but for understanding what is already there, what might traditionally be done with it, and why.

Perhaps, I’ll elaborate on this in a bit...

[BertKoor]

Atonal, enharmonic, chromatic, microtonal...

These types of music are an "acquired taste".

Do you recall Acid House? Oblivious punks with synths & sequencers & drum machines randomly banging notes. Rhythm was more important than melody. The kids on drugs did not mind much, as long as the blacklight & stroboscope were engaged. Once sober they liked top40 stuff better.

[donkey tugger]

Atonal, enharmonic, chromatic, microtonal...

These types of music are an "acquired taste".

Do you recall Acid House? Oblivious punks with synths & sequencers & drum machines randomly banging notes. Rhythm was more important than melody. The kids on drugs did not mind much, as long as the blacklight & stroboscope were engaged. Once sober they liked top40 stuff better.

'ave it grandad;

[an-electric-heart]

And this one annoys me so much:



It's like the vocals were recorded over | Fm | Cm7 | and later they changed the arrangement to | Cm | Gm7 | but kept the vocals with the Ab sticking out as a sore thumb.

That is the remix though. I quite like it, it's better than the original.

[vurt]

Atonal, enharmonic, chromatic, microtonal...

These types of music are an "acquired taste".

Do you recall Acid House? Oblivious punks with synths & sequencers & drum machines randomly banging notes. Rhythm was more important than melody. The kids on drugs did not mind much, as long as the blacklight & stroboscope were engaged. Once sober they liked top40 stuff better.

'ave it grandad;

probably the first band to be allowed to play live in the pandemic too

[lobanov]

Thank you, oh Mighty Schoenberg! You opened the door into the music for tone-deaf people!

[JohnWThompson]

If you check, all the classic melodies that have stood up forever, they all have one note out of key. Happy Birthday song and so forth.

[Michael99]

If you check, all the classic melodies that have stood up forever, they all have one note out of key. Happy Birthday song and so forth.

Do you mean accidentals? Yes, lots of pieces of music have notes that don't belong in the key signature - music would be pretty boring if composers only used the notes from the key signature.

[JohnWThompson]

If you check, all the classic melodies that have stood up forever, they all have one note out of key. Happy Birthday song and so forth.

Do you mean accidentals? Yes, lots of pieces of music have notes that don't belong in the key signature - music would be pretty boring if composers only used the notes from the key signature.

Just trying to answer his question in a practical way bro.

[Farnaby]

they all have one note out of key. Happy Birthday son

which note is out of key in Happy Birthday

[JohnWThompson]

they all have one note out of key. Happy Birthday son

which note is out of key in Happy Birthday

The second syllable of the person's name.

[Farnaby]

How can it be? I'm looking at the printed music (in F major) and the two syllables of the name are on E and D. These notes are both in F major as far as I'm aware.

[Michael99]

Farnaby does appear to be correct - there are no accidentals in the song as far as I can see - every note is in the F Major scale.

[melomood]

Atonal, enharmonic, chromatic, microtonal...

These types of music are an "acquired taste".

Do you recall Acid House? Oblivious punks with synths & sequencers & drum machines randomly banging notes. Rhythm was more important than melody. The kids on drugs did not mind much, as long as the blacklight & stroboscope were engaged. Once sober they liked top40 stuff better.

'ave it grandad;

Ah the 90's

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jvAM8mZnnCw

[melomood]

I enjoyed a bit of altern8 and whatnot back then but hardly drifting toward top 40 otherwise
I considered it a sort of punk moment for electronic music but with keyboards & such to bang on