musical question about keys

[Zoot Allures]

I am a idiot when it comes to music composition so bear with me

My understanding is a key means certain 7 notes are to be played and only those notes unless noted and are called accidentals


WTF happens if no key is stated and composer just notates each note to be played ?





in the 17th and 18th centuries now-familiar forms such as the key signature, note forms, time signatures, etc., began to be standardized. These days it’s difficult to find written music that doesn’t use this format, but some still exist. The plainsong format used for Gregorian chant indicates only melody, while guitar music in "tablature" indicates frets, omitting duration. Almost all other western music uses the same notation, which when you think about it is a remarkable feat.

 

[einar]

1. You're on the right track. A key represents a scale of 7 different notes, arranged in an ordered scheme. Any other notes interpolated would be called accidentals, and might be considered as spices or deviations from the expected 7.

2. No, a piece of music does not have to have a key, but it's common. If there is no key, a composer may be deliberately trying to avoid the idea of a tonal centre.

3. So far as I know, there was always some concept of a "home base" in Western music.

 

[jazzbox]

12 tone music (a form of modern classical music) does not have a tonal or key centre and that is probably why most people are not fans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_0W5MIQrT0

Zappa was highly aware of twelve tone theory and used some of it in his own writing....

 

[Doug]

Our "western" scale, actually formulated by that free-thinker Pythagoras a few years back, is used in many cultures, and has a "home base" called the Key, noted with a key signature written at the beginning of each line of music. Composers will state this just to be polite to the readers. The key can change, either temporarily or definitely partway through the piece, or just pivot through related keys just so the listener doesn't get too bored. On the other hand, blues music will traditionally stay in the key assigned and that's that, using just a few chords in a standard pattern.

Musicians like to have some direction at the beginning of the piece. Without defining the key at the beginning through means of the key signature, notation gets busy or messy, unless you stay in the key of C.

 

[spankingman]

1. You're on the right track. A key represents a scale of 7 different notes, arranged in an ordered scheme. Any other notes interpolated would be called accidentals, and might be considered as spices or deviations from the expected 7.

2. No, a piece of music does not have to have a key, but it's common. If there is no key, a composer may be deliberately trying to avoid the idea of a tonal centre.

3. So far as I know, there was always some concept of a "home base" in Western music.

I believe it's 8 notes

 

[jazzbox]

I believe it's 8 notes

7... the *8th" note is the octave higher of the first note

 

[frankcastle]

I am a idiot when it comes to music composition so bear with me

My understanding is a key means certain 7 notes are to be played and only those notes unless noted and are called accidentals


WTF happens if no key is stated and composer just notates each note to be played ?





in the 17th and 18th centuries now-familiar forms such as the key signature, note forms, time signatures, etc., began to be standardized. These days it’s difficult to find written music that doesn’t use this format, but some still exist. The plainsong format used for Gregorian chant indicates only melody, while guitar music in "tablature" indicates frets, omitting duration. Almost all other western music uses the same notation, which when you think about it is a remarkable feat.

If they don't state the key work backwards.... the easiest is if there are no sharps or flats it is C major.

 

[wigglee]

There are no hard and fast rules, unless you are writing the most boring , predictable music. No one is limited to seven notes. You can have dissonance and you can have passing tones, bends, chromatic runs, alternate scales. You can have a chord progression which suggests a new scale every couple bars.... the variables are infinite and that is good. They add more colour to the music.