scales?

Hi

I have a question. I have no education whatsoever in composition, so I don't really know what I'm doing.

The thing is when making soundtracks, I get different sound, depending on witch set of keys I use (duh).

I wonder if you can name them for me and which keys are allowed in which "scale"? And what a scale gives emotionally to a song. I've heard of D-major, c-major, etc. Is that what I'm talking abut?

Could you please have a listen at my songs "Day at the farm, (start 2 minutes in) and "Jake's passion" at:

www.myspace.com/jaketheamazingsnake

And tell me what scales I'm using in which and what it does.

Thank you and excuse my somewhat confusing topic.

Well .... I would know exactly how to begging the explanation, I will only change the "are allowed" to "are commonly used" because there is no "forbidden" key/note/beat on music no matter which key/not/beat may you using...

No matter what I tell you that won't give you the enough knowledge to become a composer or so ..but if you have those kind of wiiiide open questions, you should get some books about Harmony or consult a musician/composer near to you..

To be honest I'm confuse about what to say, Actually I will ask to move this topic to "Composer Headquarters" where you will get a better responce from more members"

Scales are sets of intevals like steps in a stears, the "tonality" is based on the note that scale begins, (I really don't know If I'm doing this right) ...for instance the notes played in this order C, D, E, F, G, A, B constitudes a C Major scale ( really unsure of my "teacher capability") .... ok I will stop because I don't know how to continue...

Hey guys Help this guy would you ...

EDIT:

Ups, I couldn't move it, my powers are not that high .... Mods can you move it please ....

Thanks Sys65 for trying. It put some light on it.

Well... I know it is a strange question to ask and answer. But from my conclusions you can play the same song, using different keys or scale, yet in comes out the same, or with a slightly different sound. For instance my two songs. Jake's pleasure sounds a bit "Classic" and Day at the farm sounds more modern soundtrack, am I correct? I'm curious to know how do you choose a scale and when you have, are certain keys "nono"? It would be nice to know which scale I'm working with, so that I don't use trail and error setting the keys, but know which will sound ok and not. I don't know, perhaps I'm out way out here?

Hard to tell, ... but is true what you said, I'm Organist in a church, one of the part I have to play is the Kyrie, the kyrie is in D minor, but I remember once something happened to the organ and the key D and A could not be used, (you can't play something in D minor without the D and A keys) so I instantly changed it (is very short) and I played it in Eb Minor, and it did sound better, why, hard to tell, frequencies etc ...

But I will give you some recommendations based on personal tastes:

Bb minor is one of the best monir keys, so are Eb minor, C# minor, F# minor, A minor, G minor, C minor.

B major, Ab major, E Major, (most of the times I prefer the ambient of "minor" results)

Just remember some keys may not be very suitables for certain instruments, due to its different techniques, timbres etc...

With a computer you can easily change the key to listen the differences, if is a Midi file is very easy, if it's an audio file some Audio Editor software can make it, even your soundcard driver, I've seen in many of the Realtek applications a Karaoke control that switches up/down whatever is in the playback. A lot of Harmony issues are implied on this, but for a person like you might be a fast easy solution, at least to have an idea of how does it sound in higher/lower tones.

Hi

I have a question. I have no education whatsoever in composition, so I don't really know what I'm doing.

The thing is when making soundtracks, I get different sound, depending on witch set of keys I use (duh).

I wonder if you can name them for me and which keys are allowed in which "scale"? And what a scale gives emotionally to a song. I've heard of D-major, c-major, etc. Is that what I'm talking abut?

I don't really get... this. I mean, do you want to know all the scales? I mean those are pretty basic. C major is C D E F G A B C, B flat is Bb C D Eb F G A Bb, etcetera. I don't really know if your talking about those. Could I know what you really want to know? Is it what are all the scales or what?

Edit: I see your later post and I get it now. I don't think that really there are any "nono" keys as you call it. I mean, a scale is a scale. You could do C# D E# F# G Ab Bb C if you wanted. The possibilities are endless!

ok, thanks folk.

But the thing I really wonder, and this is going to sound real stupid, is that through my own experiments I've noticed that you can play the same song using different keys.

For instance Canon. You can either start the comp on D, then Cb, A, D. But you can also play it like this: F, A, C, F and thus never using the "Xb" notes (the black keys on a piano) And you get the same song, but with a different sound. Now does anyone know what the different ways of playing a song like this does emotionally? I've kind of noticed that playing songs like this that one way of playing them sounds very modern, like modern soundtracks, Osts, so to speak, while the other way sounds more classical and by that I mean <---1960 I mean Mr James Horner & Zimmer VS Mr Beethoven and Mozart.

Is there any truth in this? Or is it a mad mans delirium...

"Playing the same song in different keys" is called transposition. A very basic tool of composition - think of Aretha Franklin's Respect where they create the feeling of a new section by singing and playing the verse and chorus a step or two higher to create a contrast and momentum forward.

I strongly suggest you buy an elementary theory book - something as simple as Music Theory for Dummies.