Creating Music in Key

[felipescalador12]

Do people actually compose in key??

I cant imagine someone saying lets just compose in C major..
or do they? for example.. I am going to compose the intro of the song in C major then for the rest of the song I am going to modulate to B minor and stay there???

but after analyzing tons of song from petrucci to royksopp most are interesting to the ear because its no diatonic progression.

Anyone have heard For the love of god by steve vai? each chord change is a key change and I dont think he arrived to that progression from saying lets do this chord from this key and then modulate. Probably he just played those two chords and he liked them. Theory didnt compose for him..
Or even songs that are in a single key for that matter I doubt they came to that because they choose a scale to compose rather to just jam and find a chord progression they liked.

I can imagine people just playing a chord progression they just found in the keyboard and thought.. this sound good. Then later analyze maybe what key was that, if they modulate or anything.. Rather than lets compose in F major

That's the trap that most music theory beginners fall into, and it is the real danger of learning music theory. Most music theory beginners, if not properly instructed, think about diatonic notes," rules", keys and such and don't think about the music. The truth it, hardly any serious composer uses only diatonic notes. For example, it is very common for the II chord to be major instead of minor, which would be diatonic. Similarly, it is extremely common in popular music to play a dominant seventh chord on the tonic instead of the diatonic major seventh. Modulations are also another thing, as are modes.

That being said - sure, some musicians don't go by music theory at all...except they do. Even if Steve Vai did not consciously think about modulations, he almost certainly knew what he was playing and (as any experienced guitarist would) what notes he was playing. He knows what a major chord is, he knows what a minor seventh chord is, he knows about notes, octaves, scales, fifths, etc... That's all basics that almost every guitarist learns, and that's all music theory. Music theory is simply a way to explain what we hear; a language. Let me be clear - music theory is NOT a set of rules, it is merely a way of expressing one's musical ideas.

As for you saying that nobody says "Let's compose in F Major" - well, that really depends on the composer. A lot of classical and Jazz style composers or people who compose on sheet music WILL think about the key, especially when they are composing and arranging for several different instruments. A rock or metal composer may not, but there are many who do. A lot of the pop composers and producers are actually from a Jazz background and do think this way (J.R. Rotem is one example of this, as is Dr. Luke). Most of these people use music theory as a guide on what basically works - but the good composers aren't afraid to break the rules, and will. Though really, despite common thought, music theory actually does allow for (and even encourages) the breaking of rules, especially in its more modern form (it's true that composers from previous centuries were quite stuffy about the "rules" - though these were constantly broken by the truly great composers of the past).

Finally, music theory (and thinking in keys) is extremely important for improvisation. If you get five decent Jazz musicians who've never met each other and put them in a room, they will all be able to play together well (in most cases). All you have to do is say something like "Play the 2, 4, 1 chords in E" and they'll be able to sound great together quickly. Without music theory, you'd have one musician starting and then the others, based only on intuition and hearing, trying to play along with him. This is equally viable in a rock band, though in a slightly different way. The rhythm guitarist or bassist might start playing F - A# - C, to which the lead guitarist now knows that he can play within the F minor scale (or more likely with rock, the minor penatonic). He may not get exactly why he's playing that, he just knows that F is the root and that this scale fits - and that's music theory in its simplest form. In fact, that rock guitarist is actually better at music theory than most snooty first or second year music school students since, instead of focusing on formulas, he's focusing on what's most important - the music!

awesome post

couldnt said it better

[Khazul]

Lack of any music theory at all combined with an untrained ear is what leads to alot of really bad electro house remixes... Ugh - dont go there, learn the basics!