How important do you think it is to stay in key?

[Sinergy]

I have very little musical background, and this next semester in school I'm taking piano lessons, but until then I've had to sort of make do with what I can read about and what sounds good.

At this point what I've been doing for melodies, is looking up a scale, and using only those notes in that scale (i.e. if I wanted to write in C minor, I'd stick to those chords of C minor, although they might not be chords, I'd also use single notes of those chose). And it sounds decent, and I do realize a lot this music is ALL about extremely complex melodies.

But right now I'm writing a tune in C minor, and I notice C# is NOT in the c minor scale, but this one melody, that really makes the tune imo, has a C# note in it and it's the only note that sounds good with the rest of the melody.

Now, is this totally fine and I should just go with "if it sounds good it's fine" and just have it as a general rule to only use the notes in that scale, or is it really a no-no to use a note outside of the key.

I understand all of this is probably up to the producer, and breaking rules is part of the game, but I feel like you need to understand the rules in order to break them constructively.

(Also, if anyone knows of a good guide to how detune in synths works, if so a link would be awesome!)

[tenOone]

There really is no guide lines to making music that are set in stone. Music, like all other art forms, are creative expressions of ourselves. When I produce I'll arrange the entire song around a scale and then from there I'll move notes around to try to get them to harmonize with the original theme. There's really no real rule of thumb how to do it. It's your song and you do with it as you see fit. I say, if it sounds good and doesn't sound like an ear sore, then keep it. I doubt anyone will come around and harp you for having a note that's "out of scale."
Just my 2 cents.

As far as detuning synths is concerned I haven't been able to find a guide for you to follow. What I will say, is that with synths it's kind of an ear thing. You start out with one OSC and get it sounding how you want it. After that bring in the next OSC and start playing the loop, as the loop plays you can start to fine tune it appropriately. A good rule of thumb is to wait until you start to hear the OSCs start to phase, and then you can make minor tweaks to tune it up how you want it. You can also achieve detuning by adding a chorus FX to the main synth and then adjusting the delay and depth knob.

I hope this helps some what. I'm sorry I wasn't more helpful.

[Sinergy]

Hm, I think I just need to wait for my classes to start, I just feel helpless when breaking/bending musical guidelines because I don't understand the musical theory fully to begin with.

And yeah I've just sort of been going by what sounds good with detuning, I just realized how much better it can make things sound and I just sort of went crazy with it on this tune and now I'm questioning whether that was a good idea or not haha

[constrobuz]

for centuries composers have been using notes outside of the written key signature, they're called "accidentals" (though using them is certianly no accident) and without them youd pretty much be stuck with major and minor triads.

[Efrafa11]

I tend to stay in key unless going for key change in which I'll hit up the relative major or minor which has a mostly the same notes in the scales and chords.
The trick in my opinion is choosing the right scale to go with your chord progression or vice versa.
Different scales will have different blue notes that correspond nicely with different progressions.
But as everyone will say, no rules just patterns and maths.

[3za]

for centuries composers have been using notes outside of the written key signature, they're called "accidentals" (though using them is certianly no accident) and without them youd pretty much be stuck with major and minor triads.

Bold part is false.

[JoeOsoDopke]

Alright, here's my view on this topic.
The wonderful thing about music, is that one can do whatever they feel like. Therefore, if you like the sound of that note in your composition, then by all means do what you please.
However... coming from my background, (being a musician for quite a few years and having perfect pitch) I can recognize a person who doesn't really know their music theory or who isn't really listening to what they're doing in terms of the notes they're choosing. Dubstep as a genre has a tendency to have a lot of these; I can't tell you how many tracks I've heard, where the sub note the bass is playing is NOT in key with the rest of the song and it was probably chosen simply because it's low. This is not a very musical way of going about things in my opinion.
Now when you're purposely choosing a note not in key with the song, you need to realize what it's purpose is. Is it a grace note? Is it leading the song into a new key? What is the point of it being there? (of course one should think about this regardless of whether the note is in the key or not but especially when not in the key)
In the end however, only other musicians will be able to recognize this (unless of course, the note in question is just making the track sound dissonant in which the likelihood of people who aren't musicians recognizing "this doesn't sound right" increases)
The point here I suppose is, recognize what the note's purpose is and if it works, it works.

[skills4kills]

Depends on if you want to be successful or continue to make music in your moms basement.

In all seriousness, if you want to make a major hit, start a good habit of always keeping your song in key. For a few years when I first started producing I never worried about key. However small changes like staying in key can make a big difference, I recommend learning music theory to all new producers. You can only make songs for so long until you hit a brick wall, and basic music theory will help you get past that wall. Now once you have learned theory you can begin to experiment and jump out of key every now and then, but for the most part you want to stay in key. Especially with major elements of a dubstep track like the sub and bass regions.

[justanotherdj]

As previous posts say, there's no rules to music so just do what sounds good to you.

Some old garage and drum and bass stuff would often be a little out of tune but sometimes it added to the feel of it.

[constrobuz]

for centuries composers have been using notes outside of the written key signature, they're called "accidentals" (though using them is certianly no accident) and without them youd pretty much be stuck with major and minor triads.

Bold part is false.

that's why I said "pretty much." Im no music theory expert but I know a lot of 7 chords (especially aug and dim) have accidentals. But thanks for your insightful post that explained my falseness buddy.

[VirtualMark]

for centuries composers have been using notes outside of the written key signature, they're called "accidentals" (though using them is certianly no accident) and without them youd pretty much be stuck with major and minor triads.

Bold part is false.

that's why I said "pretty much." Im no music theory expert but I know a lot of 7 chords (especially aug and dim) have accidentals. But thanks for your insightful post that explained my falseness buddy.

The guys a complete tosser, i wouldn't let it worry you. I haven't seen him make a single useful post or try to help anyone, he normally just posts snide troll comments.

What an intelligent person would have done would be to post an explanation as to why they disagree with you.

[deadly_habit]

I've written stuff out of key, and also atonal pieces. Whatever sounds good to you is all that matters.

[twilitez]

Unless you end up sounding unpleasantly dissonant in an obvious way, its all good imo.

[deadly_habit]

Unless you end up sounding unpleasantly dissonant in an obvious way, its all good imo.

Disagree, unpleasantly dissonant goes a long way in creating an uncomfortable atmosphere which gets used for horror scores all the time.

[twilitez]

Good point, i forgot the word 'unintentionally'.

[3za]

for centuries composers have been using notes outside of the written key signature, they're called "accidentals" (though using them is certianly no accident) and without them youd pretty much be stuck with major and minor triads.

Bold part is false.

that's why I said "pretty much." Im no music theory expert but I know a lot of 7 chords (especially aug and dim) have accidentals. But thanks for your insightful post that explained my falseness buddy.

The guys a complete tosser, i wouldn't let it worry you. I haven't seen him make a single useful post or try to help anyone, he normally just posts snide troll comments.

What an intelligent person would have done would be to post an explanation as to why they disagree with you.

There is so many ways I could reply to your post, I could break it down into tiny pieces, and write an essay, but im not going to. I'm just going to focus on just one part "intelligent person"...

An "Intelligent person" would work out all the possible chords that can be written without accidentals, hence they can see there is way more than just maj/min triads that can be written without accidentals. Here is a list of chords you can write without accidentals; dim, sus2, sus4, M6, M7, m7, M9, m9, OMFGICBA to many chords to list... Now how anyone could come to the conclusion that without using accidental, you can "pretty much" only use maj/min triads is absurd to me. I didn't really feel the need to explain myself. When it's so obvious that if you have 7 things, and make combinations with them, there is way more than 2 possible out comes. That isn't advance music theory, that is just very basic logic, something an "intelligent person" would have.

[constrobuz]

but those chords arent accidental free in every key so that is deceiving to OP

[3za]

but those chords arent accidental free in every key so that is deceiving to OP

A Csus2 chord has no accidentals in the key sig C.
A Dsus2 chord has no accidentals in the key sig D.
A Esus2 chord has no accidentals in the key sig E.

What is so deceiving about it?

You saying that you can "pretty much" only use maj/min triads without accidentals, now that was deceiving.

[Crimsonghost]

I usually start with a certain scale in mind like A aeolian (6th degree of the major scale/aka natural minor). From there ill tweek notes around untill I find something I like. After that i find out what the new scale is that I'm using. Sometimes you can just google the notes for a scale, or in my case, I use the guitar toolkit app ( no affiliation) which will let me type out notes on a guitar neck and find the relative scales.

Only about half the time I actually stick to a scale. Sometines i just use a random passing note or accedental,but mostly not.

Hopefully that will help you understand how and when to " break the rules".

[fragments]

^TBH that sounds totally random to me, not like there is any reason or logic behind breaking the rules. Mind explaining that process a little more? I just started diving back into theory because that's my weakest production point. Honest question/request.