I've always had some questions regarding music theory. I'm gonna try to explain what I mean as best I can in a senerio situation.
I'm making a trap melody in minor and a common thing I see is a producer will have a melody in a certain key and on the second half of the they will highlight the whole melody and drop it up or down by 5 cents .. so my question is could you in theory just drop it by 1 and still it be ok musically. I understand there are no rules and if it sounds good just don't worry about it.. but I wanna know what all my options are if that makes sense.

Question 2.
If I'm making a triplet beat. I can't seem to switch out of 1/3 and make it sound good. I dunno if its just the beat im making or if most people that are composing a beat in that kinda time graph just stay in 1/3 and its a normal thing.I just don't wanna be limited when composing

 

i got some basic music theory videos if you interested it will make things more easier instead of you guessing hit me up in my inbox if you interested

 

you would be ok in most cases, because all the pitch relationships are staying the same distances apart. Your other change with beats can be jarring no matter how you try to make your switch or turn around. Sometimes you will have to get extra creative just to make it barely work.

polyrhythms are pretty neat, if you like that kind of thing.

 

i think you mean dropping the melody by five semitones not cents, in which case it lands to the fifth of the original key, the closest you can be to any key without being in it. its only one note away. sure it changes the harmonic function of the melody if the chords havent been shifted too, but its still the safest way to transpose, transposing to a fifth (7 semitones above or 5 below)
and yeah, dropping by 1 semitone would not sound good, it would sound jarring, its a minor 2nd.

edit: it can also be the fourth, where your original key is the fifth of the new key

 

Last edited: Sep 24, 2022

its 12 semitones to double in frequency, no matter which they are as long as the relationship is preserved when they are transposed. that can be a bar, a whole loop, or song. it's also how fifths work and it's an easy way for people to remember so they can put it into the cute YT videos he is asking about ;x

I know he says cents but....if you really wanted something like that you'd lean to detuning an oscillator or something more suitable.

 

Last edited: Sep 24, 2022

for your 2nd question, you can shift to a different subdivision smoothly if you have the pulse of the new subdivision be somewhere in the background while the old one is playing so it doesnt sound sudden, or continue playing something from the old pulse when you shift to the new one to support the change. Its polyrhythm like @clone mentioned, or polymeter if the pattern is not limited to a bar.

 

i think he meant dropping just the melody, in which case the relationships are not preserved, and the result depends on which semitone you drop or raise it to.

 

Yes that is what I ment .. semitones not cents my apologies. Thank you for the info. I'm gonna guess it depends on what notes are in your melody too and how complex it is

 

This is good stuff man.. . And it makes sense too me too.. I'm not a total beginner but I am trying to fill in the gaps on some stuff.. so this is really helpful