Hmm the legendary Hotel California by Eagles was originally written in E-minor and later on in the studio session changed to B-minor beacuse they felt it sounded better in that key
In Rock i have read of many examples where they changed key in a riff/song just to make it easyer to sing in for the singer.
That would explained why so many rockband tune down a half step in the 70:s well even Hendrix tuned down a half step on his guitars..
Nowadays metal bands are tuning down one or even more steps but that is all about getting a heavy sound not to make it easyer for the "singer" or whatever they do those "growlers"

When i compose a melody i can NEVER change key in that melody it become a totally different song Thats why Hotel Calofiorna composer Don Felder never felt good in the key of B-minor to this day he think it should be played in E-minor

 

Last edited: Jan 13, 2016

@Third World Kid

--Before i answer your questions, i can tell by your questions you don't have "confusion," you suffer from a lack of music theory.


"I need to know and so I ask: If you compose a melody in your head consciously or subconsciously, how do you, later on, determine the right key to play that melody on?"

-- the "right key," as you put it, is whatever key those groups of notes encompass, it's not random. for example, say i make a melody with notes
A,Bb,D,C,E,F. What key are these notes in? If you can't answer that, therein lies your problem.



"Now this melody may be played using any of the 12 chromatic pitches as its tonic. So what criteria should be used in picking the tonic?"

--Baring some justification after the fact, why wouldn't you just right the song in the key that you heard in the first place. Your head heard it in that key for a reason. So why fix a unbroken toaster? again, the tonic and key are determined by the group of notes your playing at that given time. not just because you say so.



"What criteria is used to determine the APPROPRIATE tonic for a newly composed melody?"

--Music theory IS the criteria being used to determine the key. For example the same melody as above, let's transpose it.
B,C,E,D,F#,G. Now what key is it in?



"Do you pick the key (tonic) for the melody because it allows for a pitch range that the singer/player will be comfortable with?"

--Yes, that's one of few legitimate reasons people change keys, and probably most common. But these types of decisions are always after the fact, when said song is closer to completion.

--some other reasons I've had;
didn't want to/ or did want to play the song using open strings.
out of my singing range.
not enough frets do a "metal" solo so i move down a few frets.
didn't want to change the tuning of my bass or guitar, so I'll switch keys instead.
changing the vibe of the song


"Are there keys that are more suited to slower songs and others more suited to quicker tempos?"

--This is a nonsense question. The melodic device of a song, aka the key, has absolutely nothing to do with that tempo at which you choose to play it.



"Is the criteria for choosing the tonic determined by the mood you intend to create? (i.e. beside the use of major and minor melodies, does the choice of the tonic also help in creating the mood)?"

--not really. The mood is dependent upon the chord qualities you are using. Whereas changing the key as a whole just changes the vibe, i think, and not the mood. for example; take a I, IV, V chord progression (all major) in any key is going to sound major and happy. likewise a i, iv, v progression (all minor) is gonna sound minor no matter the key.



"Or, do I compose melodies and say: “goddamit, I’m gonna play this on B! And that on G! And the other on E!” Without any informed reason for this decisions."

--again, it's not random. if you pick a group of notes they reside in a key. otherwise it's just random bunch of garbled notes that don't relate to each other in anyway.



"So my mind recently conceived a melody. It sounds great in the key of E, it feels different but beautiful in the key of D, it sounds sort of flat in the key of C (but I may be wrong I do not have those trained ears), it sounds good in the key of G!!!"

--another silly question. When's the last time you heard a painter ask, "what color should i use to paint this thing, whatever it is, that i haven't painted yet?" Or a novelist inquire, "Should i use a verb or a noun right here?" perhaps ponder out loud, "How do prepositional phrases work?"

--You're the author of the song right? what key do you, the author, want it be in? no one else cares, nor can they hear the song, you haven't written yet, that's in your head. Besides these choices you are mulling over is precisely what makes music art.


"You see my confusion! How do I decide the most appropriate key?"

--By learning music theory.

 

@funk-u
Are you @kouros or his backup?

 

No. But, i have read some of the conversations you guys have had.

 

It's all in your ear. This is one of the few places softscience kills hard science. When writing riffs I tend to transpose the riff to every key untill I find the right one. The right one is what will write the song for you. The wrong one will lead you off course forever.

Some say it's music theory but to any real artist who feels there music a wrong key will never happen. just like tempo. People should always adhear to the rule of 5 in bpm except in specific cases, however sometimes you have to decided if you go with a natural tempo or change for artistic needs. It's all in your head and science won't help much. If it did there would be no use for producers like me

And even then the key of a song can also depend on a singer and their natural scale. You dont wanna write something in E if your singers main scale is C. WHich either means the singer has to adapt outside of their range, you have to tranpose to your singers range. Maybe things that can change. But it should all be in your head.

To me once a riff is written the very next step is finding its key. And once it has the right key nothing should be able to stop the rest being written.

 

This is also why i have problems song writing sometimes. I write on computer sans instruments and then have to figure out the tab and key/tuning after such. Which means I could write 3 songs all to different keys and not know it. But I can promise those keys are the key to the songs regardless. If you can't feel "this is the absolutely right key" then it probably isnt.

 

Maarten Vorwerk (ghost producer behind a lot of big commercial tracks/projects)

 

I think when you choose a pitch/key for your song you have to think about bassline - will it sound perfect in this key.

 

@Funk U,

The bank of my mind is not rich enough with knowledge of music theory but it is not entirely bankrupt either.

Anyway, thanks for your step by step response.

I have never thought that I should just stick with the first key in which I hear a melody in my mind when writing it down. I often experiment with various keys until I find a timbre that I’d prefer. But therein lies the problem. Sometimes the melody just sounds deliciously different in various keys and it becomes difficult for my ear to make a clear choice. That is why I started this thread, in the hope that I would acquire some knowledge that will help me make more informed decisions on my choice of key for a song presently in my oven.

 

Thanks.
How do you arrive at that key that you NEVER change. Is that the first key that your mind conceived the melody in? Or do you experiment until you find a sound you prefer?

 

Oh @xoso, you understand me!!!

 

@Third World Kid

You're welcome.

Well, why would you think that the way you heard it was inappropriate, based on no criteria. There's no problem with experimenting, but again, Why fix a toaster that isn't broken yet? Based on your response to my response, it sounds like you're just indecisive to begin with. Which has nothing to do with music theory at all. It's like if we were at a bar, you'd spend all day thinking about 50,000 things you could possibly say to a girl instead of just going and starting a conversation right then.

The bottom line is; at the point of infancy that you question your ideas, it is purely a subjective decision and music theory has nothing to do with it. so make a decision, finish the song, then write a new damn song. Case Closed!!

 

Thanks everyone who has taken the time to help shine some light on this. I am grateful for the mind-expanding responses that have been dropped and will study extensively on this.
@Baxter, thanks for coming around too. You are one of the people on here whose view I was hoping I'd also get.

 

Sorry, but the others have already elegantly voiced what I was hoping to contribute.

 

Sorry for that but sometimes I transpose the track up&down during the listening for best suiting to my ears and ruin the musician's efforts.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 14, 2016

Oh shit.. so much self induced placebo here... I can't even comment this, only 1 or 2 people know what they're talking about and I already know what happens in this scenario.

I can't say this enough... go look up things for yourselves, take a closer look at the CONTEXT of everything you read and stop spreading crap.

 

its all relative and subjective...

 

Very simple. Whatever key I imagined it in should be the same key when it's realized. When I jot down the melody I write the tonic or something.

 

When I hear a simple I IV V blues progression in Ab, everything sounds dark and.. "blue". I hate the way the same track sounds if I pitch it up one semitone, in A the blues sound almost pink... too damn happy!!

There's also those orchestras that tune way below 440Hz, almost a semitone down and I can't stand that either because that middleground makes me feel "happy to be sad" and then I start questioning my own sexuality.

 

I know you gonna kill me but let me say something before that:

My artist, SeamlessR (D&B guy- I just love his doing with FL not his hard style) uses F# as the tonic in more than 90% of his tutorials. I really don't know what's the magic in that. Do you know? He does not know anything other than F# or D&B genre has been best suited for that?

https://www.youtube.com/user/SeamlessR