Hello guys, I have noticed that most of my tracks have been written in the Phrygian mode or the like. When I start writing a melody or harmony it goes to the darker side finally with more tensions, more dark sounds. I like listening to "happy" music but when it comes to creating music it finishes like, my daughter says, Dark Wave whatever it is. Do things like that happen to you? Do you create your music easier or natural in certain scales, modes or keys?

 

My motto: Major is happy & Minor is sad
Imagine that everyone makes the same happy sound - it would be boring.
I would not doubt myself whether my music is happy or dark. The music in your head wants to surface.
I would rather do what suits you and not be bent. A dark wave is like the life there shines also not only the sun.

 

When was the last time you were so happy about something you decided to go write a song about it?

I write almost everything in minor keys. If I want to drop some of that, I'll try writing using fifths so I don't land the middle finger in the default Eb position. "pop punk" (4 power chord stuff) is about the happiest music I would listen to on purpose.

 

the Japanese Scale Hirajoshi is my favorite

 

My favorite scale is whatever the hell the notes I'm playing are when I noodle with zero theoretical knowledge.
After years of falling prey to playing the same licks and stuff from muscle memory I started to purposefully play everything outside of where my fingers automatically go. Then I started to liberally oscillate between the in notes and the out notes.
The result is some sort of ever changing weird modal pseudo jazzy major/minor spacey melodic language with lots of chromaticisms that can sound extremely musical at times and totally atonal at others.
Although I can sometimes hear some otherworldly harmonization with no tonal center but definitely making some sort of sense musically, I could never write a song with it, because I don't know what the hell it is.

 

im into the chromatic movements as well at times i will add a little spice too melodies and chords with some chromatic movements just to surprise the listener and myself

 

D Minor, which is the saddest of all the keys.

People just seem to weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why.

 

The scale-ator.

 

Phrygian boy here

 

Melodic Minor and Harmonic Major (and all their modes).

 

I can see a lot of ppl here literally being afraid to hit a note out of certain scale, using all sorts of medieval torture ways to even restrict their melodies to the chosen one. Guys, it doesn't work that way. You can get a good result out of banging one or two notes (e.g. any trancegate, Carmina Burana), staying in scale for the sake of it can be a recipe for boring disaster..

I would also be careful with that (ofc, western) story about happy major and sad minor

Not to post Taps here.. but, how happy is this..?? (Major):

And how sad is this (minor):

..there is a ton of really sad songs in major and even more, especially pop upbeat songs in minor. Even the Pharrell's "Happy" is in F minor, lol

 

Rather presumptuous of you, even though I get the point you are trying to make, I think people here were just sharing what sort of tonalities they gravitate toward when writing music. Now, the notion that "major = happy, minor = sad" is a bit disconcerting, but we all have our own journey toward wisdom and understanding.

 

I'm sorry if it came out this way. I should have written 'In My Humble Opinion.' And indeed, it is. Also, my English is not really top tier, so please keep in mind that I may not have managed to convey what I wanted to say in the right way.

I'll just say - even in the DAW I use most of the time (Ableton), I've seen tools that cancel out notes that are not in a set scale. Such things freak me out. I sincerely think they may not be helpful, even for a novice, as they limit the creative potential aso.

Regarding the unhappy major and happy minor, I was simply pointing out the obvious.. at least in my troubled mind, as I've encountered this generalization multiple times. It was just an observation with examples. I might have gone slightly off-topic, but hey, it's still about scales.

 

Last edited: May 30, 2023

No worries, I actually agree with you on both of these points

 

If you have a favorite scale or mode your music is probably redundant and boring.