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Help Understanding Keys in Logic Pro X


Supersport

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I'm currently not great at music theory.  By ear I can tell when something sounds harmonically compatible with something else, but when I'm in some random key, and add a note, I couldn't begin to tell you whether it's part of that key and what else could go with it without pulling out some cheat sheets. When writing chords in Logic I place the various notes where I think they should be, listen to it, but eventually click the Q button just to make sure it's actually in the key I'm after.  Ultimately it boils down to a lot of trial and error, tinkering and hearing some really awful notes until I find what I'm after.  :lol:

So with that, I have few key-related questions in Pro X:   

  1. Is there some way in the piano roll to hide notes that are out of key, or make it when I move a note from up or down the scales it will stick to notes only in key?  Maybe some kind of "auto-quantize-to-key" or "key-snap" feature?
     
  2. What is the point of setting the key in the LCD display in Pro X? Is it just a reminder or does it actually have some effect on the session?
     
  3. Any helpful features to establish in-key chords, progressions etc?

If these don't exist, they'd be very helpful features for music theory novices like myself.   :wink:  I have other programs that can help me do this, but it sure would be nice to do it directly in Logic.

Thanks in advance!

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What you're doing right now(!) is not "wrong!"

 

You might well be dreaming up more-advanced musical ideas that are in multiple keys – as well as "relative" keys (such as "A-minor," which starts on "A" not "C" but consists of all-white notes), or "modes" (A-minor is the "sixth mode" of all-white-keys C because it starts on the sixth note ... but any of seven starting-notes can be used, hence seven "modes."  (Their pseudo-latin names are an exercise for college music students.)

 

A note is "out of key" when it sounds wrong, in relation to the other notes that are nearby to it – it might sound a half-step flat or a half-step sharp – and you might change it by bumping that note up or down (listening carefully to its impact on the phrase of which it is a part).  Or you might change the nearby notes, instead.  Or, both.  

 

But, if it doesn't sound wrong, it's "musical genius." You'll rest in your grave knowing that generations of college music students are analyzing your scores note-by-note. :D  Jazz musicians switch keys constantly – it can be difficult if not impossible to say what "key they are in."  There is no "right" or "wrong" here.  Music (theory) is there "to describe and maybe to explain what-the-hell you are doing" (you musical genius, you ...), not to tell you that you are "wrong!"  :P

 

The key-signature is used mainly in the Score Editor to select the signature-indicator at the left side of the staff.  The one which produces the least number of individually-sharped/flattened notes ("accidentals") is most likely to be the "key" of a particular phrase.  You can insert key-signature changes anywhere.

 

The fact that certain notes aren't "accidentals," but that a certain set of sharps-and-flats is marked at the left side of the bar, simply means that those notes are sharpened or flattened most of the time when the song is said to be "in that key."  And it so happens that there is "a reason for that" ...

 

You see, when the song is "in that key," you can shift the notes up-or-down a certain number of "half-steps" (adjacent keyboard keys) and wind up with ... "all white notes" on the keyboard.  (The "accidentals" will be the ones that wind up on "black keys" when you do this.)  This works because the spacing between the notes will match the spacing that is imposed by the exact position of those "black keys" among the "white ones."  (There are two "half steps" between every note except E/F and B/C. The pattern is irregular:  "whole whole half, whole whole whole half."

 

Western music is very simply constructed, vs. (say) what the Chinese or the Indians came up with, and a lot of the secret to it is understanding why the black notes on the keyboard are arranged the way they are ... why there are five black keys (not six), and seven white keys (not six), on a twelve-tone (no more, no less) "harmonic" scale that we simply blast-through with "do-re-mi" (seven notes).  Since you're not in college ad there isn't going to be a final exam in fourteen weeks, you can skip the school-sh*t and just learn what you need or want to know.  (Which might be a little, or might be a lot.)  And you will never need – trust me – to utter the word, "mixolydian."

 

I never cared for "music theory classes," and never had to take one except in high school.  It pissed me off(!) to later discover that the underlying principles, thanks to the peculiar – and, uhh, very mathematical (never mind ...) – design of the equal temperament Western "do-re-mi" scale, are actually consistent and simple.

 

Toby Rush wrote a book on it that is made of cartoons, titled, Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People. 

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Thanks for such a wonderful reply.  I enjoyed (and chuckled a bit while) reading it.  

 

 

"you can skip the school-sh*t and just learn what you need or want to know. "  

This has been my approach so far.  In taking small courses I knew early I didn't care too much about those pseudo-latin words you speak of, and some of the other more complex ideas either.  Just making things sound good.  Sometimes I need a little assistance which is what my questions 1 and 3 are aiming towards.  

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Is there some way in the piano roll to hide notes that are out of key, or make it when I move a note from up or down the scales it will stick to notes only in key?  Maybe some kind of "auto-quantize-to-key" or "key-snap" feature?

In the piano roll, you could use the scale quantize function where you can specify the key and the scale type. This will force any notes selected to conform to that key/scale.

Additionally ( and you have to use the score for this) - there is a diatonic insert option ( under edit) - This will force the inserted note to conform to notes of the diatonic scale relative to the key signature depicted in the LCD display. 

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Additionally ( and you have to use the score for this) - there is a diatonic insert option ( under edit) - This will force the inserted note to conform to notes of the diatonic scale relative to the key signature depicted in the LCD display. 

That is a great one!

Is this a recent feature?

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