You really can, and the occasional use of chromatic notes doesn't negate being in key. You can think of the scale as a paved road that you walk on, but now and then you also verge onto a little path in the grass.

The scale works as a sort of scaffolding under your tune. Most of the tones you use, you lay directly on its sturdy base, but you can also build an arc between the supported points and place a few steps there.

As for how you can go about composing it, one tried and tested way for me to increase the chance is to start from the chord progression if I throw in some chords outside of the basic tonic-dominant-subdominant trio. If we're in D, play E or E7 (which is the dominant of the dominant there, nothing too exotic) and there just might be a G# popping out in the tune. Going to the other side, a C chord, or even just a simple D7 might bring in a C♮.

Even more likely in the minor keys, which often can't decide which of the common minor scales (you know - Aeolian, harmonic, melodic) is the one in the first place, and then I find out that, in an A minor song, I've used F# and G# in the span of two bars from the G between them and didn't even notice until I started transcribing it.

One thing I highly recommend, get a songbook and play whatever you like. Lots of songs, various styles. There's no better way to learn than seeing how it works in the wild.

You really can, and the occasional use of chromatic notes doesn't negate being in key. You can think of the scale as a paved road that you walk on, but now and then you also verge onto a little path in the grass.

The scale works as a sort of scaffolding under your tune. Most of the tones you use, you lay directly on its sturdy base, but you can also build an arch between the supported points and place a few steps there.

As for how you can go about composing it, one thing that increases the chance for me is to start from the chord progression if I throw in some chords outside of the basic tonic-dominant-subdominant trio. If we're in D, play E or E7 (which is the dominant of the dominant there, nothing too exotic) and there just might be a G# popping out in the tune. Going to the other side, a C chord, or even just a simple D7 might bring in a C♮.

Even more likely in the minor keys, which often can't decide which of the common minor scales (you know - Aeolian, harmonic, melodic) is the one in the first place, and then I find out that, in an A minor song, I've used F# and G# in the span of two bars from the G between them and didn't even notice until I started transcribing it.

One thing I highly recommend, get a songbook and play whatever you like. Lots of songs, various styles. There's no better way to learn than seeing how it works in the wild.

You really can, and the occasional use of chromatic notes doesn't negate being in key. You can think of the scale as a paved road that you walk on, but now and then you also verge onto a little path in the grass.

The scale works as a sort of scaffolding under your tune. Most of the tones you use, you lay directly on its sturdy base, but you can also build an arc between the supported points and place a step or a few there.

As for how you can go about composing it, one tried and tested way for me to increase the chance is to start from the chord progression if I throw in some chords outside of the basic tonic-dominant-subdominant trio. If we're in D, play E or E7 (which is the dominant of the dominant there, nothing too exotic) and there just might be a G# popping out in the tune. Going to the other side, a C chord, or even just a simple D7 might bring in a C♮.

Even more likely in the minor keys, which often can't decide which of the common minor scales (you know - Aeolian, harmonic, melodic) is the one in the first place, and then I find out that, in an A minor song, I've used F# and G# in the span of two bars from the G between them.

One thing I highly recommend, get a songbook and play whatever you like. Lots of songs, various styles. There's no better way to learn than seeing how it works in the wild.

You really can, and the occasional use of chromatic notes doesn't negate being in key. You can think of the scale as a paved road that you walk on, but now and then you also verge onto a little path in the grass.

The scale works as a sort of scaffolding under your tune. Most of the tones you use, you lay directly on its sturdy base, but you can also build an arc between the supported points and place a few steps there.

As for how you can go about composing it, one tried and tested way for me to increase the chance is to start from the chord progression if I throw in some chords outside of the basic tonic-dominant-subdominant trio. If we're in D, play E or E7 (which is the dominant of the dominant there, nothing too exotic) and there just might be a G# popping out in the tune. Going to the other side, a C chord, or even just a simple D7 might bring in a C♮.

Even more likely in the minor keys, which often can't decide which of the common minor scales (you know - Aeolian, harmonic, melodic) is the one in the first place, and then I find out that, in an A minor song, I've used F# and G# in the span of two bars from the G between them and didn't even notice until I started transcribing it.

One thing I highly recommend, get a songbook and play whatever you like. Lots of songs, various styles. There's no better way to learn than seeing how it works in the wild.