I've been trying to compose some melodies from my head using a DAW without any knowledge of music theory. After coming up with many melodies, I noticed they only use the white keys on the piano. I tried using the black keys, but it just doesn't sound right. Is this normal?
Here is the MIDI example: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1REyC_COGc6U9zMCr1dKrBKAznoJ_Zuow/view?usp=sharing
It's perfectly valid - if rather simplistic - to write melodies that are fully diatonic, i.e. that use only the notes of one particular scale. And if you use the white notes of the piano, that scale is C major, or possibly A minor.
Other answers have rightly mentioned diatonic notes and key centers based on C for major and A for minor. I would like to point out another possibility.
You can also exclusively use white notes with other key centers. These are called modes. Actually even C major and A minor are considered modes. There are 7 of them, each starting in a different white note. One of the more obvious examples would be using the key center G which would give you the G Mixolydian mode. It is only different from the major scale by one note, the 7th. The melody for the Beatles classic “Norwegian Wood” was written in this mode but in the key of E.
Other possible examples would be D Dorian, another minor mode and E Phrygian, a minor mode with what many consider to be a Spanish Flamenco flavor.
The bottom line is that any of these keys can exist in 12 different places by using the black notes. Any of the black notes can also be used in any white note key once you start to learn how they function. It is too much detail to go into here but you will learn about these things along the way as you continue your studies.
The only major scale which uses just the white keys is C major. Those are the ones written down with no sharps or flats beside them. A minor pieces may just use those same white keys, but there will often be the need to include at least one black key - G♯.
Those notes are called diatonic, as Laurence points out. Their 'home' note, 'root' note, or 'key' note is, of course, the note C - a white key.
It may be that you start/finish your tunes on that note either on purpose, or inadvertently. If you start/finish your tunes on, say, G, then you'll most likely find that you will need a black key (F♯) to make things sound like they fit.
The reason your melody use(s) only the white keys is because you apparently have a "good ear". What I mean by that is that you appear to recognize the sound of a scale.
Now... What is a scale? A scale is (for your purposes) a tonal 'map' that points to one note.
For example, of you play all the white keys, starting at C (the white key to the left of the two black keys) and and stop at B the white key to the right of the three black keys; you will discover that it sounds better to go one key higher (to what is known as the "octave" C). That is because the scale you just played "points" to the note C.
This phenomenon is known as "resolution", and is one of the primary topics of music theory.
You have asked a very important question. I suspect you have some innate musical ability. It should be nurtured! I recommend learning some music theory... That is... Learn how to read and write notes. I suspect you will enjoy what you discover. All you need is a little commitment, and the rest will follow. Good luck!
When I listened to your example, I thought it was in pentatonic, but then when I read the notes, I saw it uses six different tones. Looking closer, I finally noticed that it in fact alternates between C-based and G-based pentatonic, one phrase each: first and third phrase limit themselves to the C-D-E-G-A set, second and fourth to G-A-B-D-E.
If all your music is similar, then I'm not at all surprised it resists adding chromatic notes. They just wouldn't be that much at home with the style.
I'd just like to second all the answers above. The C major diatonic scale, no matter at what pitch level or temperament, is, for whatever reason, very pervasive, among many very different music traditions. By "C major scale", I mean only the relative pitches of the tones- there are seven different tonal centers possible, and also music with no tonal center, as others have mentioned.
Some find 7 tones per octave not enough. Some require 12 or 51. Fun, but 7 is enough for me, and enough for many of us, who are complex in other ways.
Just my humble opinion. Cheers from sunny Vienna, Scott
We expect the music to have a center. That center, is called tonal center, a tone to which every other tone returns (this is what our ears expect). The fact that you use only white keys is very normal, since it's the easiest way to have a tonal center (two actually, one is A and the other one is C when using white keys).
If you want to explore more tonalities, you might want to learn more about major and minor scales!
Good luck!
Your melody is almost entirely pentatonic. Also, it reminds me of the song Sakura, from the rhythm and the way you repeat the opening motif.
Is kind of ironic that you are having trouble using the "black keys", because one ways the pentatonic scale is explained to beginners is it is the scale you get when you play only the black keys of the piano.
Let's show your melody notated...
Yellow highlight shows the part that is all C pentatonic. The blue highlight shows how you transpose that idea, by playing it again but at a lower pitch. That blue part would be in G pentatonic. Notice the overlap that becomes green. That includes pitches that could be in either C or G pentatonic. The second half follows that same design.
People often point out that when playing only the white keys of the piano that can give the C major scale. However, in your case, you almost entirely avoid playing the B and F, which gives us a pitch collection of C D E G A, which is C pentatonic.
Many melodies work with a focus on pentatonic portions of a major scale with careful inclusion of the other two "missing" scale degrees (in C that means careful inclusion of B and F.) This is exactly what your melody does. A good example of this, in a famous song, is Stephen Foster's Oh! Susanna.
You should be able to do the same type of melodies, but focused on the black keys. Try playing only the black keys, consider the G♭ as the tonic, and then try to carefully include either the F or C♭. (Notice that the C♭ looks like a plain B natural on the keyboard, that is called enharmonic equivalence, but don't worry about that for now.)
If you transpose your original melody to the black keys in the way I described, it will become...
...notice how it is all black keys except for the few F naturals that end each phrase.
This will give you two simple approaches: all white keys and all black keys. The "trick" that makes either one work is keeping the melody mostly pentatonic. Pentatonic music can be thought of as a kind of "no wrong notes" music.
You can write music combining black and white piano keys, but you need to either do some music theory study or be very persistent/lucky/intuitive with trial and error to make it work.
You might look into Irving Berlin and what people said about him using only the black keys of the piano. A pentatonic focus is not necessarily a bad thing.
