So this has been bothering me for some time now; I've been making beats for maybe 7-8 years now but my earlier work is heavily-sampled. I just started actually picking up piano, but on my own, learning from Youtube tutorials and different websites with info on chords , scales , reading music and all that stuff.
I believe I've come to understand a lot of useful information and it has really helped and also re-shaped the way I listen to music now. I've always gravitated more towards jazz and synthy mellow lounge dreamy type stuff (lonnie liston smith , stereolab , roy ayers , toro y moi , stevie wonder) , music with lots of 7th chords .
This is where I become confused. From what (I think) I understand , a major scale is made up of 8 notes right ? And with those notes I can form chords and play within that designated key , and it's obvious to me playing sharps/flats over a song in the key of C major doesn't sound very pleasant .
It seems to me most of this music that I listen to jumps from this key to that key to another key then back to that key without any problem and just complete disregard for playing these 8 notes assigned .
for example:
listen to the first 8 bars
It's in the key of D major for 3 bars , then it drops 2 semitones to the key of C Major for 2 bars , then its back in D major for 2 bars then it climbs 3 semitones to the key of F Major for the last 1 bar before it loops again .
- D,E,F#,G,A,B,C#,D
- C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C
- F,G,A,A#,C,D,E,F
three different keys in 8 bars , all changed abruptly
I hear it in house music all the time .
How does this work ? There must be some formula, right ? Because in my opinion it sounds really nice , when in actuality it could sound terrible if not done properly , which makes me believe there is a science to it . Is there a name for it ? what is the relation between these keys that make it possible to do this , and how would i know which ones work and which don't ?