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Thank you for replying to my comment, @jumpinjeff .
I get it that these terms are misused by everyone from the academics on down. I am not arguing a losing case; I’m arguing a lost case, past tense.
But I believe that this misunderstanding of the word “keys” is the crux of the problem of confusion. If Am is a key, then there are like, what?… 24 keys?… 30 keys?… well, or maybe 84 keys?… but wait, couldn’t there be 105 keys?
Now, that’s simply too much information to process. And when you have people as well known as Victor Wooten saying that there are 30 keys, and he hadn’t been sure until this other person “explained” it. I mean, come on. Do you practice all the keys? How can you if you don’t even know what a key is?
But, if there are only 12 notes, which lead to 12 keys, and each key has only 7 unique notes and 7 chords, now maybe I can handle that.
But isn’t that why it’s a “key”, it’s like unlocking a door? The key unlocks all the possibilities of this set of 7 notes. All I have to know is that this song uses the “key” of G, and I know that the notes are A, B, C, D, E, F#, and G. Now, I can figure everything out from there.
There’s a different mode, or scale, for each note. What ever note I start on, it’s repeat at the end. Everything is always based on octaves. But the notes are the same. And the chords are the same. That’s the “key”. Now, what’s the feel? Ahhhh, that’s where the magic of music comes to play. Try it. (I know you have, many times. I’m just talking theoretically.) Play those 7 notes, but keep coming back to F# and see how it feels. Make your self stop on that F#; it won’t be easy. And don’t even think about stopping on that G, just move on past, force yourself, then when you’ve just flown right past that F# and your all the way down to the E before you can stop yourself, make yourself come back to that F#, right there. Don’t stop the solo, don’t. But before you move on, let that note ring with all it’s tension just screaming to drop that on half step, that one fret, ohhhh pllllllllleeeaaassseee. Don’t you dare. In fact, when you continue, jump right on over that G and hit the A. Go ahead.
All you have to do is really explore one single key, and understand WHAT a key is, and the door to music is opened. Now, you know what to do. And you have many flavors. Not just 12 either. There are scales that aren’t found in the 12 keys.
But I would never have found this freedom if I hadn’t found the “key”. So I’m trying to share it.
Go ahead. Ask me WHY is it called the key of C if the major scale is just a mode. And WHY is the minor scale NOT a key. The simple answer is octaves and harmonics. Those notes weren’t picked at random. They can be derived empirically. And C is the fundamental of the natural notes.
And the relationships are why you get a different feel when you start and end on different notes. 🤔
“Well, if those are the reasons, then let’s explore those things.” Bingo! 😎
(The problem with us adults is we want to “understand” things. It’s so much easier with kids, cause they just play and explore and have fun… and don’t care what the explanation is. 😏 )
MG 😀