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20241024131854-Questions_for_Music_Analysis

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Questions for Music Analysis

To break the process of analyzing music down further from attempts to get the scale in 20240904142215-Figuring_out_the_Scale, we can reduce it to a sequence of questions to answer when listening a piece of music.

From “Finding the Key¨ in Music Theory for Electronic Music Producers

[…] as soon as we can figure out what key we are in, we can use the diatonic chord progression to help us narrow down what the possible “in key” chords are.

In other words, to analyze the melody or harmony in a piece of music we must first figure out first what musical key it is in. This is coextensive with the steps in 20240904142215-Figuring_out_the_Scale for figuring out what scale is being used in a piece, because often to be in a key also means being in some scale.

The two questions that need to be answered to determine what key something is in are (Allen 2018, 113):

  1. What (mechanical) keys or their pitches, or what notes, are being used? Especially what perceptible root keys or root notes for chords are being used throughout the heard chords (refer to 20240904101419-Root_Keys & 20240924124009-Chords_from_Scales).
  2. What musical key includes all or most of these in-tune (mechanical) keys and their pitches or notes, or includes all or most of these notes / in-tune (mechanical) keys / pitches? Put differently, what musical scale excludes the least amount of such in-tune (mechanical) keys and their pitches or notes from the music track given one of those notes, in-tune (mechanical) keys, or pitches as a root key?

After answering that, which gives us our key and its scale, we can figure out the chords that are likely being used, by asking (Allen 2018, 114):

  1. What is the diatonic chord progression for the given musical key or musical scale? This just requires applying the diatonic chord progression pattern appropriate to our musical scale to the given musical key.
  2. What are the chords being used, so far as we identify which notes / (mechanical) keys / pitches in the music track’s chord progression are the root of the chords?

This is not an infallible method for finding out the chords when we know the key or scale (Ibid):

From “The Chords¨ in Music Theory for Electronic Music Producers

This method of finding the chords is not a sure thing. Mostly because we don’t know for sure that the […] line is giving us the root of the chord.

This is especially true if only a portion of the whole music track is being analyzed to figure out what the track as a whole is doing with musical scales/keys or chords.

musical_key keys music_theory musical_scale pitch note root_key root_note root_pitch chord_progression diatonic_chord_progression diatonic_chord_progression_pattern

bibliography

  • “Finding the Key.” In Music Theory for Electronic Music Producers: The Producer’s Guide to Harmony, Chord Progressions, and Song Structure in the MIDI Grid., 1st ed., 113. Minneapolis, MN: Slam Academy, 2018.
  • “The Chords.” In Music Theory for Electronic Music Producers: The Producer’s Guide to Harmony, Chord Progressions, and Song Structure in the MIDI Grid., 1st ed., 114. Minneapolis, MN: Slam Academy, 2018.

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