Music theory question

[Gps]

Intro:

These forums helped me big time to stay in tune when composing something.

If one track start at F all other tracks should too.
If I remember right, I was also told, this is not entirely true, but its a great starting point, for people new to making music, like me.

I have studied multiple midi files, and multiple synthesia vids, and most songs, do follow this "rule"

Question:

While working on popcorn I noticed the midi file I am using, is one of the exceptions.
( not all tracks start at the same key )

Does anybody know a site which explains this ?

Or should I say, bleep the theory and use my ears ?

I am however not totally confident, if my ears are already good enough to do so.

I could of course just do as the midi file does, but I wont learn anything from that, nor do I like to use midi flies this way.
If I get stuck when trying to cover a song, I always look for a midi file, but I never copy paste those notes into my song.

Edit maybe I should give a more specific example:

This Vid at 1.21 the blue notes.

When I try to add a string track, my ears seem to think, that I should start at the highest note of the blue note.
When I try to start at the same note, the lowest of the blue ones, my ears start to protest ?

It confuses me.

How far I am at the moment:
https://soundcloud.com/user586365033/popcorntest

Is at least the first part in tune ? At 1.06 is were my ears start to protest. ( but I am not 100% happy about the strings before this either)

[slipstick]

I can't see any Vid or blue notes so perhaps that's why I don't understand exactly what you're asking. But perhaps we can get the terminology cleared up. When you say "tracks" do you mean different MIDI tracks, what would be different instruments and different staves on the sheet music ? And when you say start on the same "key" you don't really mean the same note (i.e. key on a piano) do you ?

Tunes would be incredibly boring if everything was playing the same notes all the time, but they should all be playing IN the same key (e.g. C major or E flat minor etc) and often start (and end) on one of the notes from the root chord. So if you're in C the tune probably starts on the note C and the other instruments will often be playing a C or E or G.

That's probably confused you. I've certainly confused myself. So what exactly are you asking ?

Steve

[Gps]

Oops about the vid:
At 1.21 is were I get into trouble, the blue notes and the yellow and purple string sounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgp1a1ZweIo

When I say track, I mean one of the tracks in lmms, in the song editor.
I should say same key and not same note indeed.

One thing I tried, is to start a new song with just a sequence of notes going up and down, and the second track in the song editor, a string sound.

To my big surprise that sounded right. (both tracks starting at C)

Although this for some part even confused me more, I think this does give me the answer.
Maybe for some reason one of the synths got detuned, or I just had picked two presets that don't sound nice together.

Not blaming lmms for anything, its prob something stupid I did.

Back to my question, and to see if I understand you're answer right.

Lets assume for now the blue notes in the vid start at c, then the strings can start at C E or G ?

That looks like a chord, and that is not a coincidence ?

[musikbear]

While working on popcorn I noticed the midi file I am using, is one of the exceptions.
( not all tracks start at the same key )
Does anybody know a site which explains this ?

That is propl. because popcorn has a kind of 'slide' note as the song starts.
The maker of the midifile may have had some special sf2 that gave him exactly the special sound, but for some weird reason, it was out of key, that gave best result (im only guessing....)

Or should I say, bleep the theory and use my ears ?

in respect to key - No :p

About the video.
The blue notes are arpeggio notes. You could think of those as 'exploded' chords. Using this kind of arp sequence gives the tune a 'drive' and is better that chords, when you have a rather fast pace in the sequence

[Gps]

Thank you, this is helping me big time. So I will stick to Dorian and B, so that my track will be in key.
And ignore for some part, what the midi file does key wise.

Its funny to me, but a good learning experience, that about every, how to play or midi file, of popcorn I see, sounds like popcorn, but they are not exactly the same.

The main melody is, but the stuff around it are all variations.

Last nite checked one of my earlier attempts, and within 2 minutes had found two tracks not in the same key.
That's not the only thing wrong with it though. I am very happy not to try to fix one of those versions, but that I decided to start over from scratch.

[Gps]

Another small step forward, on my music learning journey.

In the midi file something happens, which still confused me. When I try to change it though my ears start to revolt. LOL

So I opened the popcorn key demo file from musicbear. It wont surprise most here, that this file does something similar.

Popcorn main melody of the demo starts at C. Then the melody goes up to G.

The strings also start at c, but don't jump to G, they jump to A sharp :O

My ears don't seem to mind me changing this, AS long as ALL the notes stay in the scale. :O

Progress

[Gps]

I think we have a winner

For the in between part, I used what you guys teached me, and not what the midi file does at that part.
I do not really understand whats happening in the midi file, and when I try to copy it, my ears protest.

Rumors of me using a bassline from the musicbear key demo are of course not true.

Serious though, it really helps the song to come alive and give it the popcorn feeling. It only need a little bit of cleaning, and maybe some minor adjusting of a few notes here and there.

Prob do that tomorrow.