Keys of PR2 Songs
#1
A while ago, I made a list of the keys of PR2 songs. Maybe it's interesting to someone other than me?

Something to keep in mind is they key of the song. Keys of PR2 songs:
- Noodletown (PR2 Menu Music): F# Minor
- Orbital Trance: C Half Sharp Dorian (yeah this is weird af)
- Code: D Minor
- Paradise on E: B/E Major
- Crying Soul: F Major
- My Vision: E Minor
- Switchblade: B Minor
- The Wires: A Minor
- Before Mydnite: F# Minor
- Desert Rose (Deleted): D Minor
- Broked It: A Major
- Hello?: B♭ Major
- Pyrokinesis: A Minor
- Flowers 'n' Herbs: A Minor
- Instrumental #4: D Major
- Dwindled Bible (Deleted): D Minor
- Prismatic: A♭ Major
- We Are Loud: C# Minor
- Toodaloo: A Major
- Night Shade: E Minor
- Blizzard!: F Minor, key change to B♭ Minor

I believe all of these are correct. If someone wants to correct my music theory, feel free. Smile


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#2
So many minors
[Image: 7yFzNKY.png]
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#3
(19th April 2020, 3:36 PM)Al Jolson Wrote: So many minors


Depression
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#4
Thanks. I shall use these to unlock the PR2 songs.
-AspectZero
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#5
Anyone who uses scales other than diminished, whole tone, and chromatic are pleb non br00tal wannabes
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#6
I find this list interesting. Thanks for compiling it! Big Grin Few notes tho:

I think Miniature Fantasy might be in C dorian but pitched up a bit (like a few microtones). Might be wrong, yet it's kinda up to debate really cause the song is for sure not pitched normally.

The PR2 theme song I think is in Gb/F# minor.
Dangevin
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#7
(20th April 2020, 12:43 AM)Dangevin Wrote: I find this list interesting. Thanks for compiling it! Big Grin Few notes tho:

I think Miniature Fantasy might be in C dorian but pitched up a bit (like a few microtones). Might be wrong, yet it's kinda up to debate really cause the song is for sure not pitched normally.

The PR2 theme song I think is in Gb/F# minor.

I always thought the terms Dorian, phrygian, etc referred to certain positions on scales instead of it being a scale/key itself

I might be wrong as well tho. I never really pay attention to what key I'm writing in
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#8
(20th April 2020, 12:43 AM)Dangevin Wrote: I find this list interesting. Thanks for compiling it! Big Grin Few notes tho:

I think Miniature Fantasy might be in C dorian but pitched up a bit (like a few microtones). Might be wrong, yet it's kinda up to debate really cause the song is for sure not pitched normally.

The PR2 theme song I think is in Gb/F# minor.

C Half Sharp Dorian sounds like a good bet. Getting a little science-y, we can test this using the hertz value of notes. This list of note frequencies tells us that C5 is 523.25hz and C#5 is 554.37hz. When Miniature Fantasy is played over a constant C or C# tone (with the help of this hertz sound generator), neither sound quite right; however, if we play C half sharp (calculated by: (554.37 - 523.25) / 2 + 523.25 = 538.81), we get something that sounds pretty similar to what we imagine the tonic to be in the key of C half sharp dorian.

Noodletown is undoubtedly F# Minor. Forgot that one. I'll add it, thanks!


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#9
Dwindled Bible? When was it removed? As a matter of fact, can you bring it back?
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#10
(20th April 2020, 2:28 AM)JEEJAYEM Wrote: I always thought the terms Dorian, phrygian, etc referred to certain positions on scales instead of it being a scale/key itself

I might be wrong as well tho. I never really pay attention to what key I'm writing in

Those terms are actually used to describe modes. What you're thinking of probably are called scale degrees, which are where terms like tonic, dominant, mediant, etc. come from.

Here's an example of a mode: Bb Major scale (or Bb Ionian scale in this case) starts on the tonic note (first note) of the Bb Major scale. If you play the Bb Major scale up to C, and then restart playing the Bb Major scale, using all the accidentals of the Bb Major scale, but starting at the note C instead, you'd be playing in C Dorian (because the dorian mode starts on the 2nd note of any normal Major scale).

So... Bb Major (Ionian) scale = Bb -> C -> D -> Eb -> F -> G -> A -> Bb
Play up to C and then use the same accidentals from Bb Major
So... C Dorian scale (or starting from 2nd note of Bb Major scale) = C -> D -> Eb -> F -> G -> A -> Bb -> C


Idk if this makes sense but I tried ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it's been a hot minute since I've tried to explain modes. Hopefully I didn't butcher it. There's easier methods of finding out mode scales which you could definitely look up because I don't remember those shortcuts.
Dangevin
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#11
(20th April 2020, 12:13 PM)Dangevin Wrote: So... Bb Major (Ionian) scale = Bb -> C -> D -> Eb -> F -> G -> A -> Bb
Play up to C and then use the same accidentals from Bb Major
So... C Dorian scale (or starting from 2nd note of Bb Major scale) = C -> D -> Eb -> F -> G -> A -> Bb -> C

Your explanation of modes is what I meant when I said position lol i.e. a major scale (or any scale) but it doesnt "start" and "end" in the key it's in

I would've been reluctant to label a song by a mode (cuz i think most songs switch modes more than they switch scales) but I guess it actually works appropriately now that i think of it
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#12
(20th April 2020, 1:20 PM)JEEJAYEM Wrote: Your explanation of modes is what I meant when I said position lol i.e. a major scale (or any scale) but it doesnt "start" and "end" in the key it's in

I would've been reluctant to label a song by a mode (cuz i think most songs switch modes more than they switch scales) but I guess it actually works appropriately now that i think of it

Sorry for the over explanation Embarrassed didnt fully get what you meant initially.

I definitely get what you mean by labeling a song by a mode. You could definitely get away with just saying they used an accidental from time to time in some songs that could be labeled as maybe using a mode.
Dangevin
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#13
(20th April 2020, 10:03 AM)v0idPETA Wrote: Dwindled Bible? When was it removed? As a matter of fact, can you bring it back?

It was removed very early on (maybe 2008?) due to copyright concerns. The user who posted it to Newgrounds had stolen it from a TV show I think? I believe it can be played on Musical Evenizer, but I can't remember if I added it off the top of my head.

Edit: I did add it to Musical Evenizer.


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#14
My own take on Miniature Fantasy. Hopefully this little detailed analysis will help a few people comprehend WHY THE HELL this is in C Half# Dorian. Sorry if there are any mistakes in there, it's 2 AM and I just got back from a rough shift, but here we goooooo

First off, let's start with something simple: figuring out where we stand at with our first couple notes and their frequencies, as bls1999 already did:

Frequencies of the first notes (let's call them G, B flat and A for now)
G: ~403 Hz
B flat: ~480 Hz
A: ~452 Hz

Now, assuming we are using standard A440 tuning, let's look where those notes are situated:

[Image: MyuiBn8.png]

That's right, we're getting into the great world of quarter tones ! (we could go a lot deeper and use microtonal theory, but let's not delve down this pit for now). Our notes, in order, are G half#, B half-flat and A half#.

Now let's examine the scale used and its armature. Ignore the dorian annotations for now.

[Image: NMyPz9d.png]

The first 2 rows are the scales of B flat Major and B major, with their respective key signatures (B-E flat, F-D-G-D-A sharp). I've added an extra C at the end of the B major scale for comparison, but there is half a step, or a semitone if you prefer, that separates each note between those 2 scales.

The last 2 rows represent the first melody/riff of Miniature Fantasy in each of those keys. As we figured already with our pitch analysis, the actual song ends up between them.

But why is the song not in B Half-flat Major, then ? To answer this question, we need to take a look at the chords used in the song. Doing so in details, such as cadences, progressions, etc. would be very long and tedious, but simply looking at the bass lines, a lot of it is built upon C Half# roots (G/C, F/C resolving into an E/C, all half#).

If you are unfamiliar with modern musical modes, Dangevin came up with a great explanation of what they are. I'd recommend reading it first, and I'll try to complement it a tad here.

Since we know the song is in B Half-flat Major, and that it's chord progression (being very lenient with terminology here for the sake of simplicity) stands on C Half# roots within that scale, we can take the dorian mode (also called the 2nd mode, or D mode) of our key, and make it our new key. It is technically still B Hal-flat Major, but this ''new scale'' makes more sense for the overall song and its composition.

A usual major scale is formed like this: T-S-S-H-S-S-S-H(T), where T stands for TONIC (our root), S stands for STEP, and H for HALF-STEP. I will use B flat here for this example, but it's the same idea for B Half-flat Major vs C Half# Dorian.
B flat Major = Bb-C-D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb

Dorian means we now start on the 2nd degree of our major scale: T-S-H-S-S-S-H-S(T), so we simply take our C root, and use this sequence to build this scale. Notice how the alterations are still the same as B flat Major; this is why it's called a mode.
C Dorian = C-D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb-C

Take this last scale we made, add a quartertone (half#) to each of these notes, and voilà !
This is why Miniature Fantasy is in the key of C Half# Dorian.
Hope this makes more sense to some of you !
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#15
(21st April 2020, 1:58 AM)TRUC Wrote: -snip-

Very good write-up, @TRUC!


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#16
This is really cool! This may be useful to me Tongue
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#17
I wish I had a clue what any of this meant... but hey it looks cool!
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#18
I'd like to refute Pyrokinesis, as it sounds very much to be E minor

quick edit: i forgot how much these songs slap
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#19
(25th April 2020, 1:02 AM)Fresh Cookies Wrote: I'd like to refute Pyrokinesis, as it sounds very much to be E minor

quick edit: i forgot how much these songs slap

idk what I was thinking with D# Minor... but now, upon further review, it sounds an awful lot like A Minor (which would make sense why E is so prominent, since that's the dominant). Try the Hz value trick I mentioned and LMK what you think.


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#20
(25th April 2020, 3:24 AM)bls1999 Wrote: idk what I was thinking with D# Minor... but now, upon further review, it sounds an awful lot like A Minor (which would make sense why E is so prominent, since that's the dominant). Try the Hz value trick I mentioned and LMK what you think.

Oh, no, definitely A Minor with a second listen. Can tell because of the bass moving between A-C-A-C-etc., as well as the lone high notes hitting A. Right at the end, too, goes up A minor arpeggio before descending on the same arpeggio.

I blame studying music, like, my whole life. This stuff isn't too terribly hard, and I'm generally agreeable with the rest of the keys. It's all still basic stuff, except for Miniature Fantasy -- having perfect pitch sucks with microtones and having such a tonal base because my mind always wants me to think of it as being one or the other.
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