So the way i have always mixed on the Camelot wheel is like this
For Example—> 7b–>7a–>6a–>5a–>4a–>4b–>5b–>6b–>6a
you get the idea, you can change numbers, but only if the letters stay the same, or you can change letters but only is the number stays the same. I get it!
But i seem to hear really cool dramatic cool key changes when someone changes for example from 7a to 4b or something like that. Now that technically that’s not supposed to work, but sometimes it sounds good.
So is there some other tricks to using the Camelot wheel that I don’t know about???
As well as going +/-1 on th2 Camelot Wheel, you can also go +7, or +14 (but, because going +14 goes completely around the “clock”, and then 2 more, it’s the same as just going +2 steps on the wheel).
So you can go:
or -1
or -2
or -7
And remain in key. +'s are usually energy boosts, -'s are usually energy drops.
I have many iTunes Smart Playlists for key matching…
heh well you kinda can do these things sometimes. but the answer is don’t rely on the camelot wheel, rely on your ears and an understanding of scales/circle of fifths.
say you were in 8A and went to 3A (which is plus 7, the ‘energy boost’), you are talking about going from all white keys on a piano to almost all black keys. that is not gonna sound nice on a slow mix (imagine randomly playing all the notes on a piano over a song) but if you cut into it it would sound like everything raised up a bit - like in some 80s pop songs in the final chorus where it boost up.
if you combine all the notes of 1A, with all the notes of 8A, that is every possible note , and those scales share only 2 notes in common.
but not all songs play all the notes of the major/minor scale in the track. some just use a few notes from that scale, or a pentatonic scale, so it is better to experiment per song than thinking about moving on a wheel and getting a certain result each time. hope that helps!
It really depends on the notes being played at any given moment, especially when you go from one camelot wheel “key” to another. When they recommend going from 6a to 6b, it’s because the notes in those musical keys are the same. Going +/- 1 in the camelot wheel (from 6a to 7a or 5a) there is only one note difference from one musical key to the other. The odds of you hitting the different note at the same time (causing dissonance) is slim. The higher the numerical difference you go on the camelot wheel, the more different notes exist between the two keys and therefore the music sounds clashing or dissonant. You may be able to find a spot where this isn’t the case, but by the time you’ve mixed in, you could be clashing.
Basically, your best odds of not having clashing music are to use the +/- 1 or same number different letter approach. But, you can find songs that are much different numerically camelot-wise that can be mixed with others. If you’re looking to make this change, look for songs that have single, monotonous chord stabs or pads, single, long lasting strings and get the mix in and out quick before those change.
BTW, there was a post and a video about different harmonic mixes about six months ago or so? It was somewhat controversial because it was recommended going on much higher camelot wheel changes, but the technique used was looping parts of the songs where there were no clashing notes being played, slowly bringing in the new song. I don’t remember where it was, but I’m sure a quick search could bring it out.
A lot of aspects have already been said, but it might be worth swapping the camelot wheel to something more musical: the circle of quints. Especially when producing as well it is useful to not only know how to do things, but why do them. The camelot wheel won’t tell you, while the circle of quints does. For example going +7 on the carmelot wheel means going up one semitone (eg. E Major to F Major). This helps me A LOT more than just knowing some numbers and a/b’s.
, and those scales share only 2 notes in common.