Thor Keyboard - bit of music theory

Matt_Fletcher_2000

Hi,

I wondered if anyone could explain, in detail, how the Thor keyboard actually works.

Not "you press the keys and you a get a sound" ... I get that bit... but I mean the "assist" function on the keyboard.

I've heard people say it's the most helpful out there but I think I only have 50% understanding on what it's doing. (I'm also aware that if I understand this then i'll probably get a 100% understanding of the option on this in Figure too).

You can choose a key (A, B, C, C# etc..) fine, I get that. But then you can't choose a scale (Ionian, Aeolian, Minor Blues etc...) like other apps.

You get 'Colour' (1-7) and you seemingly get a choice of major or minor on each note in the scale. If I want to set the keys to the 7 notes in F# Aeolian then I have found I can do this by setting the key to F# and selecting F# with the minor button on and choosing colour of 7. But beyond that i'm a bit confused.

Is it really only any good for playing in a Major scale? (Where it gives you all the chords in the scale?). Or what?

Basically i'd love some help from someone more knowledgable than me. And this forum is always great for that.

Thanks in advance...

ArcaneScreams

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 Maybe this will help. Here's a link that describes the keyboard pretty well. https://www.propellerheads.se/products/thor/manual/thor-elements/

Matt_Fletcher_2000

Thanks. I think I read that a while ago actually.

The problem is it just says 'below the Key and Color buttons are Tonality “shortcut” buttons for quick access to additional tonalities'. And that's it.

I'm not really sure what is meant by tonalities (I have wikipediaered - but still confused) and how these tonalities relate to the scales i'm familiar with (Dorian, Aeolian etc..).

If you're trying to stay within an overall Aeolian scale/key then using these "additional tonalities" takes you out of key. Maybe that's the point - or maybe the keyboard is really of most use for playing in Major?

Anyway - if someone else has really mastered it/understood it - i'd love to hear their take on it in relation to basic scales/chords.

janogarcia

Disclaimer: my knowledge of music theory is quite limited.

These are my findings after revisiting the Thor keyboard:

It seems that you can only set a Major key (Color: 7)

Setting the Color value to 7 picks the right notes for the Major/Ionian scale in the selected Key.

You can't set any other mode than Major/Ionian with the Key and Color controls, but you can play on any of the other modern western modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian) just by starting and ending your scale on the right note.

For example, if you set the keyboard for the C Major/Ionian scale (Key: C, Color: 7), you can play D Dorian by starting to play on D and then playing the other 6 keys that Thor has highlighted for the C Major/Ionian scale, E Phrygian by starting on E, and so on (F Lydian on F, G Mixolydian on G, A Aeolian on A, B Locrian on .

Selecting other Key will transpose all the modes accordingly. So, if you want to play on Gb Mixolydian, you'd set the keyboard to Key: B and Color: 7, and then play the Gb Mixolydian by starting and ending in Gb. Setting the tonality to "Dom. F#" will mark with a dot the start and end notes on the keyboard, this is just a visual aid, the scale notes won't be altered as long as you select any of the main six tonalities (the 6 large rectangular buttons that for the B Key are assigned to Minor D#, Minor G#, Minor C#, Dom. F#, B and E from top to bottom). However, the scale will be altered if you choose any of the parallel tonalities (the 6 small rectangular buttons that for the B Key are assigned to Dom., Dom., Dom., Minor, Minor, Minor from top to bottom).

Feel free to check that Thor's keyboard is displaying the right notes on https://www.basicmusictheory.com/g-flat-mixolydian-mode, or use a dedicated app like Octavian Pro that will do all the calculations for you http://www.bitnotic.com/octavian.html

You can easily form the basic diatonic chords of each scale/mode just by collapsing the keyboard (button Collapse) and then playing the chord root key plus the 3rd and 5th keys.

There are no major/minor Pentatonic (Color: 5), nor major/minor Blues (Color: 6) scales

Setting the Color value to 5 or 6 doesn't pick the right notes for the major/minor pentatonic and major/minor blues scales respectively. Propellerhead has assigned those "colors" to other pentatonic and hexatonic scales that sound nice/exotic but don't match the traditional pentatonic and blues scales.

I hope it helps.

JohnnyGoodyear

@janogarcia My head asplode but thanks for this.

janogarcia

@JohnnyGoodyear It seems overcomplicated, but it is quite simple once you have a tool like Octavian Pro at hand. I for one, wouldn't have made sense of the Thor keyboard without it. Feel free to ask for further clarification.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

Thanks janogarcia.

I'd say based on the above that it's not all that straight forward...

I pretty much follow what you've said above. But to actually use the keyboard I think I'd be constantly checking against Octavian or similar. I guess it might be a good way to learn. But a bit stop start.

I also found, on investigation with Thor and Figure, that I couldn't work out the logic behind the 4, 5 and 6 colours. So I'm glad you're saying the same thing.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I really appreciate you taking the time to write all of the above.