What Key? What Scale?

[YeahDoIt]

I've been playing this little melody and I can't figure out what key it's in because it has 3 consecutive half notes Bb B C in it doesn't make sense but sounds nice. Perhaps someone that knows music theory better than I might explain this:

B C D Eb F G Ab Bb

[weelie]

I am no theory master...

but I guess it depends on how you hear it, no? What's the "home" note?

It's common to mix mixolydian and minor pentatonic it's blues in F...

but then you could call it whatever key you wish.

[mijstrat72]

I'm just starting to learn this stuff, but isn't the key the root note? And wouldn't that depend on where your playing it on the neck?

I'm not that far into my lessons, and I suffer from ADHD, so I'm probably completely wrong!!

[jbmando]

Sounds very much like the tonal center is C, to me. I would play Cm, Bb, Fm and G as the chords under these notes. It's not exactly C Dorian or C mixolydian. The Ab is the culprit on both of these. Maybe just C minor. You can play an Eb major scale and hit all those notes but the B natural. When played as a passing tone, it fits right in there.

[randypttt]

Originally Posted by jbmando

Sounds very much like the tonal center is C, to me. I would play Cm, Bb, Fm and G as the chords under these notes. It's not exactly C Dorian or C mixolydian. The Ab is the culprit on both of these. Maybe just C minor. You can play an Eb major scale and hit all those notes but the B natural. When played as a passing tone, it fits right in there.

I'll second that. Sounds like C minor (Eb) to me or a Harmonic Minor scale.

[dmitri]

If you move the "B" to the top of the pattern, it is clearly a C minor scale with an added natural 7 (the B natural note, as opposed to the b7 earlier).