When I hear the rare contrarian talk about how they think the Beatles are “overrated” or “boy band” sell outs or whatever I know they’re probably just trying to be controversial for controversy sake and likely mean they just don’t personally enjoy the Beatles’ aesthetic. Clearly they’re as seminal and important as they deserve to be since we can use them to demonstrate many theory concepts that have become so important to modern pop/rock, let alone genre conventions and cliches. The Stones are great in their own right but I doubt we could find as many durable theoretical concepts coming from their oeuvre.
I love the idea that songs aren't in "A Major" or "A minor" but just "A". Really simplifies things from an arranging, compositional and improvisation perspective.
The Beatles' (specifically Lennon's) "I'll Be Back" is one of my favorite interchange examples, notably that haunting fadeout alternating between two keys.
One of the best examples of songs by the Beatles that are easily overlooked but are amazing bits of songwriting and performance. It isn’t just that the modal interchange exists in the song, but think of when you specifically hear the shifts- it goes into the minor key on “you know, if you break my heart I’ll go” because that idea (ending a relationship) is supposed to be sad, but John (and yes, this song is pure John) immediately undercuts the significance of his threat to leave when he switches to the major in time for the end of “but I’ll be back again”. And in the same way undercuts that “happy” resolution by immediately going back to the minor for the next verse. It paints a picture of someone who can’t enjoy the good because he knows the bad is inevitably right around the corner. All this tension between the major and minor keys represents his conflicted emotions towards the significant other being sung about; just absolutely brilliant musical rhetoric going on.
@@chloemchll3774 You give a great analysis of the emotional underpinnings of the key changes, and how Lennon instinctively knows how to convey his ambivalence. George Martin recognized this was a great tune; he always selected a strong tune for the last album cut. "I'll Be Back," though written in 1964, foretells the more complex tunes to come on Rubber Soul & Revolver.
@@VMBFV Yes, that's a whole other discussion; I agree with you on that cut but putting that 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy' cover at the end of Help! make it easier to skip that cut when the vinyl was first released :)
Your videos are so immensely helpful. You always have the perfect examples to showcase a very particular piece of music theory. That makes it much easier to understand those concepts.
The IV-iv minor is so common that every time I hear a major key become minor in a song I naturally assume it's the IV chord even if I wouldn't recognize it otherwise.
Another killer video, David. I love hearing the alternate chord examples. That Moody Blues example made my heart happy! My mom and I used to listen to it when I was growing up. The prevalence of modal interchange (and even the term itself) was a recent revelation for me when I starting to break down modern music. It's not as easy to find songs in my library that are not mixing modes, or modal, than I thought!
A lot of Radiohead songs use modal interchanges: Everything In Its Right Place, No Surprises, Just... also, I think Airbag uses a modal interchange between the Ionian and the Lydian modes, in the verse.
I was gonna comment that I was surprised he didn't mention No Surprises rather than Creep, bc in No Surprises the I M->IV m progression is really the core of the song.
Considering how prevalent it is, I feel like this topic is really underexplored! Particularly so-called "majorised minor modalities", or what Philip Tagg calls "permanent Picardy thirds" (i.e., a minor mode but with a persistent major chord I).
Oh Comely by Neutral Milk Hotel is an interesting example where the vocal melody is all in E minor but the guitar consistently plays an E major chord. So instead of constant picardy thirds, it's almost like constant #9s
Request - I'd love to see you use a bit more Roman numeral notation. I realize it depends on the tonic, but it'd really help me think about the progressions as you talk about them
@@DavidBennettPiano Great! Alexander took the word out of my mouth with that comment. The roman numerals would really help in your eplanations. Great work David!
The intro to People of the Pride by Coldplay uses modal interchange form the parallel minor scale and Coloratura from the same album borrows from Mixolydian, Lydian and Minor. Its a cool song. Most of Coldplay's early stuff had a lot of modal interchange. Great vid and keep up the great work!
As a songwriter I love the experimental doors your videos open up, especially beatles modulations type stuff. Fascinating. Have recently been playing around with the phrygian mode and was looking for one of your excellent videos explaining the posibilities of changing between modes within a song a little more in depth. Any pointers you can offer here would be much appreciated :) All the best (from York)!
I honestly don't know where I'd be in my musical exploration without this channel. Pure gold! This is the channel I recommend everyone that ask questions
"Anthem" by Rush uses a similar progression to the "Gimmie Shelter" and "Lola" examples. Most of the melody and chords fit in E minor, but the tonic is an E major chord instead. Most of the song relies on a C-D-E (all major) progression. "Can You Feel It" by the Jacksons also does this in F#, with both the melody and chords mixing F# major and F# minor. The chorus chord progression is D-E-F#, all major.
“Falling On” by Finger Eleven has recently been my favorite example of this. It’s crazy how well it works despite the melody being unable to decide if it should sing C or C#.
I've spent the afternoon working my way through your videos, and am not only finding them useful, but also really like the way you link the ideas, e.g. in the Waterloo example where you explain that both the Lydian mode exchange and the Secondary Dominant ideas are correct... this is a sentiment that I find reassuring rather than hard 'right and wrong', and I have to commend you on that, because it gives me licence to go ahead and write music without worrying about stuffing up ;-)
Another great example of modal interachange from major to minor is the opening line of each verse of Nobody Does it Better by Carly Simon (C, Cm, G), which is my personal favourite
Thanks a lot for your videos, I'm learning so much things with them and I try to apply these music theory concepts to my songwriting. Thank you! I really love your channel. 😊
Some of my favorite moments of major/minor modal interchange that aren't shown in the video are at the end of the verses in "i will follow you into the dark" by DCFC and the outro to layla by eric clapton with that beautiful dominant 7th add 9
Fun fact: You can find modal interchange in the end of Franz Liszt's fourth Consolation. The left hand plays a bass octave going down the C-Sharp natural minor scale, while the right hand plays D-flat major, A major, G-flat major, E-flat minor, and finally D-flat major again. The music that it comes after is in D-flat major. I think it's a pretty interesting and satisfying way to end that chorale piece.
This is the topic that most interests me! One of my favorite videos of yours of all time is the one where you ranked the modes by brightness. That subject basically changed my life and ever since I have rediscovered music for myself and has also changed my compositions forever.
I got my Grade V theory when I was a teenager because my piano teacher wanted me to have a clear road ahead to just get the practical exams I couldn't reach without the theory exams. I haven't played piano or keyboard since I was 18, but the theory stuff is fascinating -- and learning it really enhances the way I can listen to music even if I can't play it.
It was interesting you bringing up modal Mixture to remove the diminished in Nights in White Satin because it seems that bypassing diminished chords is one of the biggest uses for modal interchange! People just don't like using diminished chords in pop and rock songs!
I would not see it as avoidance of the half diminished chord. The F is a nice replacement for the dominant chord B, because it is its tritone substitution. At the same time it fits into the descending bass line pattern. The tritone substitution is hidden though, because it is not played as a dominant seven chord, but as the basic triad.
Another cool thing is when they play the tonic chord but you cant tell if its major or minor (like by obscuring the third note, or having different instruments playing both minor and major 3rd). Like at the end of Remember a Day by pink floyd, it plays tonic for a long while which sounds minor at first, but then gradually changes to more major sound with the vocal melody
"Are You Gonna Be My Girl" and "Hey Joe" sound like they're using power chords. Those aren't really major chords because there's no third. Also interesting to note how the "Hey Joe" progression goes around the Circle of Fifths.
Hey Joe has 5 major chords. I don't know any song where Hendrix use only power chords. If you play the song it will sound very wrong if you use a minor chord somewhere. I am sure that every guitar player will agree with me.
Your videos are always top notch, extremely educational, and interesting to watch. I wonder about these modal mixtures if they mostly occur randomly, added by the composer based on what they feel resonates, rather than a song writer purposefully taking a chord or chords from another mode? Especially because, as you point out several times, the "deviant" chords used tend to bring forth a certain emotional color that adds depth to the song that would not otherwise be there if the "correct" chord were chosen.
The IV-iv movement in Forrest Gump by frank ocean is really cool too because of how consistently it’s used, it doesn’t even register as out of the key after a while because it just sounds so good and it’s repeated so much
First song I thought about, when I heard "Modal Interchange": Udo Jürgens - "Ich war noch niemals in New York". The song uses similiar chords to "Are you gonna be my girl". Nice coincidence.
6:30 yes!! You put in to words something I was going to ask you but didn't know how... It's like, the classic modes are useful but seem to just be a convenient (and historical) set of scales because they're all the same "spacing" just starting at different points... So at the end of the day you could play any amount of the 5 "outside key" notes and if they fit a classic modes then we might say we are playing in a certain mode... But if we pull any strange combination of "wrong notes" it doesn't really matter if it fits a classic modes or mixed modes or whatever... All that matters is it sounds good. It's a very important lesson to learn that music theory is not a dictatorship, it's information that is extremely useful but music is still "free" and that's what makes it beautiful and why we never run out of new music!
Yes, but theory is a good way of understanding the relationships between those notes. It's not rules, it's just explanation/tools for understanding patterns in music. Of course just play what sounds good - the explanation doesn't really matter. But the explanation makes these patterns easier to figure out. Not everyone can just instantly play amazing music. And that's why theory exists - it helps with figuring out these patterns that sound good. It allows you to "play what sounds good". If you play more chromatic stuff, it very likely has some kind of an explanation behind it. And knowing these explanations helps, because it gives you tools for "playing outside". Outside playing isn't random. Someone with no knowledge of how it works will most likely not be able to make it sound convincing.
One style of music with a lot of modal interchange is Tango. These songs are typically in a minor key, but occasionally switch to the parallel major. Although there are some the do it the other way.
I have a question for you that I've been wondering about, since these are scales I've been toying around with a lot lately myself: how common would you say that what we know as the "gypsy scales" are in popular music (or other genres)? I think I know of at least one example cuz I've been enjoying the song a lot recently: "Playground" by Bea Miller (from the Neflix show "Arcane"). If I'm not mistaken, the verses are in standard Phrygian, but in the chorus it shifts to the Phrygian dominant scale (Phrygian with major third). It's a really fun song and I'm curious now what your thoughts on these scales in modern music are. :)
Your videos are incredibly informative and interesting for people who want to learn more about music! Congrats for such a great work! Greetings from Brazil! 🎸🎵
I studied theory at University for a year and left feeling more confused than educated. Admittedly, classical theory is much more rigid in its structure but these lessons are much more practical and digestible. Thank You!
Sorry for plugging Girls Aloud once again, but quite a few of their songs use modal interchange. For instance, Call the Shots, while written in the key of B minor, also uses a G sharp minor chord in the verse. Black Jacks, which is written in the key of F major, introduces a B flat minor chord in the verse. The Promise, which is written in the key of A major uses a D minor chord in the pre-chorus section. However, my favorite has to be The Show which borrows so many chords from different modes of A flat and switches them around in the blink of an eye that it’s easier to describe it as simply in the key of A flat.
Yoo i was waiting for one of you music you youtubers to break this down for the masses. Now i can link this instead of arguing with people on this topic 😅
Hi David, I'd like you to examine some of the solo material of The Beatles members. There's a plenty to choose as im sure you are aware. Take 'Pipes of Peace' for example, I think a masterpiece from Paul. Have a lively day. M
8:00 I like to see this kind of progression as a use of the axis theory on the axis of ausome's pointed chord progression, so instead of C G D Em we get C G F Em by replacing two chords from the dominant axis (or alternatively replacing the dominant of the relative major by the tritone substitution of the dominant). This kind of chord also has a pgrygian sound, which may or may not be why the moody blues put it in there, but anyway I think a better comparison would be between F and D and not F and F#m.
9:01 Maybe something useful to address this "overlaping" and ambiguity of harmony analysis rules, particularly when referring to secondary dominants, is to identify where the chord is headed. . If its headed towards it's own grade IV, such as in the example 'D' (tonic) > 'E' (??) > 'A' (grade IV of 'E'), then 'E' is a secondary dominant ! Whereas, if 'E' would head towards any other chord different than 'A', it would be a Lidian modal interchange. Settled !
Great video, as always! I'd be very interested to have your take on analyzing the chord progression of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John. It seems to have some modal interchange.
I ******* love this video. How helpful, concise, well researched and presented should be a ******* on youtube video that teach. Would ******** love a part 2 on modal interchange. Do you have anything on counterpoint or tchaikovsky
I'd love to see a video on songs that are in different keys in the verse and the chorus. This topic came to mind specifically when I was playing Kodachrome by Paul Simon, which has verses in D and a chorus/outro in G.
Both "Columbia" and "My Big Mouth" by Oasis do a similar thing to "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" by Jet. They mix major chords from A Minor and A Major but melodically sit firmly in A Minor. The fact that both songs use only major chords makes them sound bright despite their aggressive, distorted guitar tones.
Wait... why isn't "Nights In White Satin" simply in straight E-Phrygian? There's no F#, at least not in the passage that you're using. (It may appear elsewhere.) EDIT: Duh, most of the verses are alternating Em and D. Got it.
I like the most the idea of "it being something else" than major or minor. I just feel like it should have its own theory, when to pull that mix out to have an effective change. The first two examples really felt like melodical ties to the next chord, to have a nice little bridging, which just happens to be interpreted as major -> minor -> next chord, where it actually in my head categorizes/plays more like as major -> neutral shell of the chord with melody line -> the next chord. I suppose this video's songs and examples emphasize how in the end music is mostly about feeling it and being creative, maybe hearing it in your head and letting someone else care about describing the rules around what sounded good when you came up with it and what is happening there. In the end the modal videos didn't satisfyingly explain when to take advantage of them either to create something very nice. Just that you can do it and sometimes they're used very briefly even, just to do a trick. And in that moment they feel just like an out of key note that just fits perfectly (die to the function of modes though). It's so odd how even when you learn why something works or what is happening is still different than just coming up with something that sounds pleasant and makes a hit song.
Funny enough, I had just been thinking about "96 tears" by ? and the Mysterians, and that song is a great example of modal interchange, vamping between G major and G minor.
Don’t forget that while the keyboard riff vamps between the G major and the G minor chords, the bass alternates between G and C, thus transforming the G minor chord into C7sus2. So I don’t think it really qualifies as a modal interchange.
I found it odd that you didn't consider on any of these songs that the song isn't in the key of the tonic at all. "Hey Joe" for instance could be argued that the final chord of E is the home key. There are objective tests you can run on any chord in the sequence to help determine the home key. Beatles "Day in the Life" uses a variation of this chord sequence where I'd argue that the tonic is the home key. However, "Hey Joe" seems to release and find comfort when it lands on the E, thus establishing E as the home key.
forgot to add: "Hey Joe" has a 6 bar verse instead of the typical 4. While controversial, I'd argue this architecture also influences what is the home key or at least how the ear interprets the home chord.
Hey, I absolutely love your videos. You proove that modern music is not a simple, easy thing that anyone can do,, even if it's not jazz fusion or prog. I'd like to add my oppinion though. I think the most common modal mixture, especialy in the classic rock and oldschool pop, is the dorian/micsolidian modal interchange. Is it correct? I'm still a student. Thank you so much for your videos!!!
