Songs with a Downwards Key Change 

Pin your own comment, mate, it's pretty far down in the comments.

Thanks for the correction. One small detail, the F6 chord (or E6 in the correct key) is really an F#/E. The E aug chord (your ii chord) is a weird F/Ab!-kind of an incomplete b13b11. Took me a while to hear this one correctly.

I know from learning some of Stevie's other songs that he likes the black key keys.

@@toprak3479 thanks for the reminder! I thought I already had!

David Bennett Piano Okay. The ideas are the same, thanks.

This is exactly what I'm thinking when people analyze The Strokes or Nirvana. Like, no, they just thought it sounded cool. Stop it.

Just because musicians might not be strictly aware of the theory in their work doesn't mean we shouldn't analyse it.

That is just what you hear explained at 14:09

Music theory isn’t necessarily meant to explain what the composer was thinking when they wrote it. It’s meant to provide a framework of how the music functions and compares within our pre-existing knowledge of music. Not that it matters since David has an… unorthodox understanding of how functional tonality works. Some of his reasoning is pretty arbitrary; you could argue that the shift from E to A in Penny Lane is either a modulation up or down. But that doesn’t matter within functional harmony. What matters is that the key of A is related to the key of E by one sharp and modulations between related keys like this are a common occurrence in western music. Paul McCartney might have wrote it this way not only because it sounded good, but because he’d heard it before in other music and wanted to evoke a similar feeling. Paul has said that he was influenced by Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, and Chuck Berry among others, who all were influenced by the jazz of the early 1900s, who were influenced by Romantic composers, and so on and so forth. This "passing down" of influences is so common in music that most music theorists, and many classical and jazz musicians for that matter, don’t bat an eye when they see it. I’m not saying that Paul McCartney didn’t write great original music. But to say that he arbitrarily picked chords and melodies out of a vacuum because they "sounded good" would be a disservice to all the music that came before his.

Exactly. Over analysing music is just as time wasting as people who try to analyse UFC fights.

Percussion is great to hide the harshness of key changes because the percussion comes to the forefront and surprises us...just like an out of key note would. Was a tasteful way to help blend the change.

I couldn't hear it myself because of that

Tweba Senoi it’s quite an easy trick to do, your ear is listening to a certain key which has its home (in example, key of c being the note c) as soon as you get distracted by something your attention goes straight to that allowing for the home to be swapped behind your back...and unless it’s been replaced with a drastically different home the small changes will go unnoticed

That snare also scared the shiz out of me

@@callumbooth6802 Personally I find it very lazy, if that was the intent. Let the change make so much harmonic sense, due to your strong voice leading, that you could strip away everything else and it would still work. If the harsh change serves a specific purpose, let that shine as well.

That evokes the same for me!!

Cool thought, you're right!

True also the fact that de piano was recorded by stroking the strings directly instead of pressing the keys (I hope I explained that well lol) helps with this.

Yes!!!

Yesss!!! Same!

The edit in that line was a masterpiece of the Beatles. It is really hard to not unhear it.

Link?

Only SpektralZ what do you mean?

@@everberry51 if you havent noticed, it goes from take 7 to take 28 in the second chorus. In "Let me take you down cause Im *going to Strawberry Fields* ", Ringo's drumming becomes very intense and John has a devilish voice or should I say slower or deeper.

\: D @everberry51 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-62HLZVVFRwU.html

yeah its always made me really weirdly unnerved

A good way to display the themes of the uncertainty of love and growing up smack dab in the beginning of the album.

I realise why ive been obsessed with the into now

It sounds like a generic Android alarm

Also the first note sung is an 'A', which fits well into both A Major and F Major.

It honestly explains why the lyrics make absolutely no sense :P

@@SomeOfTheJuice They do make sense if you look for it.

John Lennon: *Laughs in walrus noises

@@SomeOfTheJuice Apparently the lyrics were about a boy who ran with a gang, killed someone and had to leave, while being pursued for it.

McCartney did the same thing numerous times.

Because the keys aren't a straight line so much as a circle, this is natural! Depending on how the notes are placed when the key changes and what chords are used, it can feel like an upward change because it could technically be described as one. (It's just going up a lot.)

And also because often the actual chord change into the key is an upward one - like in Layla it moves up from a C chord to a C#m, plus the tempo speeds up, and the vocal comes in up the top of his range...

Explanation for some of the cases: 5:47

Even the operatic section in Bohemian Rhapsody feels like there's an upward movement in terms of energy and mood of the song from the somewhat sad/emotional verse section

I thought so! That's what makes it rhyme with "suburban SKIES."

Okay good... the Mandela Effect is still fake...Phwew!

It says "eyes" on my copy of penny lane

in my arse

"WET beneath the blue suburban skies" too

I like to live on the edge. Every video that doesn't get atomic-bombed by the content ID system is a victory!

@@DavidBennettPiano no joke. When you kept playing the actual music for more than one nanosecond I was biting my nails and figured this video was uploaded only 5 minutes ago.

I was trying so hard to get a stupid hair off my screen then i realized it was your avatar.

I thought that too until I saw that it moved with the screen as I scrolled, lmao

That’s the precise reason I just subscribed!

QueeferSutherland that’s the genius of Paul McCartney.

It's also realy cool that Paul McCartney didn't need to know anything about music theory to do it.

True. I didn't know the key changed until I studied music theory and listening to the track one more time

@@paulnottherealmccartney8558 nice username

@@bignutsinyourmouf4606 Thanks mate. I emphasized the NOT since people were actually mistaken me for Sir Paul McCartney which we all know doesn't surf the web and youtube for some unknown reasons. Thanks anyway lad

trent reznor does this whenever he switches to major

Looks like those sticker things(?) on MSN Messenger that we used to send to friends so they can collect them and use them in the chat. 2000's kids will understand me 😆

LOL

Yeah like davie504 used to be good but now he just repeats the same words like "epic", "bass" and stuff like that and makes meme review kinda things honestly he is one of the worst right now

@@ukkovuorela4196 I agree. I really enjoyed watching him play bass without uttering a single words (that was his unique style) He is not really fun when you listen to him talk.

You put it perfectly, man.

@@ukkovuorela4196 I'm so tired of meme shit on RU-vid. It's not funny if you're over the age of 14.

YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHICH SONGS USE THIS MINDBENDING TRICK!!!!!111!1ii

Maybe I don't listen to enough music, and I must confess I don't know anything about music at all, but I always liked how some 20th century rock songs would go through different stages. Layla has a clear intro, singing section, guitar section, piano section, then final instrumental section. To me the changes help tell a story, but I again must restate I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I think it's planned, because the way it gets back to Dm for the chorus using an A pivot chord wouldn't work if the verse were in Dm.

Very well put! It's the sound of good adrenaline (excitement) turning bad (panic and desperation)

Finally someone who had the same thought. At the end the song jumps all over the place with its keys (well done ofc).

I love to use this as an example too. It's what makes the song.

I was waiting the whole video for him to mention that song

Love that song!

It's jarring. Up and down and all around.

He does a similar trick in Bad love so I think perhaps there was more to it, than stiching two parts together and more it was a trick he liked the sound of

Badge too I think

agreed!

Yeah, I think it's mostly about the climate of the song and this kind of change is kinda "depressing" trick, making song sound more sad, which would be correct here because it's not a song about happy love.

Except I would insist that it DOESN'T modulate down to to C#m, it modulates up to E major. The first chord in the verse is C#m, yes. But the verses actually make a lot more sense if you think of them as being in E major, and then modulating back DOWN to Dm for the choruses.

Do I dare speculate (with zero knowledge or evidence) about how much of the brilliance attributed to Paul was actually George Martin? Haven't read any books but I think that guy was more like the 3rd Beatle than the 5th.

Actually, unless my memory fails me...lol,I'm pretty sure that after the last verse,they do 1 chorus in A,and then modulate to B for the final chorus,which still makes it very cool.

@@garycitro1674 Dear Lord. George Martin gets so much credit that he does not deserve. In reality: He suggested some tempos. He arranged some strings. He played piano on a few tracks. This is the kind of stuff that goes anonymous on other records. Andrew Loog Oldham arranged strings on Stones Records. Ian Stewart played keys on Stones records. No Beatle has ever suggested that George Martin ever contributed to the songwriting of the Beatles. Never has a producer received more credit for such a workmanlike contribution.

@@reginaldperiwinkle I don't think it's quite fair to describe Martin's contribution as 'workmanlike'. His string arrangements on Beatle records were distinctive, outstanding and innovative. Yes, he translated the brilliant ideas of two non classically trained composers into reality, but added real value too in my opinion.

I think Martin was what the Beatles needed. However Martin often said Paul nearly always had his songs arranged when he came into the studio and knew what he wanted. I think McCartney even suggested the french horn to be played on Penny Lane after seeing it on TV. Whilst Martin deserves his accolades McCartney, Lennon and Harrison were in a class of their own.

explosu for real. There’s been countless instances of me adding a song from a video that I otherwise wouldn’t have known about. Like the other guy said tho it’s just people tryna cash in however possible

I feel the same way about the exorbitant licensing fees for music in media, such as TV, movies and games. Doesn't the music industry realize how many people buy music, and discover new musicians, because they heard a song on a tv show, or in a video game?

@@kirinrex ​ Virtually no one buys music now. Streaming services pay pennies for work that takes years to achieve, and exposure is absolutely worthless to us on that level. I mean yeah it's great that people are listening, but musicians are one of the most criminally underpaid professions outside of mainstream "artists," which are really actors performing with a much larger production team. Collecting royalties is one of the safest ways to earn money as a musician, I'm not against that, and don't even fucking get me started on game devs just expecting us to work for free, but just outright claiming a video's whole revenue or demanding it be taken down when it's not even about distributing your music specifically, is absurd.

@@explosu Maybe if there were acts like MJ or Genesis or Van Halen or Madonna today, there would be a bigger draw to go to live shows and record companies could make money that way. Live shows are cool when there's a band, like Genesis or Van Halen, on stage playing difficult and awesome music, or when the spectacle and theatrics are just that off the wall in the case of Madonna or MJ. There's no fun or camp in today's music, everything is sterile

According to fair use doctrine, educational videos like this shouldn't be copyright claimed at all, but unfortunately laws like that are only enforced with lawsuits, which are almost impossible nowadays (especially with mandatory arbitration in most EULAs).

Indeed, but the Bb section is actually more in F major than Bb major, it just starts on the IV chord.

@@althealligator1467 Depends on how you hear it. To me the melody and chord placement put the tonal center in Bb.

@@johndipinto8816 Maybe at first, but clearly the chords end up being IV-V-I in F.

@@althealligator1467 Well, no. I hear it clearly as I - II (major) - V - I in Bb. The melody sits on D for the first three chords (Bb, C, F) and resolves to Bb on the second Bb chord, which ends the phrase.

@@johndipinto8816 Yeah sure, I'm not saying Bb is the wrong analysis, but you can always hear any chord as tonic, it's subjective, plus context alters your perception. The composer only guides the listener through the way they're trying to hear it, which is where keys come into play, but I don't think they're an objective, unilateral, and infallible concept at all. Like look at Sweet Home Alabama, D-C-G-G, people always debate as to whether it's in D or G. The answer is both, because the way the composer guides you through it makes it ambiguous. Every note is diatonic to G major, but the progression starts and loops back to D major, which makes you hear both as resolved even when you're not paying attention to what sound tonic or not. Similar to our Bb-C-F-Bb chords here, where it starts on Bb but is diatonically in F. You can hear both as tonic, but I think Bb is not as obviously tonic as D is in SHA because we only loop back to it once and we don't approach it from a dominant chord. I guess it still sounds tonic though, just like F does. The melody resolves to Bb, but try this: sing an A after that Bb, over an F or Dm chord preferably. You'll see it sounds even more unambiguously resolved.

Thank you!

Thank you!

I agree. The extra work in those graphics and "what if?" is much appreciated.

Gianmarco Lodi of course!! How could I forget Toto! 🤭

David Bennett Piano How dare you 😭

Africa does the same thing. I was waiting for him to talk about it!

And dont forget the most important thing of this piece, the fucking shuffle

"masterpiece" lol

I'm glad I helped!

some key changes feel painful, and that is one of them. Ugh.

Nope. It's lovely, joyful downward shift.

I find it nice, too

I just listened to it 3 times and didn't notice it, so I guess it was good? I love the song.

the intro is in f major, moving down to c major for the verses, and up one tone to d major for the chorus

And that's what makes it sound so wonderfully CHAOTIC, to go with America's favourite dysfunctional family! (Bear in mind this was started at a time when angry, argue-y sitcoms were _rare_ .) Danny Elfman is awesome. I like the Simpsons, the Tim Burton Batman theme, and of course Oingo Boingo...

@@robinchesterfield42 Chaos on the surface...Groening is as sentimental as Spielberg

Shut up Flanders!!

Hands down the most clever theme music ever made. It doesn't actually sound like anything else. It's so weird how one of the most iconic pieces of music of all time is so...strange...as far as theory is concerned. Danny Elfman had a stroke of genius making it

Robin Chesterfield *bare

*Indeed!*

It really is . That’s a very suave change . Probably the most technical of all the changes discussed here .

The beatles 'And I love her'...starts in F#m (key of E)..jumps up one to Gm (key of F) for the solo.. then ends on a D major chord... for some reason it sounds perfect.. :)...also 'Lucy in the sky' has some strange key changes..and 'walrus'...and 'strawberry fields'...lol...so many...i'll shut up now..

Can you guys tell me about the Beatles a day in the life because that shift reminds me very much of bohemian rhapsody, but I'm not well aware of key changes and all that, but it seems like quite the song it comes together in a cacophony of sound then boom

So I went to the day in a life video... 2009 remaster turns out the same piano was used for each song. That's pretty crazy

Love that song

I don't think that's correct. I reckon it modulates up a half-step to Db major, and it finishes in that key.

Anirudra Gc you know, panic has so much intricate songwriting. I think they’re going to have some major staying power as time goes on.

Technically going up perfect 4ths not down

they're all very straightforward modulations to related keys though

i was just thinking “hm panic at the disco sound like they should have this” and i saw this comment. what are the chances

Modulations to the fifth aren't that special

GiacomoJimmi Sting also does it with “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You “.

@@diddygt Same album. Must’ve been a phase ol Stingo was going through.

@@GiacomoJimmi yeah he was getting all jazzy up in here.

Thank you for mentioning this. I had "Youth" playing in my earphones during an early morning jog, and when the key change hit, I saw the sun burst through the horizon. It was so exhilarating that it gave me a burst of energy. Easily my favorite recent musical memory.

I'm surprised he didn't mention it, considering it's from one of his favorite albums!

I thought that comment said “mental breakdowns” for a second and I started laughing.

Lardo Yek same

Doktor_Kitten SAME

Idk most breakdowns are in the same key is the main riff or whatever

@@notabed800 There's been a recent trend of guitarists pitch-shifting down for breakdowns, such as in Stitch by Wage War, or Blessed Be by Spiritbox

best new wave song of all time

The verse is in Eb but the chorus is in C major/A minor. At the end of the verse they step up a half tone to E ("one half won't do...") which is a secondary dominant leading to Am / F / G / C in the bridge. The chorus is similar to the bridge: Am / Dm / G / C

Talk Talk were the masters of the key change

@@triksox You're right - I was trying to remember this song from memory, and I keep mixing up the chords in the original with the chords in the No Doubt cover version, which is a half step higher than the original version. At least I was correct that the chorus is a downward modulation.

Agree. It sounds so good.

came here to say this, such an excellent song

Yes! What's cool about that halftone change is that it really adds to the psychedelic sound of the song. Almost like you're coming down of an acid trip! Literally!

I love that song

Khai Quan-Nicholls same

Same

Yeah if the theory behind it wasn’t being explained to me I would’ve just thought it was a mistake

Noah Hess I don’t think that’s actually the thing that makes it sound out of tune. It’s been a while since I watched the video but I think it was an accidental or some kind of odd note regardless of the key change

Khai Quan-Nicholls you’re probably right. I guess theory just tells you what’s happening not the intent behind it

Doesn't the last chorus also keep modulating over and over?

Which is interesting, because it's thematically very similar to Penny Lane.

He could do a whole video about all the things that make that song genius, honestly :D

@@cdifreakguy or Madness in general. They had pretty atypical chord progressions for a ska band (primarily)

I was playing Bb and Eb instruments when I had to do Our House, but I think it was in D, modulated to B, modulated to C, D, B and faded out.

It's okay, the ending has all the cheese you could ever want.

I'd like to add as examples within many of David's videos have shown or have made it clear. The Beatles very often changed time signature not because they set out to change time signatures as some sort of display of how clever they were, but rather to invoke a certain emotional context at any given moment during the course of a song. I feel that it's pretty clear when listening to Happiness is a warm gun that the the timing changes that are made throughout the song are done specifically to help add emotional weight to the subject matter even though they couldn't read or write music they were clearly aware of how to utilize timing and voicing to convey the emotion that they intended.

True !!!

When the phrase "key change" is used, something obvious like the downshift in "Prologue", as you indicated. Then others in this comment section point out the downward key changes in Earth Wind & Fire's "After The Love Has Gone" (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-S383VfgAETQ.html) and "In The Stone (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oaCnjA50W9E.html)", songs which I should know better than just about anyone on youtube, and these are far harder for me to discern because the key change occurs from chorus to verse or vice-versa

That's the first song I thought of when I saw the title of this video.

It’s because a lot of his songs are very jazz-based. Lots of minor 7 and major 7 chords and 2-5-1 progressions.

@@AaronB99999 He really likes using the "back door" change, too.

Golden Lady

Almost every song on SITKOL

That wasnt one of them

You beat me by just one year.

I actually love when they key change down at the end of Close to the Edge when they'd play it live.

Devon Dahlien as soon as i saw the video title it was he only song i knew off the top of my mind that did this

Talk to the copyright thing guys

I'd say that roughly half of them aren't downward, even when Johnny sings lower. You're right though there's a lot of downward modulation in I walk the line

It modulates up and then back down.

Jeff Teza 😊😊😊

Underrated song

yeaah

Thank you - that really means a lot!

You're correct

I studied music for 2 years at college, a long time ago

Ben Shapiro doesnt like it xD

Nice one! I'll have a listen now

@@bronghusphidalski522 "I'm scared of black people so I call them thugs"

Definitely get a kick out of listening to almost anything Kendrick Lamar from a musical perspective, especially anything from TPaB.

@@bronghusphidalski522 He literally lives his life in the most anti "thug" way possible, what are you talking about?

me too!

Your name is literally John Lennon

Me with Beatles, Queen, and EJ. Seeing two of those guaranteed my click

You beat your wife and son

ploppolp LMAO HFHDKZKGDZ

Beat me to it!

Thank you! I was looking to see if anybody said this before I did. The stepward key changes down with each repetition of the verse ending on the next note down is, to my ear, pure genius.

Yep. Absolute genius.

I love YES for all the unpredictable stuffs they always do

Thanks! You're very welcome. Thanks for watching

Thanks!!

That's an excellent documentary to watch.

Thanks!

No Content 🙂🙂🙂

Ha! You beat me to it! 😉

Beat me too ! Well now I’m so satisfied I’m on my way .

this way more than one downward change!

@@johnmorrell Oh, yeah. By time the song has almost faded out completely Anderson sounds like he's doing an imitation of Johnny Cash.

@@onetrueslave indeed. Very odd arrangement. They played it like that ( decending ) live on one of their last tours, as part of the studio albums live package, and J Davison sung it great too. It was fantastic to hear and see that version live.

Good to see another Yes fan here! The Yes Album, Fragile and CTTE are unquestionably their best period.

Tyrion Lannister thank you! 🤩