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Secret modifications do not need to remain in your face! Some of the best essential changes are hidden in plain sight, so today we'll have a look at 4 tunes that you may not have actually understood modification secret!
The outro music to this video is my track "Mothers Day" which you can hear completely on Spotify:.
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0:00 Intro.
0:59 Breeze Tune.
2:04 Africa.
3:35 Message In A Bottle.
6:06 Lovefool.
4 Songs you didn't notice change key
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Neneh Cherry’s ‘Man Child”, delightful subtle changes everywhere!
Walk the Line by Johnny Cash… each verse is a key change, but slips right in
Good one! A more in-your-face Johnny Cash key-changing one is “5 Feet High and Rising,” which actually uses the key changes as word-painting!
Is the song ‘Stereotypes’ by Blur at the same time in the key of B minor and B major?
The “Message in a Bottle” example makes me wonder if such key changes are perhaps made to accommodate vocalists’ ranges.
same with “Africa”
How about a segment on songs with key changes between the intro and first verse? To me it’s a stylish way of opening a song. Warning – once you’ve heard a few you’ll be listening for them all the time! For example Everlasting love/Love affair 1960s?
There’s a song, Ordinary, from the band Copeland that has its intro in F and the verse changes to Cm. It’s jarring but beautiful.
Wouldn’t it be nice…
Until I played it in a covers band once, I never knew the last chorus of ‘Stacey’s Mom’ is a minor third higher than the rest…. really surprised me! I think it’s because the key change actually comes in the guitar solo which distracts you, then stays in that key for the last chorus.
Sweet child o mine is one I always think of for a great key change
I love the many keychanges in ‘Penny Lane’ from the beatles. There are a few key changes that are obvious, but others are less obvious. The song sounds like such an innocent simple song, but is so much more complex…
Those new vocals on the C Major version of Lovefool are wildin
Don’t Worry Baby by The beach Boys, from E to F# in the pre-chorus
Perhaps the reason for the key change in Africa is that moving it a whole step down made it easier to sing. Repeatedly singing the high B puts too much strain on the voice.
Thank you for a great video on key changes. Actually one of the most extreme key changes I know is within the Imperial march by John Williams. When he jumps from g-minor to c#-minor without any modulationg chords in between. These keys have not one single note in common!!!!! Notice that before that, He evn jumps between g-minor and e flat minor, which is also extreme, but at least they have two notes in common… You should do a video on that as well….
I don’t guess it’s particularly subtle, but the change at beginning of the instrumental section of Songs From the Woods by Jethro Tull is especially brilliant. I believe it remains in the same key but changes from a major to some sort of minor. If you understand music theory better than me (not a high bar), perhaps give it a listen and tell me what is happening precisely there because I’d love to know
It wasn’t until I listened to ’60’s music as an adult that I realized virtually every song played on Top 40 radio had a really significant key change — as you said, it was clearly about injecting energy into songs you would have to get through many minutes of commercials in order to listen to and therefore make it worth the wait — interesting stuff David, thanks!
A Man I’ll Never Be by Boston has a really fluid key change in the solo (half step down).
What about the verses of “Just A Girl” by No Doubt, repeatedly pivoting between D major and D minor? Cory from 12tone has described this as an example of “hybrid tonality,” but what do you think? Would it be one of these?
Good Times Bad Times by Led Zeppelin is stealthy at changing keys. Verse1 is in E, Chorus goes into A then Verse2 is in F# and we only go back to E after the second chorus. And the song is well under 3 minutes.
Another interesting example is the refrains in Zeppelin’s “In the Evening”. Instead of having a chorus there’s that “Oh, I need your love” refrain. It’s in D, but after Verse2 it’s in G and then later in the song it’s in D again…
That chromatic climb in Lovefool is the best part of the song. No wonder they kept the key change!
Fascinating how playing an instrument in my childhood and young adulthood makes every single one of these changes very obvious to me. Not once did I NOT notice that the key changes before you specifically pointed it out. I haven’t played my instrument for fifteen years or so but the musical hearing just stay with you.
2:18 Africa: theres actually two key changes: the A chord and melody are consistent with E major scale (and inconsistent with B). So from a key perspective (ignore modes), it’s B to E to A, rolling perfectly along the circle of fifths.
So you could argue the subtle key changes are the ones along the circle of fifth, like in scarborough fair