How George Harrison changes key in Beatles songs

this video is sponsored by museversal when we talk about classic beatles key changes we're almost always talking about lenin and mccartney songs like penny lane or lucy in the sky of diamonds with the 20 odd songs that george harrison wrote for the beatles he was never as trigger-happy when it came to modulations but on the rare occasion that he did choose to include a key change in one of his songs it would always be something really creative and interesting that would add real depth and dimension to the song so today we're going to look at three examples of george harrison changing key in a beatles song while my guitar gently weeps begins in the key of a minor but the chorus of while my guitar gently weeps is in the parallel major key of a major as we approach the chorus we get this e7 chord which is the dominant chord in both the key of a major and a minor as i mentioned we're currently in a minor so we would expect this e7 to resolve to the tonic chord of a minor but instead george takes this opportunity to resolve us to a major shifting us to the key of a major [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this shift from a minor to a major gives the chorus an uplifting burst of brightness shifting from a minor key to the major key always has the effect of opening up a song but rather than doing the more predictable thing of shifting from a minor to its relative major c major george has shifted us to its parallel major the parallel major is simply the major key built on the same tonic note so the parallel major of a minor is a major as we change key here the tonic note remains the same but the tonality swings from minor to major at the end of the chorus we then shift back to a minor ready for the next verse and just like at the start of the chorus this is achieved with an e7 chord the dominant chord perfect cadencing us to the new tonic chord of a minor [Music] [Applause] [Music] this shift back to minor plunges us into a darker more mournful sound perfectly illustrating the lyrics of the song a george harrison song that features a similar key change to while my guitar gently weeps is something something begins in the key of c major but for the chorus we modulate to the key of a major [Music] the key change arrives almost as a surprise because it subverts our expectations at the end of the first verse we get this guitar melody that resolves us back onto the tonic chord of c major somewhere but at the end of the second verse rather than this melody landing us onto c major like it did last time it instead lands us onto the new tonic chord of a major this shift to a major gives the chorus a bright open sound this is because a major has three more sharps than c major so shifting to a major makes the music sound like it's been lifted raised up now at the end of something's chorus we modulate back to the original key of c major for the next verse and just like the key change we had going into the chorus this key change out of the chorus also comes as something of a surprise the chorus begins with this eight bar phrase which wraps up with this g chord resolving to a major and then this descending chromatic line this sets up our expectations so when we hear this phrase again we expect it to resolve once again to a major but this time the g chord instead pivots us back to c major [Music] this change works really smoothly as even though we now have a c chord here instead of the a major chord we got last time the melody doesn't actually have to change because the melody note of e features in both the chords of a major and c major so in both instances it's just as harmonious the shift back to c major is then hit home by this descending line which rather than climbing down chromatically from a like it did last time descends down the c major scale easing our ears into the c major tonality so it's not a shock when we then are in c major for the next verse [Music] [Applause] [Music] something's key change is actually quite similar to while my guitar gently weeps in while my guitar gently weeps we shift from a minor to a major in something we are shifting from c major to a major and as you can see c major and a minor use the exact same notes there are relative keys two sides of the same key so both of these shifts have a similar effect because we're introducing the same number of sharps to the key we're just coming at it from a slightly different angle the last example that we're looking at today was actually the first occasion that george harrison used a key change in one of his beatles songs it's if i needed someone if i needed someone begins in a mixolydian a mixolydian is the same as a major but with the seventh degree the g sharp lowered to a g natural [Music] the middle eight of the song though modulates to the key of b minor [Music] now this move to b minor barely even feels like a key change and instead feels like we've just moved to a different space within the same key and this is because a mixolydian and b minor both use the same notes they are relative keys so shifting between the two introduces near to no friction at all just like a typical shift from relative major to minor in fact although i've used the change in key signature here to show where the shifting key is it would probably make more sense just to transcribe this whole song with a too sharp key signature a d major key signature as both a mixolydian and b minor are modes of d major now i should note that here george is actually using a variation of the b minor scale he's using the b harmonic minor scale harmonic minor is exactly the same as our regular natural minor scale however the seventh degree has been raised as we can see here in the melody and in this f sharp major chord which would usually be an f sharp minor chord the harmonic minor compared to the natural minor scale has a better sense of resolution to the tonic it's much clearer in harmonic minor where the key center is and this works really well here because in this brief key change the use of harmonic minor makes it clear that b minor is at least for now our new tonic [Music] chord at the end of the middle eight we shift back to a mixolydian for the next verse and this is once again really smooth after resolving our current tonic chord of b minor we then get this e7 chord that perfect cadences us back to the new tonic chord of a major c [Music] this modulation is super smooth because this b minor chord is acting as a pivot chord a pivot chord is a chord that works well in both the current key and the destination key so it can be used as a point of transition a point of pivot between the two keys b minor is the tonic chord in the key of b minor but it's also the two chord in the destination key of a so this chord effectively has two functions here the resolving tonic chord for b minor and the two chord for the upcoming key of a mixolydian simultaneously resolving the old key and giving us a clear 2-5-1 perfect cadence into the new key as you've probably noticed today i've used recreations of the beatles songs rather than the original tracks because if i were to use the originals for more than about four seconds this video would have got automatically blocked but what you may not have noticed is that i've actually made all of today's recreations with the help of this video sponsor museversal museversa allows you to hire professional session players remotely they have an impressive roster of musicians including everything from vocalists brass players strings players woodwind pianists guitarists and drummers so whether you want to record an entire track from the ground up or just add some extra instrumentation to an existing song all you have to do is head to museversal.com choose your player or players and book a recording session you'll be in the zoom call with the musicians as they record so you can give them feedback on their performance and discuss the arrangement and at the end of the session you'll promptly receive the high quality recorded audio in the format of your choice museversa will also offer pre-production arrangement and mixing and mastering services so you can actually take a track all the way from conception to completion with museversal i had a really great time working with jacob to record the vocals for these beatles recreations and the whole process was super slick and super enjoyable sign up with the link below and start turning your ideas into a musical reality today and as always a massive massive thanks goes to everyone who supports me on patreon including the names you see on screen right now and andre science diageo andy deacon andrew andrew brown andrew sussman austin barrett austin russell bob mckinstry whitney parker cameron alvila colin aiken chris cabal christopher ryan david rivers donald howard dr darren wicks elena scorchenko eugene leroy fd hodor greg kobowski iolamola toner hamish brocklebank hernick kutcher hugo miller ivan pang jake fisher james ko j.a kochensberger john dye josh sandolin justin vigger lee lawrenson mark ziegenhagen max o'keefe melody composer squared melanie schoenert michael vivian nancy gillard nathan lawrence nathaniel park paul muller paul paisle peter dunphy richard bride roger clay john kennedy steve daly stephen lazzaro tim beaker homer aharoni trisha adams tim payne victor levy vidad flowers vladimir kodakov vaulty and weyland fairbanks [Music] you

Channel: David Bennett Piano

Views: 449,919

Keywords: george harrison, key change, modulation, songs, examples, music theory, analysis, A major, C major, A minor, parrellel major, key

Id: s0Hpv4rkQoc

Length: 11min 41sec (701 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 07 2021