Guitar Noise

Dual Citizenship

Hotel California poses other interesting problems as well. For instance, what key is it in? B minor, right? How about D major? B is the relative minor of D major, after all. But listen to the first line of the chorus. That cadence alone makes a good argument for D major, so much so that the plagal cadence that follows it (Em to Bm) doesn’t have any feeling of finality to it at all, does it?

We could suggest, from a music theory standpoint, that without a V to I cadence (in D this would be A to D), the key of D major does not really get a chance to establish itself. This would be a valid point. But it would be better to talk about modulation instead. Music is a flowing, living thing. It rarely stays in the same place very long (Phillip glass notwithstanding). Melodies float over an ever-changing progression of chords. It makes perfect sense then, that the tonality of a song would also be subject to permutation.

Let’s go back to Walter Piston for a definition:

The process involved in changing from one tonal center to another is called modulation. Modulation represents the dynamic state of tonality. The word implies that there is a key in which a piece of music begins, a different key into which it progresses, and a process of getting there.

Needless to say, we are not going to get deeply involved in this subject today. But we will look at two examples of how this works, if for no other reason than to look briefly at “pivot” chords. After all, I did promise that last time…

These songs will also (hopefully) help to demonstrate how tonality can shift, particularly when the relative minor of a major key is involved. Both of these songs (conveniently) are in D major and/or B minor, so let’s briefly review their scales as well as their primary and secondary chord choices:

Okay, let’s examine Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb. When you listen to this, it is hard not to be struck by the tonal difference between the verses (or what passes for verses) and the choruses. Even though both parts of the song are in the same key signature of two sharps and even though they both share virtually the same chords, the change of mood when the singer starts in with, “There is no pain, you are receding…” is quite remarkable. Part of this is the instrumentation, but a lot of this is because of the phrasing and the cadences of the song itself. Listen and see:

Can you hear the shift in tonality? Where exactly does it happen? To my ears, it occurs right at the first appearance of the D major chord. What really seals it, though, is the D to A and back to D again. There is nothing like an authentic cadence to nail down a tonality.

When I hear this song, I perceive it as two separate tone centers, one of B minor (the “verses”) and one of D major (the “choruses”). Because each section ends on its own root, there is a distinct division between the two. I’m going to diagram it out again, this time in Roman numerals. Thanks to the marvels of technology, I can differentiate the two tonalities. The B minor based chords will be in GREEN and the D major based chords will be in RED. Here goes:

Not all songs are this clear-cut, though. Take One Headlight by the Wallflowers. My friends and I can sit up all night arguing about which key the song is really in (I do lead an exciting life, do I not?). Here are the actual chords of the last half of the first verse and the chorus:

Do you hear how this song plays with you? The verses start with what would be a nice plagal cadence but then it goes right to the F# chord. So you think, “Okay, V to I, F# to Bm, It’s in Bm.” And that’s great until you get to the chorus. The F# to G you can write off as a deceptive cadence in Bm (V to VI), but the G to D to Em to A, again to my ears, roots the song in D major. Listen to it especially in the last two lines of the chorus. Hold the A when you play it and ask yourself, “If I didn’t already know that the next chord is a G, what would I play?” When I ask myself that, D is the first answer.

The tonality of One Headlight is almost constantly in flux. If you wanted to try to explain this in terms of theory, the best way would be by use of what I call “pivot chords.” A pivot chord is a chord that exists in a number of tonal worlds and serves as a bridge between two tonal centers. In this example, for instance, we could call the G chord that heralds the start of the chorus a pivot chord. It is VI in B minor (and thus completes the deceptive cadence F# to G) and it is also IV in D major, so it also functions in the plagal cadence of G to D. It also works in reverse when you come to the end of the chorus and go back into the chord progression of the verse.

Let’s take one last look at Jakob Dylan’s song. This time, though, I’m going to use the Roman numeral designation, again with B minor in GREEN and D major in RED

One of the things I really like about this song is the V of VI to IV progression. It’s used in more songs than you’d think. How often have you seen an E or E7 to F progression in the key of C? It’s not only a classic deceptive cadence (V of VI should normally resolve to VI, of course) but it just sounds very dynamic.

Boy, we’ve certainly covered a lot of ground here, haven’t we? If nothing else, this should show you that while theory is a terrific tool, there can be dangers on using it as your only tool. Sometimes something just sounds right and then you just hope to get the theory to explain it as best as it can.

Anyway, as always, please feel free to drop me a line with any questions, comments, concerns and such. Until next week…

Peace.