This might be just in my head...so apologies if you’re not hearing this......the track is “Secret World” from Peter Gabriel’s Secret World Live, album. All is good and pretty much as you would expect in terms of chord changes etc....however if we start at just before 4m 58s on the iTunes track....the lyrics are “breaking it up”.....”shaking it up”.....”Making it up”.....there is a chord/bass change just before each of these lines...but it’s the last one at 5m 06s/5m 07s....just before the “making it up” where something is happening which is just other worldly to my ears...it’s only one note with a bit of a keyboard trail but it’s hairs on my neck job....why is that? What’s happening here?
@viz perhaps? Again, maybe it’s just me?
Comments
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
The part you're asking about brings a funky section to a close with the following:
C/D G/D C/D G/D C G D
So I think you're hearing the tension of holding the D underneath the C and G chords before the final line of plain old C and G chords which then resolve to D...you're in the key of G at this point and the tonal centre is D (hence D mixolydian).
Because of what the guitar plays, I'm hearing the C as a Csus2 (another D note!). Nothing crazy happening...just brilliant orchestration (expect nothing less from PG).
It's a C1 according to the keyboard display when I play it using IK Modobass, as I haven't got a real 5 string bass so I can't go that low on my actual bass.
Gsus4 (2nd inv), G (2nd inv).
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Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Thanks for posting this, albeit for a different reason
I haven't got an instrument in front of me to check but is it just a key change at 00:37 ("except the ones who are dead"), or is there something else to it ?
Likewise, I'm assuming it's just a return to the original key at 00:53 ("still alive") ?
Is there something significant about the key intervals that make it slot in much nicer than other key change types ?
Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming
It’s in D major.
Then it goes to a borrowed chord, Bb major, the “flat 6” (or bVI) chord, which is borrowed from D minor.
This is called modal interchange, and you’d be forgiven for expecting her to progress back to the I chord via the "flat 7" too: bVI - bVII - I .
(See 4:00 below:)
https://www.coursera.org/lecture/musicianship-harmony/key-of-d-major-and-the-bvi-bvii-i-progression-vccBS
BUT! Then, instead of going to the D, we suddenly realise the Bb chord is treated as the IV in the brand new key of F.
So the song has modulated to a new key through a device called “common chord modulation”, for obvious reasons (even though the Bb isn’t exactly common to both keys).
The return journey is similar - the chords are progressing nicely in F - with the ii chord (G minor), the IV chord (Bb major - the one we just had), etc.
BUT then when she moves to the iii chord, which should be A minor, it's suddenly an A7, which is the dominant of D major, so it's a V-I cadence, back to D.
I would play that A7 as an altered chord to make it even more slippery into the D, so 5 x 5 6 6 x. It still has the dominant 7th and the major 3rd, but it also has a minor 6th (which most people write as an augmented 5th). That minor 6th has an uncanny knack of wanting to slide up a semitone and make the chord want to resolve up a perfect 4th to D major!
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming
Yep it’s the same as the return in the previous song.
Interestingly, F# major is an unusual key - it has 6 sharps, which is a lot. It’s right at the bottom of the circle of 5ths. People are often torn between using F# major or Gb major because one has 6 sharps and the other has 6 flats - they’re both as “bad” as each other.
The reason I’m saying this is because there’s an interesting thing in the melody, the tune.
But it’s always best, in my opinion, to understand what’s happening with the chords regardless of keys, first.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
They go from I to IV (F# - B )
Then that Bm is suddenly used in a ii-V-I, which is a very common musical device in all forms of music. It’s like a IV-V-I but softer.
So it goes Bm - E - A.
Modulation from A to F# using a secondary dominant:
(I - III)
A - C# - F#.
(V - I)
( I - IV - iv)
F# - B - Bm - E - A.
( ii - V - I)
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I can also heartily recommend Eric Taylor's The AB Guide to Music Theory Parts one and two. If you have done music theory you will almost certainly have these anyway but even if you are a complete theory novice they are brill. Cheap too.
Yes - my daughter uses them for teaching music theory to children. They’re great.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.