It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
I'm practicing the Stevie Nicks song Dreams from Rumours.
I reckon that the chord progression is simply F to G and back to F. The F chord is sometimes F major7, sometimes F add9 ... and the G chord is sometimes G7. I play one, and one only, bar of A minor in the 2nd repeat of the instrumental guitar part.
So, I have it in C major / F lydian if thinking in modal terms. (G mixolydian at a push is also possible).
Our keyboard player, playing a piano part from a music score reckons it is in A minor and he plays arpeggiated Am to G to F to G repeatedly (with some additional notes making those chords in to 9s etc).
The melody is pretty much centred around the notes C and A and the others in a pentatonic C, D, E, G, A (C major pentatonic or A minor pentatonic - you take your pick).
C Major is the parent of F lydian, G mixolydian and A minor.
But I do not hear / see / think the song as A minor at all.
What do you reckon?
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Depends on how you think about music.
I mostly think in minor keys, so would go with Am.
Someone who mostly thinks in major keys would go with C major.
As the melody is centred around C and A either would work in theory.
There is an Am chord but no C major.....
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
(This is why I subscribe to the logic that music is best written without worrying about theory...)
But it's definitely in A minor because the chorus proves it by using the A minor as the tonic, which she lands on the so often. It's also a mournful melody. It's A minor.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
@viz WTF is a "fist chord"?
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
All for A minor so far ....
I took a lot of persuading towards F Lydian from this article - specifically from page 111
http://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=gamut
It's mostly re-enforced by the fact that most melodies (either vocal or guitar) are using the corresponding pentatonic scale.
I don't get why your keyboardist would be playing an arpeggiated Am to G though, it is not in any version of the song I've heard.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
I know that Lydian is a mode not a key.
In strict terms Aeolian is a mode but we do allow ourselves to have music in minor keys.
I know that it's all the white keys on a keyboard.
I know that if it's called C Major then it is just a piece with a missing tonic.
I don't think that one A minor chord in the progression should define the key.
That said, the melody doesn't stray too far away from a pentatonic and only occasionally brings in an F note ( for a tonic note if F lydian) or a B note (for a #4 to really define lydian).
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
@viz isn;'t that the "Jazz scale" that you've described? so the intervals are the same ascending and descending, which gives different notes?
It might just be my understanding, but the natural minor has the same notes as the major, and the harmonic minor has the same as the major, apart from the (in the minor) 7th note is raised by a semi-tone?
EG using Cmajor/A minor
C major C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C
Am A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A
Am harmonic A-B-C-D-E-F-G#-A
Or am I completely wrong and need to go stand on the naughty step?
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
But most importantly, I don't think we should think of the minor scales as being related to the major (in the same key, I mean; obviously A minor is related to C major), but as follows:
Aside from knowing what the tonic is, the first thing to know is, is it major, or minor? That's fixed by the 3rd note.
Then if it's major, it's either a standard Ionian major (natural 4th, major 7th), or it's Lydian (augmented 4th) or it's mixolydian (flattened 7th).
If it's minor, it's either natural minor, " Aeolian" (natural 2, natural 6, natural 7), or it's a deviation, for example dorian (raised 6), phrygian (flattened 2), melodic (raised 6 and 7 if playing ascending), or harmonic (raised 7, causing an augmented 2nd at the top).
I do not agree with the strange convention of saying "melodic minor is basically ionian with a flattened 3rd"; it's more correct to say "melodic minor is basically aeolian with a raised 6 and 7" - BECAUSE the distinction between major and minor is so damn important that, after noting what key the scale is in, it's the first thing to note. It's the primary differentiator. So it doesn't make sense to describe any diatonic minor scale in terms of deviations from any major scale. They should be described in terms of deviations from their natural minor.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)