Songs that use the Subtonic chord
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The subtonic chord is the major chord built on the lowered 7th degree of the major scale, so in the key of C major, Bb major would be the subtonic chord.
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0:00 Introduction
1:16 Examples
2:00 Modal Mixture
4:49 Mixolydian mode
6:20 Pianote
7:19 the "open" mixolydian sound
8:40 Leading tone chord
11:57 Patreon
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Re 4:30 In equal temperament, C flat is indeed B natural, however, I am not so sure they are the same pitch under just intonation.
Hi David, another classic chord progression you could cover is the James Bond chord progression, i-bVI-vi° or i-bVI-IV. It's kind of like the parallel minor version of the Augmented Climb progression you already made a video about.
I've got some suggestions for songs that use it:
• i-bVI-vi°:
- James Bond theme - Monty Norman; John Barry
- Caravan - Duke Ellington
- Du côté de chez Swann - Dave
- Sunny - Bobby Hebb
- Surrender - Elvis Presley
- Glass Onion - The Beatles
• i-bVI-IV:
- Skyfall - Adele (obviously that's based on the James Bond theme, so a lot of Bond songs feature this progression)
- Heart-Shaped Box - Nirvana
- In Bloom - Nirvana
- The Avengers main theme - Alan Silvestri
- Around the World in 80 Days main theme - Hans Zimmer
- Atomic - Blondie
- Sorry Angel - Serge Gainsbourg
- Dieu que c'est beau - Daniel Balavoine
- Seventeen - Ladytron
- BABY SAID - Måneskin
• This one starts it on the relative major so it goes I-vi-IV-II which is equivalent to bIII-i-bVI-IV, but I thought it was worth mentioning:
- Monde Nouveau - Feu! Chatterton
• These ones play the progression in the key of the ii chord instead of the i, also worth mentioning I think:
- Help! - The Beatles
- I Get Around - The Beach Boys
- In My Room - The Beach Boys
- Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground; Nico
- Femme Fatale - The Velvet Underground; Nico
• An honorable mention, because it uses the relative major chord instead of the i, so bIII-bVI-vi°-bVI which is equivalent to I-IV-#iv°-IV:
All Star - Smash Mouth
Edit: Also probably worth noting how a lot of these songs use the 1st degree of the minor scale as a pedal tone under all three chords.
Great idea! I’ll keep it in mind
@@DavidBennettPiano make it happen
I believe the second progression is also used in the Avengers theme? I love it because it has a nice chromatic climb inside the chords. The 5th of the i chord climbs to the root of the VI chord, which climbs to the 3rd of the IV chord.
Also, the Bond theme that most clearly outlines the "Bond progression" to my mind is Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name." He even walks up that chromatic climb with his vocal melody.
@@rome8180Yeah I'd already put the Avengers theme in the list if you look.
Kurt Cobain also highlights the chromatic climb in In Bloom. Is that like a grunge thing to do or something lol?
@@althealligator1467 I never thought of the Help! progression being related to the Bond one, cool. In typical Beatles fashion they took something rather cliche and disguised it, or rather, elaborated on it very well:
* As you point out, it appears on the ii chord rather than the i
* There is a clear change of chords underneath (ii - bVII - V7). Much of the time this cliche takes the form of a static chord, or pedal in the bass, with the characteristic rising chromatic line above.
* The aforementioned chromatic line isn't emphasized - it's merely implied by the chord progression.
* There's a very prominent *descending* bass line that is arguably one of the most recognizable elements; I'd even go so far as to call it a countermelody.
The combination of the rising upper line being downplayed, along with a prominent falling lower part, really do disguise the cliche and make it sound, well, like there's no cliche at all!
TH-cam genuinely thought that I was intelligent enough to know what “subtonic” means!
Sub means subway sandwich
Thanks man.
You’ve really cleared that up for me.
Tonic is that shirt what Link wears to beat Zelda.
Don't you remember learning about subtonic particles in chemistry class?
Your subtonic is gin and ice
I'm from Chile, our national music or dance or something is Cueca, it frecuently uses, by example, C-Bdim-Am-G and then inmediatly G-Am-Bdim-C , all together as an intro for different songs and of course in different keys
interesting, can you mention some examples?
I think one of the things that makes Hey Jude so powerful is WHEN they use the bVII chord. The whole song, in the key of F, is completely diatonic, only using the triads of the F scale. But when they get to the outro, that's the first time we hear any chromaticism (the bVII chord) in the song, which contrasts so amazingly & so effectively with everything we've heard up to that point. And it's why the outro works so well.
I have used the bdim - C progression instead of G7 - C as the contrast becomes stronger, the bdim does not share any notes with he tonic, while G7 share G with the tonic chord. Also, I saw an edim resolved to a F in end of the short Pianote commercial in the middle of this video!
I need to wait until the end of David's videos before commenting, because the way things are structured means that most of my 'wait a minute, what about x' thoughts tend to be resolved a few minutes later!
I use to think of it like a little bit of mixolidian. In fact, every single mode has its own vibe. So I think subtonic chord bring this mixolidian vibe into chord pregressions
I agree. I don't hear minor; I hear mixo.
@@multi-purposebiped7419 Matosis?
No. Stop trying to make everything about modes. It's about keys. Keys.
@@SamBrockmann I agree. People say "in a mode" too much. What does that even mean? You're never limited to just using the notes of that mode. Like you said, a mode isn't a key, so to be "in a mode" really doesn't mean much, other than when a song just happens to never use any other note than a specific mode - but I mean... it could have... You're in a key, not a mode.
But regardless, the bVII is absolutely making use of the mixolydian mode, which has implications like for example tonicizing the IV and ii chords.
@althealligator1467 , no. The bVII is using a non-diatonic chord in that key. Modes died a long time ago; let them stay dead.
"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" by Paul Simon uses the vii° chord from both the G major and E minor scales (the song is in Em). In fact, it includes a D#° and an F#° adjacent to each other.
4:34 "Sea flat just means be natural."
- ancient sailors' proverb
It's always a good day when David Bennett video drops.
True
❤❤
I love the fact that the guys you used for the Hey Jude example even replicated the infamous profanity in their version! :)
Your channel is absolutely useful. I can pick up a subject any time and focus on a scale, or any other detail I would like to get inspired by. Thank you so much for your work!
Thank you for another excellent video. I'm always indebted to your broadening my appreciation of music in general (as well as featuring some of my favourite artists - in this video, Fleetwood Mac and ELO)
How bizarre! I was trying to figure out how the chords in Mr Blue Sky worked in the song's key only very recently. I came to the conclusion that the Eb was borrowed from mixolydian. Wonderful to see it covered here and explained.
Mr. Blue Sky uses the same chords as Yesterday. In the key of G, it would be G, then f#min, then bm, then em. This basically serves as a ii-V turnaround to the parallel minor of G: em. Later in the song is when Mr. Blue Sky uses the subtonic or bVII chord. Pretty sure Yesterday was the first rock/pop song to use this progression (the ii-V turnaround to the relative minor). Besides Mr. Blue Sky, Gram Parsons uses the same progression in SHE, And Billy Joel uses it in one of his most famous songs that unfortunately I can't recall off the top of my head at this very moment.
The subtonic is also heavily featured in Tom Jobim's Aguas de Marco.
David ,
Thank you 🙏🏼
Incredible video. Clears up so much for me. Thank you so much.
Thanks David! They fit together the pieces of a thousand songs played on guitar, finally understanding the connections between chords and their functions... those of us who don't know anything about harmony see the light with each video of yours!
Excellent video, thank you, David.
8:16 i love how the cover has the hidden F bomb
Thank you,David🌹🌹⭐🌹🌹
In Jazz music, the Maj7 scale allows for the vii°7 chord or the m7b5. I’ve seen it notated that way. It’s a better leading tone here than the G7 and has a totally different connotation. It’s usually used as substitution in face for the V7 in a lot of iii7 V7 Imaj7 turn around a to get to a repeat sometimes to go to the bridge of the song. I know this is a primarily pop/rock theory channel, but it bears mentioning.
would it also not be used in a 2,5,1 in the minor scale, e.g B half diminished, E7, Am. Or is the minor scale not used alot in jazz
@@will-dh8ip In the charts that I create for the songs that I write, and for the songs that I chart for other people that chords can be used in the 251 progression, but also, it can be used as a way of tensioning up to the I of the chord scale
I always thought of this as modal interchange as you say. The Beatles use it a lot in their early songs. I feel like Help! would be an example, with the verse starting Aeolian and having a Mixolydian turnaround so that it doesn't feel too resolved and it can loop around again.
Thank you sir, such a great channel. Cheers!
Excellent video. Love how simple you make it..
Glad you liked it!
Superbly useful information. Nice one.
Dropping down a chord tone is so dreamy like , especially if the second chord is a Maj7th !
I just want to say thanks. I really dig the way you teach.
Another excellent video. Thanks
Probably my favourite chord to write songs with. Just something fantastic about it.
As a bassist jamming on chord progressions with classic rock guitarists, I've seen this, and played along without really seeing why. Thank you.
Jazz musicians often talk about back door progressions in tunes like Stella By Starlight, where a dominant on the flat 7 degree of the scale is prepared by a minor chord a fourth below, and followed by a major chord a whole step above. Stella uses this same pattern to modulate to the perfect fifth.
One of the most helpful videos yet. Thanks
Glad it was helpful! 😊😊😊
Another wonderful theory video. Thank you!
Thanks for including Hey Jude, the first song I thought of when you mentioned the flat VII chord!
Great video as always David. I'm currently trying to write 100 songs and just recently wrote one with the chord built from the flattened seventh degree.
vii7 chord is used to lead into parallel minor tonic vi via III7. E.g. in "what a wonderful world" after "I see them bloom" which ends on I chord, we get vii7-III7-vi "for me and you"
Native Lexingtonian here: Great to see you using LLB's cover of Sweet Child O' Mine.
Excellent video! I always think of Maroon 5 'This Love' as a good example of using a diminished chord, except that it is in a minor context therefore using C harmonic minor as parent scale - haven't heard many examples in a major key
i love videos like these because i end up applying a lot of what i learn into my songwriting. some videos like 'songs in 15/8' i end up skipping because theyre similar to your other videos about time signatures (though that might not be the case because i dont watch all of them)
Me too
Once again as always a Great Video, and this example of the song by Elton John was awesome, thank You very much 😊
David, have you ever considered making a video solely focusing on the harmonic series? It's honestly one of my favorite things about music technicality and the more alien topics of music. I would love to see that if you consider it!
It’s certainly on my list yeah! 😊😊
Excellent video! Probably my favorite major chord that can come up in a key (even though it's not even in the major key). Three examples of the bVII jump to mind for me... "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" by Billy Joel, "When I Was Your Man" by Bruno Mars, and "I Love You Always Forever" by Donna Lewis. Interestingly the iii chord presents itself in each of these too as it did in one of your examples here.
Paul Simon uses it in 50 ways to leave your lover. It's also in I will Survive. In both cases because the song uses the circle of 4ths.
Em is often swapped for Cmaj7 too.
I think it's worth to mention that Lydian has a pretty satisfying leading tone chord but that's also not used that much because of the fact nobody uses lydian. I really liked the info in this video! It's so interesting to see that people instinctively don't use the leading tone because of the diminished chord. Another interesting substitution i hear all the time is a Major V chord in Aeolian songs which works but is in a similar spirit to this leading tone substitution. Great vid!
Great video, in "Tiny Dancer" I think that adding the note G also makes a smoother transition from Am7 as it's also part of that chord. Bdim sounds too isolated to me.
I actually like that sound quite a lot. To make it better I would probably use a Cmaj7 or Cmaj6, but I'm not sure as I haven't checked on my instrument yet. Back to the point: I think the isolation of it makes it unexpected, which can be resolved very nicely if done correctly! :)
@@alicen3162 I quite agree - it seems to give a stronger resolution to the dominant. Of course, both are excellent, but provide different sounds...and the beauty of music is that both are great artistic interpretations that each of us can have different but equally valid experiences with.
@@stevenkramer3431yeah i always felt diminiahed chords had a stronger resolution and dominant chords feel a little smoother.
EXCELENT VIDEO!! ALWAS MAKES A GOOD WORK!!
Thank you very much!
I like how they included Paul swearing in the Hey Jude recreation 😂
Brilliant. I thought the Diminished Chords were not used in Rock was because they were guitar unfriendly for changing between chords. Yet another great video. Thanks
Another example of the subtonic chord that I've found is in the song "1-2-3", by Len Barry. It goes:
I-bIV-IV-iv-I-bVII
C-Bb-F-Fm-C-Bb
Great share, awesome as usual...
I've always thought of the subtonic chord as IV/IV but in most of the examples you give, it doesn't lead to a IV chord! Thanks for the two alternative explanations and a way to tell which is which! 😊
Love this channel!
Thank you 😊
Excellent explanation. I’ve always wondered how to use this chord and learned it was hiding as a V7
Laura Nyro's "And When I Die (One Child Born and a World to Carry On)" has a beautiful bVII to IV to I movement in every verse. She pairs the move each time with lyrics that contain (what linguists would call) a shift in intonation. The loveliest example is the first time she sings the line "but I pray there ain't no hell". Also, I'm pretty sure the chorus of Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends" begins with a bVII.... THANK YOU FOR YOUR WONDERFUL VIDEOS!
Good shout that's a nice song
That nah nah nah part of hey Jude is used so often. "Freedom" George Michael and Scissor sisters "take your mama" come to mind
Brilliant. You have such a talent for making things clear. If there were more teachers like you, then there'd be fewer middle-aged rock guitarists like me playing catch-up!
You Really Got Me with this one ; )
"Sinead O'conner - Nothing Compares to you" - Very dominant "subtonic chord" in the chorus. Whilst In the key of F, the song falls back to D# m/Cb m
Kinda crazy no one is mentioning this…
Just noticed that "30 minute boyfriend" by Julian Casablancas follows a similar chord progression to "It's only love"
The example that springs to mind for me is Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It's in the key of F but uses an Eb in the third line of the verse. I always wondered about the music-theory behind this. Another interesting one is the Stereophonics I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio: I would argue that it modulates into the key of D for the bridge (that sounds like the key centre to me, anyway) but then moves to a C major chord. Another really interesting video - thank you.
I’m pretty much addicted to the Mixolidian vamp. It makes every song better.
Totally agree
“Never My Love” by the Association has a prominent bVII chord. It’s the third chord in the verses
I-V-bVII-IV-I
i.e.
(I)You ask me if(V) there’ll come a (bVII)*time*…
An example of the leading tone chord usage is Oh Such A Spring by Fontaines DC, the song is in the key of F# the first chord of the bridge is Fm7b5. You’re quite right in that it is rarely used in practice that was the only example I could think of! Great video once again :)
Yeah, but the Fm7b5 chord is effectively the same as C#7 in first inversion, or C#/F. The added 5th degree of the scale makes it a much more common choice than the diminished triad. David explains this towards the end of the video, but doesn't mention the "m7b5" term for some reason. G7 has the same four notes as Bm7b5, but in Bm7b5 the G note is played only at the top, as a seventh.
The triad built from the 7th degree is used in diatonic chord progressions, mostly in classical music, making that chord effectively the 2nd degree of another minor key, while keeping the tritone interval
I wrote a song called "Dead Inside" which has a bridge that has these chords: G / D / G / D / Em F#m G A7 Bm C#dim7 A / in the key of D major. I think it works because the vii° chord goes to V dominant and adds harmonic interest. There are no bvii chords.
The second bar of a Bird Blues (e.g. Blues for Alice) starts with viiø7 as it starts cycling through a ii-V sequence.
This is great, I thought I knew a lot of theory. Turns out i need to keep learning a lot more. I realized that the 7th chord was rarely used for being diminished, but I didn’t realized that a solution is to use the subtonic. I thought people just used the 5 dominant 7 to get that diminished feel and keep it sounding good. I’d never heard of the subtonic till now.
Paul Simon lands in a subtonic 7th in the 4th bar of the verses in "Still crazy after all these years". Very nice tension. The same is being used by ELO all over the "Out of the blue" album (Mr blue sky - 4.18)
Great information!…and well presented.
The bVII-V-I resolution is probably the most wide-open sounding progression I've heard! I even call it the 'Wondrous Cadence'. It appears prominently in High Sierra (by The Trio), Rocky Mountain High (by John Denver),and Someday, Little Children (from the Sesame Street soundtrack), to name a few.
Another song that uses the subdominant chord is George Strait's 'Heartland', where it appears in a bVII-IV-I sequence (essentially replacing the V with a IV).
Did you mean bVII-IV-I rather than bVII-V-I?
@@althealligator1467 Yes. My syntax was a bit confusing...
@@InventorZahran
Elbow's One Day Like This uses I - bVII - IV - I, like Hey Jude.
Gold ❤
Whether vii-dim is used or not actually has more to do with the fact that when it IS used, we would typically analyze it as V7 on first inversion. I do encounter a dominant vii in music (secondary or diatonically) but it is more often than note an half-diminished (aka, with a m7 interval) or a first-inversion dominant 7th ( a 65 chord in classical analysis).
I’m so glad you put this one out. I was composing a piece and tried to stay in the key but my ear wanted the major sound, not diminished so I kept it 😂 I have to remember music theory was made AFTER we made music to explain what our ears want ❤ beautiful video I always pick up something new from your content ❤
Yes, ivs often thought of that natural 7th as sort of an inversion of the dominant 5th
There’s probably quite a few uses of the vii°, but they’re all notated as V7a because most people treat the dominant as implied. It’s probably also possible to find a song that has a V7a without the dominant in one place but with it in another.
The subtonic chord in your many examples is used as the so-called plagal cadence, bVII-IV, f.ex. in the "Hey Jude" coda (I-bVII-IV-I).
DAVID - please do a video on pet sounds!
Love your work.
Use of the subtonic chord to avoid a diminished triad also hearkens back to the Medieval practice of the "soft B," or lowering the 7th in Gregorian chant to avoid a dissonant tritone in the melodic line. In fact, this is the origin of accidentals in Western music, with B being the first note chromatically altered. th-cam.com/video/lN54Y73LlLo/w-d-xo.html
That's the first time I have heard that explained, thanks alot, you could have added that the B dim chord is made up of two minor third intervals, whereas all the other chords have both a major and a minor third interval, and that is why it doesn't work very well, and the flat 7th note as the root of that 7th chord creates a more typical major chord with a major third followed by a minor third interval.
Tremendous video. This bVII has been driving me crazy. Why, why, why? Now I know. Thanks a zillion.
It's a key change
@@StratsRUs Well, now I don't know. People online argue whether the song is in B Mixolydian or E Major. The I, IV, V, ii, vi (all the chords) are in E Major. If it's in B Mixolydian, then the A Major is the bVII, but the F# minor is the minor version (v) of the V. If it's in E Major, I'm not seeing a key change.
Is it possible the order of the chords imply a key change without there actually being a key change? Still over my head I'm afraid.
The vii° chord is used in jazz to tonicize the submediant chord along with the III7.
Take a listen to:
Love is here to stay (at 0:32): th-cam.com/video/iZKHgUkYYZY/w-d-xo.html
I'm In The Mood For Love (at 0:05): th-cam.com/video/-mO9Rq6a43k/w-d-xo.html
This chord is also used in the circle of fifths progression (Autumn Leaves, Fly me to the moon)
A song that sort of uses the leading tone chord is Lover You Should Have Come Over by Jeff Buckley. But it’s a half-diminished (aka minor 7 flat 5 - much softer than a straight diminished) and doesn’t resolve to the tonic which goes to an augmented major 3 which is even more uncommon.
Casey Jones is interesting in that it is a I-IV progression for the choruses, until the outro chorus jam where the subtonic is added in to make a I-♭VII-IV progression with a much more rock feel than the quirky-folk feel of the song proper. And Lord knows the Grateful Dead love their Mixolydian scales.
1:43 ii I is circle of fifth move since minor chord has two roots, here using the second root. The change from I to bVII is a modulation, then another circle move to the new V. Melody carries on the third and fifth of the respective chords. Exactly the same thing happens at 1:27 don't stop.
8:33 Hey jude on the Eb modulation chord the trick is the melody in the first bar emphasizes the g thus the third of the chord, then on the Bb circle of fifth move, the same melody but now the f thus fifth of the chord carries it.
Bowie heroes unique with the modulation at the very end. Childs play consisting only of modulations.
"Autobahn" (Kraftwerk) is a good example - it has the slow descending melody on the mixolydian scale, and then the three major chords on the flat 6th, flat 7th (subdominant), then the root.
Classic Mexican Mariachi music uses the diminished seventh chord, in fact it is the standard way of ending these songs where they resolve from it back to the root.
Oasis don't look back in anger uses this chord in the bridge section
Joe satriani big bad moon he uses it as a run as you will distinctively stands out
In tune
I don't understand why people don't use this chord more as I think it's a great chord for teleportation using any of the 7 possibilities from the one you are in key of.
It's also great for trying to find something new if playing the blues using the tritone instead of going 4 tri 5
Use 4 tri slide 6 for example works wonders
I can't remember there being one in don't look back in anger? Bridge is IV-iv? But flat seven definitely a Noel chord cos it's all over 60s/70s rock
Steely Dan - Reelin in the years. The main intro vamp with the iconic guitar melody moves between A major and G major, implies Mixolydian. Very obvious dominant 7 there. Also The Allman Brothers - Ramblin Man main vamp is G major to F major. It seems common in blues based songs that arent a typical I IV V progression to use Mixolydian, as the Dominant 7th is very bluesy. Another common obvious interval substitution in the blues is the b5 or #4. Rather than adding the b5 to create the blues scale, we can instead just # our 4th degree (augmented 4th) and that gives us the Lydian Mode. Combine that #4 and b7 and you have the Lydian Dominant scale, the 4th mode of the Melodic Minor. Using Lydian Dominant in Blues is a more common practice than you'd think, alot of players use it without actually thinking about it or studying the modes of the melodic minor scale.
8:40 the piano intro to the song "Martha" by Tom Waits is going back and forth between the chord Eb and it's leading tone Ddim without the Bb bass note :)
Love how the band covering "Hey Jude" even applied the, um, ad lib just before the end section.
I was impressed too. They even included the subtle F bomb that found it’s way into the original.
Thank you for including Ringo's "fucking hell" in the hey Jude remake
I've used that mystery chord when reharmonizing a song and it sounded OK. In C I called it B minor flat 5 to distinguish it from B diminished or B half-diminished which most times would be taken to mean a four-note chord. It was fun to write an arrangement like that.
I just asked this few days ago in the comments of one of your vids ❤
As I recall, "Seaside Rendezvous" uses a B diminished at the end of the verse before the hook.
9:23 - I think there’s a diminished chord in Heartbreaker by Dionne Warwick. The line ‘Feeling no pain, when will we meet again’ before it goes into the chorus
Masterclass
Thanks for a very informative video. Another example would be the Allman Brothers Ramblin Man..
Much of the Grateful Dead's repertoire is in Myxolydian: St.Stephen, the coda of Casey Jones, The Other One, Morning Dew ...