The way you just went through FIFTY-THREE Beatles songs...and avoided a copyright strike, is masterful! I know you utilized a lot of midi, your own recordings, live stuff, and note for note covers. But all that takes work. More work than merely playing the actual Beatles song would entail. So....thanks for doing that! Some bands are harder to dig into on music channels, but you've found a very nice way to go about it anyway.
This was amazing! I was surprised Harrison had so few key changes, but then, he had relatively few songs on Beatles' albums. His solo work features a lot of modulations/weird unexpected chord progressions, part of why I'm a big fan. Keep up the good work!
Your analysis, as always, is quite enlightening. I can hear something a thousand times, and after seeing you translate what is actually happening, I can somehow hear it for the first time again! GLORIOUS!!!
Good Day Sunshine also has a surprise modulation/key change right before the coda/fade out, which adds a huge amount of interest and excitement to the song.
Yes, the only cool thing in that song imo. Can’t save the otherwise boring song imo but adds an interest and a reason to not skip it, although I do when I hear Revolver
Very erudite as always. Quite amazing how good the Beatles were at using music theory tricks without knowing music theory. I like the "Here There and Everywhere" key change especially.
This is a great analysis. I've played several of their songs on the piano and I've noticed these subtle key changes but never did it occur to me how many of their songs involve this. To me that seems to be one of genius methods they used that makes their music irresistible. But I can't help but wonder how much of these key changes is the Beatles themselves vs George Martin who understands these nuances.
Great video! Having studied Beatles key changes on guitar, my absolute favorite is "Here, There and Everywhere." From my songwriter's perspective at least, it's the entire song structure - chord changes and melody complementing each other - that just humbles me every time I play it. The melody rides so smoothly over the chord changes as they shift effortlessly between major and minor keys. Incredible! An entire video could easily be devoted to just this one song. There are just very few compositions quite like it!
I had no idea there were so many songs with key changes. The one I like best and noticed only because I love playing it on guitar is And I Love Her. It's such a smooth change on the guitar solo that you wouldn't even notice it unless you tried to play it.
Regarding Hey Jude vs Norwegian Wood 100% agreed on your take!! Norwegian Wood goes from major to minor: obviously a key change. Hey Jude -- well, it's modal mixture or modal interchange, but that doesn't mean it's a proper key change.
@@MyNameIsNeutronyou’re right the bridge is in Bb. I don’t know how he missed this. It even has a transition from F7 to C7 that signals the modulation.
@@MyNameIsNeutron hm? Idk… each repetition of the profession in that part ends on F, both in chord and vocal melody. Like “on your shoulders” - that’s F. Feels very resolved, which to me means it’s still in F. Just borrows a chord from outside the key
@@TTFMjock I mean if it was just one time using the bVII, sure, it could be called just a borrowed chord. But it’s like 3 minutes of exclusively using the mixolydian scale, both in chords and melody. So yeah, the song changes very clearly from F major to F mixolydian, thereby qualifying as a mode change or modal mixture
I was 9 years old (1963) when The Beatles came into my life, and I was actually - believe it or not - a Shadows fan (Hank B. Marvin etc) but I found "real" music in The Beatles. Have played in many party bands over the years, wrote songs and stuff, but f..k they are the best! Appreciate your "intellectual" love of their music mate. Lol!
I've wondered how the first 4 chords of Yesterday fit together for years. I literally gasped when you casually and succinctly pointed out it is "just" a 2,5,1 to the relative minor. Biggest hidden in plain view experience since seeing the Fifth Sense. Well done!
The Beatles and Laura Nyro's revolutionary 1968 and 1969 albums. Nyro " probably influenced more successful songwriters than anyone " Elton John, 2007.
I am learning so much about music thanks to you videos. I can play several instruments but can’t read music and had useless teachers at school. They should use your videos in school. Penny Lane was always my favourite key change school but some of the other songs are more subtle
When just learning guitar I was frustrated trying to figure out Beatles tunes. I had listened to them over and over growing up, but when trying to piece them together, my ADHD would get twisted, distracted and misled 😊 St. Peppers is one of my favorite album ❤ The whole late 60’s era my favorite production of Beatles music
I didn’t even realize most of these songs had key changes! I started getting into the Beatles a few weeks ago, I just turned 15 and I’ve always had a fascination with classic rock and music. When I think of key changes, I only think of those songs where it goes up a semitone or two to reprise the chorus (like ‘You Are Not Alone’ by Michael Jackson) I think it’s really cool how seamless those change are, it’s really cool to hear 😮 I can’t believe I’ve gone my whole life without listening to these songs lol Great video 💕
Those 'key changes' are otherwise known as "the truck driver's key change" and are not really modulations in the same sense as those that David is talking about. Paul Simon has some very neat modulations - listen to "Still crazy after all these years" that has a really 'wide' modulation for the bridge. There is also a very subtle two semitone modulation towards the end of the third verse.
If you want the full experience, spend a month listening exclusively to pre-Beatles pop music and then uncork the Beatles. You'll see how drastic the pre/post-Beatles shift was. You can also see the continuity of the Chuck Berry /rockabilly side of music into the early Beatles cover tunes and musical style. Have fun!
I was just learning guitar. I (thought) I knew the chords to "And I Love Her," but when the solo began, my playing was wrong. I found out I needed some more chords, because as you noted, the song changed key when the solo began. So, that's my Fab fave.
Hi David! Since you enjoy breaking down key changes and are a Radiohead fan, i think you would find the song Speech Bubbles by The Smile interesting!! The end of the song has this really cool descent through key centers that is super fluid, and sounds absolutely gorgeous. It’s by far by favourite the Smile song, and up there with Radiohead’s best work. Huge recommend!!
Hard to pick a favourite, Penny Lane is really quite nice, but we like the examples you give what it would've sounded like if the key hadn't changed. It's interesting that it certainly would've worked like that as well. Makes you think, something to try when you're writing a song, and it seems to work alright, but it might just be missing that one little spark. Certainly something we'll try in our music.
I love a lot of The Beatles' key changes but the one that just makes me well up is Something. That one is placed in such a perfect spot that it feels like you've just been lifted up emotionally but physically set down, all at the same time, there is such a sublime mix of emotions going on when he then says ''I don't know... I don't know!'' and the whole thing falls off the log. It's like the perfect blend that points out that emotions can truly be physical, it just blurs the lines of what thought is and what sensation / feeling is. That one messes with people beyond even the language that they speak, it goes straight to that common language we all instinctively know and use. George was supremely inspired in that instance and all the others knew it. Oh, and Paul's bass playing on that has never been matched in popular music, period. It's so playful and delicate, he puts more nuance into his playing on that track than any other two Beatles songs combined. Arguably their best work, in my opinion. Lennon's contribution probably came down to a couple of words and some playful guitar jabs and scats under the best solo Harrison ever played, likely it was a nice break for him not having to work so hard and a chance to kind of kick back and watch his buddies shine, just enjoy being in the greatest band in the world - a moment which he probably desperately needed.
Bravo !! Well done. When people argue that The Beatles were just another band, here's one of the elements that sets them apart, from being just another band, in a major way. What I'd like to see is a comparison of how many Rolling Stones songs change key vs The Beatles. This could be quite revealing. You did an excellent job of making this video. As a jazz singer/songwriter, I'm always thinking about the effect of key changes and whether or not they'd be appropriate, when I'm writing. This little video gives some insight not only into key changes, but how to sneak them in. George Martin, no doubt, played a large role into introducing the effect of key changes to the Fab Four, with their writing. George Martin's influence is written all over The Beatles stuff.
I Want to Hold Your Hand has 2 key signatures. The main part is in G major. The part where they sing "and when I touch you I feel happy inside" is in C major. They revert back to G major with "I can't hide."
I think the difference between a VI versus a shift to relative minor is mostly harmonic rhythm (though I like your definition of having a prevalence of V7 chords resolve to minor). In Yesterday, the minor chord being on the 1st beat of the 3rd bar is a relatively weak beat compared to on the 9th bar or 17th bar. Plus it is in the middle of an unfinished phrase that moves back to the I chord, so I think that makes it firmly not a modulation. Great video!
Fantastic video David!! My fave is "Fool On The Hill". Even though it just goes from the major to the relative minor for the chorus - i think the effect is beautiful !!
Love it! I’m always mystified with key changes that happen so beautifully that you don’t even realize it. Also watching this video made me ask the question, is there a difference between key changes that happen to present a completely different portion of melody (a middle 8) and key changes that occur to then re-state the main melody of the song in the new key (ie final chorus)? Like that separate part of the song was just in a “different” key, vs we “changed” the key on this already familiar part of the song.
Slightly off-but-on topic, a fantastic key change is in Paul's Through Our Love - in the middle of the song it gloriously slides up 3 semis to an orchestral explosion (A subdominant chord to what turns out to be a C dominant) , but the song key has only actually shifted up 1 semi (E to F). So it's the classic 1 semi "gear-change" for the second verse and chorus, but done really nicely.
15:30 "some people wouldn't call this a key change, because the tonic note has stayed the same"... some people, also know as bass players (and yes, I'm a bassist myself) 😃
I would say come together is in D during the chorus because of the fact the the G to A at the end of the phrase is often use to resolve an end of a phrase in the key of D
Great work again, David! Modulation is one of the important things in Beatles music that distinguish them from other bands of the era. Where did they learn that? Of course George Martin taught a lot of musical things to them, but they were aware of lot of things before that. They did a lot of things intuitively (like vocal harmonies) coming from the Hamburg times. And one must know, that there is not one "Music Theory" to be known of. There are different skills of writing down music, playing from notes "prima vista", etc. Beatles surely new the chord function, how they are related, name of the chords etc. Specially Paul has doupted, if he would have been a better musician with traditional training. A question, that will never be solved.
16:20 The key signature for F major and F mixolydian are surely different ( 1 flat, 2 flats) so by your own previous logic it should be counted as a key change.
From me to you is a clear modulation.its. 4 bars where if you just heard the bridge it’s clearly in C. It’s cited by Paul himself as an advancement in his writing because it’s his first modulation.
To my mind you missed the ‘Billy Shears’ bridge leading Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to With a Little Help from my Friends. Whichever song it belongs to, it’s a key change!
Their best key change is in I want to hold your hand. Going straight from the V (G) chord of the first key to the ii (Dm7) chord of the second key has always blew my mind. Why does is work? It sounds like a first kiss touching your cheek.
Great idea for a video! I have never noticed some of those key changes. Although on another topic: I don't think Harrison really helped write Octopus's Garden. The only proof for that is supposed to be the Let It Be film. But there Ringo had already had the chords and melody that show up in the finished composition and George wrote a bridge that didn't make it to the final song. Later Harrison stated that Octopus's Garden is Ringo's song. And I don't think he would have concealed his involvement - he owned up to helping Starr with It Don't Come Easy, which at the time was credited to Ringo only. Having said that, I'm pretty sure, though, that the key change to A was not Ringo's idea, but it emerged during recording. I wouldn't say that his songwriting skills were that developed back then.
As The Fabs couldn't read music I would suggest that a lot of the subtle key changes were accidental (albeit brilliant). However, what I really love is the occasional key tempo changes such as in Lucy In The Sky, Yer Blues etc.
Hey David! I agree with you on "Hey Jude" not being an actual Key change. Because it's a continuously repeating phrase, "(na na na na..... Hey Jude...") and it borrows from Mixolydian with the flat 7th tone. If it had carried on with an actual verse and/or chorus, then that would be difference. To me, it's the same principle as if the repeating outtro cycled through F-Major chords but used a Chromatic Mediant such as A-Major or D-Major - I wouldn't treat it as a Key change. But hey, one thing that's so magical about Music Theory is that while some things are universal and agreed-upon facts, so many other things are subjective and interpretive. :)
Yeah, I wouldn't think of a change from one major mode to another major mode as a key change, though it technically is one. As an avid listener of modern metalcore, I hear a similar thing all the time, it's common in that genre to write heavier parts in phrygian, and to move to aeolian for melodic choruses. It still feels like the same minor key, just in a different mood if that makes sense.
Quick quibble: In For No One, the chord at the end of the verse (under the lyric “hurry”) isn’t an A major chord, though I think for the purposes of this video it doesn’t really matter. It’s (I think) something more like an A6/9 chord. The notes are A-C#-F#-B low to high. I only point it out because it’s a BRILLIANT chord that makes the whole song. Paul uses it again in “Wonderful Christmastime” in the choruses, under the word “Christmas,” before resolving on the B major chord under the word “time.” My guess is that David already knows this but just used the sheet music with the A major chord because who cares. 😆 Still! It’s a great chord so I wanted to point it out. He can correct me on the actual proper name of that chord as well. Cheers, great video.
At 0:32 you say there are 54 Beatles songs with key changes, but at 20:49 you say "those are the 53 Beatles songs with key changes". I didn't count the songs as you mentioned them in the video, so I'm curious: Is it 53 or 54? 🤔
If you count the titles on screen, there are 54. I'm guessing maybe he didn't add _Help!_ in his original script, but decided last-minute to include it anyway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@TheJonHeese well caught! That is because I didn’t add “Come Together” until the very last moment. The video was already done but then I went out at the weekend and saw a band at a pub. When they played Come Together I suddenly realised I had neglected to include that one in the video! So the next day I added it in and re-recorded all the relevant audio to say “54” instead of “53”. I even redid all the percentages and stuff like that. But I obviously missed that little bit at the end 🤣😅
I don't think it matters if you are moving between two major modes or if you're moving between a major mode and a minor mode; if it's a change in key signature, it's a change in key to me. That being said, I also think that when you move between two relative modes, i.e. C Ionian and D Dorian, it's not a key change. I think you can be in different tonic centers, but in the same key.
Perfect excuse to revisit the whole catalog 😂, nicely done, David!!! Btw what goes on in "I feel fine"? Verse and chorus share the same chords, but it feels like something is hiding in plain view 🧐
I know it was Dylan, not the Beatles, who said "You know someting's happening, but you don't know what it is..." but that's kind of how I look at this. I've been listening to this music for several decades now, and I could hear something was happening, but I didn't know what it was. Until now.
All the Beatles key change songs - even the straight semi tone or tone modulation ones - were quite subtle within the songs. Unlike a lot of songs where it’s really obvious that there’s a key change - even to people with only a casual interest in music. Even John Lennon’s ‘Woman’ has a key change that’s much more noticeable probably than any Beatles’ song, being that it’s a straight forward song (so to speak).
Great video as always David! You’ve mentioned that The Beatles never read music. So when they wrote, what did they do? Just play what sounded good and someone else took pen to paper? I’m sure they at least knew the chord names they played didn’t they? What about their scales knowledge?
this one of the driving questions of my life as a musician: I have a lower voice than the average rock and pop singer, and I readily tune my guitar down and play in different keys with the same voicings. But as I experiment with how low to go, I find myself asking: is there a point (too low, for instance) in a particular song where the vocal loses its power?
In these days of equal temperament tuning, theoretically there is no difference in sound. Keys are set according to what is best for the singer (to get all the notes within the singer's range) and sometimes according to guitar chord shapes. Also strings sound best in the 'open' keys (G, D, A, E) although that's not true for brass. But if one goes back a few hundred years, there was no equal temperament tuning and different keys were associated with specific moods.
i wouldn't say day tripper modulates to F# for the chorus, i think it just briefly tonicizes F#, since it immediately jumps to A7 after the F# chord. All the chords in the chorus fit into E blues, II7 - IV7 - III7 - VI7 - V7
My favorite Beatles songs with the key changes why am I guitar gently weeps and also I love if I needed someone those are some great songs especially with the different key changes that are going on and I even love I need you and you like me too much.
So are you not counting non-diatonic chord progressions? For example, a song like "I'm So Tired" is in A major, but the second chord is a G# major. That's not in the key. But on the very next chord we're back to the diatonic IV. I understand if you don't want to call "non-diatonic progressions" key changes, but maybe they deserve their own video in that case? It seems like a big purpose behind this video is to demonstrate how inventive The Beatles were, and I think non-diatonic chord progressions are just as inventive and exciting to the ear (if not more so) than key changes.
The distinction is down to whether tonicization has actually had time to occur. You perceive a chromatic chord as being “out of the key”, but that’s different to establishing a NEW key. You have to remain in a different key long enough for your brain to latch onto a particular note as the new tonic. Crudely put, chromatic chords sound “wrong”, but a key change has happened when instead they come to feel like the new “right”
Ringo with the 50% key-change ratio, truly the most ambitious and avant garde beatle 👏👏
of course
ringo starr has been known for his experimental and far ahead of his time work in the beatles.... definitely surpassing john paul or george
@@aa23music i don't like to compare the fav 4 between each other like that but yeah Ringo was just a tad ahead of the other 3 🤷♂
Lennon-McCartney has got nothing on Starkey
@@Stoneador lennon-maccartney more like we steal from-starkey
Hold up, what about What Goes On and Flying? Do those affect Ringo’s count?
Favorite key change is in here there and everywhere. It’s so perfect.
@@blockleg yeah that’s a special one!
The key tho is Gm, not Bb (Bb - Gm - Cm - D - Gm - Cm - D, there is no D chord in Bb key)
@@DavidBennettPianoThe Axis progression in many scales:
Harmonic Major: Cmaj7 G6 A♭maj7(♯5,♯9) Fm(maj7)
Phrygian: Cm7(♭9) Gm7(♭5,♭9) A♭maj7 Fm9
Lydian: Cmaj7(add♯11) Gmaj7 Am9 F♯m7(♭5)
Lydian Dominant: C9(♯11) Gm(maj9) Am6 F♯m7(♭5)
Lydian Augmented: Cmaj9(♯5) G♯m7(♭5,♭9) Am(maj7) F♯m9(♭5)
Mixolydian: C9 Gm7 Am7(♭9) Fmaj9
Mixolydian ♭6: C9(add♭13) Gm7(♭9) A♭maj7(♯5) Fm(maj9)
Harmonic Minor: Cm(maj9) G7 A♭maj7(♯9) Fm7
Locrian ♮2: Cm9(♭5) G♭+ A♭9(♯11) Fm7
Locrian: Cm7(♭5) G♭maj9 A♭6 Fm7
Super Locrian/Altered: Cm7(♭5,♭9) G♭7 A♭7 F♭maj7(♯5)
The key change in “Julia” during that bridge and right back is just transcendent
The way you just went through FIFTY-THREE Beatles songs...and avoided a copyright strike, is masterful!
I know you utilized a lot of midi, your own recordings, live stuff, and note for note covers.
But all that takes work. More work than merely playing the actual Beatles song would entail.
So....thanks for doing that! Some bands are harder to dig into on music channels, but you've found a very nice way to go about it anyway.
This is serious dedication, now we have exhausted the beatles catalog, what the man will do next to showcase his love for the Beatles?
marry paul mccartney
marry paul
marry
Analyze their solo careers!
this thread LMAO
This was amazing! I was surprised Harrison had so few key changes, but then, he had relatively few songs on Beatles' albums. His solo work features a lot of modulations/weird unexpected chord progressions, part of why I'm a big fan.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks 😊
trava nawmithis malaka lol
Your analysis, as always, is quite enlightening. I can hear something a thousand times, and after seeing you translate what is actually happening, I can somehow hear it for the first time again! GLORIOUS!!!
Good Day Sunshine also has a surprise modulation/key change right before the coda/fade out, which adds a huge amount of interest and excitement to the song.
@@spindriftdrinker good shout, that little coda is so cool
Good day sun good day sun good day sun good day sun
Yes, the only cool thing in that song imo. Can’t save the otherwise boring song imo but adds an interest and a reason to not skip it, although I do when I hear Revolver
That's not really a key change, just a device for an ending. Most of you people here don't know what a key change is!
@@chadrew6 lmao what. How is a key change not a device
My favorite Beatles key-change is any and all Beatles songs. Grew up with them, and still love their music.
Very erudite as always. Quite amazing how good the Beatles were at using music theory tricks without knowing music theory. I like the "Here There and Everywhere" key change especially.
That key change was recycled in "Two of us".
They sure had good musicians around them that knew... George Martin etc.
And they knew much more as expected if you listen to interviews
Two of my favorite things in the same video: The Beatles and key changes.
This is a great analysis. I've played several of their songs on the piano and I've noticed these subtle key changes but never did it occur to me how many of their songs involve this. To me that seems to be one of genius methods they used that makes their music irresistible. But I can't help but wonder how much of these key changes is the Beatles themselves vs George Martin who understands these nuances.
Great video! Having studied Beatles key changes on guitar, my absolute favorite is "Here, There and Everywhere." From my songwriter's perspective at least, it's the entire song structure - chord changes and melody complementing each other - that just humbles me every time I play it. The melody rides so smoothly over the chord changes as they shift effortlessly between major and minor keys. Incredible! An entire video could easily be devoted to just this one song. There are just very few compositions quite like it!
I had no idea there were so many songs with key changes. The one I like best and noticed only because I love playing it on guitar is And I Love Her. It's such a smooth change on the guitar solo that you wouldn't even notice it unless you tried to play it.
Regarding Hey Jude vs Norwegian Wood
100% agreed on your take!! Norwegian Wood goes from major to minor: obviously a key change.
Hey Jude -- well, it's modal mixture or modal interchange, but that doesn't mean it's a proper key change.
I agree that the coda of Hey Jude is in F, but I'd argue that the chorus ("Anytime you feel the pain…") is in B-flat.
It’s just using the bVII. It’s barely modal interchange,
@@MyNameIsNeutronyou’re right the bridge is in Bb. I don’t know how he missed this. It even has a transition from F7 to C7 that signals the modulation.
@@MyNameIsNeutron hm? Idk… each repetition of the profession in that part ends on F, both in chord and vocal melody. Like “on your shoulders” - that’s F. Feels very resolved, which to me means it’s still in F. Just borrows a chord from outside the key
@@TTFMjock I mean if it was just one time using the bVII, sure, it could be called just a borrowed chord. But it’s like 3 minutes of exclusively using the mixolydian scale, both in chords and melody. So yeah, the song changes very clearly from F major to F mixolydian, thereby qualifying as a mode change or modal mixture
I was 9 years old (1963) when The Beatles came into my life, and I was actually - believe it or not - a Shadows fan (Hank B. Marvin etc) but I found "real" music in The Beatles. Have played in many party bands over the years, wrote songs and stuff, but f..k they are the best! Appreciate your "intellectual" love of their music mate. Lol!
The Beatles loved the Shadows too.
'magical mystery tour' is their best key change IMO; the switch from chorus back to verse especially
I've wondered how the first 4 chords of Yesterday fit together for years. I literally gasped when you casually and succinctly pointed out it is "just" a 2,5,1 to the relative minor. Biggest hidden in plain view experience since seeing the Fifth Sense. Well done!
I’m always in awe of how innovative they were as musicians. Their entire catalog is pretty much the template for all pop music
The Beatles and Laura Nyro's revolutionary 1968 and 1969 albums. Nyro " probably influenced more successful songwriters than anyone " Elton John, 2007.
Your knowledge and enthusiasm are incredible. Thank you for what you are doing.
This is very well done, David.
@@buzzsmith8146 thanks 😊
@@DavidBennettPiano You are quite welcome!
Thank you so much for digging deep into what the Beatles did which is always interesting.
With no musical training, and without these videos, I wouldn't have a clue about any of this. It all just sounds like natural music.
C major
I am learning so much about music thanks to you videos. I can play several instruments but can’t read music and had useless teachers at school. They should use your videos in school. Penny Lane was always my favourite key change school but some of the other songs are more subtle
That's great!
When just learning guitar I was frustrated trying to figure out Beatles tunes. I had listened to them over and over growing up, but when trying to piece them together, my ADHD would get twisted, distracted and misled 😊
St. Peppers is one of my favorite album ❤ The whole late 60’s era my favorite production of Beatles music
I didn’t even realize most of these songs had key changes! I started getting into the Beatles a few weeks ago, I just turned 15 and I’ve always had a fascination with classic rock and music. When I think of key changes, I only think of those songs where it goes up a semitone or two to reprise the chorus (like ‘You Are Not Alone’ by Michael Jackson) I think it’s really cool how seamless those change are, it’s really cool to hear 😮 I can’t believe I’ve gone my whole life without listening to these songs lol Great video 💕
Keep listening, learning and enjoying!
Those 'key changes' are otherwise known as "the truck driver's key change" and are not really modulations in the same sense as those that David is talking about. Paul Simon has some very neat modulations - listen to "Still crazy after all these years" that has a really 'wide' modulation for the bridge. There is also a very subtle two semitone modulation towards the end of the third verse.
If you want the full experience, spend a month listening exclusively to pre-Beatles pop music and then uncork the Beatles. You'll see how drastic the pre/post-Beatles shift was. You can also see the continuity of the Chuck Berry /rockabilly side of music into the early Beatles cover tunes and musical style. Have fun!
Can we agree this video is a gem and it´s one of the most amazing videos ever made?
all of this research and on top of it avoiding so many copyright claims. bravo to you mate. this is phenomenal stuff.
Thank you for this. I feel like I have a greater appreciation for the Beatles music for watching.
I was just learning guitar. I (thought) I knew the chords to "And I Love Her," but when the solo began, my playing was wrong. I found out I needed some more chords, because as you noted, the song changed key when the solo began. So, that's my Fab fave.
I'll watch the video later today, but I just need to say HEINZ FONT, thank you.
I like it when music is presented in its most beutiful form: a precentage that can then be represented as piechart.
lol 😂
Hi David! Since you enjoy breaking down key changes and are a Radiohead fan, i think you would find the song Speech Bubbles by The Smile interesting!! The end of the song has this really cool descent through key centers that is super fluid, and sounds absolutely gorgeous. It’s by far by favourite the Smile song, and up there with Radiohead’s best work. Huge recommend!!
Truly incredible! You did a great analysis about a fundamental caratteristic of the band's sound! Thank you very much for your work.
brilliant, the absolutely insane amount of work you've done...
@@BlurCovers 😊😊😊
David, your analyses across these videos could serve as multiple doctoral dissertations in music theory. Well done!
@@kenreeve32 thank you 😊
Phenomenal video, David!!!
Thank you!
Saludos desde tierras muy lejanas David!!! Gracias por subir el video.....!!!
Holy shit. Seriously, holy shit. This man cannot be stopped.
Great analysis and enlightenment as usual. 👍👍
Glad you think so! 😊😊
Hard to pick a favourite, Penny Lane is really quite nice, but we like the examples you give what it would've sounded like if the key hadn't changed. It's interesting that it certainly would've worked like that as well. Makes you think, something to try when you're writing a song, and it seems to work alright, but it might just be missing that one little spark. Certainly something we'll try in our music.
I love a lot of The Beatles' key changes but the one that just makes me well up is Something. That one is placed in such a perfect spot that it feels like you've just been lifted up emotionally but physically set down, all at the same time, there is such a sublime mix of emotions going on when he then says ''I don't know... I don't know!'' and the whole thing falls off the log. It's like the perfect blend that points out that emotions can truly be physical, it just blurs the lines of what thought is and what sensation / feeling is. That one messes with people beyond even the language that they speak, it goes straight to that common language we all instinctively know and use. George was supremely inspired in that instance and all the others knew it. Oh, and Paul's bass playing on that has never been matched in popular music, period. It's so playful and delicate, he puts more nuance into his playing on that track than any other two Beatles songs combined. Arguably their best work, in my opinion. Lennon's contribution probably came down to a couple of words and some playful guitar jabs and scats under the best solo Harrison ever played, likely it was a nice break for him not having to work so hard and a chance to kind of kick back and watch his buddies shine, just enjoy being in the greatest band in the world - a moment which he probably desperately needed.
great video man as always!
@@theepisofdiabolos-dj5xh thanks 😊
Interesting as always David. The Beatles are endlessly fascinating.
3:00 you put "And I lover her" insted of and i love her
Love the reference to “Real Love” during the HD Piano ad :-)
Bravo !! Well done. When people argue that The Beatles were just another band, here's one of the elements that sets them apart, from being just another band, in a major way. What I'd like to see is a comparison of how many Rolling Stones songs change key vs The Beatles. This could be quite revealing. You did an excellent job of making this video. As a jazz singer/songwriter, I'm always thinking about the effect of key changes and whether or not they'd be appropriate, when I'm writing. This little video gives some insight not only into key changes, but how to sneak them in. George Martin, no doubt, played a large role into introducing the effect of key changes to the Fab Four, with their writing. George Martin's influence is written all over The Beatles stuff.
I Want to Hold Your Hand has 2 key signatures. The main part is in G major. The part where they sing "and when I touch you I feel happy inside" is in C major. They revert back to G major with "I can't hide."
I think the difference between a VI versus a shift to relative minor is mostly harmonic rhythm (though I like your definition of having a prevalence of V7 chords resolve to minor).
In Yesterday, the minor chord being on the 1st beat of the 3rd bar is a relatively weak beat compared to on the 9th bar or 17th bar. Plus it is in the middle of an unfinished phrase that moves back to the I chord, so I think that makes it firmly not a modulation. Great video!
This is one of many reasons why their music is so special.
Always love your videos David!
@@Casutama thank you 😊
Great video, David!! My favourite one: If I fell
“… so I listened to every Beatles song…” classic David Bennett Piano 😂 never change
😂😂
There is nothing like “the end” after the strings introduce Harrison’s guitar part it goes into a sharp fourth that blows the mind
Very interesting stuff!
I'm waiting so long for the roundabout analyzing videoo❤ loved the paranoid Android one
Fantastic video David!! My fave is "Fool On The Hill". Even though it just goes from the major to the relative minor for the chorus - i think the effect is beautiful !!
Not the relative minor but the parallel minor: from D major to D minor. The relative minor is B minor.
@@nbnewman Sorry, you are right. I knew what i meant !!
My favorite is the change going into the guitar solo in "And I Love Her".
Love it! I’m always mystified with key changes that happen so beautifully that you don’t even realize it.
Also watching this video made me ask the question, is there a difference between key changes that happen to present a completely different portion of melody (a middle 8) and key changes that occur to then re-state the main melody of the song in the new key (ie final chorus)?
Like that separate part of the song was just in a “different” key, vs we “changed” the key on this already familiar part of the song.
Slightly off-but-on topic, a fantastic key change is in Paul's Through Our Love - in the middle of the song it gloriously slides up 3 semis to an orchestral explosion (A subdominant chord to what turns out to be a C dominant) , but the song key has only actually shifted up 1 semi (E to F). So it's the classic 1 semi "gear-change" for the second verse and chorus, but done really nicely.
Another great video. I also would include Good Night. The song is mostly in G, and I find that the bridge changes to C.
Interesting. Enlightening. Fun. Thank you.
I miss Now and Then on this list!
15:30 "some people wouldn't call this a key change, because the tonic note has stayed the same"... some people, also know as bass players (and yes, I'm a bassist myself) 😃
I would say come together is in D during the chorus because of the fact the the G to A at the end of the phrase is often use to resolve an end of a phrase in the key of D
Wonderful explanation!
Glad it was helpful!
Great work again, David! Modulation is one of the important things in Beatles music that distinguish them from other bands of the era. Where did they learn that? Of course George Martin taught a lot of musical things to them, but they were aware of lot of things before that. They did a lot of things intuitively (like vocal harmonies) coming from the Hamburg times. And one must know, that there is not one "Music Theory" to be known of. There are different skills of writing down music, playing from notes "prima vista", etc. Beatles surely new the chord function, how they are related, name of the chords etc. Specially Paul has doupted, if he would have been a better musician with traditional training. A question, that will never be solved.
16:20 The key signature for F major and F mixolydian are surely different ( 1 flat, 2 flats) so by your own previous logic it should be counted as a key change.
@@battleframestudios8989 good point!
great work mate!
From me to you is a clear modulation.its. 4 bars where if you just heard the bridge it’s clearly in C. It’s cited by Paul himself as an advancement in his writing because it’s his first modulation.
To my mind you missed the ‘Billy Shears’ bridge leading Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to With a Little Help from my Friends. Whichever song it belongs to, it’s a key change!
@@davegrant7819 that’s a good point!
@@DavidBennettPiano On CD, that intro has always been attached to the latter.
You should analyze the key changes (and chords) in "Never Gonna Let You Go" Sérgio Mendez's arrangement.
Their best key change is in I want to hold your hand. Going straight from the V (G) chord of the first key to the ii (Dm7) chord of the second key has always blew my mind. Why does is work? It sounds like a first kiss touching your cheek.
Cool to see michael sokil, ably house, sam popkin and mattiboos recreations of the beatles songs
Great idea for a video! I have never noticed some of those key changes.
Although on another topic: I don't think Harrison really helped write Octopus's Garden. The only proof for that is supposed to be the Let It Be film. But there Ringo had already had the chords and melody that show up in the finished composition and George wrote a bridge that didn't make it to the final song. Later Harrison stated that Octopus's Garden is Ringo's song. And I don't think he would have concealed his involvement - he owned up to helping Starr with It Don't Come Easy, which at the time was credited to Ringo only.
Having said that, I'm pretty sure, though, that the key change to A was not Ringo's idea, but it emerged during recording. I wouldn't say that his songwriting skills were that developed back then.
As The Fabs couldn't read music I would suggest that a lot of the subtle key changes were accidental (albeit brilliant). However, what I really love is the occasional key tempo changes such as in Lucy In The Sky, Yer Blues etc.
Hey David! I agree with you on "Hey Jude" not being an actual Key change. Because it's a continuously repeating phrase, "(na na na na..... Hey Jude...") and it borrows from Mixolydian with the flat 7th tone. If it had carried on with an actual verse and/or chorus, then that would be difference. To me, it's the same principle as if the repeating outtro cycled through F-Major chords but used a Chromatic Mediant such as A-Major or D-Major - I wouldn't treat it as a Key change. But hey, one thing that's so magical about Music Theory is that while some things are universal and agreed-upon facts, so many other things are subjective and interpretive. :)
Yeah, I wouldn't think of a change from one major mode to another major mode as a key change, though it technically is one. As an avid listener of modern metalcore, I hear a similar thing all the time, it's common in that genre to write heavier parts in phrygian, and to move to aeolian for melodic choruses. It still feels like the same minor key, just in a different mood if that makes sense.
Quick quibble: In For No One, the chord at the end of the verse (under the lyric “hurry”) isn’t an A major chord, though I think for the purposes of this video it doesn’t really matter. It’s (I think) something more like an A6/9 chord. The notes are A-C#-F#-B low to high. I only point it out because it’s a BRILLIANT chord that makes the whole song. Paul uses it again in “Wonderful Christmastime” in the choruses, under the word “Christmas,” before resolving on the B major chord under the word “time.”
My guess is that David already knows this but just used the sheet music with the A major chord because who cares. 😆 Still! It’s a great chord so I wanted to point it out. He can correct me on the actual proper name of that chord as well. Cheers, great video.
I love those video but now I wish I could go back and watch the last video on the Beatles’ key change
At 0:32 you say there are 54 Beatles songs with key changes, but at 20:49 you say "those are the 53 Beatles songs with key changes". I didn't count the songs as you mentioned them in the video, so I'm curious: Is it 53 or 54? 🤔
If you count the titles on screen, there are 54. I'm guessing maybe he didn't add _Help!_ in his original script, but decided last-minute to include it anyway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@TheJonHeese well caught! That is because I didn’t add “Come Together” until the very last moment.
The video was already done but then I went out at the weekend and saw a band at a pub. When they played Come Together I suddenly realised I had neglected to include that one in the video! So the next day I added it in and re-recorded all the relevant audio to say “54” instead of “53”. I even redid all the percentages and stuff like that. But I obviously missed that little bit at the end 🤣😅
Oh dear, you forgot my favorite Beatles key change! Free As a Bird which moves from A to C.
Probably has something to do with their practice of merging two or even three different songs to make one?
I don't think it matters if you are moving between two major modes or if you're moving between a major mode and a minor mode; if it's a change in key signature, it's a change in key to me. That being said, I also think that when you move between two relative modes, i.e. C Ionian and D Dorian, it's not a key change. I think you can be in different tonic centers, but in the same key.
'If I Fell' is really clever where there's a key changes after the intro.
Sos lo más, amo este video
_You Never Give Me Your Money_ - can't believe you gave it only 1 small mention, in Parallel section. It does more than that.
Perfect excuse to revisit the whole catalog 😂, nicely done, David!!! Btw what goes on in "I feel fine"? Verse and chorus share the same chords, but it feels like something is hiding in plain view 🧐
Well guys, I think we know absolutely everything about The Beatles now
David: *challenge accepted*
I know it was Dylan, not the Beatles, who said "You know someting's happening, but you don't know what it is..." but that's kind of how I look at this. I've been listening to this music for several decades now, and I could hear something was happening, but I didn't know what it was. Until now.
Penny Lane. My favorite Beatles track and love how effortless it goes B > Bm and then A and back to B
All the Beatles key change songs - even the straight semi tone or tone modulation ones - were quite subtle within the songs. Unlike a lot of songs where it’s really obvious that there’s a key change - even to people with only a casual interest in music. Even John Lennon’s ‘Woman’ has a key change that’s much more noticeable probably than any Beatles’ song, being that it’s a straight forward song (so to speak).
Great video as always David!
You’ve mentioned that The Beatles never read music. So when they wrote, what did they do? Just play what sounded good and someone else took pen to paper? I’m sure they at least knew the chord names they played didn’t they? What about their scales knowledge?
"I'm not going to go through every one" -- I mean, we wouldn't mind if each one had its own video!
An intriguing potential series: do songs sound better in different keys (pitch shifted)?
this one of the driving questions of my life as a musician: I have a lower voice than the average rock and pop singer, and I readily tune my guitar down and play in different keys with the same voicings. But as I experiment with how low to go, I find myself asking: is there a point (too low, for instance) in a particular song where the vocal loses its power?
Many times, when I hear a Beatles song in a different key than on the recording, it sounds "off" or "fake".
In these days of equal temperament tuning, theoretically there is no difference in sound. Keys are set according to what is best for the singer (to get all the notes within the singer's range) and sometimes according to guitar chord shapes. Also strings sound best in the 'open' keys (G, D, A, E) although that's not true for brass.
But if one goes back a few hundred years, there was no equal temperament tuning and different keys were associated with specific moods.
i wouldn't say day tripper modulates to F# for the chorus, i think it just briefly tonicizes F#, since it immediately jumps to A7 after the F# chord. All the chords in the chorus fit into E blues, II7 - IV7 - III7 - VI7 - V7
Best Beatle info video in a long time Kudos. Could be a college course. Tonicization never heard before is this a real term?
My favorite Beatles songs with the key changes why am I guitar gently weeps and also I love if I needed someone those are some great songs especially with the different key changes that are going on and I even love I need you and you like me too much.
So are you not counting non-diatonic chord progressions? For example, a song like "I'm So Tired" is in A major, but the second chord is a G# major. That's not in the key. But on the very next chord we're back to the diatonic IV. I understand if you don't want to call "non-diatonic progressions" key changes, but maybe they deserve their own video in that case? It seems like a big purpose behind this video is to demonstrate how inventive The Beatles were, and I think non-diatonic chord progressions are just as inventive and exciting to the ear (if not more so) than key changes.
The distinction is down to whether tonicization has actually had time to occur. You perceive a chromatic chord as being “out of the key”, but that’s different to establishing a NEW key. You have to remain in a different key long enough for your brain to latch onto a particular note as the new tonic. Crudely put, chromatic chords sound “wrong”, but a key change has happened when instead they come to feel like the new “right”
One might consider secondary dominants to be something similar, but no one considers those as key changes.
I can't pick a favorite!