How Radiohead use Key Changes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- Whether it's ambiguous modality in 'Present Tense', ever-changing key centers in 'Knives Out' or a shameless Truck Driver Gear Shift in 'Sulk', Radiohead sure know how to make good use of a key change. Thank you to everybody who suggested songs for this video.
An extra special thanks goes to Daniel Long, the channel’s Patreon saint! 😇
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Paul Davids' cover of 'Present Tense': • Radiohead - The Presen...
im a simple man, david bennett posts anyhting about radiohead, i click
u forgot the instant like ;)
@@AxCYeR true
Posts anything*
You look like a woman 🤔
I'm lucky enough to be just discovering this treasure trove for the first time. I can binge it all!
I love when you talk of Radiohead ❤
Oh yeah honey talk Radiohead to me. Oh yeah just like that. AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
@@blizzardblaze1649 Sir, this is a music discussion group
"Truck driver key change"
I never heard that term before, but gotta admit, I kinda love it. :)
kassemir yea I’ve mainly heard it referred to as the “Disney modulation”
@@loljoker127 In Iceland it everybody knows it under the term eurovision pitch shift.
It goes up a gear
@@loljoker127 Yeah, I've heard the Disney thing too.
But, I think I like Truck driver key change better. Sure, Disney do it a lot, but so do a lot of other song writers.
You could be making only Radiohead videos and I'd be totally ok with that. Very inspiring videos man well done!
Thanks to your clear English, I can always make sense of these experimental, specific, and more academic knowledges about the music. I really appreciate it.
Love from Japan🇯🇵🍣
Thank you!! 😃
I would've loved seeing Life In A Glasshouse in there as well. It has an amazing progession in the vers
If this was taught to me in school, I'd've enjoyed it more.
Well Pablo Honey was '93... let's not call that 30 years ago... please no... not yet.
2023 😬
It's nice to see when people really understand the genius of this band. They don't follow 'the rules'. I don't understand it myself, I just know how amazing they are.
B U L K of S U L K
S U L K of B U L K
BLK F SLK
U O U
great analysis, Radiohead is never get enough! Thank you very much.
Thank you!
Great big-up to "Sulk". I love the raw emotion in Thom's voice in that last chorus.
Present tense is my favorite radiohead song. So beautiful
Gonna keep asking every other Friday for a 'March of the Black Queen' analysis. Love your work x
better than Rick Beato, it's a real analysis, not just a description of the piece. GOOD JOB!!!
brilliant video as always David!
Speaking of bars, can you talk about unusual bar loops? I noticed it in songs like "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" by Smashing Pumpkins, "When the Sun Hits" by Slowdive, and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by the Beatles.
Excellent, David, thank you.
New subscriber. That was a really well-made video man.
Anthony Recenello cheers!
Great explanation, great material, great channel! Thank you, David, for these videos, hope you'll get more views, your content deserves much more consideration
thanks so much!
There is a really great and Smooth key change at the last part of Karma Police
Ben Shields good suggestion
Excelllllleeeeent. Love your vids!
Really well presented and explained, thank you very much.
Nicely done!!
This is brilliant. Thank you. It sure is a help, especially for composers
Chernobog thank you!
Este es el tipo de análisis que espero de Radiohead!!! Love it.
💕 Radiohead is my fav band, & I love how you use their music to teach/analyze.
Sooo happy I found your channel. Ty! Learning a lot!
Wow - amazing video David! Watched and subscribed. More Radiohead song analysis please.
Tim Cross thank you!
You should definitely do some more videos on Queen, Radiohead, and perhaps Tool. They have some incredibly interesting melodies
Loved it!
Guillermina Perrino thanks!
WEEKLY videos?!? Sir... you are spoiling us!
Well, if you look carefully, in "The Present Tense" all of the chord pairs (or at least their bass notes) (1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9) are moving by a 4th up, which means that all of them are a v-i progressions with minor or major chords (If you put Gm instead of D#/G then it will look exectly like G#m - C#m, but I guess they have changed it because Gm didn't sound well).
The exception is 4-5-6 line where it moves like in E harmonic minor scale and ends on a major chord: Cm-B-E = bvi-V-I. And that E major chord is also a V-I to A (So B-E-A is two pairs of V-I). Also A - F#m and B - G#m are identical moves down a minor 3rd.
For me the bar with first B chord sounds like it's that extra 9th bar in 9-bar loop, I think they added it to get us to E major, while also Cm - B sounds cool.
When it loops I hear it like the whole progression of E - A - F#m - B - G#m - C#m is in E major key, then goes a bit of Cm key with D# - Cm (III - i) and Cm is also present in this next line of harmonic minor: Cm - B - E.
I don't know what conclusions you can make out of that, but maybe that's somewhat close to the way this song was composed, 'cause on guitar you see patterns that are harder to find on keyboard.
A little confusing, but I hope someone understands :) sorry for mistakes in my english if I've done any.
Sweet Jesus! Music theory is hard. I think i will never learn it.
Excellent breakdown.
Really great video ! I would love to hear you explain how Arctic Monkeys use chords progressions or just composing tricks (especially in their latest album) ! I think it is a very interesting subject (but I hope I'm not the only one).
The G#m > Cm modulation also sorta justifies mention of borrowed chords as well, since Cm is part of G#major (although under the name of B#, you'd probably rather call that a Ab minor to get to call it Cmin). Also, chromatic mediants, and other stuff like that.
Brilliant !
Amazing
I really like your videos especially those like this one. Talking about key changes, there is one very interesting song that was suppose to be for the Disney Frozen movie but at the end it got cut. It is called Life's too short. Yes, I know it's from an animation movie but the song is a piece of art. I think you will like it. The Lopez compozers have done such a good job for the whole movie.
That Em6 actually sounds like V/V of G minor to me since it is a seventh built on the leading tone of D but in first inversion after all.
Yes, I felt like I heard it this way too. I do also think Thom Yorke relies almost entirely on common tones and chromatic movement for key changes and borrowed chords. I don't know if I like to call his stuff modulation because to me that implies and intended shift in key center, whereas I think he naturally meanders in and out of the home key for the specific "non tonally specific" sound. I think that's why I enjoy The Bends a lot. It has less of the weird key shifts and more shifts in energy.
:-) I never heard the term "Truck driver key change" before :-)
In german, we talk of a "Rückung", sometimes falsely labelled as a modulation.
Perfect for that kind of key change would be "Cowboy Chords" ;-)
Nice video, David
Ouch!! That hurt man! You shoulda put a warning at the start something like "Viewer Discretion Advised: This video contains westlife"
CHEEEEEEEESE
I'm a self taught amateur guitarist and nothing will compare to the feeling of enlightenment I had when I discovered the beauty and magic of the relationship between notes and modes and keys on my own.. coincidentally a huge radio head fan also
Thank you Christopher Ryan
Great video! Keep your work man!
A thing I would suggest (I don't know too much about music theory) is how Radiohead (or music in general) uses tension and resolution (Not sure if this is how it should be called). The song I have in mind is "weird fishes": in the key of D, the man progression is ii-iii-V (em-f#m-A). There are to things that I believe create tension in this song: 1) the crescendo built with the guitar arpeggios getting more "tangled" and 2) the chords that want to resolve to D, but don't.
Anyways, thank you for your work
Thanks for the suggestion. 'Songs that never resolve' is actually a video topic I've considered before and perhaps Weird Fishes would be a good example!
@@DavidBennettPiano Thanks :)
amei muito essa análise! me inscrevi no canal
kisses from brazil
Can you consider doing a video on Cardiacs? If you aren't familiar with them, their songs are ridiculous, especially the chord progressions and song structures they use. Dirty Boy, She Is Hiding Behind The Shed, Dog-Like Sparky, and Buds And Spawn are all pretty interesting, but most of their songs are. They influenced a lot of major artists (including Radiohead to some extent) but never got much mainstream attention. The main songwriter, Tim Smith, recently received an honorary doctorate of music. There's definitely a lot to talk about that isn't being talked about. Thanks so much if you've read this far :)
I want a video about jigsaw falling into place im a beginner into music theory but slowly wrapping my head around everything and listening to that song just makes me feel something and I love the ending part of the music
Knives out chorus chords are: Am, A/G, Dm, D/C ... the A/G and D/C act like dominant 7th chords with the 7th in the bass (so 3rd inversion) even more emphasis for A/G to move smoothly to Dm as it's essentially a perfect V7 cadence. Though I wonder if they were thinking that as they wrote it.
JUST watched ur last time signature Radiohead video :D
"JUST"... very punny
IDIOTEQUE watched ur last time signature Radiohead video :D
Honestly thought the thumbnail said “Changa Key” and that Radiohead invented a new key. Sleep deprivation is real.
You are the Prof. Brian Cox of music.
A verbally poetic mise en place if I may.
Radiohead should have put a truck driver key change in Creep
That could actually be quite cool! Maybe a shift up a minor third (like in Livin on a Prayer)
Present Tense is by far my favourite on AMSP and one of my favourite Radiohead songs ever so I'm glad you covered it :)
alex I think my favourite on Moon Shaped is Daydreaming
@@DavidBennettPiano Mine is Decks dark. Everything about that is so interesting.
@@DavidBennettPiano That's probably my second favourite, really beautiful song
Present Tense is a dope track. My personal favorite is Thom’s acoustic version from Latitude 2009.
About Present Tense : though the first 3 chords clearly hint at G# minor, the loop as a whole feels more like C# minor to me.
First let's note there are three instances of a major chord followed by its relative minor (D# Cm, A F#m, B G#m). Relative chords kinda function the same because of the notes they share (if you add the sixth on the major chord or the minor seventh on the minor chord they are the same). If you say the first bar is actually on C#m, then A and F#m work as subdominant, B and G#m as dominant, there you have your classic IV-V-I cadence. Actually if you replace the two D# and Cm bars by one bar of F#m, you have a very simple circle of fifths progression in C# minor. The D# Cm sequence would be some kind of a secondary dominant, but followed by the relative major of the dominant, B instead of G#m. As you said in the end the voice leading makes it work.
Now I agree that the song as a whole definitely sounds G# minor, and C# minor as first bar doesn't feel quite right with the melody and the instrumentation. So for me it's best to think of it as an ambiguous tonality with an ambiguous hypermetre. I would go as far as saying it's a 10 bar loop modulating from G# minor to C# minor, with an "overlapping" bar (G#m) to make it come full circle. At the end of the loop the G#m feels like the last bar (dominant) and the C#m as the first (tonic), but once you hear the following D# chord it makes them retrospectively feel like first bar (tonic) and second bar (subdominant). I think this ambiguity makes the song really interesting given how simple it is at first glance.
Yo David can you analyse the chord progression in System of a Down’s “Highway Song” ? It sounds natural and consonant but idk how to makes sense of it in a music theory sense
The Big Ben made me lol
I love these 😍 you're inspiring me to make videos like this too.
I'd love it if you would make videos concerning any of these artists:
1. Perfume Genius
2. St. Vincent
3. Mitski
4. Regina Spektor
5. Fiona Apple
Ty you're great 🙏🙏🙏
Regina and St Vincent could certainly be on the agenda! I'm not promising it will be any time soon though ;)
@@DavidBennettPiano ☺️☺️ yahoo
All these artists would be great choices. There's so much to learn from how they compose. For Fiona Apple, I think something off Extraordinary Machine or The Idler Wheel would be best. She got more complex harmonically in her later albums. You could do something on the polyphony of "Hot Knife." You could also do something based on how she uses syncopation in her vocal melodies (like in "Paper Bag" from When the Pawn or the song "Extraordinary Machine").
Mitski's Be the Cowboy also has a ton to analyze.
@@rome8180 thank you for supporting! ;)
I love this channel, makes me want to learn so much more about music theory! I'd love to see what you think about how Jonny Greenwoods makes such luscious and unique sounding orchestras (Spectre, Daydreaming, The Numbers) and how Radiohead uses arpeggios (Ill Wind, Let Down, Sit Down. Stand Up)!
Truck Driver Key Change. I love it.
Video suggestion please if I may.
Songs/musical pop culture phenomena that are older than we think.
David I'm trying to grasp the roman numeral chord system with respect to non-diatonic chords. Could you do a video clarifying the use of "major" & "minor" to signify BOTH a chord's distance from the key center (with roman numerals) AND the distance between any chord's tonic and it's 3rd? (E.g. do we say a "minor third chord minor"?) If so, please also include the use of the word "flat" to refer to the chords "between" the roman numerals...
You should make a series where you analyse, like this, multiple songs!!!
*KEY CHANGE!!!1!*
Nigu II truck driver!!!
From this video (and a couple others I’ve seen from you) I get the feeling you think any chord area outside the main key constitutes a key change. Your example from “Present Tense” is in one key (G#m), and “Knives Out” feels pretty clearly centered on Gm throughout. Just because Radiohead often likes to explore sitting on unusual ‘out of key’ chord areas, doesn’t mean it’s a bona fide key change. The only real key change you cite herein is in “Sulk”.
It depends on how you define a key change. To me, a key change is where the key center has shifted. This might happen slowly and subtly but it should still be considered a move in key. Think about how key changes are treated in classical music (listen to Prelude 1 by Bach for a simple example); they were rarely stark and apparent (like in Sulk). They would usually wind into the next key without the listener fully noticing. And therefore it can be hard to pin down where the current key ends and the next key begins. Key changes in songs like Sulk are very different to this and are almost a different breed as they don't involve any harmonic preparation; they just jump! So it can be confusing to compare the two; they're almost like two completely different tools.
BuT i’M a cReEp ...
Please David make a video likes this on Scorpions. For an example “Send me an Angel”, feels like the chorus almost is in a totally different key then the verse. Really think it could make a great and interesting video. Cheers from Sweden
slightly pedantic but... The 3rd measure of the intro is clearly a normal D# maj chord the V chord of G# harmonic minor, which would make the melody and bass note an F𝄪, not a G♮. The next chord might more cleanly be described as B# minor, which would only require one note outside of the key signature.
Hi David，may I ask you which apps are you using for sheet writing? I use Notion, but seem no "chord" can be added.
I think Thom Yorke has been listening to the Brazilians... quite a lot. The samba feel is a bit of a nod. See Ben Levin's recent analysis of Chega de Saudade. (Just cover your ears when he butchers it on the guitar, lol.)
He maybe does but I think the Samba feel is more Ed 'O Brian's input. He loves Brazilian music and even briefly lived there.
@@chantoya17 Didn't know that!
" (...) and cheesy pop hits..." - *cuts to ABBA!* -
I'm dead ... ! But just like a truck driver key change would, it's too easy a shot at them either. ABBA are really respectable to me as songwriters, however dated / cheesy / corny / schmaltzy / you-name-it they might sound. By the way, you never mention them in your videos, David. Is that for this reason, or because their songwriting is not worth being mentioned ? That would be interesting you analyse their style in a video otherwise .. regardless if the outcome is to laud them as it is to whack them. At least there would be some ground to it!
Another great video anyway, I really like you pick among the Radiohead songs, and how you make it all so accessible (cool infographics, btw). Keep up the great work! :)
I'd love if you take a look to Desert Island Disk, from A Moon Shaped Pool...
What's the jazz tune starting at 12:16?
I just came across this video which is educational but I noticed when listening to the first song that the third chord on the second line is written as A but I definitely heard it as a minor chord C#m. I am only pointing this out because the chords are the main area of discussion and it might be of interest to some.
Lmao my guy just roasted Pablo Honey and The Bends
Finally someone..:D I mean I never listen to those two albums as it sounds like they were yet to find themselves. Not very interesting to me, but OK compter was one of the biggest creative breakthrough followed by another one with Kid A...
@@robertkorodi3512 the bends is pretty good in it's simplicity. id give it another shot, specifically because it knows what it is and it does it well, it's just good groundwork.
The Bends is great. Not 100% RH but great
I definitely see the B as the tonic in "Present Tense." I think the reason why is that the C minor that comes right before it naturally leads into the B. Sure, it's a key change, but because the C is a half step above, it feels like a resolution.
I don't know that I could ever truly convey what knives out as a composition means to me, so I will just leave it at that.
The music on The Bends may be less complicated than Radiohead's later material, but it's still my favorite album of theirs. There's an urgency to that album that's largely missing on their post-2000 albums.
I guess there's just something about the early days of a rock 'n roll band... when they still have that youthful fire and hunger.
It's still my fave too. I think it makes a difference when you first heard it. I bought it on the day it was first released and loved it ever since
I'd say E = tonic and not B, since we have G@ and C@ at the beginning (III and VI of E major), there would be only one key change : on the D#/G and Cm bars (C minor or G minor)! (Present Tense)
Sit Down, Stand Up (for the key change)...
...is a Radiohead/Westlife joke I never thought I'd make, but here we are.
Can you do a video about finding the tonic?
Of course, usually it’s just as simple as “the first chord is the tonic” but a lot of times it honestly feels like it can’t be that simple
Ignoring modes, I don’t understand exactly what makes a tonic chord/note obvious or not
Wouldn’t this also be considered G# phrygian with the Cm being borrowed from E parallel minor?
I love your videos about radiohead, do you like muse?
juan ignacio moyano Muse? Shite!!
I loved muse on their first four albums. But after Black Holes I very quickly fell out of love with them. They’re more like a muse tribute band now .
Could you do vids like this for Talking Heads?
Video is a great example of how most western harmony rules are just short cuts to good voice leading, and if you can nail voice leading you can go absolutely nuts with it
Hey David, could you please analyse Jonathan David by Belle & Sebastian? I really would like to know what is going on in that song. It's so unintuitive.
I would really love when you do an analysis about Cut a Hole by Radiohead. I think it's very interesting both harmonically and rhythmically.
If they ever decide to release a studio version :(
I love radiohead songs and i could never put my finger on why. They just sounded like they were breaking the rules, but in a way that had a logic to it. Thank you for explaining.
Hey there, I like your videos a lot! But I noticed something and get curious. Correct me if I am wrong, but during the explanation of Knives Out you say that Ab does not belong in the G minor scale, but it is it's third, right? Thanks!
kacodamn Bb is the third of Gm, not Ab. Thanks for your support though 😊
@@DavidBennettPiano Oh yeah, that's right! I am sorry, I get confused because here in Brazil we call the notes differently, thanks!!
@@kacodamn no worries. What do you call them in Brazil?
@@DavidBennettPianoYou know, Like, Dó Ré Mi Fa Sol etc, and I usually refer to an Ab as G #. So I got confused haha.
To me the B in 'Present Tense' does feel like the V of E. I think that's because the melody line goes down from G# to E diatonically, making the note E feel very much like the root -- as far as those two bars are concerned, I mean. It gets a bit messy afterwards, I'll give you that.
Any thought to making a vid about the effect changing the order of the notes have on a chord?
Thanks for the comment. Do you mean the effect that inverting a chord has on it's sound? i.e. C E G vs E G C ?
@@DavidBennettPiano Not just inversions, but even CGE vs CEG and the effect placing dissonant note next to each other vs with other notes in between like CEGB vs CBEG etc.
I know it's a more subtle look at things but i think people would be interested especially since the Stranger Things vid!
I came to watch one more video before asking about Pablo Honey, but this answered my question ☺️
I love Rufus Wainwright Going to a Town... Does it have any similarities with this song?
9:36 E Major should also say "(technically E Mixolydian)" below it.
Another great vid about RH, now where do I suggest you talk about Suck young blood?
I just have one question: why are there brackets around the sharp icon?
Its because we used a G natural in the previous bar, so its just a
“Just to make sure you don't think we mean G natural”
Even though you dont need to put the sharp there.
@@TeionLeeIRL I realised that, but if that's what you want to say, you can just put the sharp icon there without the brackets, cant you?
@@Telsion It's called a 'courtesy accidental'. If you put the sharp there without brackets then the reader might think you are asking for the already sharp note to be sharpened again, i.e. winding up with a G double-sharp (otherwise known as A natural).
@@DavidBennettPiano that makes sense in hindsight. Thanks!
Would that first Cm be more like a B#m? Seems to fit the key better. Or am I reaching too far? Lol
What about the 3rd section of Paranoid Android?
That is a good suggestion too. Paranoid Android would have been my next example but the video was getting long as it was!
I would't mind videos twice the length
8:30 "because we get this A flat note in the melody" That's how it's written, but what he actually sings is much closer to A natural.
B and E both don't sound resolved to me