Sad in major sounds wistful, to me. It's like that phrase, "don't be sad because it's over, be happy because it happened", that's the major key sadness
so true! the word i kept thinking of, especially with "when somebody loved me" is "nostalgia." major key sadness is "i wish i could go back to this." minor key sadness is "i wish that never happened"
@@darlingdannid Exactly! I was thinking of it similarly, wistful, there's a sense of longing. And nostalgia is perfect, you want to go back but that time, that place, that community, doesn't exist anymore, you can never go back
I always thought minor sounds like night and major sounds like day. You can definitely have a sad day or a scary day and you can have a great night or a cozy night.
Listen to Impossible in the 1998 Cinderella. There's a scene where brandy/ (brandy?) Cinderella and Whitney Houston/ Fairy godmother sing this part : (right now they are both singing the word impossible, slowly going down the major scale so) "Impossible!... impossible!... impossible!... impossible! Impossible. (Now Brandy sings it minor) Impossible! (Whitney sings it major) - Impoooooossssible!" They sing it together. Cinderella is unsure about if it really is possible for a ordinary pumpkin to become a golden carriage or a plain country bumpkin to engage into a marriage (or whatever the line was). She doubts it for a second, that's why Whitney starts at a high note, and then brandy takes it down instead of up, then whitney follows along going down with her, then brings her back up. The joke of it all is Whitney the fairy godmother denying the absurdity of magic existing in a sort of teaching lesson..oh it's the silliest thing, it could never happen. She's testing her to she if she can believe. Only when she believes will she show her. Build the spirit up before you fix the exteriorial problem. th-cam.com/video/wTwxMoWNa4Y/w-d-xo.htmlsi=DxkiRYAHJ4FiI0B8 Here's the song.
Mice on Venus from Minecraft Volume Alpha is a great example of a major key song that sounds... well, it's not happy, but sad isn't quite the right word. It's... it's like the feeling of a good time coming to an end, like a musical goodbye.
We have to thank Bright Eyes for making major tonality a lot harder to listen to, good lord, they have a lot of songs that have really pessimistic lyric over an joyously happy instrumental with emo-like vocals.
"Tetris theme" is actually a Russian folk song called Korobeiniki. It's in Melodic minor, not natural minor, so it has a raised seventh, which makes it sound closer to major than natural minor would.
There's a lot of songs in the Eastern European style that use this E7 - Am progression, sometimes as a I7-iv, and sometimes as a i-V7. Hannukah Oh Hannukah uses this (Am, happy song); Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof uses this (Am, making use of the major V to uplift it from sad to nostalgic), and I play one called Stolichnaya (Am, upbeat song about drinking shitty vodka to drown out life's problems).
I agree - I say this all the time. The minor key songs tend to be "cooler", darker and more "exotic"-sounding to the average ear, but they are often used in upbeat, dancy, or funky songs. Sad major songs can be more elegiac and dramatic, especially because they allow us to sprinkle in the contrast of minor chords. Going from "light" to "dark" is arguably sadder and even more tragic than just going from dark to even darker. Hard to explain in two paragraphs, but I generally agree.
A lot of sad major key songs use major tonics but a lot of minor chords *from the key* (ii, *iii,* and vi), as well as often the iv and even v - but especially the iv. In fact, I wrote a song called “Wit’s End” in G major, but the chord progression in the verse is I - vi - iii - ii (note how it also descends in the scale). And then I go to bVI and II, both a tritone apart, in the chorus, which are both major chords, one of which borrowed from the minor key. It doesn’t sound sad but instead beckoning, because it borrow’s minor’s power for urgency but on a major chord. The major-diatonic chords sound more wistful, but they resolve back to major immediately and lack a minor iv or v, so it sounds easygoing and easy to bring back to major. It’s also in how I’ve brought together the pieces though; music’s to be heard, not just read. There’s also power in the III chord, which implies an impending resolution to the relative minor. “Creep” uses both that and the iv to indicate wistfulness in a major key. Same with “The Air That I Breathe”, “Get Free”, we know the story haha. Note how using the bVI or bIII (major chords from minor ethos) generally doesn’t create sadness but does create urgency, however using the vi(°) or even iii (minor chords from major ethos) often creates poignancy or wistfulness. Meanwhile tonally “androgynous” chords like the IV7 and v6, as well as even the ivmM7 and VI7 (the last tonicizes the ii, which has both a brightening and darkening effect… I find anything with the ii is very contextual, more than usual) tend to create a harmonic jolt or increase in energy, even a bluesy or even more so versatile aspect. To each their own. There’s this one song, it may come back to my mind, it uses the progression I - V - ii - *iv,* and it sounds so starkly sad for that. That ii to iv aspect (both minor chords) is very useful. “No Surprises” by Radiohead for instance relies a lot on it.
@@gillianomotoso328 @gillianomotoso328 Yes, I agree with all of that. I think some of what you're talking about also touches on modes (such as flirting with the mixolydian v which tends to sound very wistful, or the dorian mode, or double plagal cadences and things like that). There is tonal ambiguity and borrowing and displaced progressions and all sorts of things which can create various moods and colors. Interesting stuff.
What an excellent video, David. "Married life" from the film Up immediately jumps to mind. The initial introduction to that motif is a bit more up beat and hence sounds happy and exciting. Upon Ellie's death, however, that same motif is often played in a slow, deliberate manner which sounds gut-wrenching. Quite reflective of what it feels to love and then grieve, I guess.
In German and related languages (danish, swedish) we call Major = Dur and Minor = Moll. Nobody ever talks about where these words come from: they come from latin durus = hard and mollis = soft or mellow. So the etymology tells us, that it was not always thought of as happy vs sad.
@@vale.antoni Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's like that everywhere that the German academic music tradition influenced, instead of the French academic music tradition.
A great example of a happy Minor song is "Friend Like Me" from Aladdin, the instrumentation makes it feel like you've discovered how to change your life for the better with the lyrics making said discovery be a powerful ally.
My go-to example of happy music in a minor key has always been the entire genre of klezmer. Summed up perfectly by the song in Crazy Ex Girlfriend… 🎵 Nights like these are filled with glee Noshing, dancing, singing, wee! But we sing in a minor key To remember that we suffered. 🎵
Lyrics can also be very influential in making a song sound happy or sad. The song that comes to mind for me would be Michal in the Bathroom from Be More Chill. It’s in the major key, and if you heard an instrumental version it probably would sound happy. In fact the main melody used in it comes back later in the musical in more positive or happy ways. However because of the lyrics, the song itself is very sad.
"No surprises", "Fake plastic trees" and "True Love Waits" are among the most depressing Radiohead songs, but all of them are in a major key. "Lazarus" by porcupine tree is in A-Major, but is one of the more melancholic songs on Deadwing
Isn't it baked in tho? I mean... Phrygian is known as "Freygian" in Slavic/Yiddish folk music circles, or just the "Jewish scale", & to me that use of Phrygian says "Life is painful, so lets make a party out of it". I rarely get a sad/happy feeling from Phrygian. To me it's the most honest mode, & speaks of intensity, pragmatism, & passion to my ears. Simply human.
As someone who likes having a 6 second crossfade between songs. I really like when a really sad, mournful, and hopeless minor key song fades into a calm and/or happy major key song. It’s like having a metaphorical load being taken off your shoulders. My favorite example of this is when going from “Missa pastoril para a noite de Natal: Et incarnatus est” by José Maurício Nunes Garcia, to “Faz Parte Do Meu Show” by Cazuza.
I’ve always refused this weird binary, it’s so obviously not the case. But you go a step further and present this idea of modal spectrum (that you’ve talked about before) and it makes so much sense. This video is such a well needed gem. I wish I could show this to my music teacher back in high school.
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I love how Dwight sitting in a car is now the official video for Everybody Hurts.
Everybody hurts and when somebody left me are only sad due to context. They sound calm and happy without it. Same with the example later. It just sounds like relief and like the calm _after_ the storm. Minor does work as happy, major doesnt as sad. Change my mind.
I would also say the same thing about songs like Orchestral Suite No. 3 (AKA Air on a G String) by Johan Sebastian Bach. By itself and out of context, it doesn’t necessarily sound happy or sad. But if played in a more somber environment like a viewing in a funeral home, or well a funeral, it amplifies the already sad mood of this kind of gathering. I’m also speaking from experience here because a week or so after my grandmother died, my family went to a funeral home for her viewing. And while they didn’t play the song I mentioned here, the music they did play had a similar feel from very similarly being bright, white having more legato. I feel like I bring up the deaths of family members a lot here.
@@panosmosproductions3230 Yes, suite no. 3 still sounds happy without context. Exactly like I said, sounds like calm after the storm. I just don't see how you can make major sad without context. Same with Claire de lune and other different major pieces.
Yeah, and musicals such as South Pacific, do put this kind of major key music in a sad context. And no matter how sad one’s situation is, Prelude from Final Fantasy VII, will always sound calm and peaceful.
I disagree, "tidings of comfort and joy" has rarely held less comfort or joy than they do in "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." It depends on which version I suppose, but mostly they have that "true joy and happiness is a bit sinful, so let's not take it too far, lads." kind of sound like most Christian religious music. It sounds positively dour.
Not just the pitch and tempo, but E-minor, like yellow, is the key of consciousness. So "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is sort of like a song about taking "group-think" seriously. - _The Acoustic Rabbit Hole_
@@rebeccaschade3987it only has that vibe because organists play super slowly. See, the trouble with organs is that you can't hear the beat: all the notes just blend into one another. People with no musical training can't stick to a beat if they're not being constantly reminded of it, and if someone is unsure of themselves they tend to slow down, so the organist slows to compensate. Assuming no choir member speaks up and reminds the organist that they need to breathe, it just continues like that. "Merry" means horny, that song is a jig, and E minor is the sexy key. It's the relative minor of B major, the "hero punch villain" key. Like it's relative major, E minor is confidant: but where B major is brash, E minor is like a musical mona lisa smile. It says "hey, want to see something cool?" Most club music either is in E minor, or uses E minor chords a lot: it's the third of G minor, which is probably the most common chord in blues and bluegrass. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is in E minor for the first section, which is what clues you in to what kind of "fun" it is the girls want to have (yeah, that song is about abortion in case you weren't aware). But notice that song is quite fast and has a triplet pulse. Like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, it's also a jig: an Irish jig, which is faster than the normal kind. Probably the best example of how drastically tempo can change a song is My Country 'tis of Thee. It's the exact same melody that the British use for God Save the King, but it's twice as fast. This is actually the Americans preserving the older performance practice, while the Brits slowed the song down so it would be more dramatic. Because of the need to distinguish the two songs, the old performance practice got fossilized in America even though it's not like we didn't go for schmalz in the 19th Century. So, when you're considering a song like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, you have to understand that it was performed much faster and without as much ornamentation when it was popular. The way I first learned it, in a church which was founded at the time that song was popular, was as a round with the carol singers divided into two sections (both mixed voices, as was the custom in the 17th Century). Standing outside on a wintry afternoon, the tendency is rather to speed up than slow down: when you're all tense from the cold, it's hard to hold a note. That's the intended performance practice for that song: you show up at your neighbor's door, cheekily wish them a sexy night and they serve you hot spiced cider called wassail (in the old days it was mildly alcoholic, nowadays usually not). By all means, dislike religion, but don't hold prejudices that keep you from learning your own history.
@@rebeccaschade3987 you're probably just listening to a bad performance of it then? Barenaked Ladies has a version of it (merged with We Three Kings) that absolutely slaps
This is especially true in folk music. A lot of minor key traditional Russian music is energetic and danceable. And one sad major key song I always think of is "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
Yeah, but a whole lot of it, & I'm going to include Yiddish folk here, since they pull from the same source material, has this underlying theme of hardship to it. It's like -life is hard and full of sadness, but were going to carry on anyway, since we don't have much of a choice in the matter.
True, but a lot of folk music is also like that meme with the dog tied to a chair in a burning room. "Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posy..." yeah, that's about the Black Death. Spirituals were first sung by slaves yearning for freedom. They might be very danceable, but "happy" is often not really the right word. It's more like "if we don't throw a party we're all going to lose it, so ignore the dead bodies".
The traditional shanty "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?" is in a minor key but is an upbeat, positively roisterous song. But also a bit dark when you consider what they are proposing to do to the unfortunate sailor "earl-aye in the morning"!
@@Ghi102 It's a minor mode, but it's brighter than Aeolian or harmonic minor thanks to its major 6th. Melodic minor can also still be somewhat darker than Dorian despite having a major 6th and 7th since those raised notes were traditionally used only when ascending.
@@reillywalker195i'd argue that doesn't really matter, though. it only uses the natural 6th in a few places, and i don't think i could consider it anything but upbeat and happy even if you replaced them.
I learnt guitar quite a while ago. I was basically told this and believed it. It's fascinating to learn about the modes, you've explained them better than anyone.
a really great example of how this can be applied is Welcome to the Black Parade by MCR. the song's in G major, very distinctly too. the opening piano line does a walk down the scale. but it's slow, sharp; it's the bright bleakness of a field of snow reflecting the sun. cold, isolating, vivid. and as the song goes on the instrumentation builds, this ashy barren emptiness weighing down more and more aggressively, but then the tempo changes. and what was once devastating is now defiant, what seemed of pulchritude now perseverance. the key doesnt change. the instrumentation doesnt change. but it goes from heartrendingly despondent to overwhelmingly uplifting in one sudden brilliant change, the opposition to resignation now shining as brightly as the snow to which it once resigned.
I agree and I would like to add that I find that most minor songs are either menacing (slow legato sort of thing) or rebellious/independent/angry (upbeat but dark) rather than sad. Except Moonlight Sonata first movement. That one's sad. Beautiful, but sad.
@@perseusgaming365 For me Beethoven's moonlight sonata mvt 1 isnt' really "sad" in my opinion. I felt it was more 'atmospheric', a calm, dream-like piece that felt like you were at the start of a long journey. it's not the kind of melancholy i'd associate with minor as other people typically would.
For the longest time I refused to learn modes out of stubborness and ignorance, but your videos have helped to change that. Not many other areas of music theory have captivated me as much as modes.
@@landrypierce9942 good word, and true. I suppose the feeling I described has less of the sweetness which I would associate with nostalgia, although it's splitting hairs at this point.
Exactly. And you could also use it for nostalgia. If used properly, IMO, this much sadder than anything you can get with minor. It's just human nature: sad is okay, but you're telling me, once upon a time, you used to be happy? Now that's truly depressing. After watching this video, I thought back on all the songs I put on to feel sad. A lot of them are on major keys, ad yes, the lyrics are usually mourning a loss, acknowledging things used to be better, but there's no way to get that back.
I find the Tetris theme's upbeat, minor key arrangement to give it an adventurous feel to it. The feeling of excitedly venturing into unfamiliar territory, like going on vacation to a foreign country. In fact you'll often hear upbeat, minor key music in documentaries whenever there's a montage that introduces any kind of exotic destination.
I think the musician’s interpretation is really important as well. This is especially true for classical music where parts are repeated, the same notes and similar tempo, in the hands of a brilliant musician, can yield completely different moods and “feel”
Amazing. Wow. // Ektd, did you know that Beethoven's 9th Symphony, the "Ode to Joy" is _sort of_ in D-minor, but really it's building up to a conversion into D major. A sort of inner-metamorphasis from sadness to happiness. Come and see my note-to-color music theory at: _The Acoustic Rabbit Hole!_
Sorry, natural minor takes the cake here for poignance. The VI-i is classic, the i-VI is classic, basically every sequence and combination of the v VI VII & i chords Plus inversions can create an extremely poignant chord progression, and it's extremely flexible too.
I'd argue that the minor plagal cadence is far sadder. It involves the major 4 being a cornerstone of the major key but then injuring it by going to the minor 4 instead before resolving. That is the saddest chord move I could think of. Also, harmonically, the minor plagal cadence is the exact opposite to the perfect 5-1 cadence so it sounds just as perfect. 1 to 3 is sad and commonly used, but 1 to dominant 3 with a flat 13th that resolves down and then the minor 6 chord just squeezes more emotion out of it. I know I know... no need to overcomplicate it. Keep it simple, stupid.
The 'Saddest" chord progressions are chains of suspensions like in Beethoven's"Moonlight Sonata", Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings", and Pergolesi "Stabat Mater".
I am not a Music student but enthusiast. This video answered most of my question lingering for so many years. There were many wow moments and eye openers like the mode but played with different tempo changes from Happy to sad and vice versa. Thank you very much.
For the first example with lots of minor 7ths... minor 7ths have major triads embedded in them which blurs the lines a little bit, I think that's worth pointing out
I'd love to see a continuation of this idea, like a video on "how to make a mode sad or happy" because even though lydian is brighter than major, it can often be quite mournful. Whereas dorian might be much darker than major, but it's often a very lighthearted sound
7:06 My favorite example of this is that Mr Blue Sky by ELO and Yesterday by the Beatles are almost the EXACT same chords. They're even in the same key! It's a very easy direct comparison to make
Mr Blue Sky is still a little melancholic for me. It's not deep depression like Yesterday, but there's something wistful and melancholic about it as well. It's about wishing for the blue sky to come back!
@@LilyJars Look at the verse. That's the part that is almost identical to Yesterday. The opening lyrics are "The sun is shining in the sky. There ain't a cloud in sight." The blue sky is already back! Do you get a melancholic vibe from that verse at all? Because if you do... I don't know what to make of that. It's very strange to me.
@@LukeSniper xD Yeah that part sounds ominous to me - it feels like the calm before the storm. Or a fleeting moment of peace / normality that's about to disappear
@@LilyJars Such an interpretation is UNFATHOMABLE to me. Especially considering the rest of the lyrics, which describe a wonderful, sunny day where everybody is happy to be outside. Then there's the question "Mister Blue Sky, why did you have to hide away for so long?" Proceeding through the song it's more "This beautiful day rules". Then "Well, it's about night time, but that's okay. I'm going to remember this beautiful, sunny day and eagerly await the next one." Like... I almost want to say I don't believe you when you say it's "ominous" (either that or you're just not listening to the song). There's nothing suggesting "a storm is coming". It's the exact opposite. The storm has PASSED! Now it's all sunshine and it's great. NIGHT is explicitly what is coming next.
@@LukeSniper Yeah I figured I'm in the minority for this since most people in the comments for Mr Blue Sky declare it's the happiest song ever :P But yes to me it feels like the song is about 1 day of blue sky amongst an endless year of grey skies. It feels like this is the 1 good day and after this every day for another age is going to suck - and there's something melancholic and wistful about it Even the melody when the song goes "It's a beautiful new day" sounds hecking sad. I think it's the minor key or the melodies that's influencing the tone of the song for me. It feels like it's going to be the only good day out of a sea of bad days if that makes any sense
I don't want to sound rude to other keys but I think minor key (and its variations) might be the moste versatile key, capable of bringing so many emotions to the listener. And I find major key to be harder to use well without sounding too boring. And I really think the most important in a scale (if we're talking about 7 notes scales at least) is whereas the third is major or minor, so every mode can be either a "minor" or a "major" mode.
As someone who listens by heart it's not just about sad/happy. It's about creating a tie to an emotion that makes it easier to recognize a chord. For instance, I say that a sus chord is "exciting" and 7 is "aspiring". dim-chords are horror and maj7 are mysterious. Maybe they don't make sense in all situations (just like sad/happy) but it helps the brain single out what chord that is actually plated. Therefore I'm FOR simplifying a chord to an emomtion, like sad/happy, if your brain can hear the difference and you can find chords easier by listening because of it. Now I can instantly hear that a sus chord is being played, because it's easier for the brain to recognise the "exciting" part, than a nuanced perspective like "oh it depends, every chord can sound exciting if played in an exciting way, so it can be anything". The same with sad/happy, and what makes this good is that more people actually hear this. (However, I've also met people that can't hear that minor sound more sad than majors. So it's not fundamental.)
abba has lot of songs that defy the major=happy assumption! and cassandra and soldiers both have such a distinct melancholic tone to them. even angeleyes, which pretty much sounds like a typical happy major song, has a twinge of pain and sadness in its chorus (the "he'll take your heart and you must pay the price" and "crazy bout his angeleyes, angeleyes" lyrics specifically) the outro of chiquitita even blew up a few years ago for having an indescribable emotion in it. they have so many more major songs just drenched in melancholy. conversely, head over heels and lay all your love on me are both minor but are both upbeat dance beats!
OMG YES!!!! finally i'm seeing someone who literally thinks exactly like me!!! abba is one of my favorite artists, benny and björn are real masters on making songs with this vibe, it's such a melancholy yet hopeful sensation, something that always make me cry. i'm so happy that you mentioned cassandra and soldiers, most of people forget these masterpieces, so incredible and well written 😢 i completely agree with every word you said, i really love being a fan of them with all my heart ❤❤
Intrigued, but you won me over with your first example - Move On Up - it was a perfect choice to reflect a happy minor, it really is bright and breezy, light and energetic. Good selection
One of my favorite major songs that that really toys with your emotions is Mr. Blue Sky. It's upbeat and happy but as the song goes on it hints at more sad undertones in both the lyrics and the chords, and the last minute leading up to end is sort of melancholy and reflective, finally resolving into a happy equilibrium.
A perfect example of how a same melody can go from happy to very sad, just by changing the tempo and the instruments, is the theme of the intro from the movie "Up"
Me too. Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and the hymn "O Sacred Head Sore Wounded" are very poignant. And there's something very evocative about Pink Floyd's "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.
This is the only comment I've "disagreed" with, but scales/modes are often more up in the air for emotional interpretation. Also what you hear as cold is understandably interpretive, because to me Phrygian is almost neutral. There's certainly not a lot of happiness going on, but I don't often hear sadness either. I hear anger/intensity/humanity/passion.
@@RusNad Very true, & I was trying to come up w/some examples for that, but I was in a rush. Duh, Brittany Spears "Toxic" 😂 Still, even those happier songs, have a sort of intensity that other music just doesn't have. I've always been attracted to Phrygian over other modes since I was a child. It just feels honest to me. And it's got nothing to do w/origin since I'm a whiteboy born in Wyoming lmao.
Props for finding all those examples, you didn't even use one twice! That's a lot of work! Really great video (in big part because of the many examples)
Hometown by 21 pilots is in c mixolydian, and it sounds cold to me, like the song represents the end of autumn and start of winter. Both the instrumental and vocal melody avoid the third during a lot of parts, so it create a duality in the song. It isn't possible to distinguished if hometown is really in c mixolydian or c dorian. But in some parts, the vocal melody touches the major third Another major song I find not happy is "Jônio", by Marco Pereira. It really sounds to me like desolation, or missing something that only remains in your memory
When you played the chord progression for "When She Loved Me" at 2:50 , I thought you were launching into McCartney's "Blackbird" (although in a different key)
Major key songs that are sad: Green Day's "Wake me up when September ends"; Coldplay's "Fix you"; Eric Clapton's "Tears in heaven"; Blink 182's "I miss you"; My Chemical Romance's "Welcome to the Black Parade" and "Helena". Minor key songs that are happy: Mika's "Relax, take it easy"; Dua Lipa's "Levitating"; Bon Jovi's "Living on a prayer" and "You give love a bad name"; Arctic Monkeys' "Do I wanna know?"; The Weekend's "Can't feel my face"; Europe's "The final countdown". I could go one even more but I'll stop there!
Wake me up when September ends and Welcome to the black parade{Sometimes I get a feeling section} use very similar chord progressions actually, with the descending bass line (of the major scale).But September ends has a minor plagal cadence,so more melancholy from that.
@@avijatsinharoy8944 I know, David did a great video about those descending chord progressions and a great video about the minor plagal cadence. Still they’re both in the major key and sad
@@MeMeMcsplosion OMG (Oh my Goddess) we were BOTH wrong. I'm here at my piano. You said it's in D (orange to me) I said it's yellow (E). The song is in-between! It's in E-flat! (And, incidentally, is see E-flat as a golden yellow. Golden light!).
those dont sound "sad", but they do still sound "dark". ive always thought of minor as not only being associated with sad/negative emotions, but also sounding "cool", and romantic. minor can be upbeat, but it will still have that "dark" or suave sound to it.
I get the feeling. So many (at least 2) classical songs i know are technically in major key that i associate with minor. Helps when you have the same number of flats/sharps, so the same chords are possible
Every single one of the minor examples you started with, for me start in an element of sadness. Moving on up, is someone who has been struggling trying to get it going, a yearning to be like someone he looked up to. Smooth is someone yearning for the things they need in life. Sultans of swing is a group of dudes who were “ living on nothing and weren’t even able to pay the gas bill”. The Beyonce one is obviously someone saying “I’m a survivor” which is yes fighting, but also you’ve struggled. I’m gonna work harder, so you think you haven’t worked hard enough before. Superstition is about “when you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer”. Feeling good is certainly about triumph, but through extreme difficulty. I would say some are certainly not unhappy, but they are far from happy as well… just my two cents. Enjoyed the video :)
It’s a fine explanation for those new to music or young children. You grow up and you grow as an artist and you realize that is much more complex than that and I don’t see anything wrong with that. When teaching beginners of any age you can’t really explain the full depth of concepts elsewise they would never be able to progress at all especially since so many concepts are built on knowledge of previous ones. Happy and sad are such visceral feelings that they are well suited to these descriptions in early teaching
Twenty one pilots’ Ode to Sleep shifts both meter and key between verse and chorus, really strong example of the two elements of mood you talked about!
In Romania we don't make this distinction in musical education of "sad" and "happy." That's typically because *a lot* of music in this part of the world is in a minor key and is super upbeat. Some of it isn't even 12-tone, so there's a lot of play in how music is done here.
I always wondered about this, Levitating by Dua Lipa for example is very upbeat and carefree and very minor at the same time. To me the sad major songs are bittersweet at best, while sad minor songs are usually way sadder and definitely feel "hopeless". Now while happy major sounds kinda child-like positive, happy minor sounds mature and nocturnal/urban, sometimes even sexy. But in the end the rhythm, tempo, lyrics, performance, production textures, etc will all work to set the mood along with the key.
i like "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief" From Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool is very sad but it is in a major key. Awesome video by the way!
As I'm typing this the song Piano In The Dark by Brenda Russell is playing. Verse in Fm, chorus in F. Then as she sings that last word 'dark' it goes back to Fm.
I think you sorta nailed it, not a question between Major=Happy and Minor=Sad ... it's more like minor has more tension in it. A couple that Bennett mentioned as minor being happy ARE sorta happy, but with a tense energy. And many major songs are definitely heartbreakers. So one of the problems is confusing the lyrical message. And I'd agree with Bennett how either can be happy or sad, but it's more a matter of the musical energy comparison of major vs minor, with with major having a clarity and minor having a tension, and that can be sculpted into happy or sad in both.
tbh minor "happy" songs remind me of how i felt when i got given compazine for a migraine- which fits this- anxious, jittery, anticipatory i guess are the words?
Another great video. Highly informative, and fascinating. I love the drawing upon well-known pop/rock songs to illustrate the technical point being explained. More!
The piece in major that I find to be dark and bleak is the opening of the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Appassionata sonata. (So major doesn't even sound BRIGHT here!) And yes it's slow, as you've pointed out, as well as being in the low register. Check out the first 8 bars.... I don't find Sultans of Swing to be sad (agree with you) but I do get a warm feeling when they go to the F major chord in that song.
Many of Beethoven’s scherzo movements- the comic relief of his works, effectively- are in minor key. I don’t think anyone would describe the D minor scherzo to the 9th as sad, but there’s an almost comedically obsessive quality to it.
5:45 an interesting example of this is the absolutely phenomenal song, "The Complete History of the Soviet Union, Arranged to the Melody of Tetris," which can be found on the TH-cam channel Pig With The Face Of A Boy. As the title suggests, the entire 7 minute song is compromised of different variations of the Tetris themes with varying tempos and moods. It's really a genius video, and I recommend pretty much everybody to watch it. It's one of my favorite TH-cam videos ever.
Bro, I swear, you went straight for the feels with your negative examples. Everybody hurts really prepped the flood gates, even though I never really watched The Office, but hearing When Somebody Loved Me really made the gates burst. It's really sad, because yeah, the heartbreak is a very tender thing, and that still very much shakes me. I cried the first time I saw that scene as a kid, and it still makes me cry today. Also, in hindsight, I never really even thought of Tetris, but you're very much right in that it sounds upbeat despite being definitively minor key. I don't even really think of it _as_ minor key unless I really think about it. Another good example I can think of is the theme song for Jeopardy. Someone made a slower version for Alex Trebek's funeral which really emphasized the same mood you showed for slowing down Tetris - it _can_ sound sad when used in a slower tempo.
Ive been playing guitar for a couple years now just shredding riffs and solos as violently as possible to improve my technique. But this video alone has dramatically changed my outlook on music and my understanding of it. Im glad i picked this one to start with helping my understanding of chords. Soon ill push on to understand scales. This video has honestly probably changed my life.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Sad in major sounds wistful, to me.
It's like that phrase, "don't be sad because it's over, be happy because it happened", that's the major key sadness
Well done - I think you captured that perfectly.
That's a really good way of putting it
so true! the word i kept thinking of, especially with "when somebody loved me" is "nostalgia." major key sadness is "i wish i could go back to this." minor key sadness is "i wish that never happened"
Yeah, minor key sadness is like my grandma's funeral, major key sadness is like visiting my grandma's grave at the cemetery.
@@darlingdannid Exactly! I was thinking of it similarly, wistful, there's a sense of longing. And nostalgia is perfect, you want to go back but that time, that place, that community, doesn't exist anymore, you can never go back
I find major chords in sad songs are even sadder, like for no one and no surprises
Yesterday, Tears in Heaven...
That uses a minor 4 chord, and I - iv is one of the saddest chord movements (I think at least)
A-ha - Lifelines
i think the word he was looking for was melancholic when describing the major sad feeling
@@Isalick34major to minor 4 chord especially creep comes to mind
I always thought minor sounds like night and major sounds like day. You can definitely have a sad day or a scary day and you can have a great night or a cozy night.
Listen to Impossible in the 1998 Cinderella.
There's a scene where brandy/ (brandy?) Cinderella and Whitney Houston/ Fairy godmother sing this part :
(right now they are both singing the word impossible, slowly going down the major scale so) "Impossible!... impossible!... impossible!... impossible! Impossible. (Now Brandy sings it minor) Impossible! (Whitney sings it major) - Impoooooossssible!" They sing it together. Cinderella is unsure about if it really is possible for a ordinary pumpkin to become a golden carriage or a plain country bumpkin to engage into a marriage (or whatever the line was). She doubts it for a second, that's why Whitney starts at a high note, and then brandy takes it down instead of up, then whitney follows along going down with her, then brings her back up. The joke of it all is Whitney the fairy godmother denying the absurdity of magic existing in a sort of teaching lesson..oh it's the silliest thing, it could never happen. She's testing her to she if she can believe. Only when she believes will she show her. Build the spirit up before you fix the exteriorial problem.
th-cam.com/video/wTwxMoWNa4Y/w-d-xo.htmlsi=DxkiRYAHJ4FiI0B8
Here's the song.
really nice way to think about it
I like that. I’ve heard many say a major chord placed correctly sounds like the sun is coming up
I've never heard this before but I love this explanation
This analogy is actually clever. Makes very sense to me.
Mice on Venus from Minecraft Volume Alpha is a great example of a major key song that sounds... well, it's not happy, but sad isn't quite the right word. It's... it's like the feeling of a good time coming to an end, like a musical goodbye.
Bittersweet is what you're looking for, me thinks.
@@seamusthatsthedog4819 Checks out.
Somewhere between happy and bittersweet
How do you know Mice on Venus by name and forget the word 'Melancholic'
Okay everyone, look, I was looking for something very specific, I know what "bittersweet" and "melancholic" mean
Wow. I'm a grown ass man and I got a tear in my eye with just a few notes of "When somebody loved me"
Half of metal music is minor and rarely sounds sad, half of indie folk music is major and almost all of it sounds sad.
How are you the top comment with ten likes and no pin?
@@SewerYum beats me, dude
@@SewerYum “DESTINY”
- most reasons for ancient emperors
Very true
We have to thank Bright Eyes for making major tonality a lot harder to listen to, good lord, they have a lot of songs that have really pessimistic lyric over an joyously happy instrumental with emo-like vocals.
"Tetris theme" is actually a Russian folk song called Korobeiniki. It's in Melodic minor, not natural minor, so it has a raised seventh, which makes it sound closer to major than natural minor would.
natural minor is almost never actually used, they all have raised 7th, its not what makes it "happier", they just sound bad without raised 7th
Melodic minor also usually has a raised 6th
That’s not correct. HARMONIC minor has a raised 7th, not melodic minor.
@@nicholasbarrera4589 um actually 🤓they both have a raised 7th but melodic also has the 6th.
There's a lot of songs in the Eastern European style that use this E7 - Am progression, sometimes as a I7-iv, and sometimes as a i-V7. Hannukah Oh Hannukah uses this (Am, happy song); Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof uses this (Am, making use of the major V to uplift it from sad to nostalgic), and I play one called Stolichnaya (Am, upbeat song about drinking shitty vodka to drown out life's problems).
I agree - I say this all the time. The minor key songs tend to be "cooler", darker and more "exotic"-sounding to the average ear, but they are often used in upbeat, dancy, or funky songs.
Sad major songs can be more elegiac and dramatic, especially because they allow us to sprinkle in the contrast of minor chords. Going from "light" to "dark" is arguably sadder and even more tragic than just going from dark to even darker.
Hard to explain in two paragraphs, but I generally agree.
A lot of sad major key songs use major tonics but a lot of minor chords *from the key* (ii, *iii,* and vi), as well as often the iv and even v - but especially the iv.
In fact, I wrote a song called “Wit’s End” in G major, but the chord progression in the verse is I - vi - iii - ii (note how it also descends in the scale). And then I go to bVI and II, both a tritone apart, in the chorus, which are both major chords, one of which borrowed from the minor key. It doesn’t sound sad but instead beckoning, because it borrow’s minor’s power for urgency but on a major chord. The major-diatonic chords sound more wistful, but they resolve back to major immediately and lack a minor iv or v, so it sounds easygoing and easy to bring back to major. It’s also in how I’ve brought together the pieces though; music’s to be heard, not just read.
There’s also power in the III chord, which implies an impending resolution to the relative minor. “Creep” uses both that and the iv to indicate wistfulness in a major key. Same with “The Air That I Breathe”, “Get Free”, we know the story haha. Note how using the bVI or bIII (major chords from minor ethos) generally doesn’t create sadness but does create urgency, however using the vi(°) or even iii (minor chords from major ethos) often creates poignancy or wistfulness. Meanwhile tonally “androgynous” chords like the IV7 and v6, as well as even the ivmM7 and VI7 (the last tonicizes the ii, which has both a brightening and darkening effect… I find anything with the ii is very contextual, more than usual) tend to create a harmonic jolt or increase in energy, even a bluesy or even more so versatile aspect. To each their own.
There’s this one song, it may come back to my mind, it uses the progression I - V - ii - *iv,* and it sounds so starkly sad for that. That ii to iv aspect (both minor chords) is very useful. “No Surprises” by Radiohead for instance relies a lot on it.
@@gillianomotoso328 @gillianomotoso328 Yes, I agree with all of that. I think some of what you're talking about also touches on modes (such as flirting with the mixolydian v which tends to sound very wistful, or the dorian mode, or double plagal cadences and things like that). There is tonal ambiguity and borrowing and displaced progressions and all sorts of things which can create various moods and colors. Interesting stuff.
@@gillianomotoso328 Send me a link to your music and I'll check it out! 🙂
Yeah, agreed :)
@@glennpagemusic where would be good to send? I could have you give my Instagram a look… though, I don’t have “Wit’s End” recorded anywhere :/
Major chords with a sad tune is like a teardrop with a smile, absorbing the things are happing when you have no control
What an excellent video, David. "Married life" from the film Up immediately jumps to mind. The initial introduction to that motif is a bit more up beat and hence sounds happy and exciting. Upon Ellie's death, however, that same motif is often played in a slow, deliberate manner which sounds gut-wrenching. Quite reflective of what it feels to love and then grieve, I guess.
In German and related languages (danish, swedish) we call Major = Dur and Minor = Moll.
Nobody ever talks about where these words come from: they come from latin durus = hard and mollis = soft or mellow. So the etymology tells us, that it was not always thought of as happy vs sad.
This is remarkable. I have browsed a large bit of of the comments and you are the only other one to mention this that i have found so far
Same in the Balkans
@@lilemont9302 Good to know. That is not widespread knowledge
Interestingly, Hungarian (the language from the Moon) also has dur and moll for the two most common modes of music, and none of the major/minor
@@vale.antoni Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's like that everywhere that the German academic music tradition influenced, instead of the French academic music tradition.
A great example of a happy Minor song is "Friend Like Me" from Aladdin, the instrumentation makes it feel like you've discovered how to change your life for the better with the lyrics making said discovery be a powerful ally.
Prince Ali is minor too, I believe
My go-to example of happy music in a minor key has always been the entire genre of klezmer. Summed up perfectly by the song in Crazy Ex Girlfriend…
🎵 Nights like these are filled with glee
Noshing, dancing, singing, wee!
But we sing in a minor key
To remember that we suffered. 🎵
Holy shit is that mark cooper?
@@yoavboaz1078No it's the map from map men
mmmhmmm, adjacently-
what's the mode of skin sofa?
Shout out Crazy Ex-Girlfriend!
Other standouts are the peppy Bonetrousle and infamous Item Bounce.
Lyrics can also be very influential in making a song sound happy or sad. The song that comes to mind for me would be Michal in the Bathroom from Be More Chill. It’s in the major key, and if you heard an instrumental version it probably would sound happy. In fact the main melody used in it comes back later in the musical in more positive or happy ways. However because of the lyrics, the song itself is very sad.
You always make a valuable contribution to the conversation. I enjoy watching your videos.
"No surprises", "Fake plastic trees" and "True Love Waits" are among the most depressing Radiohead songs, but all of them are in a major key.
"Lazarus" by porcupine tree is in A-Major, but is one of the more melancholic songs on Deadwing
Creep is also in major key (i suspect it will show up later in the video lol)
Motion Picture Soundtrack is also in a major key.
Most of Radiohead's saddest songs are in major key. Let Down as well
And funny enough, what I would consider Radiohead's most upbeat songs are all in minor key
Electioneering and Bodysnatchers for example
Daydreaming and How to Disappear Completely are sad as fuck and they are in minor key
i never thought i needed a melancholic, somber version of the friggin tetris theme
Right? I just got to that spot myself.
That's what should play when you lose the game
The "tetris theme" is actually a Russian folk song called Korobeiniki.
(Nightcore version is even better)
Isn't it baked in tho? I mean... Phrygian is known as "Freygian" in Slavic/Yiddish folk music circles, or just the "Jewish scale", & to me that use of Phrygian says "Life is painful, so lets make a party out of it". I rarely get a sad/happy feeling from Phrygian. To me it's the most honest mode, & speaks of intensity, pragmatism, & passion to my ears. Simply human.
Check out Levi Niha's reimagining of the Tetris 99 theme.
Major isn't happy because it has to deal with a lot of adult things, and minor isn't sad because it can have so much fun.
LOL
you use this joke to me?
thats actually smart asf
Minors?
I love minor
NO NO WAIT
Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A Minor
As someone who likes having a 6 second crossfade between songs. I really like when a really sad, mournful, and hopeless minor key song fades into a calm and/or happy major key song. It’s like having a metaphorical load being taken off your shoulders. My favorite example of this is when going from “Missa pastoril para a noite de Natal: Et incarnatus est” by José Maurício Nunes Garcia, to “Faz Parte Do Meu Show” by Cazuza.
As a minor, i can confirm, im not sad
*You will be.*
@@MrAwesome457 disturbing but accurate
I’ve always refused this weird binary, it’s so obviously not the case. But you go a step further and present this idea of modal spectrum (that you’ve talked about before) and it makes so much sense. This video is such a well needed gem. I wish I could show this to my music teacher back in high school.
I love how Dwight sitting in a car is now the official video for Everybody Hurts.
😂
I honestly saw that bit and just thought it was the real video and that I'd just never known back then that that guy was in it!
I actually laughed out loud when I saw that.
i lold
@@jetjaguar_nz This is exactly what I thought too!! Then I was like...wait...that's Dwight!!
So I guess Nigel from Spinal Tap wasn't completely correct when he said "D minor is the saddest of all keys" haha
Well, I've heard Rick Beato saying the same thing as Nigel several times. Granted, he chuckles every time he says it but still...
@@smithjohn383there's no but still dude, it's just a joke
But it instantly makes people weep!
@@smithjohn383 He occasionally acknowledges the reference so it is a little humour creeping in.
Ah yes, the classic Lick My Love Pump
I've ALWAYS been wondering about this since many songs didn't follow this belief, thanks for the informative video!
Everybody hurts and when somebody left me are only sad due to context. They sound calm and happy without it. Same with the example later. It just sounds like relief and like the calm _after_ the storm. Minor does work as happy, major doesnt as sad. Change my mind.
I would also say the same thing about songs like Orchestral Suite No. 3 (AKA Air on a G String) by Johan Sebastian Bach. By itself and out of context, it doesn’t necessarily sound happy or sad. But if played in a more somber environment like a viewing in a funeral home, or well a funeral, it amplifies the already sad mood of this kind of gathering. I’m also speaking from experience here because a week or so after my grandmother died, my family went to a funeral home for her viewing. And while they didn’t play the song I mentioned here, the music they did play had a similar feel from very similarly being bright, white having more legato. I feel like I bring up the deaths of family members a lot here.
@@panosmosproductions3230 Yes, suite no. 3 still sounds happy without context. Exactly like I said, sounds like calm after the storm. I just don't see how you can make major sad without context. Same with Claire de lune and other different major pieces.
Yeah, and musicals such as South Pacific, do put this kind of major key music in a sad context. And no matter how sad one’s situation is, Prelude from Final Fantasy VII, will always sound calm and peaceful.
“God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” in E minor, certainly is a joyful song! The factors of pitch variety and tempo make it so.
If you haven't already heard pianist Paul Sullivan's upbeat version of it, you might enjoy it!
I disagree, "tidings of comfort and joy" has rarely held less comfort or joy than they do in "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." It depends on which version I suppose, but mostly they have that "true joy and happiness is a bit sinful, so let's not take it too far, lads." kind of sound like most Christian religious music. It sounds positively dour.
Not just the pitch and tempo, but E-minor, like yellow, is the key of consciousness. So "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is sort of like a song about taking "group-think" seriously.
- _The Acoustic Rabbit Hole_
@@rebeccaschade3987it only has that vibe because organists play super slowly. See, the trouble with organs is that you can't hear the beat: all the notes just blend into one another. People with no musical training can't stick to a beat if they're not being constantly reminded of it, and if someone is unsure of themselves they tend to slow down, so the organist slows to compensate. Assuming no choir member speaks up and reminds the organist that they need to breathe, it just continues like that.
"Merry" means horny, that song is a jig, and E minor is the sexy key. It's the relative minor of B major, the "hero punch villain" key. Like it's relative major, E minor is confidant: but where B major is brash, E minor is like a musical mona lisa smile. It says "hey, want to see something cool?" Most club music either is in E minor, or uses E minor chords a lot: it's the third of G minor, which is probably the most common chord in blues and bluegrass. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is in E minor for the first section, which is what clues you in to what kind of "fun" it is the girls want to have (yeah, that song is about abortion in case you weren't aware). But notice that song is quite fast and has a triplet pulse. Like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, it's also a jig: an Irish jig, which is faster than the normal kind. Probably the best example of how drastically tempo can change a song is My Country 'tis of Thee. It's the exact same melody that the British use for God Save the King, but it's twice as fast. This is actually the Americans preserving the older performance practice, while the Brits slowed the song down so it would be more dramatic. Because of the need to distinguish the two songs, the old performance practice got fossilized in America even though it's not like we didn't go for schmalz in the 19th Century. So, when you're considering a song like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, you have to understand that it was performed much faster and without as much ornamentation when it was popular. The way I first learned it, in a church which was founded at the time that song was popular, was as a round with the carol singers divided into two sections (both mixed voices, as was the custom in the 17th Century). Standing outside on a wintry afternoon, the tendency is rather to speed up than slow down: when you're all tense from the cold, it's hard to hold a note. That's the intended performance practice for that song: you show up at your neighbor's door, cheekily wish them a sexy night and they serve you hot spiced cider called wassail (in the old days it was mildly alcoholic, nowadays usually not). By all means, dislike religion, but don't hold prejudices that keep you from learning your own history.
@@rebeccaschade3987
you're probably just listening to a bad performance of it then? Barenaked Ladies has a version of it (merged with We Three Kings) that absolutely slaps
This is especially true in folk music. A lot of minor key traditional Russian music is energetic and danceable. And one sad major key song I always think of is "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
The Tetris theme is an example of that (it's based on an old folk song called 'Korobeiniki')
@@rw100 Спасибо!
Yeah, but a whole lot of it, & I'm going to include Yiddish folk here, since they pull from the same source material, has this underlying theme of hardship to it. It's like -life is hard and full of sadness, but were going to carry on anyway, since we don't have much of a choice in the matter.
Seems like nearly all eastern European dance music is in the minor, though it's all for happy-dance occasions.
True, but a lot of folk music is also like that meme with the dog tied to a chair in a burning room. "Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posy..." yeah, that's about the Black Death. Spirituals were first sung by slaves yearning for freedom. They might be very danceable, but "happy" is often not really the right word. It's more like "if we don't throw a party we're all going to lose it, so ignore the dead bodies".
The traditional shanty "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?" is in a minor key but is an upbeat, positively roisterous song. But also a bit dark when you consider what they are proposing to do to the unfortunate sailor "earl-aye in the morning"!
To be fair, "Drunken Sailor" is Dorian, not purely minor (harmonic minor, melodic minor, or Aeolian).
Dorian is still a minor scale though. It has the flat 3rd and flat 7th which is pretty much the defining characteristic of minor chords.
@@Ghi102 It's a minor mode, but it's brighter than Aeolian or harmonic minor thanks to its major 6th. Melodic minor can also still be somewhat darker than Dorian despite having a major 6th and 7th since those raised notes were traditionally used only when ascending.
I was caught off guard when I heard the verses for the first time
@@reillywalker195i'd argue that doesn't really matter, though. it only uses the natural 6th in a few places, and i don't think i could consider it anything but upbeat and happy even if you replaced them.
That's why drake is so happy
😂
XD
And dark????
I learnt guitar quite a while ago. I was basically told this and believed it. It's fascinating to learn about the modes, you've explained them better than anyone.
a really great example of how this can be applied is Welcome to the Black Parade by MCR. the song's in G major, very distinctly too. the opening piano line does a walk down the scale. but it's slow, sharp; it's the bright bleakness of a field of snow reflecting the sun. cold, isolating, vivid. and as the song goes on the instrumentation builds, this ashy barren emptiness weighing down more and more aggressively, but then the tempo changes. and what was once devastating is now defiant, what seemed of pulchritude now perseverance. the key doesnt change. the instrumentation doesnt change. but it goes from heartrendingly despondent to overwhelmingly uplifting in one sudden brilliant change, the opposition to resignation now shining as brightly as the snow to which it once resigned.
The key actually does change for the last chorus 😅 G major to A major.
For me, the melancholy has always resided in the major key.
Me when I lie
Couldn’t agree with you more.
yeah with the natural 7
I agree and I would like to add that I find that most minor songs are either menacing (slow legato sort of thing) or rebellious/independent/angry (upbeat but dark) rather than sad.
Except Moonlight Sonata first movement. That one's sad. Beautiful, but sad.
@@perseusgaming365 For me Beethoven's moonlight sonata mvt 1 isnt' really "sad" in my opinion. I felt it was more 'atmospheric', a calm, dream-like piece that felt like you were at the start of a long journey. it's not the kind of melancholy i'd associate with minor as other people typically would.
I really enjoyed this one. One of the clearer explanations of major, minor and modes that I have heard. David's a pretty smart dude.
Thank you!
For the longest time I refused to learn modes out of stubborness and ignorance, but your videos have helped to change that. Not many other areas of music theory have captivated me as much as modes.
Congrats on 1 mil subs bro... u deserve it
Thank you 😊
Sad major key songs are like mourning joy which no longer exists.
Though we use the word too much now, that’s practically the definition of nostalgia.
@@landrypierce9942 good word, and true. I suppose the feeling I described has less of the sweetness which I would associate with nostalgia, although it's splitting hairs at this point.
Exactly. And you could also use it for nostalgia. If used properly, IMO, this much sadder than anything you can get with minor. It's just human nature: sad is okay, but you're telling me, once upon a time, you used to be happy? Now that's truly depressing. After watching this video, I thought back on all the songs I put on to feel sad. A lot of them are on major keys, ad yes, the lyrics are usually mourning a loss, acknowledging things used to be better, but there's no way to get that back.
I feel like Randy Newman mastered this. The scene where Sully says goodbye to Boo or where Andy leaves for College
Brilllllliant observation. Thank you for this
I find the Tetris theme's upbeat, minor key arrangement to give it an adventurous feel to it. The feeling of excitedly venturing into unfamiliar territory, like going on vacation to a foreign country. In fact you'll often hear upbeat, minor key music in documentaries whenever there's a montage that introduces any kind of exotic destination.
I think the musician’s interpretation is really important as well. This is especially true for classical music where parts are repeated, the same notes and similar tempo, in the hands of a brilliant musician, can yield completely different moods and “feel”
Energetic minor was my first addiction. To this day I still can’t get enough of it.
THANK YOU for explaining modes in a way I could understand
First sad major song I thought of was the beginning scene in Up. Old-school Pixar knew how to get us, man.
"Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce. The hopeful verse is in Dm, and the lamenting chorus is in D. Beautiful.
"Operator" is another Jim Croce song in a major key (G major) that is definitely not a happy song.
Similar to what David mentioned in I'm Still Standing. Lamenting verse in Bb, hopeful chorus in Bbm.
Amazing. Wow. // Ektd, did you know that Beethoven's 9th Symphony, the "Ode to Joy" is _sort of_ in D-minor, but really it's building up to a conversion into D major. A sort of inner-metamorphasis from sadness to happiness.
Come and see my note-to-color music theory at: _The Acoustic Rabbit Hole!_
Most sad songs are in major. That I-iii change is the saddest chord progression. IV-iv-I is a close second... also in major.
Sorry, natural minor takes the cake here for poignance. The VI-i is classic, the i-VI is classic, basically every sequence and combination of the v VI VII & i chords Plus inversions can create an extremely poignant chord progression, and it's extremely flexible too.
I'd argue that the minor plagal cadence is far sadder. It involves the major 4 being a cornerstone of the major key but then injuring it by going to the minor 4 instead before resolving. That is the saddest chord move I could think of. Also, harmonically, the minor plagal cadence is the exact opposite to the perfect 5-1 cadence so it sounds just as perfect. 1 to 3 is sad and commonly used, but 1 to dominant 3 with a flat 13th that resolves down and then the minor 6 chord just squeezes more emotion out of it. I know I know... no need to overcomplicate it. Keep it simple, stupid.
The 'Saddest" chord progressions are chains of suspensions like in Beethoven's"Moonlight Sonata", Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings", and Pergolesi "Stabat Mater".
@@battleframestudios8989 I used it in my comment. I gave it second place only because it's not TRUE major. It borrows from minor.
so much melodic EDM is written in minor keys, and it’s often the happiest music in the world
The amazing digital circus theme song can be interpreted as Cm with 1 extra note and it still sounds happy.
"What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong is in F major, but sounds very wistful and emotive to me.
Last time I heard it I was at a funeral. It became so poignant that it reduced me to tears.
Every chord in the (clockwise) circle of fifths progression in JImi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" is major
I don’t want to learn music from anyone else, you’re so knowledgeable and gentle and calming
Thank you!
rick beato?
Get in line
I am not a Music student but enthusiast. This video answered most of my question lingering for so many years. There were many wow moments and eye openers like the mode but played with different tempo changes from Happy to sad and vice versa. Thank you very much.
For the first example with lots of minor 7ths... minor 7ths have major triads embedded in them which blurs the lines a little bit, I think that's worth pointing out
Great editing, great research, great examples! I've learned a lot.
I'm So Excited by the Pointer Sisters is one of the happiest minor songs ever
I'd love to see a continuation of this idea, like a video on "how to make a mode sad or happy" because even though lydian is brighter than major, it can often be quite mournful. Whereas dorian might be much darker than major, but it's often a very lighthearted sound
7:06 My favorite example of this is that Mr Blue Sky by ELO and Yesterday by the Beatles are almost the EXACT same chords. They're even in the same key!
It's a very easy direct comparison to make
Mr Blue Sky is still a little melancholic for me. It's not deep depression like Yesterday, but there's something wistful and melancholic about it as well. It's about wishing for the blue sky to come back!
@@LilyJars Look at the verse. That's the part that is almost identical to Yesterday. The opening lyrics are "The sun is shining in the sky. There ain't a cloud in sight."
The blue sky is already back!
Do you get a melancholic vibe from that verse at all? Because if you do... I don't know what to make of that. It's very strange to me.
@@LukeSniper xD Yeah that part sounds ominous to me - it feels like the calm before the storm. Or a fleeting moment of peace / normality that's about to disappear
@@LilyJars Such an interpretation is UNFATHOMABLE to me. Especially considering the rest of the lyrics, which describe a wonderful, sunny day where everybody is happy to be outside.
Then there's the question "Mister Blue Sky, why did you have to hide away for so long?"
Proceeding through the song it's more "This beautiful day rules".
Then "Well, it's about night time, but that's okay. I'm going to remember this beautiful, sunny day and eagerly await the next one."
Like... I almost want to say I don't believe you when you say it's "ominous" (either that or you're just not listening to the song).
There's nothing suggesting "a storm is coming". It's the exact opposite. The storm has PASSED! Now it's all sunshine and it's great. NIGHT is explicitly what is coming next.
@@LukeSniper Yeah I figured I'm in the minority for this since most people in the comments for Mr Blue Sky declare it's the happiest song ever :P
But yes to me it feels like the song is about 1 day of blue sky amongst an endless year of grey skies. It feels like this is the 1 good day and after this every day for another age is going to suck - and there's something melancholic and wistful about it
Even the melody when the song goes "It's a beautiful new day" sounds hecking sad. I think it's the minor key or the melodies that's influencing the tone of the song for me. It feels like it's going to be the only good day out of a sea of bad days if that makes any sense
I think that the Tetris theme's character fits quite a few other Russian themes, such as the song Katyusha, which is also in a minor key but uptempo.
I don't want to sound rude to other keys but I think minor key (and its variations) might be the moste versatile key, capable of bringing so many emotions to the listener.
And I find major key to be harder to use well without sounding too boring.
And I really think the most important in a scale (if we're talking about 7 notes scales at least) is whereas the third is major or minor, so every mode can be either a "minor" or a "major" mode.
Really appreciating how each of the Tetris blocks made contact on the downbeat.
😂
As someone who listens by heart it's not just about sad/happy. It's about creating a tie to an emotion that makes it easier to recognize a chord. For instance, I say that a sus chord is "exciting" and 7 is "aspiring". dim-chords are horror and maj7 are mysterious. Maybe they don't make sense in all situations (just like sad/happy) but it helps the brain single out what chord that is actually plated. Therefore I'm FOR simplifying a chord to an emomtion, like sad/happy, if your brain can hear the difference and you can find chords easier by listening because of it.
Now I can instantly hear that a sus chord is being played, because it's easier for the brain to recognise the "exciting" part, than a nuanced perspective like "oh it depends, every chord can sound exciting if played in an exciting way, so it can be anything". The same with sad/happy, and what makes this good is that more people actually hear this. (However, I've also met people that can't hear that minor sound more sad than majors. So it's not fundamental.)
True. listening by heart is what allows different chords to trigger certain emotions in us 👍🏻
abba has lot of songs that defy the major=happy assumption! and cassandra and soldiers both have such a distinct melancholic tone to them. even angeleyes, which pretty much sounds like a typical happy major song, has a twinge of pain and sadness in its chorus (the "he'll take your heart and you must pay the price" and "crazy bout his angeleyes, angeleyes" lyrics specifically) the outro of chiquitita even blew up a few years ago for having an indescribable emotion in it. they have so many more major songs just drenched in melancholy.
conversely, head over heels and lay all your love on me are both minor but are both upbeat dance beats!
OMG YES!!!! finally i'm seeing someone who literally thinks exactly like me!!! abba is one of my favorite artists, benny and björn are real masters on making songs with this vibe, it's such a melancholy yet hopeful sensation, something that always make me cry. i'm so happy that you mentioned cassandra and soldiers, most of people forget these masterpieces, so incredible and well written 😢 i completely agree with every word you said, i really love being a fan of them with all my heart ❤❤
Intrigued, but you won me over with your first example - Move On Up - it was a perfect choice to reflect a happy minor, it really is bright and breezy, light and energetic. Good selection
One of my favorite major songs that that really toys with your emotions is Mr. Blue Sky. It's upbeat and happy but as the song goes on it hints at more sad undertones in both the lyrics and the chords, and the last minute leading up to end is sort of melancholy and reflective, finally resolving into a happy equilibrium.
A perfect example of how a same melody can go from happy to very sad, just by changing the tempo and the instruments, is the theme of the intro from the movie "Up"
The Phrygian scale is so cold it gives me chills
Me too. Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and the hymn "O Sacred Head Sore Wounded" are very poignant. And there's something very evocative about Pink Floyd's "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.
This is the only comment I've "disagreed" with, but scales/modes are often more up in the air for emotional interpretation. Also what you hear as cold is understandably interpretive, because to me Phrygian is almost neutral. There's certainly not a lot of happiness going on, but I don't often hear sadness either. I hear anger/intensity/humanity/passion.
That also depends on context. A lot of Spanish or Arabic music in phrygian can sound warm and upbeat
@@RusNad Very true, & I was trying to come up w/some examples for that, but I was in a rush. Duh, Brittany Spears "Toxic" 😂 Still, even those happier songs, have a sort of intensity that other music just doesn't have. I've always been attracted to Phrygian over other modes since I was a child. It just feels honest to me. And it's got nothing to do w/origin since I'm a whiteboy born in Wyoming lmao.
Not as cold as the fridge-ian
I’ve been listening to a lot of disco and it’s been really interesting to hear so much happy music that’s in a minor key
Happy minor keys are really common in reggae too!
Props for finding all those examples, you didn't even use one twice! That's a lot of work!
Really great video (in big part because of the many examples)
Hometown by 21 pilots is in c mixolydian, and it sounds cold to me, like the song represents the end of autumn and start of winter. Both the instrumental and vocal melody avoid the third during a lot of parts, so it create a duality in the song. It isn't possible to distinguished if hometown is really in c mixolydian or c dorian. But in some parts, the vocal melody touches the major third
Another major song I find not happy is "Jônio", by Marco Pereira. It really sounds to me like desolation, or missing something that only remains in your memory
Hey I just want to say I love these videos about like general song structure you're the reason I started composing
Great 😊
“In fact another song…”
Don’t do this.
“…that has often made me want to cry-“
Please no-
“-and I know I’m not alone in that…”
YOU”RE CERTAINLY NOT 😭
hahahah i knowwwwww
Yeah, that song always makes me cry.
What is that song?
@@lepacs14The one from toy story
3:35 I think, the word you're looking for is melancholic...
When you played the chord progression for "When She Loved Me" at 2:50 , I thought you were launching into McCartney's "Blackbird" (although in a different key)
I like to represent the keys like the seven stage of grief, locrian sounds hopeless, major has a resolution feeling that looks like reconstruction ...
I half expected a mention of Saint-Saëns's Tortoises from his Carnival of the Animals, being an ultra-slow rendition of the Can-Can
Major key songs that are sad: Green Day's "Wake me up when September ends"; Coldplay's "Fix you"; Eric Clapton's "Tears in heaven"; Blink 182's "I miss you"; My Chemical Romance's "Welcome to the Black Parade" and "Helena". Minor key songs that are happy: Mika's "Relax, take it easy"; Dua Lipa's "Levitating"; Bon Jovi's "Living on a prayer" and "You give love a bad name"; Arctic Monkeys' "Do I wanna know?"; The Weekend's "Can't feel my face"; Europe's "The final countdown". I could go one even more but I'll stop there!
Wow, thanks for mentioning Mika's Relax, Take It Easy. Haven't heard that song in years
Wake me up when September ends and Welcome to the black parade{Sometimes I get a feeling section} use very similar chord progressions actually, with the descending bass line (of the major scale).But September ends has a minor plagal cadence,so more melancholy from that.
@@avijatsinharoy8944 I know, David did a great video about those descending chord progressions and a great video about the minor plagal cadence. Still they’re both in the major key and sad
@@robinonion great songs 🙃
@@alessandrosummer thanks buddy
Do you realize? By the flaming lips always sends me into tears.
Its all going great until the “everyone you know will die” line 😭
GUTBUCKET, I see the key of E a yellow and "realized" that The Flaming Lip's song "What is the Light" is written in yellow. E-major!!!
@Acoustic-Rabbit-Hole "what is the light" is in D major though
@@MeMeMcsplosion OMG (Oh my Goddess) we were BOTH wrong. I'm here at my piano. You said it's in D (orange to me) I said it's yellow (E). The song is in-between! It's in E-flat! (And, incidentally, is see E-flat as a golden yellow. Golden light!).
you can do either with either, its just easier to do one with one and the other with the other
those dont sound "sad", but they do still sound "dark". ive always thought of minor as not only being associated with sad/negative emotions, but also sounding "cool", and romantic. minor can be upbeat, but it will still have that "dark" or suave sound to it.
I get the feeling. So many (at least 2) classical songs i know are technically in major key that i associate with minor.
Helps when you have the same number of flats/sharps, so the same chords are possible
Every single one of the minor examples you started with, for me start in an element of sadness. Moving on up, is someone who has been struggling trying to get it going, a yearning to be like someone he looked up to. Smooth is someone yearning for the things they need in life. Sultans of swing is a group of dudes who were “ living on nothing and weren’t even able to pay the gas bill”. The Beyonce one is obviously someone saying “I’m a survivor” which is yes fighting, but also you’ve struggled. I’m gonna work harder, so you think you haven’t worked hard enough before. Superstition is about “when you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer”. Feeling good is certainly about triumph, but through extreme difficulty. I would say some are certainly not unhappy, but they are far from happy as well… just my two cents. Enjoyed the video :)
Yes, Sultans of Swing is melancholy rather than sad, but certainly not happy.
Thank you, that was enlightening.
And darkening.
what an eye opening video. thanks a ton
It’s a fine explanation for those new to music or young children. You grow up and you grow as an artist and you realize that is much more complex than that and I don’t see anything wrong with that. When teaching beginners of any age you can’t really explain the full depth of concepts elsewise they would never be able to progress at all especially since so many concepts are built on knowledge of previous ones. Happy and sad are such visceral feelings that they are well suited to these descriptions in early teaching
2:27 bro started playing one of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard
Twenty one pilots’ Ode to Sleep shifts both meter and key between verse and chorus, really strong example of the two elements of mood you talked about!
my go-to example of a sad major song is Schumann's "Dreaming" from Scenes from Childhood
One of my favourite melodies in any genre...
In Romania we don't make this distinction in musical education of "sad" and "happy." That's typically because *a lot* of music in this part of the world is in a minor key and is super upbeat. Some of it isn't even 12-tone, so there's a lot of play in how music is done here.
Great video, clear explanation.
And I was surprised to know that the Russian folk song Korobeiniki (or Korobochka) is known as the Tetris theme.
I always wondered about this, Levitating by Dua Lipa for example is very upbeat and carefree and very minor at the same time. To me the sad major songs are bittersweet at best, while sad minor songs are usually way sadder and definitely feel "hopeless". Now while happy major sounds kinda child-like positive, happy minor sounds mature and nocturnal/urban, sometimes even sexy. But in the end the rhythm, tempo, lyrics, performance, production textures, etc will all work to set the mood along with the key.
i like "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief" From Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool is very sad but it is in a major key. Awesome video by the way!
1:07 maybe a bit less surprising when you realize every minor 7 chord has a major chord hidden in it :)
Yeah I wouldn’t really consider a minor 7 chord “minor”
It was pleasant to come across an actually interesting, and informative video, that was worth watching! Thank you for uploading, sir!
As I'm typing this the song Piano In The Dark by Brenda Russell is playing. Verse in Fm, chorus in F. Then as she sings that last word 'dark' it goes back to Fm.
I can never hear minor as happy. More like tense, anxious
it depends on what song you listen to. Some songs you won't even notice are in a minor key bcus of the mood.
I think you sorta nailed it, not a question between Major=Happy and Minor=Sad ... it's more like minor has more tension in it. A couple that Bennett mentioned as minor being happy ARE sorta happy, but with a tense energy. And many major songs are definitely heartbreakers.
So one of the problems is confusing the lyrical message. And I'd agree with Bennett how either can be happy or sad, but it's more a matter of the musical energy comparison of major vs minor, with with major having a clarity and minor having a tension, and that can be sculpted into happy or sad in both.
or angry or haughty
The tetris theme def gives me anxious, rushed kinda sense
tbh minor "happy" songs remind me of how i felt when i got given compazine for a migraine- which fits this- anxious, jittery, anticipatory i guess are the words?
This was a great video!
Thanks 😊
@@DavidBennettPiano Yes, I rate it better than the average David Bennett Piano video, which is already a high bar
@@zzzaphod8507 thanks 😊
Another great video. Highly informative, and fascinating. I love the drawing upon well-known pop/rock songs to illustrate the technical point being explained.
More!
The piece in major that I find to be dark and bleak is the opening of the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Appassionata sonata. (So major doesn't even sound BRIGHT here!) And yes it's slow, as you've pointed out, as well as being in the low register. Check out the first 8 bars....
I don't find Sultans of Swing to be sad (agree with you) but I do get a warm feeling when they go to the F major chord in that song.
Many of Beethoven’s scherzo movements- the comic relief of his works, effectively- are in minor key. I don’t think anyone would describe the D minor scherzo to the 9th as sad, but there’s an almost comedically obsessive quality to it.
This was the best explaination of modes I have heard so far. You really do know how to teach
5:45
an interesting example of this is the absolutely phenomenal song, "The Complete History of the Soviet Union, Arranged to the Melody of Tetris," which can be found on the TH-cam channel Pig With The Face Of A Boy.
As the title suggests, the entire 7 minute song is compromised of different variations of the Tetris themes with varying tempos and moods.
It's really a genius video, and I recommend pretty much everybody to watch it. It's one of my favorite TH-cam videos ever.
LEGEND! I've been saying this to people for far too long!
😃😃
This is the best music theory channel on TH-cam, no challenge
Thank you!!
I tend to think of major as carefree and minor as careful.
Bro, I swear, you went straight for the feels with your negative examples. Everybody hurts really prepped the flood gates, even though I never really watched The Office, but hearing When Somebody Loved Me really made the gates burst. It's really sad, because yeah, the heartbreak is a very tender thing, and that still very much shakes me. I cried the first time I saw that scene as a kid, and it still makes me cry today.
Also, in hindsight, I never really even thought of Tetris, but you're very much right in that it sounds upbeat despite being definitively minor key. I don't even really think of it _as_ minor key unless I really think about it. Another good example I can think of is the theme song for Jeopardy. Someone made a slower version for Alex Trebek's funeral which really emphasized the same mood you showed for slowing down Tetris - it _can_ sound sad when used in a slower tempo.
Ive been playing guitar for a couple years now just shredding riffs and solos as violently as possible to improve my technique. But this video alone has dramatically changed my outlook on music and my understanding of it. Im glad i picked this one to start with helping my understanding of chords. Soon ill push on to understand scales. This video has honestly probably changed my life.