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Don't be fooled into thinking the key signature is necessarily the major, sometimes it's the related minor.
Also there's a number of tunes that go through changes in key, off the back of my head And I Love her is an example where the key changes later in the tune

willem wrote:

rcsnydley wrote:

willem wrote:

ThANKS RiC, YES modulation i understand,that can be common in songs,but what about borrow chords or chord..

In the chapter 1 example above the Gm was "borrowed" from the parallel minor key of Gm, since the song is in G major.

I wrote another song in the key of Bb (Bb, Cm, Dm, Eb, F, Gm, Adim) at one point in the bridge I borrow an Ab chord from the neighboring key of Ab. Since Ab is not in the original key it is a "borrowed" chord.

Ric

and where goes Ab to, i mean after it?

Ric, are you a songwriter?? a famous one??

willem - in both examples above the chords go back to chords in the original key. That's why they are "borrowed" chords.

Yes, I am a songwriter. No, I am not a famous one, yet.

Ric

bazzaspain wrote:

Don't be fooled into thinking the key signature is necessarily the major, sometimes it's the related minor.
Also there's a number of tunes that go through changes in key, off the back of my head And I Love her is an example where the key changes later in the tune

That is true, bazza, if for example you play the chords C, Am, F, G, Em and there tonal center is C then it is in C major. If, however, the tonal center is Am it is in Am.

Ric

rcsnydley wrote:

bazzaspain wrote:

Don't be fooled into thinking the key signature is necessarily the major, sometimes it's the related minor.
Also there's a number of tunes that go through changes in key, off the back of my head And I Love her is an example where the key changes later in the tune

That is true, bazza, if for example you play the chords C, Am, F, G, Em and there tonal center is C then it is in C major. If, however, the tonal center is Am it is in Am.

Ric

Ric- Oh, Great and Wise Theorist, can you explain "Tonal Center" to us mere mortals? And can you "hear" the difference between C and it its relative minor Am? G and Em, etc.?

I get the relationship between the major and relative minor but I'm not getting the sonic difference between the two as they share the same notes just with a different starting point.

Thanks buddy! :cheer:

BigBear wrote:

rcsnydley wrote:

bazzaspain wrote:

Don't be fooled into thinking the key signature is necessarily the major, sometimes it's the related minor.
Also there's a number of tunes that go through changes in key, off the back of my head And I Love her is an example where the key changes later in the tune

That is true, bazza, if for example you play the chords C, Am, F, G, Em and there tonal center is C then it is in C major. If, however, the tonal center is Am it is in Am.

Ric

Ric- Oh, Great and Wise Theorist, can you explain "Tonal Center" to us mere mortals? And can you "hear" the difference between C and it its relative minor Am? G and Em, etc.?

I get the relationship between the major and relative minor but I'm not getting the sonic difference between the two as they share the same notes just with a different starting point.

Thanks buddy! :cheer:

Sure, Rick, "tonal center" is the chord the progression centers around. In the above example play the chords (it doesn't matter the order) starting and ending on C, then play the same chords (again it doesn't matter the order) but starting and ending on Am.

In the first play through the "tonal center" is C because, when you end on C it sounds finished, if you ended on Am or the other chords you would feel that it needed something else.

The same would be true for the Am.

Does this clear it up? If not let me know and we'll keep working on it.

Ric