7 ms·
Turning minor-key songs major
- Nition 9y agoA classic of this sort is this Star Wars major/minor swap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ppoRHBtwCY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ppoRHBtwCY No editor magic, just some really good live Electone playing.
- IAmGraydon 9y agoThe Star Wars theme is in G Major in the first place, so I'm not sure what they're doing here except playing some of the minor chords as their relative major counterpart.
- Nition 9y agoEverything is swapped from what it usually is. The main theme is swapped to minor, and the imperial march afterwards is swapped to major. Plus the 20th Century Fox theme in minor at the start!
- microcolonel 9y agoIt's like hearing the other side of the music. The majorized version of the Imperial March sounds the way the empire must think of themselves to justify their actions.
- rangibaby 9y agoYou'll like the soundtrack to Tie Fighter. It has plenty of heroic imperial music (and a Star Wars theme that would have been perfect for Rogue One!)
- WorldMaker 9y agoThere are some interesting musical nerd breakdowns of the music that did make it into Rogue One on YouTube. Giacchino only had a couple weeks to put that soundtrack together, and did a remarkable job given the huge time crunch. Because Giacchino is himself a music nerd, there are some interesting major/minor swaps in it from well known Star Wars leitmotifs.
- glandium 9y agoSimilarly, with Metallica songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i98v54fPYxU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i98v54fPYxU Makes them sound like punk.
- tmm 9y agoI guess I'm not very good with music. These all sound basically the same as the originals to me.
- marzell 9y agoYes, you are either tone-deaf or a troll. Or just didn't know what minor vs major keys sound like, I suppose.
- IAmGraydon 9y agoI don't know why anyone would accuse you of trolling, but you are certainly tone deaf if you can't hear the difference. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that music isn't a big part of your life and wasn't really a part of your childhood. As a musician, the difference is glaring, but my ear (or brain, to be more accurate) has been trained by 2 decades of playing and composing music.
- MycroftJones 9y agoI don't think he is tone deaf. I have a good ear for pitch, but I'm not a trained musician. I could hear minor differences in most of those songs, but the difference was minor, not dramatic. When I'm listening to music, and it shifts between minor and major modes, I can tell right away. I suspect the cause is that there are emotional cues in the human voice, and even changing from minor to major doesn't alter those emotional cues. Also, prior expectations can dull the perception of difference. TBH, I was surprised at how similar the major mode versions of those pieces sounded to the originals.
- crispinb 9y agoYou'd probably hear the differences played side-by-side. There are few truly 'tone-deaf' people. Music is much like anything else -- capabilities (including memory for a song's tonality & chords) are increased by interest, exposure to a wider range, close study, etc.
- jerf 9y agoGiven the nature of the work here, you could even put the original in one browser tab and the transposition in another tab and play them both at the same time. That will definitely highlight the differences.
- adrianh 9y agoShameless plug for my own minor version of the Beatles' "Blackbird" — my own guitar playing mashed up with the original Paul McCartney vocal (which I extracted from the Beatles recording by abusing the stereo spectrum). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAb9V08zcBE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAb9V08zcBE
- SubiculumCode 9y agoAt first I didn't think I was going to like it, but it is strangely affecting. Also, very nice guitar playing on you channel.
- Nition 9y agoThis is great!
- ageitgey 9y agoFor those who don't know, Adrian is both an excellent jazz/acoustic guitarist AND the co-creator of Django :-)
- _mhr_ 9y agoAh, that would explain the inspiration for the name.
- microcolonel 9y agoHere is a politician apologizing profusely for stealing from the public... reharmonized. https://youtu.be/lno7Q-KLpl0 https://youtu.be/lno7Q-KLpl0
- tjr225 9y agoThat is awesome
- mathgenius 9y agoIt's a pretty standard classical music trick to switch from minor key to major (or vice-versa), just for variation purposes, and repeat the theme in the major key. So this is what this sounds like to me, like Beethoven got a hold of REM.
- fmihaila 9y agoHow about no key? https://youtu.be/4niz8TfY794?t=278 https://youtu.be/4niz8TfY794?t=278
- renaudg 9y agoIt may be worth clarifying that these are not covers (which would be musically interesting, but not technically impressive like what we have here) It's likely that most of these versions are not even reconstructed from the original multi-tracks : it's possible to get this result with nothing more than the original song audio + editing in Melodyne. This is of course related to yesterday's story about Auto-Tune (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15483145 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15483145), of which Melodyne is a more capable competitor these days.
- jasonmp85 9y agoThese pieces make me viscerally angry. It's grating like Neil Cicierega but without the glee in doing it. Jeeeez.
- peterburkimsher 9y agoCan someone recommend a good tutorial for key shifts in Melodyne? I wish I could learn how to do this for other songs. I'm also interested in chord progressions. I wish I could tag my iTunes library with the Roman numerals for each song. But I don't know of any automatic way to do that. Read the SuspiciouslySimilarSongs list, or watch the 4 chord song by Axis of Awesome to know what I'm talking about. The pop-punk chord progression is famous, but there are other songs that sound similar. (e.g. Hall & Oates - Maneater, and Stevie Wonder - Part Time Lover, or Linkin Park - New Divide and The Offspring - Gone Away).
- fenomas 9y agoYou might want to check out HookTheory - https://www.hooktheory.com/trends https://www.hooktheory.com/trends It's a big database of songs and their progressions, with a lot of other stuff (a snazzy composing app, a set of music theory ebooks which I've not read, etc).
- peterburkimsher 9y agoThanks! It's good, and is correctly showing some similar songs. HookTheory doesn't use Roman Numeral analysis though. I like that language, because it's easy to compare songs that are modulated to different keys. For example, Forget December - Something Corporate (D F C1 G) and New Divide - Linkin Park (Em G D A) are both ii-IV-I-V. http://vjmanzo.com/clicheprogressions/index.php?title=Category:ii_IV_I_V http://vjmanzo.com/clicheprogressions/index.php?title=Catego... HookTheory says that Fm Ab Eb Bb in the key of Eb is also like Closing Time - Semisonic. But vjmanzo's site correctly notes that it's shifted over 2 places: Closing Time is I-V-ii-IV instead of ii-IV-I-V. I've figured out how to get the real notes out of an MP3 using Melodyne, which is how I found the notes for Forget December. But I had to search online for the key, and then look up the Roman Numerals in a table. I wish I could just throw in an MP3 and get a Roman Numeral chord progression out of the other side.
- fenomas 9y agoHey, sorry for the late reply. HookTheory most definitely uses Roman Numeral notation. In the link I posted, change the "Key" pulldown to "Rel", and then you can choose each numeral in sequence. Or, for example, to see all the songs HookTheory thinks use ii-IV-I-V, the link would be: https://www.hooktheory.com/trends#node=2.4.1.5&key=rel https://www.hooktheory.com/trends#node=2.4.1.5&key=rel > HookTheory says that Fm Ab Eb Bb in the key of Eb is also like Closing Time - Semisonic. But vjmanzo's site correctly notes that it's shifted over 2 places: Closing Time is I-V-ii-IV instead of ii-IV-I-V. I don't know what you're referring to here, but it sounds like HookTheory was just suggesting similarities. HT's actual entry for the song you're referring to is here, and has the same progression you mentioned. https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/semisonic/closing-time https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/semisonic/closing-... How this relates to your link I have no idea, it shows 404 for me.
- kansface 9y agoThe Nirvana sounds so utterly bizarre to me - I suppose because I don't hear the original as tonal to begin with.
- code_duck 9y agoI have done this manually on guitar for years, playing around. I would play major key 'Bad' somewhat differently than that.
- ddinh 9y agoOne other interesting example: Mahler's first symphony, third movement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5A5tFyXQio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5A5tFyXQio) which incorporates a minor-ized version of the classic (major) Frere Jacques tune as a motif.
- dizzystar 9y agoI'm so conflicted on these at times. I mainly dislike the original title: "Sad songs made happy." There is nothing that says a major key must be "happy" and there is nothing that says a minor key must be "sad." It's also interesting to note that google claims that Losing My Religion is in the key of C Major: https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=key%20of%20losing%20my%20religion https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=key%20of%20losin... The chords are, according to Wikipedia, Em, Am, D, G.
- elektronaut 9y agoThat doesn’t sound right, the ii chord of C major is Dm, not D. I’m guessing E minor or G major judging solely by the chords.
- emerged 9y agoIonian is not the only Major mode, and aeolian is not the only minor mode. For the former you also have Lydian and Mixolydian. For the latter there are Dorian, Phrygian and the rarely used Locrian.
- meggar 9y agoMixo is usually considered dominant instead of major. There's also Lydian #6 for those times when Lydian just isn't major enough.
- modosc 9y agomy favorite is the happy version of "careless whisper": https://soundcloud.com/majorvsminor/careless-whisper-george https://soundcloud.com/majorvsminor/careless-whisper-george
- ereyes01 9y agoWhen you change early 80s thrash metal from minor key to major key, you get something that's pretty close to punk rock. Metallica's Kill 'Em All in major key is a fun listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i98v54fPYxU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i98v54fPYxU
- moomin 9y agoThere’s no love song finer but how strange the change from major to minor every time we say goodbye.
- gpvos 9y agoThis is so 2013.
- dharma1 9y agoGiant Steps in C. Jazz musos will appreciate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTYzYpb1MY0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTYzYpb1MY0