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I found it a bit weird to "normalize" everything back to C. Couldn't just use numbers instead? (To make it friendlier for those less comfortable with that, put
by scrumper 8y ago
I found it a bit weird to "normalize" everything back to C. Couldn't just use numbers instead? (To make it friendlier for those less comfortable with that, put a hover over to show what that means in each key at each point in your analysis.)
Good call on the guitar tab sites being wrong almost all the time!
- colechristensen 8y agoThe author probably wasn't familiar with how it is normally done with roman numerals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numeral_analysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numeral_analysis
- peterlk 8y agoThis is obviously not true. They use Roman numerals in the article and in follow-on articles
- peterlk 8y agoI think the reason to not use roman numerals is because what Roman numeral would you use for B major. B diminished is IV, but B major is not in the C scale, neither is B minor or B augmented, or B sus2 or Bsus4. It makes sense to write it all normalized to the key of C because songs may borrow chords from other keys in similar ways
- Geimfari 8y agoYou use uppercase Roman numerals to indicate a major chord. So it is then easy to distinguish between vii⁰ and VII and is the standard way in music theory.
- zorga 8y agoThat would only work for songs that always stay in key, many don't. Normalizing to C is a better approach.
- baddox 8y agoThe numbers in Roman numeral analysis are relative to the current key of the song. It works fine for songs that modulate.
- zorga 8y agoAssuming they remain diatonic, much music doesn't.
- baddox 8y agoWhy do you need that assumption? I think Roman numerals allow for non-diatonic chords like a i diminished.
- zorga 8y agoRoman numerals still presume you're playing on a harmonized scale in a key; not all music fits that as many rock musicians don't know what a key is and pick chords randomly by sound, not by knowing anything about music theory.
- palimpsests 8y agoThe parent to this comment said > It works fine for songs that modulate. By definition, modulation is the act of not remaining diatonic. Modulation = changing keys. Diatonic = staying within key. So, no, we don't need to assume anything about diatonicity in order to successfully do harmonic analysis using Roman numerals.
- zorga 8y agoI always thought of diatonic as playing within a harmonized major/minor scale, even if you change keys. What I'm talking about is music that doesn't obey the rules at all, doesn't have a key, doesn't change keys, it's just random chords thrown together because the artist thought they sounded good. Changing to another key is still playing in a key. Many rock musicians wouldn't know a key if it bit them in the ass.
- stickfigure 8y ago...or at least normalize to G like god and Earl intended :-)
- patrickthebold 8y agoOne thing that wasn't clear to me: Would a song in A minor have the A minor transposed to C minor? Seems like they gloss over the mood.