I Changed My Mind About The Key Changes

Putting the verses of Didn’t Feel Safe in G major was a bit of a dick move because I want the chorus to lift by stepping around the circle of fifths, and G is a perfect 5^th above C, not below. I tried to make it work by rising a perfect 4^th instead, but it just sounded wrong. F major would have been a better choice for the verses, since it’s a 5^th below C. One of the purposes of these blog posts is to salvage marks when we screw up and make mistakes… so all I’ll say is: Hi Damian!

That said, as soon as I’ve decided that I’ve made a huge mistake, I watch a video by Charles Cornell about The INSANELY Smart Harmony of Earth Wind and Fire, where he describes a key change down a semitone from F to E that nevertheless elevates the mood/vibe of the song.

That’s music for you.

However, it’s time I learned to write in a minor key, so I’ve switched to the relative minor key of Am for the verses to reflect the sadness that didn’t feel safe to express at the time. This allows me to write a melody in A minor pentatonic which uses all the same notes as C major pentatonic, but with a chord progression that anchors the tonic as A in the verses, giving a nice minor 3rd interval lift when the anthemic chorus modulates to C major.

Also, while it may be true that you can get away with anything in pop music, just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should. Maybe the wisdom and traditions of western art music have something to offer after all. I’ve now replaced my hackish modulation attempt with a proper pivot chord modulation from C major to A minor, using a progression like this:

I’ve used a borrowed major II chord from the parallel scale of A major giving a classic Jazz II, V, I progression that slams us solidly into the key of C major for the chorus. The raised F# in the D major chord gives a nice lift towards the rising anger being expressed in the vocals.

At the end of the chorus, I do a similar thing to modulate back down to A minor, using this progression:

This time it’s a minor ii, v, i progression. In fact, the ii chord is B diminished which works well thematically coming right after the vocals “Walking eggshells ‘round you” to express the tension of walking on eggshells all the time. It sounds tense, because that’s how I felt.

At the end of the Bridge, the descending minor cycle of 5ths in C minor lands on the then-tonic chord of C minor, and then modulates back to Am like this:

I cheated slightly once again and used a borrowed minor ii chord instead of a diminished chord from the source key of C minor, because I like breaking rules and just can’t help myself.

The other main addition is I’ve also constructed my own drum rhythm for the track.

Here’s what the Logic session looks like now:

And here’s what it sounds like:

Continue reading about Didn’t Feel Safe in: Less Is More… But Lyrics Do Need A Melody