Ticket 1: The Flat Six

Buddy Holly ... was opening up new worlds there ... I no longer had the fear of changing from A to F.

George Harrison^[1]

Use the flat six chord in a major key song. This works particularly well at the end of a sequence where you can delay (or completely derail) the expected resolution of landing on the I (tonic) by substituting the bVI instead. For example in the key of A major replace the final A major chord with an F major. As heard in:

I Saw Her Standing There, With a Little Help From My Friends and Suffragette City (David Bowie).

One Minute Theory Lesson

Here are some of the most common chords in the key of A major:

A Bm C#m D E F#m

I ii iii IV V vi

Here are some of the most common chords in the key of A minor:

Am   C   Dm  Em  F  G 

i     bIII  iv     v   bVI  bVII i

A major and A minor are parallel keys. If you are in the key of A major, ‘borrowing’ a chord from the parallel minor key creates a refreshing twist. Substituting the sixth chord from the minor scale (actually called a “bVI”) works because both chords contain the root note of the scale - A.

F#m (vi) - contains - F# - A - C#

F major (bVI) - contains - F - A - C

This common note makes the bVI ideal for replacing the root chord (I) at the end of a chord progression because melodies often resolve back to a tonic note over the final tonic chord.

A melody note over A major chord (A - C# - E)

A melody note over F major chord (F - A - C)

You can find the bVI chord by moving the sixth note of the major scale down one fret and changing the chord from minor to major.

E.g. F#m (vi) becomes F major (bVI).

Bm (vi) becomes Bb major (bVI).

Em (vi) becomes Eb major (bVI).

Am (vi) becomes Ab major (bVI).

Cm (vi) becomes B major (bVI).

The bVI as a substitute chord is often paired with bVII, another chord borrowed from the parallel minor key. A typical chord progression in the key of A might look like this (borrowed chords in bold):

A  D   E     F       G    A

I   IV  V  bVI   bVII  I

In progressions like these the bVII substitution functions as a ‘passing chord’ leading you smoothly back to the root chord.

Beatles Application

Though borrowing a bVI chord is a sophisticated move, it was used by some of the Beatles early rock ‘n’ roll influences.^[2] Buddy Holly displayed it prominently it in the bridge of his 1957 hit Peggy Sue [0:49]. Two years later he used the same trick, same key, same section, in Peggy Sue Got Married [0:33, 0:40]. These records had a formative effect on George Harrison. But Carl Perkins also used the same substitution, a year before Holly, in the verse of Honey Don't [0:10, 0:15] which the Beatles covered in 1964^[3] and, more importantly; appropriated lock, stock and barrel in the verse of their 1963 track It Won't Be Long [0:16, 0:22], copying both the key (E) and setting (a verse that rocks between the I and bVI). They gave the chord pride of place in I Saw Her Standing There - underneath the explosive “wooo!” part of the refrain [0:24] - and used it again and again; in Hello Goodbye [0:27], I Will [1:24], Honey Pie [0:42, 0:51] and Oh Darling [1:12, 1:35].

The fanfare like passage that opens and closes With a Little Help From My Friends [0:00, 2:34] combines the bVI with the bVII.^[4] This signature move, the epitome of ‘Beatlesque’, was pioneered on their first single P.S. I Love You^[5] [0:25] but this moment is so iconic that it indelibly linked the name ‘Bill-lee Shears!’ with the bVI - bVII - I change. Lennon and McCartney employed it, at the end of verses, in songs like Lady Madonna [0:06] and Polythene Pam [0:14, 0:17]^[6] and continued to use it after the split: John on 1970’s Instant Karma [0:18] and Paul a year later on Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey [2:42].

Featured Artists: Bowie, Boo and the Long and Winding Rhoads

You can hear the bVI employed in two classic songs that revisit, or reimagine, the roots of rock ‘n’ roll. Queen’s 1979 hit Crazy Little Thing Called Love was an unashamed retro throwback to rock and roll from its walking bassline to its slapback echo - but it’s use of out of key chords like the bVI [0:49, 1:20] and Billy Shears progression [0:19] went beyond Buddy’s experiments. David Bowie’s Suffragette City channels the swagger of Gene Vincent or Eddie Cochran but with more distortion and chords; using both the bVI [0:12, 0:41] and bVI bVII combo [0:16, 0:23] as does Star [1:11], another track on the Ziggy Stardust LP.

Numerous musicians have used the Billy Shears progression to end a song (or section) from Yorkshire chanson Jake Thackray on Sister Josephine [3:11] to Seattle’s funny grungesters the Presidents of the United States of America on Dune Buggy [2:14, 2:35]. Many reveal their Beatles debt by stacking backing vocals on the final chords in a way they haven’t really employed in the rest of the song, David Bazan’s Selling Advertising [2:48]^[7] and They Might Be Giants’ self-titled 1990 song [1:05] being prime examples. On the other hand Merseyside band The Boo Radleys crown the coda of Wake Up Boo with a bass arpeggio lifted straight from I Saw Her Standing There [3:31] whilst Tears For Fears combine Everybody Loves A Happy Ending’s ending [4:07] with a Beatles’ approved head-shaking “woo!”

Once an idea becomes part of the shared vocabulary artists will try to extend or create variations on it. Tears For Fears took Billy even further on Who Killed Tangerine, extending bVI - bVII - I to bVI - bVII - bVI - bVII - I [4:12]. Electric Light Orchestra’s transcendent Mr Blue Sky appears to be finishing prematurely half way through the song’s run time [2:50] but instead of using the bVI bVII to lead us home to the I chord Jeff Lynne surprises us by cycling back to the chorus’ vi chord (IV, V, bVI bVII vi). But Nashville songwriter k.s. Rhoads stretched Billy almost to breaking point in the final chorus of If You Want Love [4:14]. He uses Gb and Ab to lead back (we think) to Bb major. But at the last moment he changes key, replacing the expected Bb with a completely unexpected A major chord. But this is not the root chord of a new key. It’s the bVI of another Billy sequence leading to C# major. But we don’t arrive at that destination either. He pulls the same trick four times taking us through the keys of Bb, C# and E before finally, finally arriving at our new home - G major. What a trip.

Reader Application

The simplest way to add in the bVI is to use it as a straight substitute for the root chord because the most common final melody note (the tonic) is in the I chord and the bVI. Substituting the bVI for the IV chord also works for similar reasons. So write a normal chord progression then try swapping out either the tonic or the IV chord for the bVI. And if the next chord is the tonic you can insert a bVI - bVII - I.

Extended Playlist: Flat Six Only

1923 Way Down Yonder In New Orleans - Blossom Seeley [004, 1:08]

1956 Honey Don't - Carl Perkins [0:10, 0:15]

1957 Peggy Sue - Buddy Holly [0:49]

1959 Peggy Sue Got Married - Buddy Holly [0:33, 0:40]

 

1963 I Saw Her Standing There - The Beatles [0:24]

1963 It Won't Be Long - The Beatles [0:16, 0:22]

1963 Till There Was You - The Beatles [2:03]

1963 It's My Party - Lesley Gore [0:23]

1963 Glad All Over - The Dave Clark Five [1:02, 1:55]

1964 Honey Don't – The Beatles [0:10, 0:15]

1966 Some Other Drum – The Music Machine [0:16]

1967 Hello Goodbye – The Beatles [0:27]

1967 What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong [0:21]

1967 Itchycoo Park – Small Faces [0:11, 0:24]

1968 I Will - The Beatles [1:24]

1968 Honey Pie – The Beatles [0:42, 0:51]

1969 Oh Darling - The Beatles [1:12, 1:35]

 

1972 Suffragette City - David Bowie [0:12, 0:41]

1973 Sail On Sailor – Beach Boys [0:20]

1977 Lovely Day – Bill Withers [0:28, 0:37, 1:06, 1:16]

1978 Across the Border - Electric Light Orchestra [1:12]

1978 Birmingham Blues - Electric Light Orchestra [1:00]

1979 Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen [0:49, 1:20]

1982 Shipbuilding - Robert Wyatt [0:24, 1:36]

1983 The Sun and the Rain – Madness [0:18, 3:20]

1984 Wings of a Dove – Madness [0:58]

1984 Michael Caine – Madness [0:04]

1989 Sowing the Seeds of Love - Tears For Fears [0:43]

1999 Just Looking - Stereophonics [0:46, 1:16]

1996 Clowntime is Over - Elvis Costello and the Attractions [0:13, 0:34, 1:03]

2001 Carrying Cathy – Ben Folds [0:15, 0:29, 0:42]

2006 Selling Advertising – David Bazan [1:58]

2009 Talkin' Like You (Two Tall Trees) - Connie Converse [0:07]

2014 Miracle – Kimbra [0:16, 0:44]

2017 Remember Me (Reunion) (from Coco)- Anthony Gonzalez & Ana Ofelia Murguía [0:53]

 

Extended Playlist: The Billy Shears Progression

1963 P.S. I Love You - The Beatles [0:25]

1967 With A Little Help from My Friends - The Beatles [0:00, 2:34]

1968 Lady Madonna – The Beatles [0:06]

1969 Polythene Pam - The Beatles [0:14, 0:17]

1970 Instant Karma – Lennon/Ono with the Plastic Ono Band [0:18]

1971 Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey – Paul and Linda McCartney [2:42]

1972 Suffragette City - David Bowie [0:16, 0:23]

1972 Star – David Bowie [1:11]

1972 Sister Josephine – Jake Thackray [3:11]

1973 Sail On, Sailor – Beach Boys [0:27]

1978 Mr Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra (Out of the Blue version) [2:50]

1978 Steppin' Out - Electric Light Orchestra [1:34]

1978 Sweet is the Night - Electric Light Orchestra [3:05, 3:18]

1979 Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen [0:19]

1990 They Might Be Giants - They Might Be Giants [1:05]

1995 Wake Up Boo – The Boo Radleys [0:44, 1:12, 3:31]

1995 She's Electric – Oasis [0:19, 0:35]

1995 Dune Buggy - Presidents of the United States of America [2:14, 2:35]

1998 Prisoner Of Society – The Living End [0:58]

 

2003 Tending the Wrong Grave for 23 Years – Half Man Half Biscuit [0:51] 2004 Everybody Loves A Happy Ending – Tears For Fears [4:07]

2004 Who Killed Tangerine – Tears For Fears [4:12]

2006 Selling Advertising – David Bazan [2:48]^[8]

2006 Curl - Jonathan Coulton [0:37]

2013 Travelling Alone – Jason Isbell [2:55]

2013 If You Want Love - k.s. Rhoads coda [4:14]

Further Study

Ticket 6: Stay off the Root Chord

Ticket 7: Avoid Using All Three Major Chords Early in the Song

Ticket 8: The Minor Four Chord

Ticket 14: Write an In-Key Melody Over Out-of-Key Chords

Ticket 16: The Picardy Third

Ticket 28: Use at Least One out of Key Chord

Ticket 44: The Minor Five Chord

See also:

Discmakers: Add Drama With a Flat Six Chord

Game Music Theory: The Mario Cadence

Get In Touch

This page is always under construction. Suggestions? Errors? Typos? Heartwarming praise? Let me know!

Want to support this project? Leave a tip! (via PayPal).

Want to stay up to date with new content? Join the mailing list.

 
Writers: You may quote this article but please clearly credit me as author and include a link back to MattBlick.com or BeatlesSongwriting.com. If you are planning to quote a large portion please contact me first.

End Credits

Thanks to Dominic Pedler.

---

[1] “I no longer had the fear of changing from A to F.” George Harrison in Mark Lewisohn: The Beatles - All These Years: Volume One: Tune In (p.150).

[2] The bVI also makes a fleeting appearance in the coda of Till There Was You [2:03] another early Beatles cover.

[3] The timing is exactly the same in the Beatles version [0:10, 0:15].

[4] Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band segues into With a Little Help From My Friends, forming one seamless track. Though conceptually it makes more sense that the Sgt’s band would give Billy his fanfare and then start his song the fanfare was recorded as part of With a Little Help and the track starts with the fanfare though arguably the song really starts at [TIMING].

[5] P.S. I Love You was the b-side of Love Me Do.

[6] Interestingly the original progression (as heard on Anthology 3) was not C D E (bVI, bVII, I) but C B E (bVI, V, I).

[7] This progression in Selling Advertising appears in the opening track on Fewer Moving Parts not the Acoustic Version (track 6).

[8] This progression in Selling Advertising appears in the opening track on Fewer Moving Parts not the Acoustic Version (track 6).

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Ticket 47: Include a False Ending

This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Winston Churchill^[1]

Surprise (or possibly infuriate) your listeners by appearing to finish the song and then starting back up again. As heard in:

Piggies, Helter Skelter and Born To Run (Bruce Springsteen).

One Minute Theory Lesson

For several centuries musical pieces in western music usually finished by resolving on the tonic chord. This was even more pronounced when combined with slowing down the tempo, repetition of the phrase proceeding the final chord, a prolonged free time crescendo on the final chord - or all of the above. With the advent of audio recording another ending became possible - the fade out. All these ‘cues’ are so ubiquitous that placing them earlier in the piece creates the assumption that the pieces is ending.

Beatles Application

The earliest example of a fab four false ending is the 1962 version on Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby found on the Live! at the Star-Club bootleg. Though the band recorded the song two years later on Beatles for Sale there they only have one extra ending [2:14]. But live they keep the gag going with four additional ending [2:12][2]. This ‘I’m just messin’ with ya” style ending also appears on 1968’s Piggies which concludes in a perfectly satisfactory way before George says “one more time” and we’re treated to a whole new cadence in a totally different key [1:49].

Another kind of false ending is the one that gives the impression “We’re enjoying ourselves too much to quit.” The single version of Get Back^[3] [2:27] stops briefly, then launches into more jamming. Blackbird slows to a halt [1:34] before we get a repeat of the entire first verse with it’s own unique ending. I Will seems to heading directly for a conclusion but takes a brief digression back to the bridge melody [1:24] and In My Life delays the end [2:14] by giving us a snippet of the guitar hook we previously heard in the intro.

Using a chord or progression that has previously led somewhere else is is another way to create false expectations. The verses of Something have alternative endings. One, resolves to C, and leads back to the verse and the other, resolves to A, and leads (via a key change) to the bridge. At the end of the song Harrison fakes us out by taking the song to A [2:42] and therefore, we assume, to a repeat of the bridge. But no, he immediately repeats the C version and concludes the song.

Helter Skelter has three distinct endings [2:56, 3:30, 4:10]. First, a “trash can cacophony”^[4] as the band freak out on the tonic chord, then two ‘false fade outs’. They’d done this before, on Strawberry Fields Forever, disappearing in a swirl of psychedelic chaos [3:20] before fading back in for a second helping of mayhem.

A final of finale is the ‘never-ending ending’. As a single, Hey Jude is less remarkable for it’s length (Richard Harris’ hit MacArthur Park was four months earlier and fourteen seconds longer), than for the fact that over half of it’s run time is taken up by the ending.^[5] The four bar coda section is repeated nineteen times! Once again there was a prototype - the Beatles trialled the idea of an extended, musically unrelated, coda in a more modest way the year before on Hello Goodbye [2:40].^[6]

Featured Artists: Haydn, Beethoven and King’s X

None of these fake endings were unique to the Beatles. Do You Love Me by the Contours [2:23] and Funny Vibe by Living Colour [3:45] both tease us with false fades. Jellyfish can’t seem to stop repeating the final phrase on Now She Knows She’s Wrong [2:17] just like Ringo couldn’t leave the drum fill alone on Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby. The Beastie Boys’ Sabotage and Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run share the same kind of mid-song break as Blackbird, but on steroids. Born To Run reaches such a climax in the instrumental section that the whole band seems to collapse from exhaustion [2:52] and need Bruce to count them back in. Fingertips Part 2 by Stevie Wonder is one of those ‘lightning in a bottle’ moments captured on audio tape. Performing live at Chicago’s Regal Theatre Stevie has genuinely finished the song - sung “Goodbye” to the audience and been ‘played off’ by the house band to rapturous applause. Still, on being encouraged to return and “Take a bow Stevie” he starts to play the song again.[7]

None of these musicians stack up to Beethoven and Haydn for dogged refusal to finish a tune though. Both the 1st and 4th movements of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor use every trick in the book to draw things to a close before repeatedly rushing off to chase some new thematic development like a dog that’s seen a squirrel.^[8] Josef Haydn’s String Quartet, Op. 33 No. 2 is nicknamed “The Joke” because after the final movement ‘ends’ the first violin carries on, playing short fragments of the main melody with the rests in between getting longer until it finally quits, unresolved, mid-phrase. His Symphony No. 90 in C major seemingly ends in the middle of the 4th Movement but, after four bars of silence, quietly resumes a semitone higher.^[9]

The modern era’s successor to Ludwig and Josef is King’s X. On their 1990 song We Were Born To Be Loved the ending is the highlight of the song. Beginning at 3:16 they take over a minute and a half trying to stop, using every standard ending in the book. The cherry on the top is that when they finally do, the next song starts less than a second later, in the same key, on the same chord - meaning that we’re already listening to a different song before we realise the previous one has finished.

Reader Application

In the era of digital recording incomplete, or non-resolving, endings are becoming the dominant form. When songs are created by cutting and pasting chord progressions in a DAW^[10], there are no ‘live’ musicians feeling the powerful primal urge to resolve to the tonic in the final moments of the recording. And even when live musicians are used producers rarely get them to record a ‘final chord’ (whether slowing down, freaking out or both) to paste on the end. And artificially creating such an ending ‘in the box’ can feel fussy and time consuming. That’s why so many songs of the 2010s and 2020s don’t end they just stop, as if someone pulled the plug. So a contemporary song with a real resolved ending can stand out.

An author or film director devotes a massive amount of time to thinking about how their story should end, but for many songwriters it’s not so much an afterthought as a ‘no thought’. Consider the theme and mood of your song and extrapolate the kind of ending that would suit it. If it’s a breathless sprint, maybe an exhausted collapse over the line. Something regal or anthemic? Perhaps a set of accented chords that feel almost like a fanfare. An unresolved issue that’s going to cycle on in the future or a tale told by a character who’s said their piece and is leaving? Maybe a fade. But for a playful mood that doesn’t want to let go or barnstorming speech with too much to say a false ending might be the right ending.

Extended Playlist

1781 Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 33 No. 2 (4th Movement) - Cuarteto Casals (2009 recording) [2:13][11]
1788 Haydn: Symphony No. 90 in C major (4th Movement) – Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle (2007 recording) [3:12][12]
1808 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor (1st Movement) - Herbert Von Karajan (1963 recording) [5:44, 6:40]
1808 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor (4th Movement) - Herbert Von Karajan (1963 recording) [6:52, 8:40]
1962 Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby (Live! at the Star-Club version) – The Beatles [2:12][13]
1962 Do You Love Me - The Contours [2:23]
1963 Fingertips Part 2 - Stevie Wonder [1:44]
1964 Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby (Beatles for Sale version) – The Beatles [2:14]
1965 In My Life – The Beatles [2:14]
1966 Rain – The Beatles [2:24]
1967 Strawberry Fields Forever – The Beatles [3:20]
1967 You Got What it Takes - Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell [2:34]
1967 Hello Goodbye – The Beatles [2:40]
1967 The Look Of Love (Casino Royale OST version)[14] – Dusty Springfield [3:32]
1968 Blackbird – The Beatles [1:34]
1968 I Will – The Beatles [1:24]
1968 Piggies – The Beatles [1:49]
1968 Helter Skelter – The Beatles [2:56, 3:30, 4:10]
1969 Get Back (single version)[15] – The Beatles [2:27]
1969 Something – The Beatles [2:42]
1971 Life on Mars – David Bowie [3:20]
1972 Suffragette City - David Bowie [2:43]
1975 Born To Run – Bruce Springsteen [2:52]
1975 Welcome To My Nightmare – Alice Cooper [3:49]
1978 Mr Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra (Out of the Blue version) [3:33, 3:43, 4:10][16]
1978 Sweet is the Night - Electric Light Orchestra [3:11, 3:17]
1988 Funny Vibe – Living Colour [3:45]
1990 We Were Born To Be Loved – King's X [3:16]
1990 Now She Knows She’s Wrong - Jellyfish [2:17]
1991 November Rain - Guns 'n' Roses [6:43]
1991 (Everything I Do) I Do It For You - Bryan Adams [3:46][17]
1991 Shinbone Alley/Hard to Exist - Spin Doctors [9:28, 10:42, 11:22]
1992 Rain When I Die - Alice in Chains [5:28]
1994 Sabotage - Beastie Boys [1:35]
2004 Who Killed Tangerine? – Tears For Fears [4:12]
2005 Dare – Gorillaz [2:22]
2007 Brianstorm – Arctic Monkeys [2:31]
2011 Shang Ding Hong Song – Matt Blick [3:19]
2013 Brother Bull – Matt Blick [2:48]

Further Study

Ticket 4: Recycle Your 'O's
Ticket 10: The Aeolian Cadence
Ticket 16: The Picardy Third
Ticket 20: End With A Couple Of Triplets
Ticket 46: False Picardy

Get In Touch

This page is always under construction. Suggestions? Errors? Typos? Heartwarming praise? Let me know!

Want to support this project? Leave a tip! (via PayPal).

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Writers: You may quote this article but please clearly credit me as author and include a link back to MattBlick.com or BeatlesSongwriting.com. If you are planning to quote a large portion please contact me first.

End Credits

Thanks to the good folks of Wikipedia.

---

[1] Winston Churchill: The End of the Beginning (p. 265).

[2] Approximate timing - this unofficial bootleg exists in multiple versions.

[3] The single version of Get Back is not a totally different recording to the LP track as is often claimed but it does have a coda from a different take edited in and this version only appears on Past Masters and the compilation LP “1”.

[4] Charlotte Yates coined this phrase in her article Ten Ways to End It (Your Song, That Is) on Bandzoogle (30 Apr. 2021). Judas Priest are masters of this type of ending - especially live. See Diamond and Rust on Unleashed in the East [3:09] for example.

[5] Tears For Fears’ 2004 song Who Killed Tangerine mines the same vein taking a full minute and a half to fade, while singing, with the most delicious irony “When you think it’s all over it’s not over”.

[6] Arguably they didn’t do this on Cry Baby Cry. The coda of Hey Jude merely sounds like it’s another song but the one on Cry Baby Cry actually is [2:33]. Written by Paul Can You Take Me Back was recorded separately and edited onto the track, having no more connection to it’s predecessor than Her Majesty does to The End.

[7] Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s 1967 studio recording You Got What it Takes sounds like a close relation, with a reprised ending that sounds like a curtain call or a play off on a chat show [2:34].

[8] Obviously there are millions of cover version out there. For timings listening to Herbert Von Karajan’s 1963 recording with the Berliner Philharmoniker - 1st movement [5:44, 6:40] and 4th movement [6:52, 8:40].

[9] Listen to the 2007 Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle recording on Haydn - Symphonies Nos. 88-92 (Disc 1 Track 12). At [3:12] the audience are fooled into applauding and the orchestra has to wait. Track 13 is an alternative version of the same movement with the audience either edited out (or forewarned!) and the correct four bar rest restored.

[10] Digital Audio Workstation i.e. software like Logic or Pro Tools. In layman’s terms - “songs written on a computer”.

[11] On the Cuarteto Casals LP Joseph Haydn: String Quartets Op. 33 - the track is titled Hob. III: 38.

[12] The 2007 Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle LP Haydn - Symphonies Nos. 88-92 has two versions of the 4th movement: track 12 and 13 on disc 1. The false ending occurs around 3:12 on both.

[13] The timing is approximate - this unofficial bootleg exists in multiple versions.

[14] This is the version with a run time of 4:08.

[15] The single version of Get Back appears on Past Masters and the compilation LP “1”.

[16] The LP version has a 5:06 run time. Mr Blue Sky is the finale of a four song suite that fills side 3 on Out of the Blue. The theme beginning at 4:12 is a reprise of the intro of Big Wheels [0:04], an earlier part of the suite.

[17] The extended version (with a 6:33 run time) that appears Waking Up the Neighbours is now ubiquitous but there is a shorter single edit that doesn’t feature the full coda.

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Ticket 75: Meet the Relatives

“How strange the change from major to minor…”^[1]

Cole Porter: Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye

Most pop songs stay in the same key throughout. Some have change key towards the end (usually higher, to ‘lift’ the final chorus) while a few have different sections in different keys. But one easy way to alter the mood between sections is to shift from the relative minor to the major or vice versa. As heard in:

We Can Work It Out, When I'm Sixty Four and Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne)

One Minute Theory Lesson

In musical terms relative keys share the same seven notes but treat a different note as the centre of their musical universe and use a different chord as the home chord. The most common example of this concept is the relative major and minor.^[2] The key of C major has no flats or sharps and consists of C D E F G A B C. If you make C the most important note and C major the most important chord you’re in the key of C major. Make A the centre and Am the most important chord and you are in A minor ^[3] Many songwriters utilise this switch going into a new section because, rather than altering notes, they’re merely emphasising different notes, which can provide an effortless change of mood.

Beatles Application

In Cry Baby Cry a G major chorus gives way to an E minor verse (0:11). When I'm Sixty Four begins in C major but soon shifts to Am (0:38). Though the chords in general draw from the same set of notes the mood become darker - a chill wind blows, momentarily, through the song. At the same spot in We Can Work It Out (0:38) a hopeful chorus in D major gives way to a more sombre meditation on mortality in Bm. Sixty Four and Work It Out both songs drop to the relative minor in the bridge and coincidentally borrow the V7 chord from the harmonic minor in place of the v (E7 in the former, F#7 in the latter).

Featured Song: Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne

This 1980 rock anthem opens with a classic guitar riff in F#m (0:18) before launching into a frenetic, yet jolly, chord progression in A major for the verse (0:31). This happy sound is a little uncharacteristic for the genre but the song soon reverts to F#m for the chorus (1:07) and bridge.

Reader Application

Consider using this ticket when the lyrics have scope to switch the mood, from happy to sad, hopeful to hopeless or vice versa. It usually works best if you start your section with the new root chord to strongly establish that you have switched to a new key centre. You can even keep the same progression and just swap out the first chord^[4] - e.g.

Verse: F#m | D | E | Bm

Chorus: A | D | E | Bm

Extended Playlist

1930 Georgia On My Mind – Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra (0:51)

1960 Georgia On My Mind – Ray Charles (1:15)

1965 We Can Work It Out - The Beatles (0:38)

1966 When I'm Sixty-Four - The Beatles (0:38)

1966 Good Vibrations – Beach Boys (0:26)

1968 Cry Baby Cry - The Beatles (0:11)

1969 Let It Be - The Beatles (0:39)

1980 Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne (0:32, 1:07)

1985 Yesterday's Men – Madness (1:58)

1986 Livin’ On A Prayer - Bon Jovi (1:32)

1994 Live Forever – Oasis (0:33)

2006 All The Way Down - Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová (0:00, 0:41)

2012 Enjoy The Ride – Nik Kershaw (1:14)

2013 Traveling Alone – Jason Isbell (0:55)

Further Study

Ticket 10: The Aeolian Cadence

Ticket 45: Change Keys Between Sections

Ticket 69: Climb the Chord Ladder

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[1] To be strictly accurate, Porter’s song does not change from a major to minor key at this point but from a major to minor chord (IV to iv).

[2] Of course there are five other notes (and chords) to promote as the new home. You could, for instance, switch from C major to G mixolydian mode - but these kind of switches aren’t as common - though the Beatles used this very one in Getting Better [0:00, 0:09, 0:26].

[3] Some classical music theorists would say the legitimate relative of C major is not A minor but A harmonic minor which does have a different note (G# instead of a G natural). This complicates things a little theory-wise and isn’t usually what is happening in pop songs. Naturally the Beatles flirted with this substitution too - on When I’m Sixty Four and We Can Work it Out (see application section).

[4] The Beatles and Oasis both use the exact same trick on Let It Be and Live Forever, taking a verse progression that starts with a major chord and replacing it with a minor chord for the chorus.

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Ticket 76: The School Hymn Intro

Because all pop songs are modular - built from discrete sections like verses, choruses and bridges - it’s possible to create an intro from the end of a section which naturally proceeds your first section. For song starting with a chorus, the end of the pre-chorus can make a short and effective intro.

As used in Let It Be, Michelle and Merry Xmas Everybody (Slade).

One Minute Theory Lesson

In more traditional Anglican (Episcopalian) churches it’s standard practice for the organist to play the last few bars of a hymn’s verse (as most hymns are in AAA structure) as an introduction for the congregation. This practice carried over into other instances of community singing, like school assemblies and pub singalongs. Though somewhat overused this approach became commonplace because it was so effective, and the Beatles had no qualms about utilising it.

Beatles Application

Let It Be may be the closest thing to a secular hymn the Beatles ever wrote, so Paul was certainly justified in crafting an instrumental intro from the end of the verse as any organist worth his salt would. Unlike many hymns, Let It Be has a completely independent chorus but the last four bars of verse and chorus are practically identical [0:00, 0:32, 0:45].

Misery ends each verse with a refrain (“the world is treating me bad - misery”) which the Beatles sing in free time as an intro [0:02, 0:17] and they mine another end of verse on Another Girl [0:00, 0:21]. George’s songs got similar treatment twice in quick succession with intros being built from the verse-end guitar riffs of 1965’s If I Needed Someone [0:00, 0:19] and 1966’s I Want To Tell You [0:00, 0:32]. On the latter the band stretch the material, fading in on guitar then adding piano, drums and, finally, tambourine. The methodology is obvious when the band are harvesting instrumental hooks as they did here and in Michelle [0:00, 0:45] and In My Life [0:00, 0:46], but it’s easy to miss when they use such a tiny portion from the bridge of Hold Me Tight [0:00, 1:08] and You Won’t See Me’s chorus sounds very different shorn of vocals [0:00, 0:36]. This approach reaches it’s zenith with the intro of I Want to Hold Your Hand, which sounding like a specially written fanfare, when it is merely a vocal-less fragment of the bridge [0:00, 1:03].

Featured Guest Song: Wouldn't It Be Nice

The Beach Boys’ Wouldn't It Be Nice features one of the most intriguing intros in the history of pop. Two electric guitars one playing arpeggios, the second a counter melody both parts unremarkable save for being played very high up the neck. But after only three bars in the key of A major they immediately pivot, via a C major 6 chord, into the verse in the key of F major (0:06).

A | Bm7 | A | C6 | F ^[1]

Opening a pop song running under two and a half minutes with such a sudden and violent change of tonality seems inexplicable but for the whim of genius or madness. But a closer listen reveals these guitar parts are taken from the end of the bridge (1:22). The bridge introduces a fresh perspective via a key change into D major, a new groove and different instrumentation. It ends with F#m7 | Bm7 | F#m7 before using a suspiciously familiar C6 to pivot back to the key of F. The high guitar parts are right there, arpeggiating the upper part of the F#m7 chord - A C# E - but omitting the root which is handled by the bass and other instruments. In fact they’re playing right from the start of the bridge (1:23) over the Dmaj7 and Gmaj7 chords. So, from the vantage point of the bridge, we realise the intro was actually in D major all along. We assumed it was in A major because of the limited information provided by the A and Bm7 chords. Furthermore, the ‘A major’ is not just part of the F#m7 but the top of the Dmaj9 (D F# A C# E) that opens the section, just as the ‘Bm7’ is the top of Gmaj9 (G B D F# A).^[2] The major key of A and D differ by just one note - G# in the former, G natural in the latter. The intro has neither. So when we hear the notes that centres around an A major triad our brains assume that’s the key. It’s a splendid bit of misdirection.

Reader Application

• The first section of your song will almost certainly be the verse or the chorus. Go through your song and check which sections lead back to the first section (verses and choruses usually lead back to the verse. Pre-choruses, choruses and bridges usually lead back to the chorus, and if your song doesn’t have a pre-chorus the verse should too).
• Choose a section that naturally leads into your first section.
• Experiment with different lengths for your intro. Start with just the last two bars of the section, then four bars, then six or eight.
• Try the intro with and without vocals.
• If there’s a distinctive instrumental component or hook in the section consider using just that.

Extended Playlist

End of verse and/or chorus (with vocals)

1969 Let It Be - The Beatles [0:00, 0:32, 0:45]

End of verse (with vocals)

1963 Misery - The Beatles [0:02, 0:17]

1965 Another Girl - The Beatles [0:00, 0:21]

End of verse (without vocals)

1965 If I Needed Someone - The Beatles [0:00, 0:19]

1966 I Want To Tell You - The Beatles [0:00, 0:32]

1985 Between The Wars – Billy Bragg [0:00, 0:40]

End of chorus (with vocals)

1969 Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday - Stevie Wonder [0:00, 0:28]

End of chorus (without vocals)

1965 You Won’t See Me - The Beatles [0:00, 0:36]

1965 In My Life - The Beatles [0:00, 0:46]

1973 Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade [0:00, 0:49]

1993 Truganini - Midnight Oil [0:07, 2:02]

End of bridge (with vocals)

1963 Hold Me Tight - The Beatles [0:00, 1:08]

End of bridge (without vocals)

1963 Ask Me Why - The Beatles [0:00, 1:11]

1964 I Want to Hold Your Hand - The Beatles [0:00, 1:03]

1965 Michelle - The Beatles [0:00, 0:45]

1966 Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys [0:00, 1:22]

1983 Let’s Dance - David Bowie [0:00, 1:21 single, 1:38 LP]

Further Study

Ticket 2: Put Your Song On A Diet

Ticket 4: Recycle Your Os

Ticket 53: Write A 'Jazz-Style Intro' Verse

Ticket 61: Introduce Your Song's Most Unique Feature Early

Get In Touch

This page is always under construction. Suggestions? Errors? Typos? Heartwarming praise? Let me know!

Want to support this project? Leave a tip! (via PayPal).

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(Writers: You may quote this article but please clearly credit me as author and include a link back to MattBlick.com or BeatlesSongwriting.com. If you are planning to quote a large portion please contact me first).

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[1] The aggregation of both guitar parts suggest an overall progression of A F#m | Bm D | A F#m | C6 | F .

[2] On the bonus track Wouldn’t It Be Nice - Instrumental Stereo Mix on the Pet Sounds 50th Anniversary Edition you can clearly hear both guitar parts playing over the Dmaj7 and Gmaj7 starting at 1:23 as well as a bum note at 1:27 uncorrected (though barely audible) in the final mix.

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Ticket 78: Play the Vocal Melody

Melody is the essence of music.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ^[1]

The vocal melody is usually the central element of the song and playing it on an instrument can focus more attention on it. This can work either by doubling the vocals (playing at the same time) or reprising the melody as an instrumental section in it's own right.

One Minute Theory Lesson

Songs generally benefit from a contrasting melodic section (like a guitar solo) that provides variation, but sometimes a completely new section isn’t needed. Reusing a song’s melody as the basis for an instrumental section can strengthen how memorable the song is whilst playing it together with the vocals can help to solidify the melody by weeding out extraneous variations.

Beatles Application

Norwegian Wood opens with the melody embedded within the acoustic guitar part [0:00]. The sitar then doubles the melody [0:08] before being replaced by the lead vocals [0:16].^[2] George Harrison embeds the “little darling” part of the melody in Here Comes the Sun in several ways: preceding the vocals [0:00, 0:10], doubling them [0:28] and echoing them with the vocalising “doo doo doo doo” [0:46]. In She Loves You he plays with this idea again in exactly the same manner the playing the “yeah, yeah, yeah” tune in a chord melody style mimicking it as a kind of ‘call back’ [0:52, 0:55] as an echo [2:07] and finally in unison with the backing vocals [2:10]. Once again in Please Please Me he takes the “Last night I said these words to” part of the melody to create a separate melodic intro and interlude played in unison with John’s harmonica [0:01, 0:32].

Featured Artist

Nottingham musician Phil Grafton is a master at embedding the vocal line instrumentally. On his 2019 LP Too Hard to Please he uses piano to doubles the vocal melody on Have You Got a Match [0:46]; piano and acoustic guitar on Night Times for Livin’ [0:13, 0:35, 1:19], Moonshine [0:11] and Blizzard [0:37, 2:48]; piano and electric guitar on Kill the Monster [0:22]; synth on They Went Home [1:22], and violin on Too Hard to Please [0:57, 2:57].

Reader Application

Melodies can be created vocally or on an instrument. Writing vocally, as Paul did on Get Back can help a melody to flow in a very natural way. Writing on an instrument can cause you to push into more adventurous territory, incorporate wider intervals and use bigger patterns. Whatever the starting point singing instrumental melodies and transcribing vocal melodies on your instrument will make you a better musician. Experiment with playing the melodies on different instruments (or combinations of instruments); in different octaves; and (during solos) with small variations in rhythms and phrasing.

Extended Playlist

1963 Please Please Me - The Beatles [0:01, 0:32]

1964 She Loves You - The Beatles [0:52, 0:55, 2:07, 2:10]

1965 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - The Beatles [0:00, 0:08, 0:16]

1969 Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles [0:00, 0:10, 0:28, 0:46]

1975 Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen [3:07, 3:20]

1978 Bicycle Race - Queen [0:40]

1984 Don Quixote - Nik Kershaw [0:41]

1984 The Riddle - Nik Kershaw [0:08, 2:36]

1991 Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana [2:54]

2019 Too Hard to Please - Phil Grafton [0:57, 2:57]

2019 Kill the Monster - Phil Grafton [0:22]

2019 Night Times for Livin’ - Phil Grafton [0:13, 0:35, 1:19]

2019 Moonshine - Phil Grafton [0:11]

2019 Have You Got a Match - Phil Grafton [0:46]

2019 They Went Home - Phil Grafton [1:22]

2019 Blizzard - Phil Grafton [0:37, 2:48]

Further Study

Ticket 11: Play The Vocal Rhythm

Check out Too Hard to Please by Phil Grafton on Youtube and Amazon Music.

Get In Touch

This page is always under construction. Suggestions? Errors? Typos? Heartwarming praise? Let me know!

Want to support this project? Leave a tip! (via PayPal).

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Writers: You may quote this article but you must clearly credit me as author and include a link back to MattBlick.com or BeatlesSongwriting.com. If you are planning to quote a large portion please contact me first.

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[1] Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Michael Kelly: Reminiscences of Michael Kelly, vol. I (London, Henry Colburn, 1826) (p. 225)

[2] In the case of Norwegian Wood it’s probable that the guitar part was written first, meaning John is singing a guitar part, rather than playing a vocal line.

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How To Co-write Virtually

 

 I've not been able to post here for a while as I've been working on a book about Lennon and McCartney. Reviewing the first draft I've had to cull a number of parts that don't really belong in the book and I'll be posting some of them here in the weeks to come. Here's one that that seems very timely.

John and I would sit down and by then it might be one or two o'clock, and by four or five o'clock we'd be done. Three hours is about right, you start to fray at the edges after that. But that's good too because you think, "We've got to get this done!" … We always wrote a song a day, whatever happened we always wrote a song a day. And after that I'd pack up and drive back home and go out for the evening and that was it.
Paul McCartney in Barry Miles: Many Years From Now (p.171)

The last verse was no problem "Two hours is up! C'mon, just put "Repeat 1". That's how a lot of our songs end, "Repeat 1". We'd number the verses, one, two, so we'd write a couple of verses, middle, the chorus, then pretty much repeat verse one. Which was good if it was hooky, it meant that you've heard those lyrics twice, so we'd rammed 'em home, and it saved us having to think of a third verse.

Paul McCartney in Barry Miles: Many Years From Now (p.152)

Though they often started ideas separately John and Paul wrote together in the same room “eyeball to eyeball” “singing into each other's noses” as Lennon memorably put it. But in Covid-ravaged 2020 that's not been possible for many.

Here are some tips for songwriters struggling to co-write remotely. 

Decide the method

Broadly speaking you can collaborate remotely in real time, you can tag-team (taking it in turns to progress the song) or you can divide the song up and work on different parts interdependently, assembling the parts at the end. 

Choose your tools 

Emailing files back and forth? - Audio, Lyrics? What format? Mp3, Word? Uploading to the cloud? Virtual documents you both edit?

Whatever options you have always go for the simplest, dumbed down option that will suit your needs. John and Paul started with an old school exercise book. If the system doesn't break down (and it probably will) you still want to remove as much drag as possible. Once you've got your tools get used to them, meaning learn workarounds for the things that don't function as they should or as you'd like them to.

Set a time limit

If you're collaborating in real time using conferencing software (Zoom, Teams, FaceTime) give yourself a limited window. John and Paul kept sessions to a three hour limit. After that you can just get too brain-fried.

Agree waiting etiquette

Writing by tag team method, i.e. one of you move the song on so far and then stopping is another way to do it. But make sure you need to agree when the tag point will be. What are you going to do before you hand off to your partner? Communicate!

Split microtasks

You can get rid of some of the waiting around by dividing up some of the more mundane jobs. Fix a problem lyric line, write a guitar solo, come up with three possible intros. If you're handing off the job though it's important to give the person a free hand and accept you can't have 100% input into 100% of the song as you might if you were both in the room. If it's a part you must have a say in then write it together.

Communicate literally and unambiguously

If you're writing live via video conference remember a lot of body language vibes type communication is going to be lost. Even more so if you're emailing or texting. Emojis are not the most nuanced communication tools. So try to say clearly and unambiguously what you feel. “I really like that chord pattern”. “The rhythm feels a little awkward”. “These lyrics aren't grabbing me. Can we brainstorm lines for five minutes and pick the best ones?” Follow up the session with a quick debrief and then set up home work assignments and/or future sessions. This can be directly at the end of a session or after sleeping on the song for a few days. The debrief is simply assessing 'where we're up to' - “I think we have verse one and two. The chorus hook needs work. We need to rethink the bridge”.


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Under The Influence: Kurt Cobain

I like the Beatles, but I hate Paul McCartney.
Rolling Stone

I loved Paul McCartney … He meant more to me than my own parents.
Sandford: McCartney*

The Beatles were a early and formative influence on Cobain. A video survives of him singing Hey Jude at the age of two and he remembers walking around the neighbourhood singing Beatles songs while playing a toy bass drum. He wrote he was "forever grateful" to his Aunt Mari for giving him three Beatles albums and heartbroken when he learned in 1976 that the band had split up years before.

In high-school Kurt wrote a 2000 word essay on Give My Regards To Broad Street after he spent much of the winter of 1984-5 listening to the soundtrack*.

About a Girl was written after Kurt spent three hours listening to Meet The Beatles on repeat to get in the mood and the In Bloom video is a parody of the Beatles appearance on the Ed Sullivan show.

In my Life was played at his funeral.


Here are a few quotes.

I don’t value music much. I like the Beatles, but I hate Paul McCartney. I like Led Zeppelin, but I hate Robert Plant. I like the Who, but I hate Roger Daltrey.

John Lennon was definitely my favourite Beatle, hands down. I don’t know who wrote what parts of what Beatles songs, but Paul McCartney embarrasses me. Lennon was obviously disturbed [laughs]. So I could relate to that. And from the books I’ve read - and I’m so sceptical of anything I read, especially in rock books - I just felt really sorry for him. To be locked up in that apartment. Although he was totally in love with Yoko and his child, his life was a prison.

John Lennon has been my idol all my life but he’s dead wrong about revolution… find a representative of gluttony or oppression and blow the motherf***er's head off.
Flavorwire

Even in Nirvana — the Beatles [were] such a huge influence. Kurt loved The Beatles because it was just so simple. Well, it seemed simple… they sound easy to play, but you know what? They’re f**cking hard!
Dave Grohl: Access Online

Everyone talks about Kurt's love affair with ... the whole punk scene, but he was also a huge Beatles fan, and the more time we spent together the more obvious their influence on his songwriting became.
Butch Vig: NME

Here is Cobain covering McCartney twice (without embarrassment!) And I Love Her (extra links here and here) ...

And Hey Jude (aged 2).

Sources

*I loved Paul McCartney … He meant more to me than my own parents.
Christopher Sandford: McCartney (p.297) - I can find no sources for Sandford's quotes, which seem to be at odds with other quotes. If you can confirm or deny let me know!
Rolling Stone 
Flavorwire 
Access Online 
NME interview 2004
Charles R. Cross: Heavier Than Heaven

LINKS

Dave Grohl on the Beatles

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