The current approach is essentially the approach of a chord progression, with chords of 4 notes, and simple melodic improvisation within the chord where ALL THE NOTES OF THE MELODY ARE NOTES OF THE UNDERLYING CHORDS. LIQUID 4-STRING HARMONY OR LIQUID-CHORD AND MELODY IMPROVISATION: THE FORMER GIVES US THE OPPORTUNITY OF A BETTER QUALITY MUSICAL CREATION AND A BETTER BALANCE OF THE PREVIOUS TRIANGLE OF MUSICAL MENTAL IMAGES, SOUND FEELINGS AND FINGER ACTIONS. THERE ARE ADVANTAGES OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION THAT WILL TAKE MORE TIME THAN THE DURATION OF THE MUSICAL PIECE OVER A DIRECT IMPROVISATIONAL CREATION OF IT AS WE LISTEN TO IT. IN MY APPROACH IN THIS BOOK I FAVOR MIXTURE OF AN IN ADVANCED COMPOSED MUSIC PIECE AND A LATER IMPROVISATION OVER IT RATHER THAN A 100% PRIMA-VISTA IMPROVISATION. THE BLOG, AMONG OTHER GOALS, IS DEDICATED ALSO IN TO CREATING SIMPLER MENTAL IMAGES OF THE MUSIC, WHILE PLAYING AND IMPROVISING, SO THAT THE ACTION OF THE HANDS AND FINGERS FLOWS WITHOUT DIFFICULTY NEVERTHELESS, ALL THE THREE COMPONENTS SHOULD BE AVAILABLE: THE MENTAL IDENTITY OF THE MUSIC, THE FEELING OF THE SOUND AND THE ACTION OF THE FINGERS. So people have to ask something slightly different, so that the answers will provide the key identification as a byproduct.WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND IN ALL OF THE MUSICAL PRACTICE IS THAT WE ARE TO CONCENTRATE NOT SO MUCH ON THE ACTION OF THE FINGERS OR THE MENTAL IDENTITY OF THE MUSIC AS ON THE FEELING OF THE SOUND. Yet this is asked about continuously and endlessly: "How can there be a non-diatonic note." And it's often accompanied by "what key is this song or progression in", but that's specifically not allowed. This site is supposed to not have multiple instances of the same question. And that can be boosted even further: Em - Dm - E7 - Am - B7 - Em. If in a simple version you would go like: Em - Am - B7 - Em, using a secondary dominant for Am is: Em - E7 - Am - B7 - Em. If the harmonic center is established as E minor, Dm can be used as an additional booster of a "secondary dominant" motion to Am.Tonal center and key are fundamental concepts in Western tonal music, but a lot of people incorrectly think that key is the same thing as scale, and any out-of-scale note is incomprehensible to them. There can be temporary chromatic alterations and chords that are not often used in the key, but if the sense of home, center, doesn't change, the key doesn't change. As long as the sense of where the harmonic center is doesn't change, the key doesn't change.
There can be any note, any chord, in any key. Key is not all about scale and individual notes and chords, it's about harmonic center i.e.Even "official" published sheet music can be wrong, let alone internet databases.īut I'll answer the literal question that's in the title: how can there be a Dm chord in a song that's in Em. Chord charts, melody transcriptions, lyrics, author information, everything can be wrong. All information about songs on such sites can be wrong, and you shouldn't trust it more than your ears. The actual question is probably about bogus information found on some web site. One such example piece is "Under the Banner of the Duchy" from Bravely Default.) (♭vii in minor-key music that also uses V and therefore the typical non-flattened 2nd scale degree can still be used however, every instance of that I have heard so far in such a piece has the considerably more conservative ♭II play before ♭vii, thus preparing the flattened 2nd scale degree beforehand.
I'd say it's not a stretch to make ♭vii play a VII-like role. VII-i in traditional minor bears a striking resemblance to V-vi in the relative major (which is allowed in common practice period harmony). I wouldn't say the song is in D anything or A minor: I heard plenty of focus in the melody on E notes over Dm chords (and ♭vii-i-♭vii-i makes more sense to me as a chord progression than i-ii-i-ii does - at least I have heard VII-i-VII-i and i-♭II-♭vii-i before but not i-ii-i-ii), and the song consistently sounded like the Em chords sounded more resolved than the Dm chords to me.Īs I mentioned above, the Dm chord in E Phrygian is a ♭vii chord, the closest thing you get to a VII chord in E Phrygian (instead of E Aeolian or traditional E minor). As far as I could tell, I didn't detect a single F♯ in the entire song, but I did detect some F naturals. Having now listened to "505" by the Arctic Monkeys at least twice (thanks to this question), I'd even hazard to say that, strictly speaking, "505" is in E Phrygian and not (just) E minor.