Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" is in Dorian, right? Iirc, I got that insight from a televised Leonard Bernstein young people's concert back in the day.
It's one of two Beatles songs (1) that are good songs, but not close to my Beatle favorites ("Wood" not even in the top 5 on Rubber Soul) and (2) that have totally ear-wormed me to the point that I've hummed or whistled or sung it at least once a week (if not more) since the age of fifteen, while maybe in my adult life actually *listening* to it once every five years. (The other one is "If I Fell," which I've hum, sung even more. Don't think it's a mode song (it has a black note, though I don't know if that holds if I made the effort to transpose to other keys).)
“Norwegian Wood” is Mixolydian for the verses (major with a flat seventh, or “all white notes on G”) and sort of(?) Dorian in the bridge (he doesn't sing the raised sixth in the melody but it’s implied in the arrangement of the chords). Also a good example of chromatic movement to match a new chord!
Link to Jackie Mittoo's "Darker Shade Of Black," a CS Dodd production, which, according to bsky user @geoffdeburca.bsky.social, created the Darker Shade Of Black riddim also called the Norwegian Wood riddim, which spawned at least 190 other tracks (incl. Frankie Paul's "Pass The Tu-Sheng-Peng" in People's Pop Polls' Black Pop History Month 1982-1985, which I just voted for in the Final Groups).
Still in mixolydian — chords are different because where Beatles stay on the I in the verses, this alternates between I and v (incorporating the mixolydian minor seventh in the minor 5 chord)
A lot of blues derived songs in a major key are technically in mixolydian because the minor seventh is a really important blue note. (Even Taylor has a few songs like this — iirc “Karma” is the only one I found where she actually *sings* the minor seventh, though.) The Beatles, by staying on the I chord, make the minor seventh feel a bit less bluesy and more like Indian music
I realize this is a somewhat oversimplified response — “stays in mixolydian” is not quite accurate, I think — the accurate thing to say is that in this song all of the notes in melody and instrumentation remain in the same scale, and what that scale “sounds like” depends on the arrangement of the chords. The reason “Norwegian Wood” has a Mixolydian “feel” is because the chord remains on the I while the minor seventh is sung.
This was initially ambiguous for me. Assume you mean it took you a long time to find a black note, rather than it took you a long time to find a melody that, transposed into the right key, *didn't* use a black note. The first makes sense with how you've constructed the sentence and what you're trying to say, the second doesn't – but it took me three readthroughs to get it. Anyway, recommend you replace "one" with either "a black note" or "a melody with a black note" (assuming I've interpreted you right).
Fixed—yes, took me a long time to find a chromatic note (“black note”). I have now found two (“Showgirl” and “Look What You Made Me Do”) and a few less ambiguous blue notes on Reputation and her debut. Her debut album is brimming with blue notes, comes with the country territory, but she has mostly abandoned this by Fearless.
I read once that Irving Berlin had a piano made with only 5 keys. Probably a joke, I realize now, and not even one that describes his songs, just a dig at the simplicity of pop.
My favourite pentatonic song, dunno what mode, is Drug Lullabies by Angie, which uses three variations within the same pentatonic scale, arranged AABCCAABCCCC
yeah, none of this is a comment on quality, but I really was expecting a LITTLE more variation -- I only wrote the modal stuff as a comparison point! but at this point I've gone through five or six albums and have found only three instances of any chromatic movement (two of them a single note in the bridge of the song), plus a few blue notes
So it is possible by the time that I'm done that she'll have more songs in non-major/minor modes than she has songs with even a single note written intentionally outside of the diatonic scale
Skrilla's voice is well suited to these beats and lyrics. He sounds much older and wearier than his actual age. (Wikipedia says he records all his songs while high.)
I did a mostly-full accounting of Taylor Swift chromatic notes, skimming about 200 songs (this did not take as long as it might sound -- most of her songs are very predictable and I've heard them before!) Figured I'd put it here rather than in its own post.
By my count there are 7 songs with unambiguous blue notes in the melody, i.e. the blue note is in the melody in a way that you'd want to mark it with an accidental in the sheet music. There are 4 from her debut -- because she's still singing like a country singer, she uses lots of blue notes on s/t that she mostly abandons for her more trademark style by Fearless. There are also strong blue notes on 2 Reputation songs ("I Did Something Bad" and "Don't Blame Me"), and in the song "Lover."
This was a somewhat subjective call: there are plenty of *ambiguous* blue notes, though she has mostly evolved by Fearless to her current strategy of giving just a hint of the blue note, usually going from one diatonic note to the other. (It's a little like what Autotune does, but I wouldn't ascribe it to actual Autotune, it's just her preferred vocal style.)
7 songs use non-major/minor modes. These you could "play on the white notes," but this would do a disservice to how complex/interesting they are. Almost all of these songs are from her Folkmore period or other songs with Aaron Dessner, and I think they're worth mention:
* "Seven" is E major and B Mixolydian
* "Invisible String" is D major and A Dorian. This one's a little technical (to be fully "modal" the melody would need to be D Mixolydian -- see footnote 3 above).
* "Happiness" does a really interesting shift between B major and B Mixolydian, but afaict she never technically *sings* the major seventh, only the minor seventh (so the whole vocal melody can be played on the white notes in G)
* "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" is interesting -- I think the melody stays in B Dorian/F# minor, but the minor third in the B scale in the verses functions as a blue note, because the instrumentation is playing a major chord. However, I don't think she ever *sings* the major third, so you could still play the whole thing on white notes in D.
* "Cassandra" I'm describing as "modal" even though that's not technically accurate. What it's really doing is changing keys completely from C minor to G minor without any chromatic transition (per the footnote above).
* "Karma" is in Mixolydian. A lot of Taylor Swift songs are instrumentally in mixolydian (using the minor seventh in the major chord, lends itself to blues lines), but she doesn't actually sing this minor seventh in her melodies very often. In "Karma" she sings it at the end (initially missed this one).
* "Fate of Ophelia" is G Dorian verses and F maj/D min chorus
There are 2 modulations -- in "Paper Rings" and "Getaway Car" -- but no chromatic movement into the modulation, just a key change and then the melody restated in a new key.
2 songs are sung in harmonic minor, "Look What You Made Me Do" and "Vigilante Shit." These interest me because I don't think she ever sings the minor seventh (natural minor) along with the major seventh (harmonic minor). That interplay is what gives Britney's early hits their distinctive sound ("Baby One More Time" and "Oops! I Did It Again"). The music is doing something similar in both songs, but Taylor Swift only sings the major seventh as far as I can tell, so it's just a harmonic minor scale. That still counts as a chromatic note -- there's no way to play harmonic minor on all white notes -- but it's not really using chromatic *movement* in the way that (e.g.) Britney does.
That leaves the remaining 3 songs, which have clear chromatic movement.
* "The Way I Loved You" from Fearless is in major, but she sings a minor sixth and then a minor third against a minor 4 chord (iv) leading into the first chorus (but not subsequent ones).
* "Gold Rush" is in major but uses a minor seventh against a minor 5 (v) chord (it has the feel of Mixolydian but she also sings the major seventh).
* "Life of a Showgirl" has a minor sixth against a minor 4 (iv) chord in the bridge.
If you find any others or find any errors in what I've found, let me know.
I was at a party and the boys played pink pantheress and I was like "wow! Pp!" and they asked "do you like pp?" "I love pp" so they played bloody Zara Larson instead which I hated.
Heard monaleo for first time last week and love that Sophie Hunter flow, sweet production too. Same person was talking up Bai.
My best new follow on twitter, I Love Female Rap #BARB, says that Ice Spice and Sexy Red are morons (I'm sugar coating it here) and that Monaleo and StunnaGirl are the under-rated real deal. They're not wrong.
Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" is in Dorian, right? Iirc, I got that insight from a televised Leonard Bernstein young people's concert back in the day.
It's one of two Beatles songs (1) that are good songs, but not close to my Beatle favorites ("Wood" not even in the top 5 on Rubber Soul) and (2) that have totally ear-wormed me to the point that I've hummed or whistled or sung it at least once a week (if not more) since the age of fifteen, while maybe in my adult life actually *listening* to it once every five years. (The other one is "If I Fell," which I've hum, sung even more. Don't think it's a mode song (it has a black note, though I don't know if that holds if I made the effort to transpose to other keys).)
“Norwegian Wood” is Mixolydian for the verses (major with a flat seventh, or “all white notes on G”) and sort of(?) Dorian in the bridge (he doesn't sing the raised sixth in the melody but it’s implied in the arrangement of the chords). Also a good example of chromatic movement to match a new chord!
Link to Jackie Mittoo's "Darker Shade Of Black," a CS Dodd production, which, according to bsky user @geoffdeburca.bsky.social, created the Darker Shade Of Black riddim also called the Norwegian Wood riddim, which spawned at least 190 other tracks (incl. Frankie Paul's "Pass The Tu-Sheng-Peng" in People's Pop Polls' Black Pop History Month 1982-1985, which I just voted for in the Final Groups).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29wMZfoMGr4
Do the accompanying chords mix up the mixolydian or do they leave the modes intact?
Still in mixolydian — chords are different because where Beatles stay on the I in the verses, this alternates between I and v (incorporating the mixolydian minor seventh in the minor 5 chord)
A lot of blues derived songs in a major key are technically in mixolydian because the minor seventh is a really important blue note. (Even Taylor has a few songs like this — iirc “Karma” is the only one I found where she actually *sings* the minor seventh, though.) The Beatles, by staying on the I chord, make the minor seventh feel a bit less bluesy and more like Indian music
I realize this is a somewhat oversimplified response — “stays in mixolydian” is not quite accurate, I think — the accurate thing to say is that in this song all of the notes in melody and instrumentation remain in the same scale, and what that scale “sounds like” depends on the arrangement of the chords. The reason “Norwegian Wood” has a Mixolydian “feel” is because the chord remains on the I while the minor seventh is sung.
"If I Fell" has a beautiful melody, tons of chromatic movement -- no way to play it only on the white notes.
"It took me a long time to find one."
This was initially ambiguous for me. Assume you mean it took you a long time to find a black note, rather than it took you a long time to find a melody that, transposed into the right key, *didn't* use a black note. The first makes sense with how you've constructed the sentence and what you're trying to say, the second doesn't – but it took me three readthroughs to get it. Anyway, recommend you replace "one" with either "a black note" or "a melody with a black note" (assuming I've interpreted you right).
Fixed—yes, took me a long time to find a chromatic note (“black note”). I have now found two (“Showgirl” and “Look What You Made Me Do”) and a few less ambiguous blue notes on Reputation and her debut. Her debut album is brimming with blue notes, comes with the country territory, but she has mostly abandoned this by Fearless.
I read once that Irving Berlin had a piano made with only 5 keys. Probably a joke, I realize now, and not even one that describes his songs, just a dig at the simplicity of pop.
My favourite pentatonic song, dunno what mode, is Drug Lullabies by Angie, which uses three variations within the same pentatonic scale, arranged AABCCAABCCCC
yeah, none of this is a comment on quality, but I really was expecting a LITTLE more variation -- I only wrote the modal stuff as a comparison point! but at this point I've gone through five or six albums and have found only three instances of any chromatic movement (two of them a single note in the bridge of the song), plus a few blue notes
So it is possible by the time that I'm done that she'll have more songs in non-major/minor modes than she has songs with even a single note written intentionally outside of the diatonic scale
Skrilla's voice is well suited to these beats and lyrics. He sounds much older and wearier than his actual age. (Wikipedia says he records all his songs while high.)
I did a mostly-full accounting of Taylor Swift chromatic notes, skimming about 200 songs (this did not take as long as it might sound -- most of her songs are very predictable and I've heard them before!) Figured I'd put it here rather than in its own post.
By my count there are 7 songs with unambiguous blue notes in the melody, i.e. the blue note is in the melody in a way that you'd want to mark it with an accidental in the sheet music. There are 4 from her debut -- because she's still singing like a country singer, she uses lots of blue notes on s/t that she mostly abandons for her more trademark style by Fearless. There are also strong blue notes on 2 Reputation songs ("I Did Something Bad" and "Don't Blame Me"), and in the song "Lover."
This was a somewhat subjective call: there are plenty of *ambiguous* blue notes, though she has mostly evolved by Fearless to her current strategy of giving just a hint of the blue note, usually going from one diatonic note to the other. (It's a little like what Autotune does, but I wouldn't ascribe it to actual Autotune, it's just her preferred vocal style.)
7 songs use non-major/minor modes. These you could "play on the white notes," but this would do a disservice to how complex/interesting they are. Almost all of these songs are from her Folkmore period or other songs with Aaron Dessner, and I think they're worth mention:
* "Seven" is E major and B Mixolydian
* "Invisible String" is D major and A Dorian. This one's a little technical (to be fully "modal" the melody would need to be D Mixolydian -- see footnote 3 above).
* "Happiness" does a really interesting shift between B major and B Mixolydian, but afaict she never technically *sings* the major seventh, only the minor seventh (so the whole vocal melody can be played on the white notes in G)
* "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" is interesting -- I think the melody stays in B Dorian/F# minor, but the minor third in the B scale in the verses functions as a blue note, because the instrumentation is playing a major chord. However, I don't think she ever *sings* the major third, so you could still play the whole thing on white notes in D.
* "Cassandra" I'm describing as "modal" even though that's not technically accurate. What it's really doing is changing keys completely from C minor to G minor without any chromatic transition (per the footnote above).
* "Karma" is in Mixolydian. A lot of Taylor Swift songs are instrumentally in mixolydian (using the minor seventh in the major chord, lends itself to blues lines), but she doesn't actually sing this minor seventh in her melodies very often. In "Karma" she sings it at the end (initially missed this one).
* "Fate of Ophelia" is G Dorian verses and F maj/D min chorus
There are 2 modulations -- in "Paper Rings" and "Getaway Car" -- but no chromatic movement into the modulation, just a key change and then the melody restated in a new key.
2 songs are sung in harmonic minor, "Look What You Made Me Do" and "Vigilante Shit." These interest me because I don't think she ever sings the minor seventh (natural minor) along with the major seventh (harmonic minor). That interplay is what gives Britney's early hits their distinctive sound ("Baby One More Time" and "Oops! I Did It Again"). The music is doing something similar in both songs, but Taylor Swift only sings the major seventh as far as I can tell, so it's just a harmonic minor scale. That still counts as a chromatic note -- there's no way to play harmonic minor on all white notes -- but it's not really using chromatic *movement* in the way that (e.g.) Britney does.
That leaves the remaining 3 songs, which have clear chromatic movement.
* "The Way I Loved You" from Fearless is in major, but she sings a minor sixth and then a minor third against a minor 4 chord (iv) leading into the first chorus (but not subsequent ones).
* "Gold Rush" is in major but uses a minor seventh against a minor 5 (v) chord (it has the feel of Mixolydian but she also sings the major seventh).
* "Life of a Showgirl" has a minor sixth against a minor 4 (iv) chord in the bridge.
If you find any others or find any errors in what I've found, let me know.
I was at a party and the boys played pink pantheress and I was like "wow! Pp!" and they asked "do you like pp?" "I love pp" so they played bloody Zara Larson instead which I hated.
Heard monaleo for first time last week and love that Sophie Hunter flow, sweet production too. Same person was talking up Bai.
Monaleo immediately went into my AOTY consideration — will write about it next week.
My best new follow on twitter, I Love Female Rap #BARB, says that Ice Spice and Sexy Red are morons (I'm sugar coating it here) and that Monaleo and StunnaGirl are the under-rated real deal. They're not wrong.