On Friday, September 1, 2017 at 2:10:08 PM UTC-7, George Lopez wrote:
Hello,
I'm trying to figure out what key, Rocky Horror Science Fiction Double Feature song is in... these are the chords:
VERSE: A Maj, G Maj, F Maj, E Maj
CHORUS: D Maj, E Maj, A Maj, F# min
I wanted to write down the chord progression, like ii, V, I ... etc but I can't figure out what key this is.
Thank you!
To me, the chorus feels like it's in the key of A major. Notice how the chorus ends (on the word "show") with a satisfying release of tension on that A chord. If A is I, then D and E are IV and V, and F#m is vi. That makes the chorus a IV-V-I-vi
turnaround (except for the last repetition where I is held and we never reach vi). But notice the V-I drop that yields the resolution, before vi takes us back around again. The turnaround here is a rotation of the famous cliche I-vi-IV-V (the Heart and
Soul turnaround). This rotation here (IV-V-I-vi) is also used in "I Should Have Known Better", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", and many others.
Remember that thinking about music in terms of "what key it's in" is just a tool for understanding how the music is using tension and resolution to affect the emotions. It's often arguable what key even a short passage of music is in; and it's rare for
an entire piece to be in one key even if everyone could agree what that key is. That said, thinking in terms of keys is extremely useful. If you try to analyze the verse here in terms of A major then you see a I-bVII-bVI-V(-I) turnaround. Interestingly,
the i-bVII-bVI-V(-i) turnaround (in a minor key) is extremely common. Runaway by Del Shannon begins that way before turning i into I (Am into A). This is not the Runaway verse, but it's interestingly close. For its chorus instead of turning i into I (it'
s already I), it continues the stepwise descent to IV which then gives us the turnaround.
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