The music theory of "Hey Jude"

[@JakeTMcDermott]

Awesome explanation! Wish there was more quality videos out there like this that really dig in. Thank you!

[@RoderickCairns]

10:42 That rising vocal line that leads into the coda (which you've described as the "chorus") is technically in Lydian #2, the sixth mode of the Harmonic Minor scale. Edit: Actually, possibly a better candidate might be Lydian #2 #6, the sixth mode of the Hungarian Minor Scale (AKA Double Harmonic Minor). The notes McCartney actually sings, relative to the tonic, are present in both, but the latter also has a minor seventh lacking in the former. That means a dominant seventh chord built on the tonic exists in it rather than just a major triad, which seems appropriately bluesy.

[@rgramling]

This kind of analysis is hard to find. Thanks for doing this. It is exactly what I look for to understand songs with altered chords/modulations, unexpected chord progressions, etc. Looking forward to more content like this.

[@AChi__]

Found your excellent work via a google search, and randomly checked to see if you have a KZbin channel. I was delighted to see that you have a KZbin channel. Subbed you up. Great work man 👍🏽

[@sssyruppp]

I have to remind myself that McCartney probably just wrote this by sitting down at a piano with his past musicial experience and probably wasn't thinking in terms of modes and keys when writing this otherwise I end up overcomplicating things and making the music writing process much more daunting then it has to be.

[@mmmmmmyeeeaaahhh3880]

This is seriously mind blowing to me.... I have little to no music theory knowledge but have made music forever utilizing my drum machine and (sampling) but I want to get away from sampling and start creating my own stuff. I actually started taking piano lessons 3 weeks ago but this is really the kind of guidance I needed (although I'll of course be continuing my lessons to expand my knowledge)

[@perrybocson1952]

I love that I just found you! Subscribed!

[@jeremyrandall7228]

This is great. Thanks. I was reading Osborns “Everthing in its Right Place”, he references hey Jude as a archetypal “terminally climactic” form. The examples of the mixolydian section with the blues scales is probably the best one Ive seen/heard. Not just of using the scales against each other but the mixolydian tonality. Thanks

[@EthanHein]

I don't know this book, will have to check it out!

[@FredHsu]

I've always loved this song. But I never spent time thinking about why I loved it. Now I understand it much better. It helps that you used that diagraming tool to illustrate the discussion. Great stuff.

[@BrettAltmanMusic]

this was awesome!

[@embargokong]

13:00 That's a C ;)

[@archonjaeger]

I don't think that Bb major part in the bridge is a simple walk down with the bass. To me, it sounds more like I - iii6/4 - vi - I6/4

[@al3je540]

This was exactly what I was looking for. Awesome explanation! Thank you!

[@RoderickCairns]

It's basically a modification of AABA form, not verse-chorus-verse form.

[@rome8180]

I disagree with the notion that the key changes to B flat. Merely getting an F dominant in there doesn't mean you're suddenly in a new key. We're still in F. We just have a moment of modal interchange. If you listen when we go to B flat, it doesn't sound like the root. It sounds like the IV chord. This is further supported by the fact that F mixolydian happens again at the end of the song.

[@EthanHein]

If we were in F the entire time, then the bass walkdown under the Bb chord would feel like IV, iii, ii, I. To me, though, it doesn't. It feels unmistakably like I, viii, vi, V in Bb.

[@RoderickCairns]

@@EthanHein Three years late, but I completely agree with you. In my perception, Bb is thoroughly tonicised by the very overtly signposted arrival of a minor seventh in the F major chord that immediately precedes it. That Eb note (chromatic in the context of where we've been, but diatonic in the context of where we're now going) loudly proclaims the F chord to no longer be the tonic chord in the old key, but instead the dominant in a new one. And when that expectation is so satisfyingly met in the form of a perfect cadence to Bb, its difficult to imagine how a new key could be more emphatically and classically established. If we didn't stay there, you could maybe write off the Eb as a chromatic flourish, or say that the momentary tonicisation of the erstwhile IV chord wasn't sustained long enough to constitute a key change. But we DO. We stay in this sound-world where Eb is native and E natural isn't, all the way through the chords F7-Bb-Dm7-Gm-Bb (if anyone wants to test it, try sticking an E natural over that chord sequence and see how horrible it sounds). And there's nothing to contradict Bb as the tonic until the C7-F turnaround re-establishes F as the tonic. That said, knowing how subjective perception of tonic can be, I am loathe to tell anyone their perception of mode is "wrong", so I'm prepared to accept the possibility some continue to perceive F as the tonic throughout. However, what is beyond question is that the key signature changes. It changes when that Eb note arrives in the F7 chord of "And any time you feel the" and only changes back again when E natural returns in the C chord of "world upon your shoulder". The reason that we (or at least those of us who are by this point perceiving Bb as the tonal centre) feel that unmistakeable "lift" or "brightening" on the word "world" is because - in the context of a Bb tonic - this (unexpectedly major) C chord, the II chord, shifts us momentarily from Bb Ionian into Bb Lydian, before it is immediately re-contextualised as the V7 chord in the original key of F Ionian, to which we now return just as we left it: via a perfect cadence. Throughout the bridge, we are unquestionably shifting back and forth between two different transpositions of the Diatonic scale, a fifth/fourth apart: One in which F is the Ionian degree, Bb is the Lydian degree, and to which the note E natural is native (ie the same transposition of the scale we find in the verses), and one in which F is the Mixolydian degree, Bb is the Ionian degree, and to which the note Eb is native (ie the same transposition of the scale we find in the coda). For me, the result is an oscillation back and forth between two iterations of the Ionian mode: F Ionian and Bb Ionian. If some people truly are perceiving F as the tonal centre throughout the bridge, they definitionally must be perceiving the mode shift between F Ionian and F Mixolydian throughout the bridge, because perceiving F ionian throughout is an impossibility given the notes being played.

[@mmmmmmyeeeaaahhh3880]

Also..... if this is not a plug in, how can I either extract midi from it possibly? Or save the chord progression to revisit it.

[@EthanHein]

The chord/scale visualization tool is called the aQWERTYon, and you can use it as a MIDI controller for any DAW (GarageBand, Logic, Ableton, Pro Tools etc). You can play the chords onto a MIDI track and then use them however you see fit. You can also record into notation software like Finale and Sibelius. www.ethanhein.com/wp/2019/how-to-record-from-the-aqwertyon/

[@mmmmmmyeeeaaahhh3880]

@@EthanHein Ethan you can make serious money off this with many producers.... not that that's the goal but my goodness so many people would use this as a plug in if you're able to make it one. I already use it the way you told me to.

[@annelouisemaclellan485]

|F |E-flat |B-flat |F | I flat-VII IV I

[@annelouisemaclellan485]

Could also think of the bVII as IV/IV resolving to IV then to I (double plagal cadence)

[@georgetpiano]

Hi. I feel this song is quite musically distressing. It seems to want to take you somewhere musically unfamiliar. There are many songs that do this, but why? As a young person I respected this type of composing but now at 74 years old it frustrates me. An example is Dave Brubeck's 'take five'. As a drummer I spent many hours modifying my thought process to enable playing the 5/4 and eventually mastering it. But why? Is it really a musical accomplishment or just showing off? In my ageing, more relaxed period I enjoy music that sounds correct relative to expectation. What are your thoughts on this?

[@EthanHein]

You might be the first person to ever describe a Paul McCartney song as "distressing." I can't think of many pieces of music that are more reassuring to me than "Hey Jude." What is distressing about it? The few ambiguous chords during the bridge? The Mixolydian mode ending? None of these things are very exotic.

[@georgetpiano]

@@EthanHein Hi Ethan. I don't know how to take your remark "the first person to find Paul McCartney's work as distressing" but I am considered a bit of an odd-ball. I guess I have not always thought this way. Maybe it is old age? And yes the areas you mention seem to be the culprits. Even listening to complex jazz modulation does not bother me much, i.e., most of the time I can anticipate or at least accept the changes. I am a archaeology/anthropology independent researcher who seems to be accepted as a bit wacky or at least non-conventional so probably not part of the majority I guess. Cheers George

[@musicalcharizard8093]

This is extremely interesting. Thank you for sharing!

[@EACFB25CLIPS]

That chorus is 🤯🤯 mind blowing musical theory!

[@EACFB25CLIPS]

And the amount of satisfaction I got when you said it felt like a bridge, ugh, yes!!!

[@RoderickCairns]

@@EACFB25CLIPS People really need to start saying "the 'Hey Jude' bit", "the 'anytime you feel the pain' bit" and "the 'na, na, na' bit", because otherwise nobody knows which bit anybody is talking about. For me, this song doesn't have a chorus. It has verses, bridges and a coda which basically serves the role of a chorus but only happens once at the end.

[@collegiate2k798]

@@RoderickCairnsgood point

[@mmmmmmyeeeaaahhh3880]

Can this be utilized as a plug in via any daw? or is this not a plug in at all?

[@EthanHein]

I am using two different things in this video. The chord/scale visualization is a web app called the aQWERTYon: apps.musedlab.org/aqwertyon/theory/C-4-major You can use it as a MIDI controller for any DAW, instructions are here: www.ethanhein.com/wp/2019/how-to-record-from-the-aqwertyon/ I did the song structure annotation by hand using Ableton Live.

[@FredHsu]

Thank you, Ethan! Great discussion. I really enjoyed it

[@danjoesalazar7322]

Cool video!!

[@kickked8816]

Good Stuff Man!

[@BLACKSYNTH]

The best part is The beatles or ...most musicions do not thiunk too much about all this. its all good analizing this afterwards but during writing/recording it just is what it is.

[@87linceed]

Great video but you should get more unto the nuances, thats what makes this song a miracle. The harnonies, the rhied verse john lennon harmonie, the arrangment, pauls incredible nuances in the vocals etc.

No modulation to Bb! The schema I-V-V-I-IV-I-V-I is not at all something something unique or special. In classic and galant style it is wide spread and called the "Mozart schema".

[@RoderickCairns]

Please don't try to tell us we aren't perceiving what we know are perceiving! In my particular psychoacoustic perception (and that's all tonal centre IS - perception. It doesn't actually exist in any meaningful way outside of your perception of it), Bb is unmistakably tonicized by the perfect cadence from F7 to Bb on "and anytime you feel the pain" and remains the primary tonic until F is re-tonicized by another perfect cadence, from C7 to F, on "world upon your shoulder". Everything about the chord sequence F7/Bb/Dm/Gm/Bb, particularly coupled with the arc of the vocal melody that accompanies it, screams Bb. Any way you slice it, the bridge is technically in two different transpositions of the diatonic scale, a fourth/fifth apart, and alternates between them. One of them is also the one the verse is in (in which E natural is native) and the other is also the one the coda is in (in which Eb is native). The bridge flips back and forth between them via those two previously mentioned perfect cadences. I'm prepared to accept that you may conceivably be continuing to perceive F as the tonal centre throughout, because mode is so inherently subjective, but if so you would be perceiving the first half of the bridge in F mixolydian (like the coda) and the second half in F Ionian (like the verse). But for me, the first half is unambiguously in Bb Ionian. Also... at no point in the video did he suggest there was anything unique or special about the chord sequence in the verses. Harmonically speaking, it's clearly the most simple, conventional and unremarkable part of the song, being 100% diatonic, in the most commonplace mode there is, and comprised entirely of the three most basic chords available in that mode. It's only when that (initially chromatic) Eb arrives as the minor seventh of what at that point becomes an F7 that things get interesting.

[@ShugieWoogy]

Had to stop listening when he thinks the chorus changes to the key of Bb ….. nope

[@RoderickCairns]

Your loss. If you'd kept watching, he might have been successful in convincing you that it does. Wait... which bit are you calling the chorus?