Sneaky key change in Dani California

Harmony & Theory
#1

Ah-ha moment of the day:

As a self-learning exercise, I’ve been revisiting the songs I know in order to figure out for myself what key(s) they’re in. In the case of Dani California by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, majority of the song is in Am, with the chords in the verse being Am-G-Dm. The chorus has the following power chords: F5-C5-D5-G5. Here’s the sneaky part. Technically, the notes F,C,D,G belong to the Am scale, so you can think of the majority of the song being in Am. But the outro solo, which takes on a sonic flavor you haven’t heard elsewhere in the song, is unapologetically Dm pentatonic. The solo is played over the same chorus from before, and this is the sneaky part: the notes F, C, D, and G also appear in the Dm scale, and since Frusciante uses power chords which are sonically ‘neutral’, the key shift flies right under the radar.

I learned a great deal about songwriting from this exercise, and I would encourage those with intermediate knowledge of music theory to try it out!

#2

D Minor pentatonic is also in the key of C with the chords you mentioned. Each major key has a minor pentatonic on the ii, iii and vi degrees so Dm pentatonic can be the ii in C, the iii in Bb or the vi in F major keys.

The B note in the G Major chord in the verse implies the key signature of C rather than the key of F but that would change if there were Bb notes in the other section.

#3

Thanks Jakku, I stand corrected. I reviewed your information and I understand my error.

Even though we can conclude that Dani California stays in Am (or relative Major of C), I’m going to explore the idea of changing keys by using shared notes and/or chords. I think it will open up some interesting possibilities.

#4

Try setting a riff in a given key as if its the I…then treat it as if it was the IV the whole time with your other parts. Lots of classic rock does this…it separates the music from a blues progression just enough…imho

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#5

@saibur7 When I read your title I first thought you meant what happens ~2:17 because that really is a sneaky modulation. They slip into Bm for a short moment. That’s neat because Bm is not a closely related key to Am. I think it works because right before it they’re holding out that Dm chord (last chord of the chorus) that sounds like it needs to resolve to…something! Our ears are expecting it to go to Am since that’s what we’ve been hearing, but Bm is a minor third below it and it takes us by surprise. The voice leading between those 2 chords is pretty smooth if you think about it. D-F-A in a Dm and B-D-F# in a Bm…but if you use your imagination and invert the Dm so that it’s A-D-F, you can see just how smooth this change is:

image

The F moves up a half step to an F#, the D stays the same, and the A moves up a whole step to B. Sneaky indeed. My theory professor always used to refer to these types of modulations as though we’ve been hit by a soft hammer. Something happened…but what was it?

I love things like this because we can borrow this technique in our own endeavors. Think of all the possibilities. Assume you’re in C major (or A minor). We’ve already seen how you can use a Dm to modulate to Bm. You could also use an Am to modulate to F#m. You could go from an Em and modulate to C#m. All go from a minor chord, down a minor third to another minor chord and take us to keys that are quite distant from where we began.

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#6

Can you give me any well known song examples?

#7

Interesting! By complete chance, I may have found another example of what you described. In Under The Bridge, when the chorus goes into the outro at ~2:52, the last chord in the chorus is F#m, and then the next chord (where the key changes) is A major, which is sort of a passing chord to Am. If I’m not mistaken, F# to A is a minor third interval. I wonder how common this is in music.

#8

Yeah F#m to A maj is a minor third but those are relative keys (same key signature). Minor to the relative major is super common.

#9

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In terms of overall tonality, I’d be taking the vocal melody into consideration, too. I figure you still end up in Dm for the chorus anyway (I know, I forgot to put the key signature in above).

If you wanted to, considering the vocal melody, you could think of the first two chorus chords as Dm/F and Am/C, or maybe Dm7/F and Am7/C. I know it’s more of a “jazzy unplugged” version, but maybe play with the first two chords like this (the higher notes after each chord follow the vocal):

------0--------- —0–0--1–0
—3…--------1 —1–1--1–3
—2…-----2… —0–0--2–2
—X…-----2… —3–2--0–2
—X…-----3… —X–0--0–X
—1…---------- —1----------3

The 2nd section here is me trying to make kind of a “coffeehouse jazz strummer” out of it. I did it FMa9 Ami7 Dmi7 Emi11/G, keeping the first one as an F (I know, it’s “no 3rd,” but…).

I was going to compare “Dani California” to “Last Dance With Mary Jane,” which has kind of the same swingy lilt with Am/G/D, but that one goes to D Major. Check out the chorus, though: Em7 to AMaj, with the vocal melody resting on that C#, quite the contrast to the bluesy verse melody, which sits on the C a bit. It’s definitely an elegant piece of songwriting. He toys with the C note over the Am, doing microtonal bends up on that minor 3 – a pretty typical move but really tasteful, setting you up for the chorus. A Dorian is one way to go over that verse groove (the Petty/Heartbreakers one), if you’re playing around with your modes.

–

I’m of the opinion (I don’t think I’m alone in this) that a root-fifth power chord, especially a distorted one, really functions as just the root note, harmonically speaking. I know the partials don’t start in the harmonic series until you get to the octave, but think of it like certain organ sounds or synth patches – the fifth (or oct + P5) can be a pretty strong partial in a given “note.” A P5 is a funny thing in theory anyway. Playing a 7th chord on the piano, it becomes actually kind of dispensable in the voicing – if you’ve ever toyed with playing tenths on bass (root with an oct+3rd), it’s a great sound without the P5.

Chris Chaney

This can be important on guitar or piano. The idea is, if the bass is covering the root and let’s say the P5 is “optional” at the moment, really you can just hit a 3rd and 7th and define the chord. That frees you up to add color tones instead of doing some blocky root-3rd-5th-7th-color tone 5-note voicing on every chord. So something like an Ami11 could be C, G, D for the guitar, with A on bass. You can mess with it on guitar like this, just pretend the A is the bass player’s note:

----X
----3
----5
----5
----(0)
----X

If you make the jump into chord-melody arrangements, these kinds of “harmonic shorthand” are pretty vital.

Check out the difference between these two Am7 voicings:

X-----------
X-----------
—5------5
—5------5
—7------(X)
—5------5

#10

Not off the top of my head (been years since my bar band days) - but here’s a link (sorry if it looks click-baity) - it looks at the concept. I know it’s not specific to the ‘Dani California’ example in this thread - but you seem excited about these type of songwriting tools so…enjoy!

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#11

My response to this was without taking into consideration any context. I’ve always loved that tune but never took the time to pick it apart, or even learn it. I tend to stay away from songs that I know I can play without any challenge lol! Instead I spend my days fighting EJ solos with my inefficient motions. Glutton for punishment I guess.

Anyway, they do some elegant stuff harmonically (for the genre). An analysis or “what makes this song great” probably deserves its own thread. But the big picture is the intro is in D major, but they go between that chord and an F# major…which is not part of the key of D major! Again, we get a ‘thirds’ relationship though.

In the verse, it abruptly modulates to E major. No transition/dominant resolution or anything, just a total phrase modulation. The chorus is ambiguous. It stays in E major, to me. But they emphasize the F#m chord. The melody Anthony sings is solely based on the F# minor pentatonic scale too. So it’s another modal thing (Dorian). I don’t really view this as modulation, since the key signature hasn’t changed, but it’s really cool songwriting because it takes us just gently away from what we’d been hearing as the tonic.

Now, back to your 2:52 thing, I’d consider this a sneaky modulation if ever there was one. Firstly, as I stated above, we weren’t really in F#m for the chorus. The fact that they emphasized it is sort of baiting our ears. As I’d said in my original response, A major is the relative major of F#m. So they do go to A major (sort of!!! More on that in a second) and our ears feel like we really were in F#m for the chorus and we’ve just gone to the relative major. But then they decide to do some really nasty stuff to us :slight_smile:

The chord progression from this point to the end of the song is basically A major | C maj7 | G6 | F maj7#11…The first chord technically doesn’t belong here, does it? That’s an A minor progression! Every chord is a member of the A minor key, except obviously that first A major chord. They’ve ‘borrowed’ that chord from the parallel major. I hear this as A major still, with all the other chords as just being borrowed from the parallel minor. The fact that they saved the most harmonically ambiguous and colorful progression for the climax is great songwriting.

So yeah, cool stuff indeed. In general I’ve always dug the chili peppers, but I’ve never really analyzed their stuff. They weren’t a band I got super into, but everything I ever heard from them on the radio I thought was cool and interesting songwriting. What always interests me with this type of writing is how conscious it is. Have they read a college level theory textbook on harmonic progression standard practices etc.? This is a miniature version of what composers in the Romantic period (Chopin, Brahms etc) would us in their harmonic vocabulary. I’d bet the answer is ‘no they are not aware of the “rules”’ and they just do what sounds cool to them. Sort of like the motion mechanics of the great players :slight_smile: