Atomic Song Dissection

thomasross20

I'd love to get a bunch of songs and say - here are the chords... here is the key, here is where it changes key, these are "outside" chords etc. 

I'm just looking at Blondie's Atomic. Here are the chords:

http://www.e-chords.com/chords/blondie/atomic

One verse /intro : Em C A D B

I'd have said Em but the C doesn't fit? Makes it sound cool, though - what's that all about? 

Another verse: E F#m D B (G)

This is like A maj/F#m but the Gmaj is out of place? So is the Bmaj.

Was up until 2am so brain not functioning...

MatthewShreddery

thomasross20 said:

One verse /intro : Em C A D B

I'd have said Em but the C doesn't fit? Makes it sound cool, though - what's that all about? 

Another verse: E F#m D B (G)

This is like A maj/F#m but the Gmaj is out of place? So is the Bmaj.

Don't let chromaticism fool you into not trusting your ears. 

The intro theme is clearly in Em.

Your ears tell you this. The chords all 'fit' Em too so not sure why you think C doesn't 'fit'.

The verse is E Major.

Not sure why you'd think A major. I suspect you ar not using your ears and letting the theory (what's written on paper) fool you like I said earlier.

thomasross20

OK so let's take this section first: E F#m D B (G) 

I was playing the little lead bit and it all seemed to fit the F#m scaled other than the Bmaj. But you're right, it's Emaj! And it looks like it's just arpeggiated chords - I think too much about scales. But Gmaj & Dmaj don't fit into Emaj so where do they come from?

MatthewShreddery

I'm not hearing a G in that section. There is a bass run down the scale from B through A Gsharp Fsharp to E.

D major is the b7 in E and it adds colour and tension to the chord progression.

thomasross20

So forgetting about G (I may have got that wrong) - basically the Dmaj doesn't belong to the Emaj scale so in that section it's an outside chord. Not that everything has to fit! My problem is I always look for parent scales and try to fit one scale to everything.

MatthewShreddery

Strictly speaking, no, the Dmaj doesn't belong to E major. The D in E major is a D sharp, a D sharp m7b5 to be precise.

Look for chord tones, not 'parent scales' IMO.

thomasross20

Yep... I've got to get out of that way of thinking..!!

thomasross20

Any idea what effects are used for the guitar part?
So far I've got hall reverb... Analogue delay... And either phaser or tremolo to make it sound big??

viz

The D fits perfectly well with the E when you think of the E chord having a flat 7 (ie if it's mixolydian-ish). Then that E major would indeed have a D natural. And furthermore the D chord would have an augmented 4th, a G#, which is in E major too, so no problem. Even if the E is based on the major scale (with a sharp 7), the D chord with an augmented 4th would have 6 of the 7 notes of the E major; the only deviation would be its root note, the D. By the way, whenever you have 2 major chords a tone apart in diatonic music, the likelihood is you've got a lydianish (aug 4) lower chord and a mixolydianish (flat 7) upper chord thing going on. Especially when they're in VII and I, or I and II chord positions. (Not true for non-diatonic music eg blooze etc where you've just got identical chords for the I IV and V).

That G you have in brackets is the first chord of the next section which is in D major and starts on the IV chord, the G.

for the opening, yes it's in e minor, which is the relative of C major, so no problems with the C there.

thomasross20

Cheers, viz!!

Any idea on the FX you'd use for this song?

viz

Never listened to it properly so nope! Soz

thomasross20

No probs, thanks!

Danny1969

It's what we used to call The Surf guitar sound, namely verb and echo and it's played in that style.  Great sound I love that song

MatthewShreddery

Not trying to be pedantic, and certainly not trying to out-theory anybody or one-up etc but I'd like to point out that the next section of this tune is in G major; not D major. Also, Em is not the relative of C major.

Effects for this tune I'd start with a clean tone, some slapback delay and lots of reverb.

viz

Oh whoops, what was I thinking?!! Sorry, yes Em and C major aren't relatives! derrrrrr. I blame christmas sherry! And you're right about the G bit too, I was trying to do it in my head and thinking it was resolving to the D but you're right, the root is actually the G. I'll shut up now....

thomasross20

I'm looking at Alanis'  "You Oughta Know" now...

https://www.jellynote.com/en/chords-lyrics/alanis-morissette/you-oughta-know/514347941483c5012ebdab18

Key = F#m. 

But at the start it switches between F#m and B, but it's Bm in the key of F#m. So again, there's a general key, but basically not sticking to that parent scale. Just throwing in chords that sound good. 

What about the chorus where the chords are F#, A, B, E? Is that a switch to Bmaj, with Amaj being the outside chord?

MatthewShreddery

It's F# minor.

The first chord progression is modal. F# Dorian.

This is where the B major comes from.

The D# is the natural 6th in F#.

You could also propose that it comes from the melodic minor scale. (I'm not, but it does).

The chorus is still in F#. 

I'd suggest it has changed to F# major, purely because the F# has now got an A# in it.

It's clever writing IMO because the melody and harmony has done just enough to make it sound major, yet still holds onto the moodiness and darkness of the preceding Dorian sound. 

Certainly not in B Major.

What do your ears tell you?

Can you hear that F# is still 'home'?

I think you might be trying to find the major scale from which these modal sounds are derived and coming to the conclusion that that is the key. 

For example, if you hear the first chord progression and determine that it is F# dorian, you don't need to then go on to say it's in E major just because that's where the notes come from. I may be wrong.

Always trust your ears.

thomasross20

Hmm, I'll give it another listen.
Good point about retaining minor key but switching mode! I wonder if they meant/knew that when writing or just happened upon it because it sounded good.

MatthewShreddery

Well it's nothing new to have a verse in a minor key and then a chorus in the tonic major, but I just like how they did it in this song.

I reckon they might have written the chorus first...