Comments on: Epic Key Changes: a CDZA music video experiment

By: B A

B A — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:08:00 +0000

If I remember correctly, these key changes are also known as ‘the Truck Driver’s Gear Change’.
There’s even a hall of shame.
http://www.gearchange.org/browse_by_artist.html

By: Mark Davis

Mark Davis — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:13:00 +0000

Yeah, I think this is kind of muddled and misses the point. Would have been better to just have a few bars before each key change, then when the key change comes, you’re in a different song. As it is this makes little to no sense.

Also, I think they should have made a distinction between modulation, which is what I think is exhibited in most of these songs, and key changes, which are completely different. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds doesn’t fit here – it never modulates, it’s just that the verse and chorus cycle through a few different keys, then come back to the start.

By: cj howeareya

cj howeareya — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:57:00 +0000

Exactly. I want my money back.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:22:00 +0000

One tone-deaf way to tell a key change in a song is when they suddenly throw in more instruments. Or listen for a bit, then skip to the last fourth and note the sound difference.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:15:00 +0000

That’s what they call it on tvtropes

By: Demian Gough

Demian Gough — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 06:37:00 +0000

After subscribing to CDZA’s channel today, the next video I watched on youtube served me an ad from CDZA thanking me for subscribing. Definitely a classy group!

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 06:02:00 +0000

I was pretty sure I’m not the only one who feels like the vast majority of key changes exist in songs that blow huge shitful chunks, and the purpose of these key changes is merely to prevent most people realising how crappy and boring such pathetic excuses for songs are.

Thanks.

Also, commercial radio stations and recording industry associations can go right ahead and feast on my wang. Pack of arseholes.

By: kinscore

kinscore — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:42:00 +0000

Warning: Key changes may cause dizziness. Prolonged exposure has been shown to cause spinning head. In extreme cases, these effect may, like a whirlpool, never end. In case of blindness, call a doctor for some help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU_rqm7WPPI

By: Kurt Gallagher

Kurt Gallagher — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:47:00 +0000

If you want to listen for some key changes check out the Gilligan’s Island Theme Song. I’m counting 6 changes. One after each verse.
http://youtu.be/yfSLuEj99d0

By: blueelm

blueelm — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:27:00 +0000

You could be tone deaf. You could just be really used to key changes and having never studied or practiced music not really know what you’re hearing.

I kind of found this one underwhelming. It makes musical sense which I appreciate, using the key changes of various songs to link to other the key change in another song. But the effect isn’t really as impressive as their actual performances.

In a world of mashups, autotune, and everyone’s DJ brother…

By: blueelm

blueelm — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:17:00 +0000

Great moments in pedantry, but “I will always love you” was a hit when Dolly Parton wrote it in the 70′s. Just because people forgot about her…

By: amuderick

amuderick — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:32:00 +0000

didn’t this used to be called a “truck driver’s gear change”?

http://www.gearchange.org/

By: Keith Tyler

Keith Tyler — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:35:00 +0000

I clearly have no musical ability because I can’t even tell where the key shifts are. Of course, half the time they hit the button, they are *starting* a whole new song. The other half, I can’t hear a difference. Where’s the shift? There is zero context. I think the CDZA forty-songs-somehow-significant-in-eighty-seconds is reaching a peak here. I can’t even tell what the hell is going on.

But they have lots of cute semi-hipstery coeds bopping around in their videos, so they are kewl.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:52:00 +0000

Not tone deaf, necessarily. Could be it’s just that you don’t know what to listen for.

Key changes are just a particular kind of chord change, and chord changes happen constantly in music. There are a ton of different kinds (chord progressions, cadences, etc) and being able to identify them at the drop of a hat is… not as easy as you might think. Key changes are probably the easiest, because they’re the most obvious/dramatic, but if you don’t have a knack for it and don’t play or perform music, it could slip right by you without you noticing.

By: jccalhoun

jccalhoun — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:46:00 +0000

i can be that you are tone deaf or you just don’t know what to listen for. A key change can be big difference but in a lot of pop songs it is just a part where they start playing/singing the same thing higher up.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Yeah, I get why they did it that way, but I still agree with Boundegar. The epicness is diminished by removing the context before each particular song’s change. As it is, it just sounds like too-brief clips of songs stapled together. Without the pre-key-change context, the fact that the key progression is what it is becomes obscured (thus requiring the key-change chyrons).

Oh, well. I’m an old grump who didn’t recognize half those songs anyway, so don’t mind me.

By: squeakyanimal

squeakyanimal — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:17:00 +0000

No, I don’t think so: note that all the key changes link together, so what you are getting is (making up changes here to illustrate):
Song A goes from Fm to Am; at the Am change they jump to Song B, which goes from Am to C#m; at the Am change they jump to Song C, which goes from C#m to B;Rinse and repeat. Very clever actually (much more clever IMO than just playing through the changes in each tune), but not quite what people expected.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:16:00 +0000

Priceless!

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:12:00 +0000

I think all the songs in the medley have key changes – but CDZA kind of skipped to the part after the change, which defeats the purpose.

By: LinkMan

LinkMan — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:07:00 +0000

Yeah, that's good. But Da Vinci's Notebook meta-modulated (just after 3:30).

By: Rickenbacker4001

Rickenbacker4001 — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:05:00 +0000

You could be key change deaf. It’s not serious. It’s grouped in with other disorders as, SkrillexAttentionDisorder, irregular male facial hair hipsteritis, glee dizziness and new country apologism.

Wait. What you have is manageable. If you have any symptoms of the others I listed above, run to your health practitioner. :)

By: EH

EH — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:53:00 +0000

A genre can accommodate different degrees of sophistication.

By: bardfinn

bardfinn — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:53:00 +0000

They are actually key changes within the songs in question, and the songs are arranged to keep things interesting.

By: bardfinn

bardfinn — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:52:00 +0000

It relies on your familiarity with the tunes in question to elucidate the key changes, and the selection of a small portion of each piece in order to avoid copyright claims that would knock the work offline, and a continuous flow to keep the attention of busy people.

By: semiotix

semiotix — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:32:00 +0000

I’m happy for you, random YouTube a cappella group, and I’ma let you finish, but Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” had one of the greatest phrase modulations of all time. OF ALL TIME.

B♭maj → Bmaj → Cmaj

The first one happens EIGHT BARS IN! Respect.

By: Promethean Sky

Promethean Sky — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:12:00 +0000

For the life of me I can’t hear what everyone seem so surprised by. I’ve looked up a few key change videos, and can barely tell the difference, if I hear it at all. Am I just literally tone deaf?

By: Casper96

Casper96 — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:02:00 +0000

Well, I think many of the songs they picked up they picked up right AFTER the key change. So one could hear it in their head. But I agree that I was hoping to hear each of the epic key changes as they happen in their individual songs, but this was not that exercise. Particularly the particularly epic Man in the Mirror key change, which integrates seamlessly with the lyrics in an enjoyably shameless way.

By: Dave Jenkins

Dave Jenkins — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:01:00 +0000

Wait, these aren’t “key changes”, these are mashing different songs together that happen to be in different keys. Earnest face connecting in the camera, but weak on the musicology.

A key change is that old trope of pushing up everything a perfect third in the coda to invoke some sort of feeling of resolution.And you’re right boundgear: I’m half-way through Going Underground and have counted 4 key changes so far… To Paul Weller’s credit, he key changed both up _and_ down, which is risky. Pop-Punk cred is in tact.

By: Joshua Jordan

Joshua Jordan — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:58:00 +0000

Wouldn’t this work better if they transitioned into each new song a bar BEFORE the epic key change, so we could hear it? As it is, it’s just a mashup that steps up in key. DETAILS PEOPLE

By: Kenmrph

Kenmrph — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:58:00 +0000

I guess I thought there would be more examples of key changes *within* songs, which might have made a stronger point about how songwriters use this as a device. But it seems like most of the key changes here were between songs.