Eleanor Rigby is actually the Dorian mode - has a sharp scale degree 6. /nitpick Still minor though.
I do love flat 7s. 
I use them a lot in my own music.
Thanks for sharing that. I don’t know Steven Wilson’s work, but I’ve heard of Porcupine Tree. This is a damned cool song–love the haunting chord progression.
It is written in F minor, the saddest of all keys.
I’ve heard of A minor also being the saddest of all keys.
There are some songs/music which are in minor, but sound rather upbeat.
Yeah, especially a lot of modern dance music. “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” Lady Gaga’s “Let’s Dance,” “Bad Romance,” “Poker Face,” (actually, most of her songs, for that matter), LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem,” Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back,” (does some sort of phyrgian thing, to be exact), Usher’s “Yeah,” etc., etc., etc. I guess it depends on what you mean by “upbeat,” though.
A few of my minor-key 60s favorites off the top of my head:
“Still I’m Sad”; “Turn Into Earth”; “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago” – The Yardbirds
“Paint It, Black”; “Play With Fire” – The Rolling Stones
“Here Without You”; “You Showed Me”; “I Knew I’d Want You” – The Byrds
“Just a Little”; “That’s All Right” – The Beau Brummels
“It’s My Life”; “Inside Looking Out” – The Animals
“I’m Not Like Everybody Else”; “Dead End Street” – The Kinks
“Let’s Talk About Girls”; “Don’t Need Your Lovin’” – The Chocolate Watchband
I know absolutely nothing about music, and nothing about keys, but there’s something about all these songs (the ones I’m familiar with anyway) that I like.
So, a dumb question. Songs consist of many notes and chords. What does it mean to be in a key? Is this the section of the piano, for example?
The key basically means which notes appear in a particular song. The notes in a song all belong to a certain scale.
I’ve studied music. I wish I could explain it more. Maybe I can make or find a YouTube video about it.
The half steps are different in minor scales than they are in major scales, correct?
In a way the Key tells you what Chords(and scales) fit with each other
Did you ever sing the song Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do? That is the Major Scale
In the Key of C this is C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C
This can translate to Chords as well, here is a for instance in 7th Chords in C(Major)
CM7,Dminor7, Em7,FM7,GDominant7,Am7, B half diminished7,CM7
M=Major,m=minor
So it tells you what Chords and notes are available to play and then you get to add from there
It can get really complicated but that is the beginning of it
Hope that helped and didn’t make it worse
Capt
Minor Key
Take the standard “Middle A” note which is caused by a vibration beating 440 beats per second (Hz).
Now double that to 880 Hz. That is a “High A” which is a sympathetic note to Middle A. To the human ear, they sound ‘in sync’ with each other. This interval based on whole multiples is called ‘an octave’. When a man and woman are singing together in unison (and not in harmony), they are almost always singing the same melody one octave apart.
And in most modern music, the notes in between the octave is divided into twelve even steps.
Now, you might be asking, “why are two notes that are twelve steps from each other called an octave?” And that’s because of a historical convention that most musical pieces will only use eight of the notes between an octave. And, by convention, the steps are actually called ‘half steps.’ So, which eight notes? Depends. The eight notes you chose are called a ‘scale.’ And there are different scales.
You’re used to hearing most songs in a major scale. Between A and A are these twelve notes below: [The naming is again from a historical convention, and # is pronounced ‘sharp’.] A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# (and back to A)
The A Major scale uses:A B C# D E F# G# (and back to A).
Meanwhile, one of the A Minor scales uses:A B C D E F G A
It’s all a matter of where you make half steps and where you make full steps. And then when you make chords (playing several notes at once), you wind up with different sound. The main chord of an A Major key is A-C#-E. The main chord of an A Minor key is A-C-E. The middle note is one half step lower in the minor key, giving it a slightly different sound.
How different a sound? Here are some Christmas carols played in a minor, rather than their usual major key: Christmas Carols : in minor key - YouTube
By the way: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentleman is already in a minor key.
Hah, that’s pretty fun. In high school, I used to entertain my friends by playing “Linus & Lucy” in a minor key, slowed down to a funeral march tempo, accented with little high-pitched tone clusters alluding to the Psycho shower murder scene (you know, those strings that go “reep, reep, reep” rhythmically).
Of course, there is, unsurprisingly, someone else who has done it and posted it to Youtube.
Just for fun … Some minor songs in major
Not precisely the way you phrased that. A half step is a half step regardless of what scale or whether the scale is major or minor. On a guitar, a half step is the interval from one fret to the next higher or lower fret. On a piano, a half step is the next key, higher or lower. It doesn’t matter what color any of these keys are. A whole step is, of course, two half steps. 4th fret to 6th fret on a guitar and E to F# on a piano, for example.
A scale is the proper arrangement of whole and half steps. One might say where the half steps go determine if it’s a major or minor scale. The pattern for any major scale is 1-1-½-1-1-1-½ and the pattern for any minor scale is 1-½-1-1-½-1-1. So, to figure out the key of A major using the major scale pattern, I’d start out by writing out the letters A B C D E F G A. I’d leave room between each letter for the addition of a sharp (#) or flat (b) to make it work out right. And I’d want to remember there’s only a half step between B & C and E & F. Then I’d go through and sharpen or flatten notes as needed. The A major scale is A B C# D E F# G# A. If you care to work it out, it follows the pattern. The D minor scale (the saddest of them all) is D E F G A Bb C D.
At this point, if you were my student and I was teaching you basic music theory, I’d tell you about the circle of 5ths and 4ths, and tell to take your spiral bound book of staff paper and work out all major and minor scales using the circle of 5ths and 4ths and be prepared to turn it in the day after tomorrow.
:smack: You’re so right. I goofed. Thanks for catching that.
Like in Mahler’s Symphony #1, with “Frère Jacques” put into a minor key, slowed down to a funeral march. Which segued into a slightly more lively klezmer thing.
In case anyone missed it, REM’s "Losing My Religion"was changed to a major scale here…
Ha, if I were your student and it was 30 years ago, I could probably have done it. I’ve forgotten so much.