Interesting stuff; thanks for writing it. But I’m curious why your analysis wasn’t about the roles or functions of chords (e.g. I, V, Vm, etc) to be independent of key, rather than as “absolute” chords. A G can play a very different role depending on the tonic!
Interesting stuff; thanks for writing it. But I’m curious why your analysis wasn’t about the roles or functions of chords (e.g. I, V, Vm, etc) to be independent of key, rather than as “absolute” chords. A G can play a very different role depending on the tonic!
Mostly just because the dataset didn’t note the key. Because of that there was no reliable way to assess relative positions. Had that been part of the data, I probably would have done that
Yes ben's comment is what I was interested in as well. As a musician and songwriter, the relationships between the chords (progressions) are more important than the actual letter names or use frequency.
There's likely an algorithm that could be applied to the dataset to determine the key with some accuracy. I always look for the 2 major chords in a song that are consecutive to each other (they don't need to be played consecutively), those are usually the IV and V chord which leaves the other major chord as the tonic, e.g. C and D are the IV and V leaving G as the key. Of course this isn't a rule but does apply to the majority of popular songs. I'm sure some software engineers out there have more specific algorithms.
Interesting stuff; thanks for writing it. But I’m curious why your analysis wasn’t about the roles or functions of chords (e.g. I, V, Vm, etc) to be independent of key, rather than as “absolute” chords. A G can play a very different role depending on the tonic!
Mostly just because the dataset didn’t note the key. Because of that there was no reliable way to assess relative positions. Had that been part of the data, I probably would have done that
Yes ben's comment is what I was interested in as well. As a musician and songwriter, the relationships between the chords (progressions) are more important than the actual letter names or use frequency.
There's likely an algorithm that could be applied to the dataset to determine the key with some accuracy. I always look for the 2 major chords in a song that are consecutive to each other (they don't need to be played consecutively), those are usually the IV and V chord which leaves the other major chord as the tonic, e.g. C and D are the IV and V leaving G as the key. Of course this isn't a rule but does apply to the majority of popular songs. I'm sure some software engineers out there have more specific algorithms.
Or cross reference with another dataset like https://tunebat.com/
Ben — Yes, as in a G chord played in the key of B. Example:
G major, A major, B major.
This produces a strong chord pattern especially when used at the end of a chorus.
Pop songs that begin in the vi chord (A minor) but for most of the song the key is in C.
I find the Comments as informative as the article here.
I wrote a song that uses exactly that series of chords, G A B in the chorus, for that reason!
https://mothershout.substack.com/p/rise