All western music in the hundreds (possibly thousands) of years leading up to that time was essentially diatonic. The concept of atonality didn’t exist before the early 20 th century. In other words, it’s not “in” any key at all. Atonal music doesn’t have any sense of a tonality or key. The polar opposite to diatonic music is “atonal” music. In other words, if we’re careful to stick to those 7 chords the chord progression will be diatonic – and diatonic music sounds good! If we compose a song using these 7 chords we can be fairly confident that the chord progression will sound good, because all of the notes in all of the chords are taken from the F major scale. a “triad”) from each note of the F major scale, we will get the following chords: F major, G minor, A minor, Bb major, C major, D minor and E diminished. In the whole 32-bar melody there are only two notes that don’t belong to this scale.īut when we say “all the notes of the composition are in one key”, that applies not just to the melody, but also to the harmony – in other words, the chord progression. If you play through the whole melody of “Georgia” you’ll notice that the tune sticks pretty closely to these seven notes. If you play an F major scale on the piano you’ll be playing mostly white notes – the only black note being that B flat. F major has one flat in the key signature – B flat – so the notes of the F major scale are: F G A Bb C D E and F. Take our current example: we’re looking at “Georgia” in the key of F major. It’s a reasonable assumption, because almost all of the music that has been made through the ages, including most music being made today, is essentially diatonic. If you’ve ever asked “What key is this song in?” you’re assuming the music is diatonic. The word “diatonic” means that all the notes of a composition (or a section of one) are in one key. Before we look closer at secondary dominants, let’s just define those two words – “diatonic” and “chromaticism”. Using secondary dominant chords is a great way to inject a bit of chromaticism into a diatonic composition. It’s because A7 is a secondary dominant chord in the key of F major. That A7 chord doesn’t seem like it should fit with the F major key signature, but when you listen to the song it doesn’t sound wrong at all. While the song’s melody sticks pretty close to the F major scale throughout, you might have noticed that the third chord seems somewhat out of place. This is the key of Trumbauer’s recording, and the key in which it is most commonly performed today (although Ray Charles sang it in G major, and Carmichael’s original recording is in B flat). Here are the first few bars of “Georgia”, written out in the key of F major. These days, most people associate the song with Ray Charles, whose 1960 recording is often considered the definitive rendition. Hoagy Carmichael’s most famous song, “Georgia On My Mind”, was first recorded by the composer in 1930, and became a hit when it was covered the following year by Frankie Trumbauer. Hoagy Carmichael, composer of “Georgia On My Mind”
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