I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.

Re:I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns.... by dfan on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @03:21PM (#4102243)

The chord stuff is all perfectly reasonable (in pop music, that is; in a classical piece in the key of C you would have an Em going to an Am way more than to F, for example, and you'd see way more D chords).

I don't buy that Eb/Cm is the third most common key in pop music, though. There's not a whole lot of pop music in minor keys, and Eb is a weird key to play guitar in.

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Re:I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns.... by colanderman on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @03:40PM (#4102358)

Eb is a weird key to play guitar in.

Van Halen did it all the time. (Tuning down a 1/2 step is not uncommon among heavier rock/heavy metal bands. I'm not entirely sure why though.)

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Re:I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns.... by wildwood on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @03:48PM (#4102407)

That's cool, I hadn't heard of that before. Here's a link with some possible explanations:

http://www.strat-talk.com/forum/sidewinders-bar-grille/24512...

The explanation that E-flat works better with tunings for brass and horns was interesting.

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Re:I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns.... by dfan on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @03:55PM (#4102453)

(Tuning down a 1/2 step is not uncommon among heavier rock/heavy metal bands. I'm not entirely sure why though.)

You answered your own question; it sounds heavier.

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Re:I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns.... by Synaesthesia on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @05:08PM (#4102869)

Eb in original tuned guitar is very hard. But yeah detuning it 1 semitone is a good trick.

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Re:I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns.... by recursive on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @03:51PM (#4102429)

> There's not a whole lot of pop music in minor keys

In my informal survey of the first 6 songs I got on the "pop" channel on pandora, fully a third were in minor keys. (Rumor has it by Adele, and I wanna go by Britney Spears)

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Re:I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns.... by HTryan on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @05:20PM (#4102929)

I think one of the primary issues with popular music is that it's often ambiguous whether it's in a major or minor mode, even when the song starts on a minor chord. Classically, one would mark the transition to a minor mode by the existence of an authentic cadence: V/vi -> vi, or by the raised scale degree 5, but neither of those clues exist in either song that you mentioned.

In songs like My Heart Will Go On, it appears that the verse tonicizes I, where as the chorus centers around the relative minor. However does it make sense to say it switches modes every time the section changes? Maybe not

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Re:I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns.... by wildwood on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @03:31PM (#4102295)

Keep in mind that, with a capo, any key becomes trivial for a guitar.

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Re:I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns.... by freehunter on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @03:25PM (#4102270)

I do hear piano in Eb occasionally, but in my years of playing guitar I can't say I've ever come across it in any song I've played.

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