Check out What You Need to Know Before you Learn Music Theory by Eric Fine: www.amazon.com/dp/B0BYRNBTKN 📖🎼🎶 📌SMALL CORRECTION: at 12:02 I mispoke. I meant to say "D mixolydian or G major" not "G mixolydian or D major". Sorry for any confusion caused.

Thanks David! My new goal is to write the most complex song I can without ever hitting that tonic.

One thing I like about your videos is that it inspires me to try making some music with what I learned.

I would highlight prelude in E minor by Chopin as the piece avoids the tonic chord until the very end, and it's a really simple and useful way for every listener who doesn't know a lot about music to understand the concept of resolution

I would interpret the majority of these songs as modal, rather than not having the tonic. Like you say, with short chord loops, it's very hard to decide on what's the root and therefore the tonic chord.

“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is a notable song that never resolves to the tonic chord. For example, the Marvin Gaye / Tammi Terrill version draws from chords in D major but never actually comes to that chord. The closest it gets is the beginning of the verses that start with a I chord, but with the 6th added and the 5th (A) in the bass. It’s ambiguous enough to feel like it’s simultaneously in the relative minor (B minor). After the verses, the bridge ends with chords that sound like they are headed to the tonic, but then that V chord goes up a half step for a key change, and leads to a deceptive cadence with the new I chord (Eb major) but with the added 6th and the 5th in the bass. Actually, there are some live versions by Ashford and Simpson (who wrote the song) that resolve at the very end to the I chord!

i always thought there was something really striking about "Dreams", specifically the part where that instrumental break begins. Now it makes sense!

I think that 'Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires' by Cocteau Twins is an example of this. Although the song starts on D minor, I think the song is really in F major, certainly the chorus is in F major, but at no point in the song does it ever resolve to a F major chord. I suppose you could say that it's a song that switches between the relative major/minor, so doesn't count - because we do get D minor chords in the verses - but to me it's a song in F major that never resolves to the tonic. Cocteau Twins are great, I recommend anyone to check them out if you're not familiar with them.

Other chords share so many tones of the tonic that it satisfies the ear without being tonic, as well.

These songs are largely in Lydian, not Major, that’s why. It’s not IV to V, it’s I to II in Lydian. Your ear definitely starts to hear the first chord as I.

Listening to a recent Rick Beato interview of Jimmy Webb he asks a question about Wichita Lineman, Jimmy leaves the issue for a while and goes on with an anecdote. He refers to a phone call he received from James Taylor who'd like to cover this song (which he now has done) and loves but... can't get his head around the fact that this song is in F. He asks "where's is it?", and Webb answers "it's not there!".

Rick Beato's amazing new interview w/Jimmy Webb cites 'Wichita Lineman' as being in F without an F chord. There is an Fsus4/A, so I'd have to check it again to see if that acts as a tonic. But their discussion indicates it doesn't ever really resolve to an F major.

I think the reason you get this a lot on hip-hop and daft punk is the use of sampling - producers will chop up a section of the song and loop it without the full chord progression

Wichita Lineman is thought of as being in F, but it never lands on F, it's such an odd song, but so beautiful.

I'd like to mention that when I heard one more time by daft punk, i couldn't help but think of Digital love in the same album. While it never actually reaches its tonic, it's in the key signature of A Major and A sounds like the tonic note in the lyrics.

Wow I remember you replying to my request for this video like a year ago, I guess patience is a virtue 😆

"Against All Odds" by Phil Collins has tonic chords in root position only 3 times, and even then they have a 6th or 9th added, giving the whole tune a restless feel. "Are they going to resolve that ii-V progression or not?" "Oh, it's a I chord, but it's in 2nd inversion!"

It seems like Jane's Said might be more descriptively labelled G Lydian. Sure, the notes are the same as D major, but this song emits strong Lydian vibes to me rather than D major. I hear you about the melody resolution. This is similar to the argument Adam Neely makes about Sweet Home Alabama. Then again, there are no mathematically provable answers in music theory.

“This Must Be the Place” by the Talking Heads is also a song that avoids the tonic, it vamps from D to Em to C to Em (V-vi-IV-V) for the whole song, but the melody confirms that it’s in G major Edit: forgot to mention the artist lol

"There's a place for us" by Phil Collins avoids Eb except for one brief pass through a Eb/G that does not feel like home, and only hits a root Eb to end. This is perfect for the song, as it's about not being able to find a place to rest, and the last chord is like a sigh of relief.

I am surprised and impressed that you found so many examples. Well done, David! This must have taken a tremendous amount of research.

I've always wondered if you'd make a video about this, since I didn't know whether it was actually possible to have no tonic chord. It was interesting to see so many examples

A song worth mentioning here is Wichita Lineman. Except for the intro, the song never goes to the Tonic again. When I play it live, I omit the intro and change it from Tonic then Dominant to Sub Dominant then Dominant (borrowed from the "Is still on the line" section) because I'm setting up my looper. In Jimmy Webb's interview with Rick Beato, he stated that his song never goes to 1, but he must've forgotten about the intro :)

😂😂 By this point I'm convinced that I could just randomly play any notes and some music theory nerd could explain that it's actually some complex chords

I’ve started to note this in a lot of the music I listen to, and it’s something I’ve been feeling a lot but never considered too much until this well timed video!

505 by Arctic Monkeys is a great example of a minor iv v vamp! Although some people say it's in D dorian, I always felt like A is the root in this case

😮 I didn’t know songs could actually omit the tonic chord completely. I’ve so much to learn 😭

Fascinating stuff, especially the part about modal ambiguity. Thank you David!

I’m getting Gary Numan’s song, “Me I Disconnect From You “ here. It’s a pretty similar set up to Dreams, but even though there is a C major chord passage in it, it doesn’t really sound like the tonic, because every time you feel the song should land on C, Gary shunts up to a D major chord. Similarly, a song like Down In The Park sounds like it might be in C, but hang on there’s a Bb and now an A major. But there’s no way you could say it’s in D minor either. The key centre seems to drift all over the place.

The part where you said the key isn't based on the chords you use. Rather, it's the notes used in the melody. This was a lightbulb moment for me. Thanks !

“Leave the City” by Twenty One Pilots is an example of a song that almost never hits the tonic - we only get it once, and it’s only at the very end of the song. Despite being in the key of G (and quite clearly so because of the melody), it only hits G at the end, looping for the vast majority of the song on the chords C, Em, D, and Bm, the IV, vi, V, and iii of the scale.

David I always learn so much with your videos! Thanks for that. I was listening Say it right from Nelly Furtado and I thing is a popular example of a song that never go to the tonic chord.

Fantastic video David. Excellent analysis as ever

It never occurred to me that Jane Says was IV-V, I always thought of it as I-II but looking at it now the melody is clearly in D. I love how the same chords can be interpreted so differently

What a great topic. This is gonna be great!!

Nice video, well structured. I like that you build up from basic to more developped forms of the concept and then opening the reflexion with songs with questionable keys, very cool !

Your videos are very inspiring. Thank you fot this great job!

Thanks for another extremely informative video, David.

Run Away With Me by Carly Rae Jepsen is (as far as I remember) a perfect example of this, as well as being an all round stunning song. Beautiful sax intro as well.

Turns out that when you write songs by trial-and-error using only guitar chord symbols or the auto-chord tool in a piano roll editor, what comes out usually breaks simple music theory conventions.

I found this video because I was listening to Parker's Band by Steely Dan and realized it never resolved, and I wanted to learn about more examples. Thanks!

As soon as I heard the first chord progression, I thought of "Dreams" 😄

I typed in British piano music theory guy and found you You are incredible and the amounts of transcribing by yours

Great video - I've meant to research this in the past to see if I can find many songs that do this!

I’m much more comfortable with the later part of your analysis, where you suggest that a piece might be modal or in a space of modal ambiguity rather than having no tonic. Maybe it’s because I listen to a lot of music where the melody isn’t the defining factor, but I tend to feel that the key a tune is in isn’t defined by the melody but by the bassline. If the bass feels at rest in a certain place, that feels much more like the foundation of the piece, even if the melody doesn’t rest there and it implies a mode other than major or minor.

Carousels by Beirut is another song in the key of D major that spends its entire length only ever playing Gmaj7 and A chords, which for me always felt as if the tonic served as the song's center with the chords perpetually dancing around it, like an actual carousel. it was the first song i thought of when i saw this video's thumbnail so it was very interesting to see more like it

I now remember when I was young (internet was not available for us) learning guitar from a friend of mine, trying to identify the key of some songs to get the rest of it, and never getting to "what the heck of the key is this song in???". I feel today like I have found (and played) the key of one of my life's songs, that finally resolves and comes to rest, after roughly 35 years later.

This is why Daft Punk's own mashups of "One More Time" and "Aerodynamic" work so well. "Aerodynamic" is in Bm, with the tonic on bar one, so the "One More Time" vocal layered on top evokes a dramatically different vibe while still being in key.

1. Does "God Only Knows" fit in this case? I always think of that song in terms of a song with a complex and ambiguous chord progression. 2. I slightly disagree that songs without a tonic are extremely rare because in the last 10 years or so it seems that they have gotten considerably more common as songs based on chord loops have gotten more and more common in popular music, especially ones where creating a "chill vibe" is the overall goal, which more and more popular music is trying to do since more people just listen to music "for the vibes" anyway.

Excellent video and discussion David (although to me, "Holding Back the Years" is definitely in A Minor, as the D melody note is too 'uplifting' rather than 'resolving' compared to that A example). Cheers

Great video and ideas for future song chord progressions, thanks!

You never fail to introduce new awesome music to me. David Benett is my curator!

The Simply Red song, the D feels like a IV, especially with the way he approaches it in the eponymous passage.

Only in Dreams, by Weezer. Beautiful song that would deserve more recognition even I were/am wrong.

Love the outro music you created for this video, very Radiohead

i looooove your videos. the staff notation of pop songs is so good.

I've always interpreted those "IV, V" loop songs as "bVII, I" in Mixolydian. The scale is the same. But Anyway by Blues Traveler is an example.

Great video as always David. Although i must say i felt a bit lost on some of the examples when you only used the chord names and didnt include the roman numerals.

I find it bizarre that David sees only two possibilities for the key of “holding back the years” - A aeolian or D Dorian - when to my ears it is unambiguously in C ionic, despite never resolving to a C major chord. To my ears, the D minor and the G are a classic “ii / V / I” except it keeps denying us the “I”. If you sing the line “holding back the years”, the “years” note sounds (at least to me) like the second degree of the scale, and it sounds like what it really wants to do is resolve down a tone to the tonic (C), accompanied by a C major chord, and if you actually sing/play precisely that on an instrument, you’ll see that it sounds completely at rest when you hit that C. You could play an Am too, and it sort of works, but it doesn’t sound (at least to my ears) nearly as satisfyingly resolved, rather it sounds like we’ve reached the “semi” resolution of a vi chord, and still have a little further to go before we get home. That said, I’m not so arrogant as to tell David he’s “wrong” to say it’s in A minor (or, for that matter, the people who say it’s in D Dorian, although I do question whether they really do HEAR that D minor chord as being a place of rest or they are simply resistant to the notion that the tonic chord might not be a chord we ever hear). That’s the thing people get wrong about modes - they are inherently subjective and unstable. The tonic is something that your ears tell you, not something you work out via some foolproof formula. Sometimes your ears tell you it’s something completely unambiguous, but sometimes they’re vague and indecisive. Sometimes you can “flip” your perception to hear the same piece of music in two different keys (see “Sweet home Alabama”, where I’m naturally in the D Mixolydian camp but can sort of “choose” to hear it in the G ionic which is the key in which many, including the band that wrote it, appear to conceptualise it). Theory can really get in the way of your ears and I do wonder if that’s what’s going on here. Theory and analysis can’t definitively tell you what note the tonic is, because it’s just not a black and white thing. Analysis can tell you that, for example, “Holding back the years” uses the seven “white key” notes. But as with any heptatonic scale, a piece of music that uses those seven notes could be in any of seven modes (of which the two with which we are most familiar, ionic and aeolian - colloquially known as “major” and “natural minor” are only two). And here’s the kicker - any piece of music that uses those seven notes is really in ALL SEVEN MODES AT ONCE - because, essentially, they’re all the same key, and a note that your brain, at any given moment during a piece, tonicises, IS the tonic, and that IS the key it’s in, for you, at that particular moment. That tonicization is personal and involuntary, and based not only on harmonic context (the WHOLE harmonic context, not just the melody - it is entirely possible to write a song that will be widely perceived as being in a certain key without the melody ever using the tonic note) but also the context in which you heard it on that particular occasion, and a whole lot of cultural baggage we can’t even begin to unpick. That baggage includes the fact that western ears are conditioned to enormously privilege the ionic mode as the default, for example, which is why modal writing is mostly an exercise in fighting against the overwhelming gravity of the ionic mode - it is the schoolyard bully of modes who, given any opportunity, will barge in and take over. Try writing a song in Lydian (ie all white keys with F as the tonic), for example, and you pretty soon realise that you kind of have to avoid playing the chord built on the fifth degree (C major if in F Lydian), or at least be very careful how you introduce it, because the moment it arrives it will decide it’s the boss and insist that you were really in C ionic all along. It is impossible for me to know to what extent this last point, for example, might be at least part of the reason I find it impossible to hear “Holding back the years” as being in D dorian, or even A aeolian. I am culturally conditioned, by a lifetime of listening to western music made by people for whom middle C was ground zero of a musical education, to subconsciously think of the ionic mode of the major scale as the default, which means that even if the ionic one chord is entirely absent (as it is here), a piece of music that uses those seven notes has to work harder to NOT be in ionic than “Holding back the years” does, if I am to perceive it as being in any other mode.

i think another example of this would be "leave the city" by twenty one pilots, where the song is in G major, however the chord progression throughout the whole song is C, Em, D, Bm, but never plays the G major chord until the end of the song, where it is the final chord

A point David didn’t raise but which I suspect is key here is the ORDER in which the chords make their first appearance in a given song. If a song we’ve never heard begins with a simple triad (or an otherwise relatively stable chord, like a major 7) our brains automatically tonicise the root note of that chord - it becomes the default tonic until such time as new information contradicts that impression. If there is a readily accessible way for us to perceive the second chord as being consistent with the first being the tonic, our first impression is confirmed and validated and by that point we are probably locked into that first chord being the tonic, regardless of what happens next. But if the second chord problematises that impression, we have to reevaluate. A two-chord song that utilizes only Fmajor and Gmajor, for example, will likely fall into this camp, and the order may be the key factor that decides whether those same two chords are typically experienced as being IV and V in the ionic mode or VII and I in the Mixolydian mode. If the song BEGINS with the G major chord, then G is automatically the default tonic and ionic is (probably) the default mode (because of its cultural ubiquity over other “major” modes). But the F that follows problematises that - it’s now definitely not in G Ionic. Our brain calculates the relationship between the second chord and our default tonic chord, cross references it to other times we have heard that same movement, and seeks an explanation that allows us to retain that first chord as the tonic if at all possible. And if we are a 21st century person who has spent their entire life listening to blues-influenced pop music (ie all pop music), we are likely to latch onto the Mixolydian mode and see that second chord as a flat 7. If, on the other hand (and as is the case with the songs presented here), the order is reversed and the F comes first, something entirely different happens. Now the F is experienced, in the first instance, as the default tonic. But that impression is immediately confounded by the arrival of the G, and in a way that is not as readily reconcilable as it was the other way round. If Lydian was as common and stable as Mixolydian, our brains would probably conclude at this point that we were in Lydian, so as to retain our default tonic of F. But Lydian is inherently unstable (probably, at least in part, simply because it is relatively unfamiliar, at least to western ears) so, instead, we cross reference that movement from one major chord to another a tone above it, subconsciously recognise the harmonic context in which we’ve heard that movement the most often in our lives (which is the movement from IV to V before resolving to I - the single most classic and common cadence in western music for at least the last half millennium), and instantly are already anticipating the C major chord that would resolve it. Only the C chord never arrives, leaving us in perpetual anticipation of a home we never reach. We see this exact same phenomenon at play in the two versions of the “Axis of Awesome” chord sequence, namely I/V/VI/IV and i/VI/III/VII - the same exact chords, looped in precisely the same order, the only difference is which one we perceive as being the beginning, which switches the tonality of the whole thing from ionic to aeolian. Probably everyone has at some point had the discombobulating experience of hearing a song they know distantly playing, but because they weren’t concentrating they “mishear” where the “one” is and so suddenly the song is transformed (until their brains figure it out and switch back) into an entirely different piece of music that isn’t even in the same key.

I think Holding Back The Years is in A minor. The D note just sounded like a 4th to me

Amazing. David Bennett analyses Jane's Addiction! My favourite band.

Very interesting and helpful. I also ordered the book!

1:26 Hooold up - the harmony (chords) absolutely define the key. But if you only look at songs in terms of major (Ionian) or minor (Aeolian) melody rather than harmonic mode, you're going to have a hard time working out the tonal center. For example: "Jane Says" seems to be in A Mixolydian. Even the melody hangs on the A for the beginning of the song, when the key is typically established, only dropping down at "...but if." This also makes what was the V into the I, and so the progression becomes VII-I. To me, Dreams is in G Mixolydian, and it's also a VII-I progression. That makes the bridge start with ii-I-VII. One More time seems to be in G Lydian, which would make the harmony I-II x3 then vii-II. 5:11 Okay, Smile Meditation is just clearly in E flat major. I-V-I-V-IV Seems like God's Plan is b♭m7 (i) cm7 (ii), which would make it B flat Dorian.

Jimmy Webb told Rick Beato, if I recall correctly, that Wichita Lineman is in the key of F but never plays an F.

Wolf Alice - How Can I Make it Ok Another tune that just goes from IV to V over and over, building and building beautifully!

The outro song is beautiful ✨

"Ennemy" by Imagine Dragon (the music from Arcane) is also a great exemple of that, staying on the VIth and Vth forever in B minor

A song without a Tonic is probably in a Mode, and uses the Mode's Tonic chord. This is likely the case on most songs that alternate between two adjacent chords.

Actually, the way that I hear most of these songs is in Mixolydian, with the chord progression being bVII I, where the second chord is the tonic chord, and you can hear the b7 scale degree used in these songs which defines the sound of the Mixolydian mode.

I have that book from the promo! It's amazing! It's the best thing I've done for myself all year.

Surprised Wichita Lineman was missed off the video. This is one of the earliest and most famous pop song examples. The song never resolves to F.

woah, no beatles or radiohead songs?

I love your channel. Unfortunately I'm not a musician, but I listen to a lot of music and sometimes I try to produce something in DAW. I also love the abstract and theoretical sides of things so I always enjoy your content. I was thinking lately that there seems to be lack of extreme metal analysis on youtube. I recently found this band that combines extreme metal with jazz - Imperial Triumphant, I couldn't find any materials analyzing their music. The most interesting albums seem to be the last two. They also made radiohead cover 😜 Is there a chance that you will ever make videos on more extreme types of metal? Now that I'm writing this comment I also thought of Godspeed You Black Emperor. They are a post rock group. It would also be nice to see you analyzing this style of composing with long songs and multiple layers of instruments and sounds. Thanks for all the work you do :)

HE FINALLY USED MAINSTREAM ARTISTS god thank you 😭 it just helps really drive the point home when you know the song

I'm not 100% certain, but I always feel like 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight' by Elton John never sounds as though it resolves fully. I know it uses a lot of unusual inversions.

There are a lot of songs with two chords one semitone apart that could fit into this category (e.g. Montero by Lil Nas X, Get into it (yuh) by Doja Cat, Enemy by Imagine Dragons) that I tend to hear as V-VI chords in aeolian, but others say they're I-II chords in phygrian dominant.

Let Me Be Your Fantasy (Baby D) is a good example. It's a four chord loop of (I think) vi V iii IV. You could hear it as being in the minor key of the vi chord but the melody is more in the major key. Gives the song its restless, nervy sound.

I'm shocked! No inclusion of Radiohead: "Everything in It's Right Place"?! The composer Steve Reich explained his interest in the song because it never lands on it's tonic chord F minor, instead we only get F major. He went on to write a chamber piece called "Radio Rewrite" based on two Radiohead songs. Great stuff!

Super content you make. Keep it up!

Reggae artists use these kinds of chord progressions often. The Grateful Dead use it for Fire On the Mountain. I always thought of it as a modal progression. A nice way going from the lydian and mixolydian modes.

I'm sure Drake doesnt have any idea about this fact about his songs 😂

Proving that Drake actually doesn't make music, but rather just talks in a fairly monotone voice. And people like his "sound".

"So" it's just one note, the D of "here for "ME"" (2.09) that appears as the resolution which I understood defines the tonic key a song is in. This is amazing, this is an amazing video. All this is not even hinted at, in normal courses. Isnt'it it a converse way to put it that the chords are maybe in between ... sorry, that is not "conversely" but a new thought .. in between the tempo, the beat and the melody. Chords if played, as in e-guitar music, as one note must be hold for a long time i.e. sort of paused or - very alternatively to that one chord samba sort of -- strummed. You might neglect the melody side of chord when you use the "bar" aspect, the strumming or drumming aspects. To memorize this idea: if you holf a chord forever it is not "the rhythm" it's the melody side. To the latter aspect I fully subscribe to the video's explanation that there are songs that want the constant craving, tension - maybe the resolution becomes "urgent", thus, as it's just the opposite of a lullaby. Which leads to yet another idea: the constant repetition that - not to have a boring repetitive lullaby - must be twisted and varied so you notice the repetition when we want you too - after the chorus -- ---- the constant repetition doesn't need to be hidden by variations if the tension lies in the unresolvedness. That's why they rightfully call it "grunge" because it's that good, no crunching. It's lurking. There's luck in the D. Finally.

I'm hearing the "I'll keep holding on" sequence in C, basically a ii V I cliche that loops early instead of ever resolving to its I chord.

Mate. I love your work but put a content warning on Chris Brown next time, okay?

I find those songs extremely irritating. Yucko.

Watching this video made me remember a song I wrote back a few weeks ago. It's in the key of Eb, but it never goes to the tonic chord. The chords are: Abmaj7-Gm7-Db-B-A#7.

It calls out for the tonic but it’s left for you mind to provide the tonic. It this sense the song is ~incomplete (explicitly) but pulls our minds in to participate in this song by semi- or un-consciously ~completing the song.

Wow I must be learning something I thought of “ Dreams “ & then you said it 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽😁😁🎵

yesssss you finally mentioned Vulfpeck!!!

For me, Holding Back the Years is definitely in D doric since I feel that the reason that that A in the melody sounds resolved is because it anticipates the Dm9 which comes right after

Brillant, perfectly explained to me

So many of these pop songs dont go to the tonic because they often dont really travel anywhere and go round in circles. no forward motion and not my type of song ....great analysis.

"Jane Says" is in A mixolydian, not D ionian. I think the melody you pointed out makes this very clear, since you cut the melody short and you can hear how it doesn't resolve. If you follow the melody to the end of the stanza, it resolves nicely on an A.

I would love to hear an entire video on more songs with modal ambiguity!

People shouldn’t be scared of theory, it’s really not that hard and it makes playing and writing music so much more enjoyable. Please, give it a go.. it’s great letting your ear guide you, ( Cliched, I know) but knowing the rules can help you break them. Not everyone agrees, but here’s one perspective: Diatonically, the key is always the major 1 chord (Ionian), but you can use the other six modes as your tonal centre. If you look at sheet music, it wouldn’t say you’re in the key of A minor (Aeolian), but the key of C major. So, going from the the four (F) to the five (G) would be Lydian or Mixolydian in the key of C as long as you don’t resolve to the C. It’s brilliant for song writing. If you don’t understand the terminology, look it up. It’ll be worth the effort. Good luck and peace.🤓😎🤠🥸😜🤪

Always love a little Vulfpeck appreciation

Another song that does this is ‘Never Gonna Give You Up.’ My analysis is that the intro and chorus progression is a ii / V / iii / iv / progression. The verses are a ii / V / vamp.