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“With a Little Help from My Friends” is a song by the Beatles from their 1967 album ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’. It features Ringo Starr who sings the song in the role of ‘Billy Shears’, a fictional character from the ‘Sgt. Pepper’ album. It was composed by Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
The full chord sequence you provided represents the verse. The song itself is predominantly in E Major, but contains several borrowed chords and modal exchanges. As was common with Beatles’s compositions, they often incorporated intricate chord progressions and did not strictly adhere to traditional key signatures.
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The song is in the key of A Major and it makes some interesting use of borrowed chords and modulations. The arrangement of the song is fairly typical rock/pop with a verse-chorus-bridge structure. The bridge utilizes a modulation to the relative minor key, F# minor.
** The Beatles are well known for their creative and unusual use of chords and harmonies. In “Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds”, there is a clear example of their innovative harmonic vocabulary. They employ a variety of common, borrowed, and chromatic mediant chords to create a remarkable soundscape that complements the psychedelic theme of the song.
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Feels Like We Only Go Backwards by Tame Impala uses very interesting chord progressions that convey a feeling of constant motion. The song is primarily in the key of F Major, as revealed by the majority of the chords (F, C, Gm). However, the chord progression in the verse introduces Dm and Cmaj7/G, showing some clever use of modal interchange, also known as borrowed chords.
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“Glory Box” by Portishead is a Trip Hop masterpiece which blends elements of blues, rock, soul, and electronic music together in an innovative and influential way. The song’s chord progression, as illustrated by the verse, is D minor, D minor with C in the bass (notated as Dm/C), B minor 7 flat 5, and B flat major 7. This particular chord progression gives an overall melancholy and haunting feeling throughout the song and sets the tone for the track.
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is in the key of A minor and quite uniquely, the song borrows chords from parallel major and minor keys, as well as from modes like mixolydian. It is one of George Harrison’s contributions to the Beatles and showcases sophisticated harmonic techniques and an intricate chordal design, reflecting deeply on the influence of Eastern music and philosophies on his songwriting.
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by The Beatles is in the minor mode and its chord progression showcases rich harmonic content and unexpected key changes, common to The Beatles’ music. Harmonically, it features an interesting mixture of chords from the parallel major and minor keys, which is indicative of modal interchange, a key characteristic of The Beatles’ songwriting.
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