Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitar Amps
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • You Oughta Know
  • Glasto 2025 - how to watch, who's on?
  • Wrecking Crew
  • 95k+ free music samples

Recommended reading

Getty Compile of Artist Pics
Artists 9 fresh long reads on tracks with astounding musical moments
The Beatles
Artists The 30 best song intros of all time
Music theory basics: understanding intervals, and how they define the distance in pitch between two notes
Music Theory And Songwriting 10 music theory tricks every producer and songwriter should know
Eurovision 2025
Gigs & Festivals Tempo shifts, key changes and nonsense lyrics: Is Eurovision 2025 set to be the most musically weird competition in its history?
Clem Burke, Ancienne Belgique (AB), Brussels, Belgium, November 1998
Drummers "I've analyzed hundreds of players over the years. They're all a part of what I do": Clem Burke's 10 essential drum albums
Air
Artists 10 underrated Air tracks you absolutely need to hear
Woman playing on a digital piano with headphones on
Music Theory And Songwriting Technically capable, but struggle to make your tunes sound musical? 5 simple music theory hacks to make your tracks stand out
  1. Artists
  2. Singles And Albums

10 great key change songs

News
By Neville Marten published 25 September 2009

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

10 great key change songs

10 great key change songs

Guitar Techniques editor Neville Marten follows up his cameo appearance on Chris Evans’s self-styled ‘Key Change Wednesday’ programme on BBC Radio 2 with 10 of his own favourite songs featuring key changes.

What do you think of Nev's choices? Check out the following list and post a comment below if you think there are any biggies that he's missed

Page 1 of 11
Page 1 of 11
The Who - My Generation

The Who - My Generation

What’s Pete Townshend thinking here? My Generation moves through three key changes from G, up a tone to A, then - and this is the weird bit - up a semitone to Bb, before jumping another tone to finish in C.

It certainly adds tension to an already menacing number.

Page 2 of 11
Page 2 of 11
The Beatles - Penny Lane

The Beatles - Penny Lane

Pure pop genius! McCartney flouts the unwritten law by going down a tone into the chorus, from the song’s verse key of C to Bb. But his vocal melody soars skyward so the listener is fooled into thinking that the key has too.

The final twist is the last chorus, which does change up!

Page 3 of 11
Page 3 of 11
Derek And The Dominos - Layla

Derek And The Dominos - Layla

This is plain weird, but it fulfils a main key change objective by pulling the ear into the song.

The lead riff and main chorus is in D, but Clapton neatly diverts to C#m via a C power chord in the riff, giving the impression the key has sharpened, not flattened by a semitone.

Page 4 of 11
Page 4 of 11
Alice Cooper - School's Out

Alice Cooper - School's Out

Alice can’t play an instrument or write music down, so this fine songsmith dictates what he wants to the band.

While that famous riff and verse are in the key of E, Cooper does some deft stair-stepping via chords of C, D and Eb into the unrelated chorus key of Gm. There’s no other song like it!

Page 5 of 11
Page 5 of 11
The Beatles - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

The Beatles - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

Lennon’s turn to amaze! Starting on a descending motif in A, John moves the bridge into Bb and winds through a convoluted sequence to the Zippo-waving chorus in G.

The clever bit is how he finishes the chorus on an A chord; and here we are, coolly back in the original key.

Page 6 of 11
Page 6 of 11
Diana Ross - Upside Down

Diana Ross - Upside Down

Written by funk legends Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, this classic funky chord riff goes: Gm7 to C, to F and back to Gm again.

But the verse section slides up chromatically to Bbm; and so confident were Rodgers and Edwards in the strength of the riff that they felt the entire verse could sit on that one chord. Cool!...

Page 7 of 11
Page 7 of 11
Stevie Wonder - Golden Lady

Stevie Wonder - Golden Lady

This track from Stevie’s Innervisions album climaxes with chorus after chorus of semitone increments.

Sometimes deemed a tacky ploy - as in Seasons In The Sun by Terry Jacks - here Wonder does it at the end of a deliciously clever composition, that also serves to showcase his amazing vocal range.

Page 8 of 11
Page 8 of 11
Johnny Cash - I Walk The Line

Johnny Cash - I Walk The Line

This simple country song revolves around a standard three-chord trick in F. The twist in the key change is that it goes up a fourth to Bb, and then by a further tone to C.

So essentially we have a three-chord trick played around each of the chords in a three-chord trick!

Page 9 of 11
Page 9 of 11
The Platters - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

The Platters - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

This Jerome Kern standard predates The Platters by a quarter century, but their massive 1958 hit version showcased its brilliant modulation from an Eb verse to B (technically Cb) for the middle eight.

A major third leap, it’s surely one of the most unusual of all key-changes.

Page 10 of 11
Page 10 of 11
The Carpenters - Goodbye To Love

The Carpenters - Goodbye To Love

Said to be the song that instigated rock solos in pop ballads, Goodbye To Love garnered hate mail from hardened Carpenters fans that felt electric guitars were the spawn of the devil.

The neat key-change - from B to C# - comes as a mini-bridge section before the big "Ah" vocal section that sets up Tony Peluso’s fabulous outro solo.

And that's it. To read more about Nev's appearance on the Chris Evans Show, visit the Guitar Techniques blog.

Page 11 of 11
Page 11 of 11
Neville Marten
Read more
Getty Compile of Artist Pics
9 fresh long reads on tracks with astounding musical moments
The Beatles
The 30 best song intros of all time
Music theory basics: understanding intervals, and how they define the distance in pitch between two notes
10 music theory tricks every producer and songwriter should know
Eurovision 2025
Tempo shifts, key changes and nonsense lyrics: Is Eurovision 2025 set to be the most musically weird competition in its history?
Clem Burke, Ancienne Belgique (AB), Brussels, Belgium, November 1998
"I've analyzed hundreds of players over the years. They're all a part of what I do": Clem Burke's 10 essential drum albums
Air
10 underrated Air tracks you absolutely need to hear
Latest in Singles And Albums
Singer and mastermind Brian Wilson of the rock and roll band "The Beach Boys" directs from the control room while recording the album "Pet Sounds" in 1966 in Los Angeles, California
“One of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it”
Raye and Amy Winehouse
Raye on her decision to work with Amy Winehouse producer Mark Ronson, and those inevitable comparisons
Singer Joey Ramone (1951 - 2001), of American punk group The Ramones, backstage at the Paradise Theater (now the Paradise Rock Club) in Boston, Massachusetts, 22nd March 1978. In the background are bassist Dee Dee Ramone (1951 - 2002, centre) and drummer Tommy Ramone (1949 - 2014).
"At first the tension was unbelievable. Johnny was really cold, Dee Dee was OK but Joey was a sweetheart": The story of the Ramones' recording of Baby I Love You
Bob Marley and the Wailers
"Reggae is more freeform than the blues": Bob Marley and the Wailers' Catch a Fire, track-by-track
Joe Bonamassa [left] plays his Epiphone 1955 Les Paul Standard and wears a bright blue suit and polka-dot; Sammy Hagar [right] wears shades, a black Cabo Wabo T-shirt and plays his red Gibson Explorer with white pickguard.
“The track is a monster!”: Joe Bonamassa and Sammy Hagar have got the Fortune Teller Blues
beyonce album cover
“Part of a beautiful American tradition”: A music theory expert explains the country roots of Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em, and why it also owes a debt to the blues
Latest in News
Lorde
Lorde on the Frank Ocean collaborator who helped to humanise the synths on her new album, Virgin
synth one j6
"In a blind test of 100 musicians, it beat the $200 plugin 3-to-1. Not bad for a free app": AudioKit releases Synth One J6, a free Juno-inspired synth for iOS
Neil Young
BBC confirm that they won’t be showing his Glastonbury set “at the artist’s request”
Nadia Struiwigh
Tresor resident Nadia Struiwigh on why she avoids tutorials and keeps things 'loose' in the studio
Sam Ryder on a train
“The energy on there was unreal”: Sam Ryder performs an impromptu set for passengers on a Glastonbury-bound train
velvet sundown
"There's not a shred of evidence on the internet that this band has ever existed": This apparently AI-generated artist is racking up hundreds of thousands of Spotify streams

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...