Songs in both major and minor keys

[jazzjune18]

So... I'm working on a non music related geology seminar and want to use music as an object lesson. I am trying to find common, traditional songs that are in both major AND minor keys (for the same song). The less obscure the better. Any suggestions??

I am specifically interested in how the message changes going from major to minor
Thanks

[Jacob Hagerty]

So... I'm working on a non music related geology seminar and want to use music as an object lesson. I am trying to find common, traditional songs that are in both major AND minor keys (for the same song). The less obscure the better. Any suggestions??

I am specifically interested in how the message changes going from major to minor
Thanks

Like cold frost morning or grumbling old man cackling old woman?

[jazzjune18]

Thanks Jacob. Songs like shady grove. Ones that can be performed in either a major or minor key. Campfire, or easily recognizable songs are ideal

[AlanN]

Try The Cat Came Back. The chords can be Am-G-F-E or AMaj-G-F-E; either way, that darn cat always comes back....

[MontanaMatt]

Whiskey before breakfast/ mourning for whiskey, Maj/minor, same song

Cattle in the cane, maj/min mixo

[Explorer]

So... I'm working on a non music related geology seminar and want to use music as an object lesson. I am trying to find common, traditional songs that are in both major AND minor keys (for the same song). The less obscure the better. Any suggestions??

I am specifically interested in how the message changes going from major to minor
Thanks

The easiest example for me, but not a traditional song, is "Happy Together" by the Turtles.



The song flips back and forth between F# major and F# minor.

Or, do you mean a song that flips between a major key and its relative minor, like "It Won't Be Long" by the Beatles?

[Mark Wilson]

kitchen girl?

[Tobin]

Just to be clear on what you're looking for, are you looking for major/minor KEYS, or tunes that can be played with a major/happy set of chords but also with some minor/sad chords (though still in the same key)? And are you looking specifically for songs with words, or just music in general (including instrumentals)?

If we're talking about the latter, one example that springs to mind is the fiddle tune Booth Shot Lincoln. It's not a tune that the average person would know, but it's not obscure by any means, since it's a very common tune in Old-Time circles. Some folks like it lively and peppy, with all major chords (I-IV-V, usually A, D, and E). Others like it slowed down and played in a more somber fashion with minor chords in the mix to make it sad (I-IV-V-vi, so the F#m is in the mix).

Here's the band Uncle Earl playing a peppy, all-major-chord version of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDeb9Rx4psU

And here's Fats Kaplin playing a slower, more dramatic version with minor chords behind it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR1tSFTuuE8

And heck, just for fun, here's Tim Gardner playing it with the A part all major, and the B part with minors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ22c-PX4To

[CarlM]

Here is Bill Monroe doing Columbus Stockade Blues in major followed by Doc Watson doing in a minor key. Hope this helps.

[mrmando]

Here's a gospel song that starts as a minor-key dirge and ends as a major-key chorale.

[Bruce Clausen]

Or how about this old chestnut? Verses in minor, chorus and bridge major.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsZASeQU39A

[Bruce Clausen]

A couple more:

I'll be back (Beatles)
Delilah (Tom Jones)

[sblock]

If you play the tune in the MAJOR key of A, it's called "Red-Haired Boy" (in bluegrass circles)
If you play the tune in the MAJOR key of D (or sing it as a song), it's called "Little Beggar Man" (in Irish circles)
If you play the same tune in a MINOR KEY, it's called "Gilderoy," also spelled as "Guilderoy"

There are also major and minor versions of "The Cuckoo's Nest"

[des]

On the basis that traditional music was once popular music (can somebody please explain?) I nominate "I Love Paris" - which everyone knows

Tonalities (not the chord changes) as follows :

C min I Love Paris in the springtime
C min I Love Paris in the fall
C min I Love Paris in the winter - when it drizzles
C min I Love Paris in the summer - when it sizzles
C maj I Love Paris every moment
C maj every moment of the year
C maj I Love Paris, why oh why do I love Paris?
C maj Because my love is there

Sadly Cole Porter's other change from major to minor (Every Time We Say Goodbye) is not mirrored in the tonality at that moment in the song.

[Bruce Clausen]

Sadly Cole Porter's other change from major to minor (Every Time We Say Goodbye) is not mirrored in the tonality at that moment in the song.

Right: the words go "how strange the change from major to minor", with the IV major chord at "major", IV minor at "minor".

[WELSrev]

Soldier's Joy - D / Soldier's Sorrow - Bm

[Simon DS]

Recently I've been learning the harmonic scale in FFcP. I'm going to play a couple of well known tunes in harmonic and see how they sound, strange I imagine, but there must be some that sound good. And good for some technical reason...