Bending the Rules

Once you have the Key Structure firmly embedded in your musical consciousness you can explore different ways of using the structure with a bit of rule breaking - like most musical 'rules' the key structure is there to help navigate your way about - it is not set in stone ( not since mediaeval times anyway ! )

Soul - Jazz - Blues :- Majoring the Minors

An excellent example of this songwriting technique can be found in the Otis Redding classic 'Sitting on the Dock of a Bay'
This song is in the key of G Major
[ Key of G = 3 Majors ~ G - C - D + 3 Minors ~ Em - Am - Bm ]
All these chords are used to make up the tune except that all the Minor chords have been 'Majored'
i.e. E minor becomes E Major etc.
The melody uses the scale of G Major - If you don't know this tune try to get hold of a copy and learn to sing ( or play ) the melody. Then try out the first four bars of the tune over these chords : -
| G / / / | Bm7 / / / | C / / / | Am / / / |
All these chords are strictly in the Key Structure of G Major and the melody sounds, technically, fine over them.

Now try the same melody over the actual chords from the song :-
| G / / / | B7 / / / | C / / / | A / / / |
With the minor chords 'Majored' you get a harder edged soulful effect making the same melody sound more dynamic.
In the chorus an E sus 2 chord is used as a substitute for an E minor.
At the end of the chorus an E Major chord is used in place of an E minor.
So we get a song which uses none of the minor chords in the key but still manages to fit into the notion of the Key Structure of G Major.

Not all the minors would have to be Majored as they are in this particular song - quite often just one of them might be - Try ( this time in the Key of C Major ) :

| C / / / | F / / / | A7 / / / | Dm / / / |

Or : - | C / / / | E7 / / / | Am / / / | F / / / |

Rulebend 2 - Minoring a Major

This device was commonly used by the Beatles [ you'll find it in Oasis songs as well ]

In the Key of C Major - 3 chord trick = C - F - G ; The only chord that can be Minored is the second chord of the 3 chord trick - i.e. F in the key of C.

Try the following sequence : - | C / / / | F / / / | Fm / / / | C / / / |
It is quite often used like this with the minor following on from the Major [ It would be used sparingly - maybe just once in a song ]
Or try this - maybe as an ending : -
| C / / / | G / / / | Fm / / / | Cmaj7 / / / |

Other Chords

Other chords that are not in the Key Structure could be added to an otherwise structured piece.
As long as they're used sparingly they could be treated as an ' accidental ' [ the term usually used for melody notes that aren't in the scale ] and you would have to take note of the fact that the music has gone out of the Key Structure for , say , one bar.
This is not the same as a ' modulation ' which involves moving through changes to a new Key or a ' key change ' which is going directly to a new Key.

In this sequence in the key of C Major the 'accidental' is the Ab in the 2nd bar : -
| C / / / | Ab / / / | F / / / | G / / / |

Other chords may come into songs as part of a different Structure - see the following lessons.
You can change 'Structures' within a song without changing Key - for instance a C major Structure section followed by a C minor Structure section - both rooted on C .

Exercise

Learn a load of old pop songs - you don't have to like them just observe how the chords are put together!