{"id":17580,"date":"2018-09-21T11:54:32","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T15:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/?p=17580"},"modified":"2020-09-21T08:21:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T12:21:19","slug":"happy-earth-wind-and-fire-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/2018\/happy-earth-wind-and-fire-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Earth, Wind and Fire Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today is September 21st, the subject of one of the most joyful recordings ever made, which comes with an all-time-great music video.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Gs069dndIYk?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>The song in turn inspired my favorite work of fan art.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HR06yeUPFv\">pic.twitter.com\/HR06yeUPFv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/electrolemon\/status\/778789555751178240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 22, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2014\/09\/19\/349621429\/the-song-that-never-ends-why-earth-wind-fires-september-sustains\">this fascinating NPR story<\/a>, I learned the significance of the date September 21st, which is that there is none. They chose the date because it sounds good. Also:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Using a chord progression written by Earth, Wind &amp; Fire guitarist\u00a0<a title=\"Al McKay\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Al_McKay\">Al McKay<\/a>,\u00a0<a title=\"Allee Willis\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Allee_Willis\">Allee Willis<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a title=\"Maurice White\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Maurice_White\">Maurice White<\/a>\u00a0wrote the song over one month. Willis was originally bothered by the gibberish &#8220;ba-dee-ya&#8221; lyric White used through the song, and begged him to rewrite it: &#8220;I just said, &#8216;What the fuck does &#8216;ba-dee-ya&#8217; mean?&#8217; And he essentially said, &#8216;Who the fuck cares?&#8217; I learned my greatest lesson ever in songwriting from him, which was never let the lyric get in the way of the groove.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And let&#8217;s talk about that chord progression, it&#8217;s an extraordinary one. Here&#8217;s my transcription of the main groove:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noteflight.com\/embed\/a11ef7ac6d3827954343435d3afcebfa86c66453?scale=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"320\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re a guitarist, here&#8217;s how to play it:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/njElTKYvAIo?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>Music-theoretically, &#8220;September&#8221; is less complicated than it looks. It&#8217;s an eight bar loop that repeats throughout the song with not much variation. The first six measures of the loop walk up and down chords that are diatonic to A major, meaning they can all be created by combining the notes in the A major scale.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"20089\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/2018\/happy-earth-wind-and-fire-day\/a-major-scale\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale.png?fit=1255%2C1255&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1255,1255\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"A major scale\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale.png?fit=640%2C640&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-20089\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale-1024x1024.png?resize=640%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale.png?w=1255&amp;ssl=1 1255w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To make any of the chords, start on a scale degree, let&#8217;s say D. Then skip the next scale degree clockwise, in this case E, to land on the following one, F-sharp. Keep going around the circle clockwise, grabbing every other scale degree. If you start on D, you get D, F-sharp, A, and C-sharp, which makes a Dmaj7 chord.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale-Dmaj7-chord.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"20091\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/2018\/happy-earth-wind-and-fire-day\/a-major-scale-dmaj7-chord\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale-Dmaj7-chord.png?fit=1255%2C1255&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1255,1255\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"A major scale &amp;#8211; Dmaj7 chord\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale-Dmaj7-chord.png?fit=640%2C640&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-20091\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale-Dmaj7-chord-1024x1024.png?resize=640%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale-Dmaj7-chord.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale-Dmaj7-chord.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale-Dmaj7-chord.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale-Dmaj7-chord.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-major-scale-Dmaj7-chord.png?w=1255&amp;ssl=1 1255w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you start on C-sharp, you get C-sharp, E, G-sharp, and B, which makes C#m7. If you start on B, you get Bm7, and if you start on F-sharp, you get F#m7. These chords all sound so smooth and logical together because they&#8217;re all produced by the notes in the same major scale. You might not know consciously what the relationship is between them, but you&#8217;ve been hearing major scales all your life, and it&#8217;s a familiar sound.<\/p>\n<p>Except here&#8217;s the interesting thing: the A chord itself never appears in the song. They use just about every chord in the key except for the one that defines it. The other chord that strongly defines a major key is the V chord, which in this case is E7. That chord never appears in &#8220;September&#8221; either. It isn&#8217;t totally clear what key the song is in, really; it could be F-sharp minor or C-sharp minor. The rhythm and melody are unmistakably joyous, but the chords keep you in doubt.<\/p>\n<p>And there&#8217;s another harmonic twist too. So far, I&#8217;ve only been talking about the first six bars of the eight-bar loop. The last two bars introduce something new, a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Slash_chord\">slash chord<\/a>: a G major triad with A in the bass. It has the A root you&#8217;ve been waiting for, except now there&#8217;s a totally different chord on top of it. You could also might spell this chord as A7sus4 (or A9sus4 if you want to get technical.) That suggests the song isn&#8217;t in A major at all, but rather <a href=\"https:\/\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/2010\/scales-and-emotions\/\">A Mixolydian mode<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-Mixolydian-mode-G-over-A.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"20092\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/2018\/happy-earth-wind-and-fire-day\/a-mixolydian-mode-g-over-a\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-Mixolydian-mode-G-over-A.png?fit=1255%2C1255&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1255,1255\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"A Mixolydian mode &amp;#8211; G over A\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-Mixolydian-mode-G-over-A.png?fit=640%2C640&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-20092\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-Mixolydian-mode-G-over-A-1024x1024.png?resize=640%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-Mixolydian-mode-G-over-A.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-Mixolydian-mode-G-over-A.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-Mixolydian-mode-G-over-A.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-Mixolydian-mode-G-over-A.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/A-Mixolydian-mode-G-over-A.png?w=1255&amp;ssl=1 1255w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Major and Mixolydian are almost the same scales, except that the seventh note in the A major scale is G-<em>sharp<\/em>, while the seventh note in A Mixolydian is G <em>natural<\/em>. That small change makes a world of difference in how the scales sound. Mixolydian is bluesier, tougher, and less European-sounding than plain-vanilla major.<\/p>\n<p>You hear plenty of Mixolydian in rock, pop, and dance music, so it&#8217;s still a friendly and familiar sound, but when used in combination with major, it creates a complex mood. Also, the suspension in the A7sus4 never gets released. You expect the D to resolve to C-sharp, and it does, but not as part of the &#8220;home chord&#8221; of A7. Instead, the C-sharp is part of the equally unresolved-feeling Dmaj7 chord at the beginning of the next time around the loop.<\/p>\n<p>All this harmonic ambiguity and unresolved tension helps give &#8220;September&#8221; its depth and sophistication. It&#8217;s a party song, but there&#8217;s some wistfulness tucked away inside that groove. It&#8217;s a lot to think about while you&#8217;re dancing. Anyway, happy September 21st.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is September 21st, the subject of one of the most joyful recordings ever made, which comes with an all-time-great music video. The song in turn inspired my favorite work of fan art. pic.twitter.com\/HR06yeUPFv &mdash; demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) September 22, 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[909,929,924,9,498,635],"tags":[173,2064,1993,1555,275,1559,677],"class_list":["post-17580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-composition","category-dance-music","category-key-musicians","category-music","category-music-theory","category-sampling","tag-dance","tag-demi-adejuwigbe","tag-earth-wind-and-fire","tag-emotion","tag-funk","tag-music-theory","tag-soul","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pAPdE-4zy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17580"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21424,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17580\/revisions\/21424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}