How Can a Song In a Major Key Sound Sad?

H

HB_Beats

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What's up, guys. I've come upon a discovery that baffled me. I'm currently remaking the instrumental for Drake's "My Side" and after finding the key of the song which is in A Major, I said to myself, "How?"



If you are not familiar with the song, I'll include it in the thread but the song is played in A Major, has a bunch of really complex 7th inverse chords and now I'm wondering why it sounds so sad. Is it because the chord progression ends with a minor chord (I don't know if it does or not)? Does anyone know the mystery to this?
 
There are still minor chords in a major scale, some times you might choose to use more than other times. Could make a major scale progression using only 1 or 2 major chords if you really wanted to. The mood is determined by the chord progression in most cases not the scale. People just say happy=major sad=minor because its the most basic way of understanding it. its not always true.

Thats just a general statement, not specific to this song.
 
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Yumid said:
There are still minor chords in a major scale, some times you might choose to use more than other times. Could make a major scale progression using only 1 or 2 major chords if you really wanted to. The mood is determined by the chord progression in most cases not the scale. People just say happy=major sad=minor because its the most basic way of understanding it. its not always true.

Thats just a general statement, not specific to this song.
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Yes, but I agree to a certain point. you can make moody tracks using major scale? of course. You can also make happy/energetic songs using minor.

But the structure of major favor "happier" songs and so the minor for the "moody" ones. It will really depend on what you want to achieve. For a darker song, I prefer using the harmonic minor or even some exotic ones like the hungarian minor. For moody melodic ones, I prefer using melodic minor. for happy/energetic, i prefer using majors.
 
I find major 7th chords can be quite sad sounding.
Just for point of interest, Adele's 'Someone Like You' is a absolutely bog standard major chord sequence (apart from one chord which is second inversion) and I think we all know that's a pretty sad song.
 
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