The circle of fifths is a deceptively simple diagram that lays out every musical note, key, three-note chord and scale, and charts the relationship between them. A bit like a musical version of the ...

This is our second story in our series on the characteristics of musical keys. We started with the “people’s key,” C major. From there it’s an easy skip to D, the root of today’s subject, the “saddest ...

David Hajdu knows music. As the biographer of Billy Strayhorn (“Lush Life”) and chronicler of both pop (“Love for Sale”) and folk music scenes (“Positively 4th Street”), he has an intimate and ...

Need a challenge? Take your favorite happy song and type the title into YouTube, followed by “in a minor key.” You’ve likely had this distinction drilled into your head by popular music and movies: ...

Daniel Levitin, in his popular bestseller entitled This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession from 2006, characterizes the perception of the minor chord, which lowers the third of a ...

Over the course of four albums and innumerable appearances inside the heads of characters on The O.C., the Seattle-based quartet Death Cab for Cutie has established itself as the go-to band for a ...

Beyoncé's hypnotic new single, "Break My Soul," has topped the Billboard Hot 100, and if pandemic restrictions continue relaxing, you'll soon experience this ebullient '90s-inspired house jam on a ...