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Article: The death of the key change

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Comments

  • Apart from being quite a mindblowing and suuuuper fresh production when it came out, the chorus is an elegant major third down from the verse. Crafty guys, they were.

  • I’ve seen the word mentioned a couple times, so I have to give the reminder that there is no such thing as cheesy. In music, there is good and bad, there is no “cheesy”, which suggests something you secretly want to like but can’t because it’s “in bad taste.” Pfft. You either like something or you don’t. No cheesy, no ‘guilty’ pleasures.

  • How do you know a key change is a key change? What if it’s a mode change with some incorrect notes?

  • @ervin said:
    We are progressing nicely toward the basic geriatric position of "everything used to be better (when we were young)"

    Exactement!

    I get the desire to raise the pitchforks at the infidels who make All the Bad Music™, but who the f--- cares about the Billboard chart? It is even less reflective of pop culture than the Academy Awards. There was a weird moment when the charts indeed might have said something about the songs people were listening to, but that's a long time ago. I'd be more interested in seeing what kind of pop songs dominated the charts after the introduction of the Walkman. The Top 10 have almost always been engineered to be there, with the weird exception that just bubbles up naturally.

    Also, non-musicians don't really notice key changes. Nobody who loves Van Halen in passing recognizes the band dropping into E when it's time for Eddie to shred.

  • @ervin said:
    We are progressing nicely toward the basic geriatric position of "everything used to be better (when we were young)"

    It is a myth that "everything used to be better (when we were young)" is a basic geriatric position.

    Some things actually were better.

  • edited December 2022

    The corollary is: If you don't like /fill-in-the-blank/, just wait twenty years.

  • @u0421793 said:
    How do you know a key change is a key change? What if it’s a mode change with some incorrect notes?

    A key change sounds like the same song that shifted into a different great. Highlighting a mode sounds like spice.

    Your essentially changing modes whenever you play through a common chord progression, but pop music tends to avoid the note or notes which distinguish the mode, or use them only as passing tones, whereas jazz as an example, highlight them.

    But if you’re meaning/ asking, What if you’re playing the wrong notes and the wrong notes happen to be the correct notes to another mode, than I guess you can call that a key change if the subsequent chords follow the new tonal center.

    I feel an incredible amount of trepidation posting this comment, because I fear being wrong and sounding like an idiot, but I’m trying to improve and the AB forum has been my safe space for years.
    But I’m more so reluctant to post because you’re sense of humor is high-brow, which leads me to say that now I know how it feels for other people when they cannot tell whether or not I’m being serious. So which one isn’t it?

  • There is no cheesy but there is schmaltzy?

  • Johnny Cash changes key four times in one song - ‘I walk the line’.

  • edited December 2022

    @robosardine said:
    Johnny Cash changes key four times in one song - ‘I walk the line’.

    yeah that's a good one

    I'm still trying to figure out how to find good bridges for my songs. A little key change has some good effect sometimes, but it's always kind of trial and error. I'd wish I had a better understanding of theory.

  • McDMcD
    edited December 2022

    A key change can transport the listener to another plane. Used judiciously it can produce the finer quality cheeses… which apparently do NOT exist.

    The organist at Baseball Games use them to create suspense with a 4 note pattern that adds upward key changes in 1/2 steps as the tension mounts.. That’s an American classic:

    https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/6a3e94a0-16b4-4410-807b-8b0609eda9ec.fdd5ed51f64f7a46430785f216d664a4.jpeg

    You can also key change downward to imply going down the drain… and that ain’t cheese. But it might have been yesterday.

    Seriously, in my opinion loop based pop music is a big reason many songs have no key change. To do a key change on a loop you need the have pitch shift without changing the BPM settings, The hardware can support that now so maybe key changes will come back into vogue as “producers” use them to get attention for their skills.

  • edited December 2022

    I think it’s mostly the trend. It was a thing at some point to make the semi tone key change to lift a song between two last choruses. I think it’s much more fun to glue different songs together, we’ve started to do that in my current band, because there’s three writers in it and it’s just great to escape the usual, old and sweaty 3-4 minute song format.

    Of course some rules of harmony need not to be broken but at times throwing 2 quite different tracks together can be very refreshing. The last example that he gave was exactly that, two guys had two ideas in different keys and glued them together. I wouldn’t call it genius, that’s what people do when they not only like playing music but also playing with music.

    Following trends in number one singles can be misleading though and definitely not representative of popular music as a whole. Still, quite an interesting research.

    I’m not sure how much it’s has to do with computers though. If at all, computers should be the gateways to creative pitch shifting and tempo changes, it’s so easily done with the right software and in the right hands.

    It is definitely trickier to do it dry while just playing and instrument. I sometimes try to take the chorus somewhere unusual and just find it too tricky to try all the possible shifts to find the right one. It’s so much easier on the computer, especially with midi.

    Anyway…thanks for sharing.

  • @robosardine said:
    Johnny Cash changes key four times in one song - ‘I walk the line’.

    That’s a great example. I thought it was more than four. Anyway, I love it when he goes real low.

  • During the mid-20th century, most pop songs had two key changes every chorus: one into the bridge, and another coming out of the bridge. Some of these are really slick:

  • As it's a theme for me at the moment (how to create bridges) I've just read this article from the Acoustic Guitar magazine a few days ago and even downloaded the referring video and PDF.

  • @mojozart said:
    Banjo players abhor key changes even more than I do, by the way.

    Totally! Have you ever tried changing a capo mid song?

  • @oat_phipps said:
    I’ve seen the word mentioned a couple times, so I have to give the reminder that there is no such thing as cheesy.

    Sorry to see you're wrong.
    "Stevie Wonder: I just called to say I love you".
    That was easy.

    @Simon said:

    @ervin said:
    We are progressing nicely toward the basic geriatric position of "everything used to be better (when we were young)"

    It is a myth that "everything used to be better (when we were young)" is a basic geriatric position.

    Some things actually were better.

    You do realize that's not a counter-argument? 🤷

  • @u0421793 said:
    How do you know a key change is a key change? What if it’s a mode change with some incorrect notes?

    When it's actually announced in the lyrics... :) ;)

  • @ervin said:

    @oat_phipps said:
    I’ve seen the word mentioned a couple times, so I have to give the reminder that there is no such thing as cheesy.

    Sorry to see you're wrong.
    "Stevie Wonder: I just called to say I love you".
    That was easy.

    Sorry as well to be at odds with you, especially because this is a major sticking point worth arguing to me.

    ….just woke up, still too tired to argue. At least agree that there’s no such thing as ‘guilty pleasures’ and we can truce.

  • @mojozart said:

    Banjo players abhor key changes even more than I do, by the way.

    I expect not as much as harmonica players!

  • @oat_phipps said:

    @ervin said:

    @oat_phipps said:
    I’ve seen the word mentioned a couple times, so I have to give the reminder that there is no such thing as cheesy.

    Sorry to see you're wrong.
    "Stevie Wonder: I just called to say I love you".
    That was easy.

    At least agree that there’s no such thing as ‘guilty pleasures’ and we can truce.

    Not in music, there isn't. I absolutely agree with you. Truce it is.

    [I mean, i think Britney Spears' "Hit me baby one more time" is (still) an absolutely cool, well-written pop song, so who am I to disagree?]

  • Some pop songs are like a backstage head job from an enthusiastic groupie while your spouse is waiting at home…

    I feel kinda sorry for anyone who’s never experienced such guilty pleasures.

  • @richardyot said:
    In the right context a key change can be amazing, just by creating something unexpected and emotional. I agree that the truck driver's half-step is really cliché though.

    My favourite key change of all time: ---- descending chord sequence ----- Oh look out! ------ She Came In Through The Bathroom Window 🎇

    It gives me the shivers every time. And it was competely accidental because in the original running order Her Majesty was meant to be in between those two songs, they were spliced together later.

    That whole sequence on that album is so fantastic. I saw Paul a few years ago live and he did it all and I about melted in my seat from emotion

  • @oat_phipps said:
    My favorite song I’ve ever written takes it up a half step for the guitar solo, then back down a full step (to a half step down from the original key). It’s very effective. The last chorus sits a little lower and feels more like a relaxed, coasting outro after the bridge/solo climax.

    I can go on all day about key changes, they’re simply fantastic when done right.

    Now I want to hear the song…

  • @ervin said:
    [I mean, i think Britney Spears' "Hit me baby one more time" is (still) an absolutely cool, well-written pop song, so who am I to disagree?]

    It's a great song. I also like (You Drive Me) Crazy, and Poker Face and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, Can't Stop The Feeling by Justin Timberlake, Good 4 U by Olivia Rodrigo, and everything ABBA ever wrote. 👍

  • @Fingolfinzz said:

    @richardyot said:
    In the right context a key change can be amazing, just by creating something unexpected and emotional. I agree that the truck driver's half-step is really cliché though.

    My favourite key change of all time: ---- descending chord sequence ----- Oh look out! ------ She Came In Through The Bathroom Window 🎇

    It gives me the shivers every time. And it was competely accidental because in the original running order Her Majesty was meant to be in between those two songs, they were spliced together later.

    That whole sequence on that album is so fantastic. I saw Paul a few years ago live and he did it all and I about melted in my seat from emotion

    Best B-side on any album ever.

  • @richardyot said:

    @ervin said:
    [I mean, i think Britney Spears' "Hit me baby one more time" is (still) an absolutely cool, well-written pop song, so who am I to disagree?]

    It's a great song. I also like (You Drive Me) Crazy, and Poker Face and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, Can't Stop The Feeling by Justin Timberlake, Good 4 U by Olivia Rodrigo, and everything ABBA ever wrote. 👍

    The taste of a real gentleman right there. 👌

    ABBA is a real mystery, and not just the music - being a linguist I can't stop marveling at how Björn, a non-native speaker of English was able to write those lyrics.

  • edited December 2022

    Just recorded this as proof of concept. I’m not sure how many key changes there are but I did my best to make it worth a listen. I’ve done it so many times I think it’s barely noticeable 😂

    https://on.soundcloud.com/fEMGg

  • @supadom said:
    Just recorded this as proof of concept. I’m not sure how many key changes there are but I did my best to make it worth a listen. I’ve done it so many times I think it’s barely noticeable 😂

    https://on.soundcloud.com/fEMGg

    I liked the harmonies! The gradual change into chipmunk voice was funny, but I enjoyed it. Nice tune!

  • As if on cue, :)

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