Maiden album with the most variety of keys the songs are written in?

N

naranja

Ancient Mariner
I was just thinking... Virtual XI is quite interesting in the varied amount of keys each song is in.

From what I can tell-

Futureal E
Angel Gambler A
Lightning Strikes B
Clansman A
When Two Worlds B
Educated Fool E
Stranger G#
Como D


Especially when some albums like AMOLAD is nearly all in E.


That's all, that's the thread. Any better examples of varied keys for a Maiden album?
 
naranja said:
some albums like AMOLAD is nearly all in E.
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E minor has a certain appeal to musicians of the guitar-playing persuasion, since E minor pentatonic can be played in the open position ... :innocent:
Kalata said:
So VXI is a creative album after all. :p
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MindRuler said:
VXI is indeed quite diverse.
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VXI is a bloody masterpiece - if the rest of the world can't see that, it's their loss isn't it? ::)

#vxifansoftheworldunite

Also, @naranja, thanks for pointing this out ;)
 
MindRuler said:
VXI is indeed quite diverse.
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Yep:

Futureal - pure 80's melodic Maiden rocker.
Angel And Gambler - a 70's prog rock like.
Lightning - hard rock from the 90's.
Clansman - true Maiden epic with acoustics, Celtic melodies and calm parts.
Worlds Collide - classic Maiden feel and trademark gallop.
Educated Fool - mid-tempo, heavy and with choir-esque chorus.
Eyes Of A Stranger - a mix of the 90's and the 80's, two halves.
Como Estais Amigos - a ballad.
Black Abyss Babe said:
E minor has a certain appeal to musicians of the guitar-playing persuasion, since E minor pentatonic can be played in the open position ...
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:ok:. Each band has its own preferred approach, the most important thing is to be good and interesting.
 
Seventh Son has always struck me as an album with a lot of key changes, and using keys in a creative way, even if the main key, a lot of times, is still E minor. For me these key changes is what gives Seventh Son such an epic feel, something that they havent done in the same way neither before or after.

Moonchild - E minor, B Frygian bridge, Am solo.
Infinite Dreams - Mostly E minor, 1.42 shifts to Gm and back to Em, back and forth, bridge 4.22 in F#m, outro again shifts between Em and Gm
Can I Play With Madness - D mixolydian, B minor chorus, bridge starts in Em, shifts to Gm, same with solo.
The Evil That Men Do - Probably the safest one key-wise, mostly E minor, solo in F#m
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son - First half in Em, soft bridge shifts between the key of Em and Cm, Solo in F# Frygian, lick in F#m, next solo in C# Frygian, F# Frygian going to F#m for the outro
The Prophecy - All over the place. Start in Am. Verse in Dm, 2nd half in Em, then back to Am, then to Ebm for the chorus. We go to Em for the instrumental, which then halfway changes to Dm. Solo half is Dm, then half in Am, then back to Dm for the verse, and repeat the previous structure. The outro is all of a sudden in Dm
The Clairvoyant - Starts in D major. Verses and chorus in D minor. Solo in E major, for a bit E mixolydian, then verse and chorus repeats, before they do the Seventh So trick (something they only really did on this album). They move the chorus down two semitones, in this song, from Dm to Cm after half of the last chorus. Outro in D major, same as intro.
Only The Good Die Young - Starts in Em. verse in Em. Chorus repeats the trick from the previous song, shifts down two semitones to Dm. Then, after half of the chorus, it moves to Fm. Solo 1 in F# Frygian. Bass solo, riff, and verse in Em, before repeating chorus in Dm, Fm, and solo 2 in F# frygian. The first part of the rock outro is in F#, while the second part is in Em. The outro is again in Em.
 
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Eddieson said:
Seventh Son has always struck me as an album with a lot of key changes, and using keys in a creative way, even if the main key, a lot of times, is still E minor. For me these key changes is what gives Seventh Son such an epic feel, something that they havent done in the same way neither before or after.

Moonchild - E minor, B Frygian bridge, Am solo.
Infinite Dreams - Mostly E minor, 1.42 shifts to Gm and back to Em, back and forth, bridge 4.22 in F#m, outro again shifts between Em and Gm
Can I Play With Madness - D mixolydian, B minor chorus, bridge starts in Em, shifts to Gm, same with solo.
The Evil That Men Do - Probably the safest one key-wise, mostly E minor, solo in F#m
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son - First half in Em, soft bridge shifts between the key of Em and Cm, Solo in F# Frygian, lick in F#m, next solo in C# Frygian, F# Frygian going to F#m for the outro
The Prophecy - All over the place. Start in Am. Verse in Dm, 2nd half in Em, then back to Am, then to Ebm for the chorus. We go to Em for the instrumental, which then halfway changes to Dm. Solo half is Dm, then half in Am, then back to Dm for the verse, and repeat the previous structure. The outro is all of a sudden in Dm
The Clairvoyant - Starts in D major. Verses and chorus in D minor. Solo in E major, for a bit E mixolydian, then verse and chorus repeats, before they do the Seventh So trick (something they only really did on this album). They move the chorus down two semitones, in this song, from Dm to Cm after half of the last chorus. Outro in D major, same as intro.
Only The Good Die Young - Starts in Em. verse in Em. Chorus repeats the trick from the previous song, shifts down two semitones to Dm. Then, after half of the chorus, it moves to Fm. Solo 1 in F# Frygian. Bass solo, riff, and verse in Em, before repeating chorus in Dm, Fm, and solo 2 in F# frygian. The first part of the rock outro is in F#, while the second part is in Em. The outro is again in Em.
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It's their greatest album too
 
Kalata said:
So VXI is a creative album after all. :p
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Well listening to stuff like the educated fool, it does just keep going E C G D over and over or E G C D. Would have been nice to at least do the traditional key change to F# for a solo or something
 
Somewhere in time

CSIT E
Wasted E
Sea E
Heaven E
TLOTLDR E
SIASL E
Deja F
Alex E


Quite uniform (if this is accurate), and yes this has no impact on song quality as this album is of course better than Virtual XI.

Deja Vu, like Don't look to the eyes of a stranger is in a very odd key for Maiden, F and Stranger is in G#

I bet there isn't a Maiden album with less songs in E than VXI
 
naranja said:
I bet there isn't a Maiden album with less songs in E than VXI
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I think you're right about that.

Piece of Mind has a fair amount of variety. Flight of Icarus and Sun and Steel are predominantly in F#. Revelations and Still Life are mostly in A. Where Eagles Dare, Die With Your Boots On, The Trooper, and Quest for Fire are primarily in E. To Tame A Land goes through a number of key changes (beginning in B, and with various sections in E, D and A).
 
naranja said:
CSIT E
Wasted E
Sea E
Heaven E
TLOTLDR E
SIASL E
Deja F
Alex E
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A few of those aren't completely in the one key throughout the whole song, though. Off the top of my head, CSiT goes to D for Dave's solo then to B for the final section of Adrian's, much of the second half of Alexander is in A (it's probably something more exotic than A minor but I can't think of what right now) and Heaven Can Wait is mostly in D, with the solos in E.

A few of us went through this a little while back, here.
 
naranja said:
Somewhere in time

CSIT E
Wasted E
Sea E
Heaven E
TLOTLDR E
SIASL E
Deja F
Alex E


Quite uniform (if this is accurate), and yes this has no impact on song quality as this album is of course better than Virtual XI.

Deja Vu, like Don't look to the eyes of a stranger is in a very odd key for Maiden, F and Stranger is in G#

I bet there isn't a Maiden album with less songs in E than VXI
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HCW is not in E, it starts in A (intro + main riff 1), modulates to E (main riff 2), the verse is in D Mixolydian ('Can't understand what is happening to me'), then the pre-chorus ('I can't believe that really my time has come') is Bb to C (they raise the chord one step at a time to create tension which the chorus solves, Bb here works as a secondary dominant), and the chorus is in D Mixolydian again with the third section ('Heaven can wait 'til another day') in F to G.

It goes to E only for the main riff and the solos and the 'Take my hand' chorus, which also modulates in A minor ('Eternal youth', etc.).

So I'd say it's in D Mixolydian. The solo and the main riff at the end both feel like 'raising' from the well-established main key.

Same for TLOTLDR, it has several modulations (the verse and the chorus are in D- and the pre-chorus in E- and F#-).
 
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