KEYS & SCALES

Lesson 1: Simple minor and major keys rule!

Eurovision’s music has two main goals: immediate appeal, and clear emotional signalling. So, regardless of country of origin, tonalities are almost always either ‘happy’ and major, or ‘sad’ and minor. In fact, over 60% of the finalists from 2010-19 used only the major or natural minor scales. Another 26% used minor with some variations. Minor key songs occasionally make use of the harmonic minor scale. More rare though are songs entirely in harmonic minor, or the ‘exotic’ scales of Phrygian, Phrygian Dominant, Dorian, Mixolydian or other modes. They almost always make some appearance (particularly in entries from Greece, Macedonia and Spain) but are collectively only found in about 5% of finalists in the last 10 years.

Often a mood switch from sad to happy is accomplished by using the ‘relative’ major scale which shares the same notes. For example, C major (C D E F G A B) and A minor (A B C D E F G) share the same notes and can create a ‘sad’ verse in A minor and a ‘happy’ chorus in C major. Just start on a different root note.

If there ever was a ‘Eurovision scale’, it’s the natural minor scale (aka Aeolian mode), which we’ve shown here in A, representing the comfortable range for male and female vocalists. Use these as starting points to write your own Euro-pop style melodies. C major is the ‘happy’ relative major alternative. The other shapes are more experimental options.