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A piano teacher analyzes BABYMETAL by key. Song 4, Ijime, Dame, Zettai, and others.

A piano teacher analyzes BABYMETAL by key. Song 4, Ijime, Dame, Zettai, and others.
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「A piano teacher analyzes BABYMETAL by key. BABYMETAL DEATH, Megitsune, and more.Here it is.

This time, it’s a continuation of that.

I’d like to provide commentary through to the end of the first album.

Introduction

I’m honored that this article’s take on tonality has sparked interest and been featured on platforms like Twitter and summary sites.

Your love for BABYMETAL just keeps growing deeper, doesn’t it?

Analysis does not mean completely discerning what the composer intends.

Even if something was unintentionally created—made purely by feel—I believe that, upon analysis, it can still be possible to discern certain intended meanings.

A masterpiece withstands analysis.

Please remember that I am creating this analysis article with that in mind.

Also, this is merely analysis—the truly amazing ones are the members of the BABYMETAL team who created it.

I'm just analyzing and having fun.

If analyzing it is enjoyable, that means the piece is a masterpiece.

Analyzing BACH is interesting as well.

Song of Four

C-sharp minor (one of the darkest keys. Brutal,sarcasm; ironyPathétiqueeerie) 4 sharps– E major (brilliant, gentle, and joyful; a noble key) 4 sharps

C-sharp minor and E major are closely related keys, being parallel keys that both have four sharps.

Although they are in minor and major keys, the scales used are basically the same, so it is an easy pair of keys to move between.

By the way, the order in which sharps and flats increase is fixed.

They increase in that order.

So the parallel key uses the same scale, then.

Because they use the same key signature (sharps or flats).

In my impression, the more sharps there are, the more it feels like things go crazy, and the more flats there are, the heavier and more sinking it feels.

When there are six sharps and when there are six flats, they correspond to the same pitches on the keyboard.

I’ll explain the rest in Nightmare Rondo.

Now, returning to closely related keys with four sharps.

Since there are four sharps, it's nicely out of tune.

You can’t help wanting to snap back, “A ‘Song of Four’ in metal? This isn’t a kids’ show song!”

That's crazy (lol).

Yonyon!

Four sharps

Have you noticed already?

This is!

It's interesting, isn't it!

You're multiplying by 4!

punI see! Please note, this is just my own observation and not based on an interview with the composer.

This is BLACK BABYMETAL.

It's also in the lyrics.

Not “shi” as in death, but the number 4.

Four of Joy.

The ominousness in Japanese associated with the number 4 (BLACK), the playful nature of wordplay (Japanese), and the fun and cuteness of the sound yon (BABYMETAL).

It might be the first step toward expanding BABYMETAL overseas.

Woo-ki Woo-ki★Midnight

C-sharp minor (one of the darkest keys: cruel, ironic, tragic,eerie♯4 (four sharps) – E major (brilliant,Gentle and delightful(In a noble key) with four sharps

You get it already, right?

It’s in the same key as “Song 4.”

On top of that, although I didn’t touch on it in “Song 4,” C-sharp minor is the same key as the darker part of “Ii ne!,” and E major is the same key as the chorus of “Gimme Chocolate!!.”

And when it comes to guitar tuning, it’s a song that’s played in half-step-down tuning rather than standard tuning, right?

At that point, it gives quite a dark impression.

This dark, mad-sounding C-sharp minor says, “Burning the midnight oil—now the real show begins!”

You end up saying things like that; at night your spirits get strangely high, and I think it makes it easier to bring out that kind of wicked, crazy vibe.

Because it's 'U-ki U-ki★Midnight.'

Is being able to pull off that sparkling E major vibe because you’re young? Because you’re cute? Maybe it’s both.

But I think everyone would agree that inserting a section in E major is what gives it that distinctive BABYMETAL feel.

This isn’t about key/tonality, but I’ll note the parts that surprised me when I actually tried singing it.

The melody of this song is like that of an instrumental piece.That's what it is.

You really notice it when you try singing it—the leaps between notes are frequent, and it’s very difficult.

Because in many places the melody is made up of chord tones.

That's why it's a melody where mistakes are clearly noticeable.

And it ends up being a song where singing properly feels like a given and effort goes unrewarded.

What you might call, in classical terms,MozartHe is the type of composer whose mistakes in notes are immediately obvious.

Similarly, if you go off-key in this “U-ki U-ki★Midnight,” it’ll be obvious right away.

It sounds like a song that tests Su-metal’s sense of pitch.

I feel like BABYMETAL’s melodies often have a lot of wide interval jumps overall.

This is just my impression.

Catch me if you can

Minor key (very dark and melancholic, yet with a quiet sense of expectationPatient hope as wellHint) 2 sharps– D major (noble and ornate, grand and religious; especially suited to joy. Also used for lively fanfares) 2 sharps

It’s the last of the five songs sandwiched between “Akatsuki” and “Nightmare Rondo.”

I feel that arranging the setlist so that songs highlighting or introducing the cuteness of SU-METAL and BLACK BABYMETAL are interleaved with SU-METAL’s solo songs makes it very easy to understand.

When it switched from Akatsuki to the Begging Operation, you suddenly threw us into a world of terror, didn’t you? (lol)

But this “Catch me if you can” is like a final bit of fun before the next piece, “Nightmare Rondo.” It’s a bewitching song that casts a spell on you so you won’t even suspect that a nightmare is coming next.

Not the calm before the storm, but the fun before the nightmare.Something like that, I suppose.

After this song, I’m going to push you down again (lol).

This key of D major is used to express the “joy” in the set of emotions known as kidoairaku.

BeethovenIt’s in the key of “Ode to Joy.”

Across the two albums, there’s no other piece in D major.

Because D major is just so un-metal-like (lol).

Because I was trying to express it in a tone of forward-looking joy.

Were they trying to capture the purity of a children’s game—“tag”?

I strongly feel the BABYMETAL team’s spirit of challenge—starting with the composer—in their attempt to do metal in D major.

Rondo of Nightmares

B minor (BerliozA languid toneE-flat minor (one of the darkest, most gloomy keys. According to Schumann, it is called) ♯6a tone filled with mysterious horror) ♭ six

BachDid you know there is a two-volume series of compositions called The Well-Tempered Clavier?

Each volume contains 24 pieces, comprising all the major and minor keys whose tonics correspond to the white and black keys on the piano.

A remarkable collection of pieces that can supposedly be played in all keys.

I'm working on volume 2 right now, and by chance it's in the same key as Nightmare Rondo.

On top of having many key signatures, even when it modulates there are numerous accidentals, with lots of double sharps and double flats, making it difficult; the harmony also becomes complex, so it’s very challenging.

This piece is in D-sharp minor (or E-flat minor) as the tonic, but since they are the same pitch, it will be performed the same way regardless of which key it’s written in.

No matter which key you write it in, the number of accidentals is the same.

Therefore, when I tried to notate this piece, I was very torn about which key to write it in.

Also, since the key signature is the same,A key in which you can feel both the crazed quality characteristic of sharp keys and the deeply sinking sensation characteristic of flat keys, leaving you unable to say it’s either, making you feel ungrounded and unable to find a place to belong.It is.

Yes, it’s exactly the tone that feels like the word “nightmare” fits—like I’ve wandered into a maze I can’t escape.

I think the word “maze” comes to mind when I see the “rondeau” in this piece.

“輪舞曲” is read as “rondo,” right?

A rondo is a musical form, typically structured as ABACA, where the A section recurs with contrasting sections in between.

While repeating itself, it keeps circling the same place with no exit in sight—a nightmare. That’s the kind of atmosphere this key evokes.

By the way, although this piece ends without any way out in sight, in Bach’s case it concludes with a Picardy cadence (ending in the major), so sublimation—or salvation—arrives.

I won’t go into it much this time, but beyond the mode there are many musical elements that evoke “nightmares” and “rondo,” so it’s interesting to analyze them.

Headbanger!!

D minor (anxiety, sorrow and joy, solemnity, the sublime. According to Schumann,A sovereign with immense power)♭ one

Let's all headbang together and soak up that massive energy!

It's practically saying, 'D minor,' isn't it?

It's my first time in D minor.

With only one flat in the key signature, it’s an unusually simple, easy-to-understand, and approachable key.

While the tonality feels anxious, once it gains momentum, it seems to blow the anxiety straight away without taking difficult detours.

Something like a straight fastball right down the middle!It is.

Their hits are hard, but if you charge in with big energy, there’s nothing to fear—when everyone crosses together, it’s not scary. That’s the vibe.

The “D” in “D minor” corresponds to the note “Re” in the do-re-mi system.

“Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do” in Japanese corresponds to the old Japanese syllabic names “Ha Ni Ho He To I Ro Ha.”

By the way, the Japanese national anthem starts with “ni” and ends with “ni.”

Because it is based on the traditional Japanese gagaku modes, it does not correspond exactly to D minor, but the fact that it somehow feels that way—perhaps that’s because I’m Japanese.

What I feel even more strongly than that is the presence of this song.

Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S4f0lgcUng

How is it?/How about it?

Don’t you feel anything?

I even feel as if there’s a fate we can’t cut ties with or escape from.

Bullying: No. Absolutely not.

C-sharp minor (the mostgloomy toneOne of them. Brutal, ironic, pathetic, eerie) #4 types

And continuing on, here comes the fourth piece in C-sharp minor.

In this album, the only key that appears this frequently is C-sharp minor.

I think they chose C-sharp minor (enharmonic D-flat minor) as the key to represent BABYMETAL.

Aside from the temporary key change in the chorus (“(Ijime, dame, ijime, dame) it’s uncool—”) and the key change in the guitar solo section,

It is consistently in C-sharp minor.

In a single key, at this length, without boring the listenerThat's where I feel the greatness of this song.

It gives me the impression that, in many ways, it’s a song truly fitting for the final track of an album.

It may not be related to the key, but by expressing the “bright” side of BABYMETAL with its anti-bullying theme, ‘Ijime, Dame, Zettai’ might leave the impression of being one of BABYMETAL’s signature songs.

The first album is finished.

To summarize broadly: it begins with METAL, then introduces BABYMETAL, Su-metal’s character, and BLACK BABYMETAL, and finally, with the key of C-sharp minor in “Ijime, Dame, Zettai” leaving a strong impression of METAL—no, of BABYMETAL—the album comes to a close.

So, what kind of structure does the second album have?

Please look forward to the next article.