Talk:Only Shallow

Composition

The phrase "'Only Shallow' is written in Gm a modal tuning" is gobbledygook. For a start, Western music is composed in a key, not a particular instrument's tuning, if you're going to get into theory. Second, this song's key is clearly G major (Belinda [and the electric bass] sound B naturals throughout the verse G chord parts, not Bb). And third, even if Shields didn't use standard guitar tuning for the song (which is doubtful if you watch the music video) he himself has said that during the long process of producing the album, he often couldn't recall which tunings he used for which songs. Some contributor's swum out beyond their depth. The confusion may stem from the fact that the song begins with the guitar employing I-V power chords (even though the bass is clearly playing B natural), and the vocal melody starts on the fifth, and uses ninths throughout the verse, lending a non-tertiary, ambiguous "feel" to the track. That's still no reason to just string words together to describe it. Better just to say: "'Only Shallow' is written in the key of G . . ." — Preceding unsigned comment added by O0drogue0o (talk • contribs) 12:05, 26 December 2021 (UTC)