Depeche Mode Chord Theory

Depeche Mode were one of the British bands that emerged in the 1981-82 synth-pop explosion, initially gaining popularity as a Vince Clarke-led group. Their debut album Speak & Spell has a happy, light sound, but after Vince Clarke’s sudden departure Martin Gore took over as the primary songwriter. With Gore in charge of songwriting and composing, Depeche Mode’s music started to explore darker themes and chord progressions.

A big part of Martin Gore’s songwriting style is using minor chords and keys as well as swapping chords that would usually be major chords with minor chords. This is a big part of the Depeche Mode sound and is complemented by their analog synth and digital sampler-based productions.

Depeche Mode have had a huge influence on many modern bands, including Nine Inch Nails, whose debut album Pretty Hate Machine was spurned on by seeing Depeche Mode on the Black Celebration tour; Chvrches, whose new album was inspired by Depeche Mode, The Cure and Brian Eno; Deftones, who have covered To Have and to Hold and Sweetest Perfection; and Arcade Fire, who initially described The Suburbs as “Depeche Mode meets Neil Young”.

This article focuses solely on Depeche Mode’s songwriting, looking at seven Depeche Mode songs and analysing the music theory behind their chord progressions. I’ll also look at how they craft their melodies to fit in with their more unusual chord progressions.

This article can be viewed with either accompanying music notation or MIDI piano roll diagrams.

NOTATION MIDI

Music Theory: Roman Numerals and Minor Keys

In music theory, Roman numerals can be used to represent chords independent of which key they are being played in. The I chord represents the root note, the II chord represents the chord built from the second interval, the III represents the third diatonic chord, and so on. A C | Dm | Em | F chord progression could be written as I | IIm | IIIm | IV.

Writing chord progressions in Roman numerals is useful for music theory analysis because it decouples the chord progression from the key. For example, the popular I–V–VIm–IV progression will have the same theory behind it whether it’s played in the key of C, the key of A♭ or the key of F♯. Roman numerals make it clear where different songs use the same chord progressions, even if they’re in different keys.

Here’s an example: a I | VIm | IV (or one six four) progression in the key of C is C | Am | F. In the key of G that progression is G | Em | C and in the key of E♭ it’s E♭ | Cm | Ab. Although these progressions will sound slightly different as they’re in different keys, the mood they evoke and the music theory behind each of them is the same. Genres like blues and rock n’ roll almost exclusively use the I | IV | V chord progression, changing keys to suit the song or vocalist.

Here are the all the Roman numeral chords in the key of C major:

Depeche Mode like to compose in minor keys; if you’ve listened to any of their post-Speak and Spell albums then this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Much of their music is moody and bleak and minor keys naturally have that character. Below I’ve written all the diatonic chords in the key of C minor key with their roman numerals. A Im | ♭III progression in Cm is Cm | E♭ and a IVm | ♭VII progression in Cm is Fm | B♭.

Things get interesting when you start borrowing chords from outside of these diatonic keys. One of Martin Gore’s common approaches to songwriting is write in a minor key and swap the major chords in that key with minor chords. When writing in the key of C minor the E♭ could be swapped with an E♭m chord, or the A♭ with an A♭m chord. This “turn every chord into a minor chord” approach is one of the secret weapons behind Depeche Mode’s signature sound and what I’ll explore in these next seven examples from Depeche Mode’s discography.

Halo

Let’s start by looking at Halo from Depeche Mode’s 1990 album Violator. Halo is built around a repeating bassline that starts in the key of Em*. Midway through the verse the bassline is transposed down 4 semitones to Cm. From a theory perspective, this is a ♭VI chord but switched from a major chord to a minor chord. This could be written as ♭VIm and it produces a much darker harmonic sound than the major chord would. It also catches the ear because the Cm chord contains notes that aren’t in the key of E minor, such as the E♭ note.

In the example below the E♮ (natural) note is replaced with a C over the Cm chord, as leaving it as an E♮ would clash with the bassline.

The Halo bassline was likely written using a sequencer such as the ARP Sequencer often used with the ARP 2600. When you transpose a riff or melody using a sequencer it won’t necessarily fit into the diatonic key of the song. Em and Cm might not be chords that you’d often put together sat at the piano, but with a sequencer chord sequencers like this can come naturally.

*Halo is actually in E♭m but I’ve transposed it down a semitone so that the notation doesn’t have a six-flat key signature.

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Halo Beat 00:00

This sequencer-led composition is a great way to open up new sounds, but it raises a challenge for writing melodies over the top. The vocal melody in Halo uses the E minor pentatonic scale to sing over the Em section. The problem is that the E minor scale won’t work over the C minor part, as the notes will clash – the E is a semitone away from the E♭ note within the Cm chord. Instead of changing any notes, the melody simply ends on a G note (the 3rd of Em and 5th of Cm) and then leaves plenty of space for the instrumentation to shine through.

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Halo Melody 00:00

Enjoy the Silence

The verse of one of Depeche Mode’s most well-known tracks, Enjoy the Silence, uses a similar minor chord trick. The chords are Cm | E♭m | A♭. The song is in the key of Cm, and diatonically the E♭ chord would be major, with a G♮ as the third. In the Enjoy the Silence verse the E♭ major chord is replaced with an E♭ minor chord, which instantly adds a darker, broodier sound that is often recognisable in Depeche Mode songs. The progression in numerals is Im | ♭IIIm | ♭VI and we’ll see the ♭IIIm chord appear in several of their other songs.

The intro and chorus sections of Enjoy the Silence uses the E♭ major chord, for a lighter, more diatonic sound. This technique of having lighter sections (diatonic chords) and darker sections (swapped minor chords) is a classic Depeche Mode trick and can also be heard prominently in Shake the Disease.

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Enjoy the Silence Chords 00:00

The verse vocal melody leans into the chord change, starting with a sung G note over the Cm chord shifting to a G♭ note over the E♭m chord. This works because G is the 5th of Cm and G♭ is the minor 3rd of E♭ minor. The resulting vocal line is musical and melodic, fitting the underlying chords nicely.

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Enjoy the Silence Melody 00:00

Behind the Wheel

Behind the Wheel takes the complexity up a notch, with two borrowed minor chords that take the tonality far away from the root home chord. The first two chords are Bm | Dm or Im | ♭IIIm – this is the same initial two-chord sequence as the Enjoy the Silence example, only we’re a semitone lower in this example.

While Enjoy the Silence goes to a major ♭VI chord, Behind the Wheel goes to a minor ♭VI chord just like in the Halo example at the start of this article. The final chord change from Gm to B♭ is unusual since we started with a Bm chord but it works because there is only one note different between chords (G B♭ D → G B♭ E♭). Although it doesn’t belong in the initial key, the chord change sounds smooth and works.

During the intro melody notice that the F♯ note that plays over the Bm chord has to be shifted down to an F♮ to work over the following chords. This is another example of modifying the melody scale to fit out-of-key chords.

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Behind the Wheel 00:00

The vocal melody in Behind the Wheel takes advantage of the fact that all four chords, Bm, Dm, Gm and B♭ all share a common note: D. The melody mostly stays on the D note, harmonised in octaves between Gahan and Gore, venturing up to an F♮ over the B♭ chord at the end of the sequence.

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Behind the Wheel 00:00

Dressed in Black

The gothic-sounding Dressed in Black, from ’86’s Black Celebration, features similar harmonic composition tricks. The intro of the song uses the chords Bm | Gm which is is a Im | ♭VIm progression also used in Halo.

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Dressed in Black 1 00:00

At the start of the verse section, the chord sequence changes to Bm | Dm7. This is a Im | ♭IIIm progression similar to the first two chords of Enjoy the Silence and Behind the Wheel. In the diatonic key of B minor the D chord should be major but here it’s been swapped with a minor chord.

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Dressed in Black 2 00:00

Shake the Disease

Shake the Disease, a non-album single from 1985, switches between diatonic major sections and a harmonically shapeshifting chorus sequence. The chorus starts with a Dm | Fm chord movement, similar to the Im | ♭IIIm sequences we’ve seen so far in Enjoy the Silence, Behind the Wheel and Dressed in Black. The chord sequence then goes to D♭ and B♭. The D♭ is a major chord a semitone lower than starting minor chord, similar to the B♭ minor chord in the Behind the Wheel example.

Depeche Mode usually use arpeggios and melodies instead of standard block chords in their songs and Shake the Disease’s synth part is a great example. Most the arpeggios also use colourful intervals like 7ths and 9ths to make the parts more interesting.