How To Play Last Dance With Mary Jane Harmonica

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"Mary Jane's Last Dance" What key is it in?

Thread starter 2HBStrat
Start date Feb 25, 2011

and the minor key of ghanja

Can't believe you guys are getting sucked into another one.

:munch

The harmony notes are F#, E, D (for the words "last dance with mary jane") sung against Em. When I sang those harmonies, I always found it hard to find the F#. (My trick was to find a way to play that F# on the high end casually, and then hum that note until it came around.)

If you are trying to sing F#, E, and D that's gotta sound weird, three notes a step apart. I actually listened to the recording this morning and I don't believe anyone is singing an 'E'. It actually sounds like two parts to me, D and F#. When we do it our lead singer sings the D, which it sounds like Tom Petty is singing on the recording, and I sing the F# part. Then our other two singers both sing B's, an octave apart. It really sounds good, and full, like that.

I think the D, F#, and B would actually be a Gmaj7 chord, but of course with an E bass note.

Do you guys use a harmonica in your cover?

no... and after this thread... i'm realizing i'd probably be really confused if i tried to...

wouldn't the harmonica sound out of tune?

how would anyone ever be able to tell?

we cover it and our drummer plays a G harp

Other guitarist sings lead on it, he has trouble singing the chorus notes for some reason.
I sing the high harmony, pretty easy, I'll have to ask the sax player what key he plays the harmonica riffs in.

Don't over-think it. The verse is in A minor. The solos over the verse are in A minor. The chorus is an Em/Amaj combo, but just think of the A major as a nice little twist to the song. It doesn't mean you have to reinvent the overall key just to accommodate it.

I've done the song a thousand times with cover bands.
Honestly, the key is not important, it starts in Am, and moves on.
It is a great great song, that's why he is Tom Petty and we're not.
This stuff has been discussed forever.

If you "knew" the key, would anything change?
No, that changes nothing.

BTW, the KEY of your harmonica, has nothing to do with the key chord of the tune.
Neil Young has used a G harp for a hundred years and a hundred songs, but the key of those songs is NOT the key of G.
Neil's harp tunes are usually based off of E minor guitar chords.
For example, "Heart of Gold"......
The guitar starts in Em, but Neil uses a G harmonica.

Around the 2 minute mark, cuz Neil used to talk a lot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh44QPT1mPE

Another Neil example, "Out on the Weekend".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCElUItrLZc

The guitar starts in A minor, but he STILL uses a G harp.
SAME as Petty, "Mary Jane's Last Dance".
Song starts with the A minor chord, using a G harmonica.

On "Mary Jane's Last Dance",
our band always used a harmonica, played by me.
I also played rythm guitar, but I know the lead guitar parts too.
It's a classic song, Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, the Heartbreakers, don't get no betta.

Last edited: Feb 27, 2011

I think the culprit on the pitch is the tape playback when it was mastered. I don't think they played it out of A440 pitch..

I think the culprit on the pitch is the tape playback when it was mastered. I don't think they played it out of A440 pitch..

Watch the original video, circa 1993(?).
Check out the live versions on youtube,
look at their hands.....A minor.

It's an easy song to play, nothing fancy or tricky.
Tom Petty is damn near perfect.
It starts in A minor, but Tom said that they tuned to a piano,
which was tuned a half step down......
can't trust them piano tuners..........
You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish!

Last edited: Feb 27, 2011

Other guitarist sings lead on it, he has trouble singing the chorus notes for some reason.
I sing the high harmony, pretty easy, I'll have to ask the sax player what key he plays the harmonica riffs in.

Is he playing sax on that?

I play sax, but using it in that song never crossed my mind.

The harp is a G harp in 3rd position, which gives the player the Dorian mode without any bends in the upper two octaves of the harmonica. The riff is just running down the scale.

As I said the last time this was asked - it's in the key of awesome.

I don't know why but I just laughed hard at that one! Thanks.

It's also a little bit sharp on the recording... I can't quite get the pitch right at A440!

Taught that song just last week and my student had a transcription that said it was tuned up to A 452 (not A 440). We did that and it was right in tune, they likely sped the tape up after recording it to add some energy.
I like to think of the intro/verse section as being in the Key of G with Am being the tonal center (this reminds me of the recent "Sweet Home Alabama" thread) which would make it A Dorian and which is why one would use a key of G harmonica as all the notes would fit (with the F# note being a D chord note and the major 6th of the Am chord.
The chorus changes keys and , to me, is in the key of D (E Dorian).
Nice tune. We pulled that song out at a recent country club gig in the last set and the crowd really dug it. Our keyboard player also plays great guitar and also harmonica which he uses on This tune and Neil Young's "I am a Child" which is a great first set/dinner set song to play and always seems to get a good response as well.

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