Airs is C# major, and the singer barely leaves the tonic. The vocal camps on C# and lets the chords recolor it, root, fifth, fourth, then the minor third when the vi arrives. Grounded in the transcribed arrangement MIDI and the Racy chord chart. The chart writes the key in sharps, C# F# G# A#m, and the staves use that spelling.
Airs · Hooray For Earth
C# major · chorus · one held tonic recolors across I IV V vi
Reading the numbers over each vocal note: 1 root, 3 major third, 5 fifth, 7 major seventh, 9 ninth, 11 the fourth sung as a color tone, 13 thirteenth (the sixth), b7 / b3 the lowered seventh and third, #11 / b9 the raised fourth and lowered ninth. Every label is the interval that sung note makes against the chord sounding beneath it in the staff directly below.
The chorus runs C# (I), F# (IV), G# (V), A#m (vi).
The singer sits on the tonic C#, circling it with the leading tone just below and the second just above.
Over C# (I) that note is the root, home and steady.
Over F# (IV) the same C# becomes the fifth, still consonant.
Over G# (V) the held C# turns into the fourth, a sus tension against the dominant.
When A#m (vi) arrives, the bright tonic note becomes the minor third, and the color drops for a moment.
So one held tonic recolors across the loop, root, fifth, fourth, minor third, and the singer never moves.
The leading tone under the melody keeps pulling the ear back up to the C#.
favorite momentThe held C# turning into the minor third when A#m arrives, the one moment the bright tonic note goes dark.
Chorus staves are transcribed from the arrangement MIDI (bars 25-28): vocal with the engraved lyric, guitar and bass with rendered standard-tuning tab. The chart key C# major matches the audio.
C# major · verse · tonic and dominant trading places
The verse is just C# (I) and G# (V).
Two chords, the tonic and its dominant, rocking back and forth.
The V pulls to the I and the I answers, a plain call and response.
There is no borrowed color here, and the verse stays inside bright C# major.
It is the simplest frame on the record, tonic and dominant trading places.
The chorus adds the IV and the vi to widen the same key.
favorite momentTonic and dominant trading places, C# to G# and back, the plainest engine in the song.
The verse is instrumental here (tonic and dominant), so the vocal staff rests, marked tacet. Guitar and bass carry rendered tab staves. Chords from the Racy chord chart.