JUSTIN HAYWARD'S FAVOURITE CHORD CHANGE

"There was a track on the Moody Blues' "Octave" album called 'The Day We Meet Again', one of those things where you're stuck for the next chord. I'd written it so I was going for C to an F, back to a C and then to a Dminor which was just bland. My fingers were searching over the fingerboard and I just happened to hit an Aseventh, a funny sort of diminished Aseventh. So I went C, F, C then to this Aseventh and it completely changed the texture. Really lifted the song.

"I think F is my favourite key, very harmonic, and sympathetic. I often work with the guitar tuned a whole tone down so that when I'm playing in G - a very easy chord for a guitar - I'm actually playing in F. Every song I've ever written in F I've found harmonically pleasing. A rather magic key."

and Justin's best bargain buy

"I bought a Casio keyboard seven or eight years ago, the 101, and that's helped me so much. It's featured on a lot of Moody Blues tracks, quite a lot of "Long Distance Voyager", and "The Present" and this album as well."