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you've gained my sub and respect.... thank you for this, I appreciate the work you've put in for all of us

Did anyone consider the possibility that maybe when John asked Yoko to play it backwards, she accidentally got the notes/chords wrong, but John didn't realize it and used the result anyway?

Compare Funeral for a Friend to Moon Light Sonata

It's got nothing to do with Moonlight Sonata but it's blatantly obvious to me that the chord sequence comes from Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu in C sharp minor. Lennon often said things like "we played it backwards" as an oblique way of saying that he took an idea from somewhere then modified it . For instance, regarding his collaboration with David Bowie on the track "Fame", Lennon said that they created a section of the song by playing a Stevie Wonder song "backwards".

Look up the Wrecking Crew

Thanks for this. I had always wondered whether Because really was the Moonlight Sonata backwards. I didn't think so.

Thanks for this post. As an older adult learning piano for the first time, it is good for me to hear the benefits when I get discouraged trying to make my fingers and brain work properly to play the music. I'm using kid books to teach myself since the lessons are short and amusing, but I find some parts are difficult to master. A benefit that I have noticed is if I am tired and sleepy when I begin practicing, I feel less worn out by the time I finish.

This has been so helpful, thank you! I’ve just started playing keyboard with a band and this has given me confidence to improvise around the given chord structure!

I Hate Augmented but thats nice

wow, where have you been?.. just discovered your channel and subscribed immediately. greetings from Jamaica west indies

So the answer is... NO, then.

Good Luck and God's speed to have your heat restored! We had the same thing happen to us early in December in South West Michigan. It makes you thankful for what you have that you may take for granted.

My ring finger is weak :O

"Because" sounds quite different than "Moonlight Sonata" and doesn't sound much like it backwards. I dunno, John said a lot of things without really meaning them.

Yes,,,, i have because and also moonlight sonata , and i am a qualified musician and i can see that it is possibly played back wards but on occasions chords are slightly altered , very debatable,

If you listen to the left hand arpeggios from Chopin’s “Fantasie Impromptu”, played at a slower pace, it sounds very similar to “Because”. Even the key is the same.

Maybe Yoko played it "backwards" in her own way, which was not purely backwards?

Yeah, it’s really Moonlight Sonata backwards! How’d you guess…

Hope your furnace issues have been resolved, Leon. And why do furnace issues *always* crop up on the coldest days of the year?! Cheers!

John Lennon was known to... exaggerate. But in this case, if I recall the story, when Yoko Ono was playing Moonlight, he was listening and he asker her to play it backwards. I don't think he claimed that Because was literally Moonlight backwards. It just somehow inspired him to write Because.

Keep warm, Leon! Same thing happened with my furnace a few weeks ago. Not fun!!

Thank you! This was useful for me.

this was very helpful for my music project, we are doing a documentary about the classical period)

I’ve listened to a lot of Lennon interviews, and one thing that stands out is his tendency to downplay both his own efforts and the Beatles’ achievements. He didn’t believe in the myth surrounding artists and celebrities, which he conveyed so strongly in the song God. I think he didn’t want to be worshipped, and that’s why he often tried to minimize or simplify his genius. Saying he just reversed the chords of Moonlight Sonata for Because feels like a classic example of this. Of course, like any human being, there were moments when he wanted credit and recognition, but most of the time, he seemed more interested in stripping away the pedestal people wanted to put him on.

. . . I agree with all you say . . . but be careful! playing music is addictive. How do I know? At home, my mother had a piano which I often sat at and played by ear. When I left home, I missed playing so much that I had to buy a musical instrument. And so I learnt to play an acoustic guitar.

a girl in Tokyo, Ono was trained in classical piano and opera. After moving to New York City against the wishes of her parents in the early '50s, Ono became heavily involved in the flourishing avant-garde art scene, in the process befriending influential artists and musicians such as John Cage and La Monte Young.Feb 16, 2007

Hello, this is a wonderful video. I‘m teaching piano for more than 30 years, mostly children but also 60+ and I agree to what you say in this video. Very good. Best wishes.

Wow thanks, I have this in the back of my mind for a few years - to memorize these chords with my hands. Really the fantastic chord progression. And since you name and explain these chords - makes it much more clear for me.

I just started learn at age 46 and with the help of afriend who normally teaches piano to kids. She mostly just loaned me her books and answers my questions😂. It does all those things you said. And deepens our friendship.

66 here and brand new to piano. Thanks so much for this positive and encouraging message! Keep up the great work.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

I enjoyed this video very much…thank you for posting, León. 🎹🎶🥰

❤ what a stunning video the circle of fiths is a bit scarey all that fearr has now dissappeard ❤ thank you for being so calm you pulled me into the video

The Beatles were a creation of Tavistock, for purposes of social engineering and mass mind control. It worked flawlessly. Mike Williams (sage of quay channel here on YT) has devoted his life to this research, and he’s proven his claims beyond dispute. Feel free to look into it, and feel free to dismiss it. But you can’t say you haven’t been told. The truth is out there, and it’s indisputable. But it’s much safer and easier to just dismiss this outright, as I’m sure you will. The Apple is rotten 🍏

Now THIS is music theory!

This is a great channel. I had subscribed but didn't get any alerts. Gotta hit the top of the subscribe list of choices. Excellent explanation.

I think your teaching cycle of fifths helped me to easily understand clearly. Thanks.

John and Yoko were taking substances, so who knows what went through his addled mind.

The style of how Moonlight was played probably inspired him... but John couldn't say that being an avant-garde kind of guy.

I noticed that it was very familiar, you went one bar short, where you stopped is where is sounds like a Beatles song. There is also a part in Vivaldi's Cannon in D which sounds a lot like "in my Life". Bars 29 and 30, A little too complex to just be by chance. How many manuscripts were lost and then found decades or Centuries later and it was found in the interim someone else came up with the same melody and harmony. George Martin should have spotted this and probably did, but both songs are public domain. Can you read Music backwards, I guess when it got more complex rhythmically it might be difficult but straight 8th notes.

Great sounding piano.

That was just Lennon on drugs again! 😉😁

In the middle of the Peter Jackson "Get Back" film, there is an short but intriguing conversation involving John, Yoko, and George Martin. Yoko asks Lennon & Martin where she can buy some "classical music." There is some confusion about what she means, possibly some vinyl records ? But it is figured out quickly she means sheet music for classical music. Martin gives her the name of a vendor in London. Now, my conjecture is that this is the day she & John go out and buy a book of the Beethoven piano sonatas, and later that night or soon thereafter, she plays the Moonlight, which she had studied as a youth. What John did with that performance is a fun area of discussion and analysis such as is contained here. But I think we have circumstantial evidence that Yoko did indeed play the Moonlight for John. PS, Alan Pollack provides this comment "The harmonic parallels between them is much more subtle than the simple reversing of chords described by Mark Lewisohn, but they are there to be found if you look close enough. With the exception of the much discussed diminished seventh chord you'll find that every other chord used in this song can be found in Beethoven's first movement, including both VI and flat-II played in sequence as early as the third measure."

Esuaceb is because backwards

I'm sure the claim that it was the Moonlight Sonata "backwards" was a simplification for the interviewer and the listeners, a thing you do very often when you're being interviewed to condense information. He didn't mean it literally, of course, but he obviously borrowed some chords and rearranged them for Because. We also can't know how Lennon heard this song in his head, especially if he didn't know it too well or even heard it for the first time ever by Yoko. It's quite often that I hear something and think: that's a catchy melody and I start jamming on it for a while. When I then hear the original again, my take on it often sounds completely different. The longer I jam on it and let my own thoughts flow into it, the greater the effect. Nevertheless, it is inspired by the original.

good content, sir!

The Elton John bit sounded great, just shows you what a fine musician. Of course neither John Lennon or Paul McCartney would understand, any of the technicalities, that was George Matins sphere. What a beautiful instrument the piano is.

It sounds a little like new song now and then

I thought Lennon said that about Imagine!

John and Paul have consistently said over the years that they can’t read music. In an early 60’s edition of Mersey Beat, it stated that they - the Beatles - were going to London to record songs written FOR them!