Please react to Ravel!! His harmonies are so jazzy. From the top of my head, I can think of flat 6 chords with the 5, and b major over Eb major. Pieces like Alborada del Gracioso or Valses Sentimentales et Nobles are *spicy*
This "If that doesn't sound right, you're one half step away from a right note" is particularly known to guitarists, as when resting on a "wrong" note while improvising, you can just slowly bend the string to reach that half step and totally make it seem intentional
I just posted this in the main thread. It might also help you: I have just discovered that, in a diatonic progression, any of the 7 available arpeggios can be played at any point in the progression because you are always playing either chord tones or upper extensions! That means that in a tune like Autumn Leaves I can play melodically by ear and go up (or down) in thirds from any note and it will sound cool as long I resolve properly at the end. So now, instead of constantly trying to land on the right chord tones I'm treating every note as a potential chord tone. This is totally liberating.
Ah! Congrats! Coming from a jazz musician, I love when classical musicians expand on their talent! It'll really help you playing with bands of different genres and will definitely help your composing. When I'm playing drums in jazz combos, I'm usually the band leader, so I truly get to listen and watch the other players since most of what I do during other folks' solos is muscle and spatial memory. The main thing I always see during solos from classical musicians is them overthinking and then hesitating over playing "wrong" notes. In my experience, it really affects the sound of their solo since it loses some of the passion and "soul" that you really want in a solo. You can really hear it in pianists for example, since they'll start to lose dynamic changes and play softly due to that hesitation. Don't be afraid to play loud! Don't care what people think! It's hard, but try and forget all the constraints that you've been taught over the years. FUCK it up! The best music is sometimes about fucking it up. :)
As a guitarist who cannot read music and who doesn't really have a whole lot of formal musical education I find your videos fascinating and incredibly educational. Makes me want to improve upon my own musical knowledge.
what's frustrating as a guitar player who can read music and does understand. It's frustrating that we cannot feasibly play the full voiceings of a piano and we have to deal with shell voicings to just give people the idea of the harmony we intend to play. Either that or we have to play this chords arpegiatted (not necessarily sweep picked) so that we can get the full voicing. Just in single note lines. :/
I also think an important part of fitting a note into a chord is thinking about where the note might move melodically, since there's always a way to nicely resolve a chord when you think about where all the notes could move, even if the initial chord itself sounds dissonant as hell. For example a #9 in a dominant chord sounds really dissonant (since its basically a minor 3rd in a major chord) but it sounds amazing once you give that #9 a note to move to (for example the 5th of the following I chord) and resolve it.
The "any note over any chord" thing is a theory flex framed as a cool property of chords but I think it actually perfectly illustrates the shortcomings of strictly vertical, chord-based framing of music theory and questions about whether intervals sound "good". Music happens over time, and chords are only an instantaneous snapshot. Intervals and chords can be static and restful or dynamic and directional. It's not "does this note sound good", it's "what is this note doing". He asks "is a b9 wrong" and answers "a b9 wants to resolve", but the answer to "is a b9 wrong" is just "it sort of depends but no" and the question he's actually answering is more like "what does a b9 mean" or "what does a b9 want to do" because the answer is "a b9 is tense and it wants to resolve". I've made it a point lately to frame things in this way and found that things that are extremely dense to explain as chords are often quite simple and even more meaningful to explain as lines.
@@austinm7801 I agree with you, but the exercice framed as just the analysis of the chords structure is helpfull to people who are still counting intervals and learning types of chords. It also helps a lot in the perception of intervals and chords to just listen each note and their relationship with the other. Like, there's utility is both ways of thinking.
@@ShuAbLe definitely utility in both. I think the more vertical or chord based analysis is dominant by far and a line-first framing of a piece of music makes it easier, not harder, to understand how chords function.
@Ben Maddox you may not consider them dissonant, but if you accept one of the common definition of dissonance in western euro. music theory, sources cite #9 and #5 as dissonant based on the simple ratios yielding less acoustic "beating." and thus in that instance having tension. It is also very contectually and culturally based.. I.e. the b9 is commonly cited as being the most dissonant interval, or high on the list in comparison, but there are cultures where the b9 is more prevalent or a microtonal variant thereof. A #5 #9 chord is dissonant purposefully since, in western functional harmony and tension & release schemas, it causes tension to be released to a more stable, consonant chord or you keep ratcheting up the tension by throwing more alterations to create a specific soundscape or mood that cannot be obtained any other way. I love the b9, #9, and #5 and all the alterations, to be clear, but they are all technically dissonant (they all create half steps on a chord and cause that acoustic beating & tension) even though they "sound good" to you/me. If troll then okay lol major chords are dissonant to me xD.
Honestly you're completely right. This is a common trick with a lot of jazz musicians. Gently slipping out of key and then going back in as a way of tickling the ear. Great way to create interest.
Charles, have you ever considered implementing an overhead view of the keyboard in your videos? I think it could really help us with understanding more of what you're playing and what we hear. Love the theory videos btw.
1:14 *C* - 1:29 *Db* - 2:24 *D* - 3:38 *Eb* 5:10 _upper extensions_ 7:13 *E* - 8:38 *F* - 8:59 *Gb* - 10:47 *G* - 11:58 *Ab* - 12:14 *A* - 12:59 *Bb* - 13:54 *B* 14:35 The last trick - 17:21 Intro to improvisation - 00:00 Introduction 01:14 C in *C* (tonic) 01:29 C in *Db* (maj7) 02:24 C in *D* (b7) 03:38 C in *Eb* (6 / 13) 05:10 _side note:_ Upper extensions (9, 11, 13) 07:13 C in *E* (b6/b13) 08:38 C in *F* (5) 08:59 C in *Gb* (tritone / b5 / # 4 / # 11) 10:47 C in *G* (4 / 11) 11:58 C in *Ab* (maj3) 12:14 C in *A* (min3 / # 9) 12:59 C in *Bb* (2 / 9) 13:54 C in *B* (b9 / min2) 14:35 The last trick 17:21 Intro to improvisation 19:02 Intro to piano / Outro 19:36 End screen
Ive learned that most of the time when we sound "bad" when improvising it's less about the notes or harmony and more about rhythm or how we place the strong beats. If you can swing hard the odd bad note is fine for the reasons in this video but without rhythmic conviction it's going to be hard to sound good.
Ohhhh, this is similar in singing, too. You can be a little flat or have awkward lyrics or rhythm, but if you put pressure behind it and project properly with confidence, it sounds more like a style and less like a mistake. You have to bet on your own horse.
That's why I grew up hearing "if you're going to play a wrong note right now, play it confidently and make it look intentional." I wouldn't necessarily say project a wrong note ar a performance but just act intentional. It was mainly said during rehearsal and practice.
It would be fun to see you explaining why certain jazz artists like Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane, Bill Evans etc. are that popular. Like explaining what makes them out as unique musicians And I wouldn't mind going in to detail there
This is random. But from my experiences while listening to music at work, construction to be specific, I find that people are more accepting of most Miles Davis but only some John Coltrane. They hear Giant Steps and aren't sure if it's music haha.
Herbie for stylistic innovation, pushing jazz in a more electronic and modern direction. John Coltrane also for stylistic innovation, opening up the structure of jazz to lead to more untethered things like 'A Love Supreme' and even Ornette Coleman's stuff. Bill Evans for harmonic innovation - he brought in more harmonic choices and motions (specifically for piano), borrowing chord shapes from classical backgrounds.
9:07 The augmented chord (all major thirds) is also symmetric. So is a fully diminished chord since it's all minor thirds. So is the whole-tone scale which is all major seconds.
@@onnapnewo yes, they do. They don't split it into two, but they do split it symmetrically. The major third splits the octave symmetrically into 3, the minor third into 4, the major second into 6, and the minor second into 12. All of them symmetrical. The word "split" doesn't imply a division into 2 parts specifically, so any number of parts is still a split.
@@user-uz7gb7gb4v Technically yes, but that’s not the way he demonstrated in the video, nor what he seemed to mean. He played a note, went up a tritone, then went up another tritone, ending an octave above the original note. He didn’t talk about further subdividing the octave equally. That being said, I was responding to the person above who was just talking about symmetric triad chords, which don’t even span an octave.
@@onnapnewo Then that's not saying much that the "only symmetrical division" of the octave is a tritone if that literally means the halfway point. There could only ever possibly be one halfway point, so of course it's the only one. It doesn't mean anything
9:00 Ahhh! THE TRITONE!!! Fun fact although as charles says the tritone divides the octave evenly with respect to the twelve semitones, from a physics point of view the fifth is the center. The increase in pitch as we go up notes is not linear. Each octave, instead of adding a set amount of hertz, doubles the frequency. A4 is 440 hz, and A5 is 880, A3 220, etc. The fifth is halfway in between (thus E5 is 660 hz, averaging the pitch between A4 and A5). This is why the fifth works so well, because the beats of the frequency line up nicely. There is math for all intervals, the math is just easiest for the octave and fifth.
The frequency of the tritone is the geometric mean of the frequencies of the root and the octave. So depending what you mean by "physics point of view", the tritone is still the center.
This is true on a tempered piano, but the way Nicholas b said is true for Just intervals. Split a note in half you get an octave, keep splitting it symmetrically, you get a fifth, then a fourth, then a major third, then a minor third etc... this is why these intervals sound consonant. Now back when we had Pythagorean tuning thirds were treated as dissonant because they were so badly out of tune. In equal temperament the tritone is the sad interval that is so out of tune we've been treating it as a dissonance, and it's a weird paradox because tonality rests in a sense on this need to resolve the dissonant tritone, but if you do something like 7 limit tuning you get the Justly tuned tritone from the harmonic series. This tritone is a consonance. It does not beat. It is sung a cappella in barbershop, for example, and in other traditions where you can tune chords "by ear." Adam Neely did a video on Lebo M singing it at the beginning of the Lion King. This is just to say it's more common in popular music than you might think. This tritone, however, the one that actually arises from even partials of the frequency and thus sounds "in tune", will not quite split the octave in half in the way Charles and you are saying.
No, the tritone is interval that divides an octave equally in two. The octave is a frequency ratio of 2:1, while the (equally tempered) tritone is √2:1, and as we all know, √2 is defined to be the number that becomes 2 when we multiply it by itself. That is to say: tritone × tritone = octave. The (just intonation) fifth is 3:2, which if you stack twice, you get 9:4, not an octave (2:1 = 8:4).
I hope everyone in your audience comes to appreciate and even love Jazz a fraction as much as you do. Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm for this wonderful form of art!
When Joshua Raoul Brody was teaching us improv singing he said, "Any note, confidently sung, is part of the chord." That was a real lightbulb moment and made it so much easier for me.
For me the most interesting thing is how to use each interval in a *tonic* function chord. Cause the perfect fourth and minor second and minor seventh work fine as dominants in V9sus, V7b9 or just plain V7, but using them as tonics is so much harder. I(addb2) could work for a very specific tonic sound, and the seventh in I9(#11) can be voiced such that it serves a more tonicky function (#11 on top i'd say), but I'm genuinely of the belief that you can't ever tonicise a note with its perfect fourth in the chord. I(add11) feels to me more like a failed attempt at tonicising IV. George Russell would be proud of me
I have always thought that your tune “Seize” was a great example of how one note can work with a lot of chords. The way each chord evokes a different emotion all with the same note is fantastic.
Okay serious question: When you accidentally found your way to 'a beautiful day in the neighbourhood', were you in the original key of it, or were you transposing it on the spot?
I have no idea if he was in the original key, but if you have a good relative pitch, it doesn’t even occur to you that you are transposing it on the spot. You just play the song and whatever key you happen to be in.
@@FriendlyNeighborhoodNitpicker yep! I have strong relative pitch, and I never ever think about the key relationships, I hear things in terms of pitch relationships (where the term realtive pitch comes from lmao). Makes it very easy to play any song with a group as all I've gotta do is find the root and then I can go as long as I know the song.
@@steve7745 I remember my choir teacher having us learn a piece using the whole do-re-me instead of the lyrics to assess the relationships between notes. So that then when he gives us a note to refer to as the root... We would then go up a whole step for re, and so on so forth. Then assign the note to what's written. Like it sounds complicated writing this down. But I still play the situation in my head right now. Then he would switch it up and some of us just got it quickly even with a new reference note. He also gave us a reference pitch for a different note ith the scale ( ex. Fa instead of do) and we had to figure it out from there. It was fun to do, really made me think and start to grasp pitch relationships better. I think it helped me when I had to take aural skills at uni. I did pretty well even at the beginning. Also how it is I can tell someone the pitch of an alarm by humming the note and hearing it in a chord or scale and figuring it out. I'm definitely not the best, I don't think I have perfect pitch or anything... But I've definitely learned a lot from the different exercises my teachers on instrument or for voice have taught me. Sadly due to mental illness, I had to take a break from school this past year and I haven't had motivation to keep on playing...but still sing bc I couldn't go without any music. So if my terms and what not are incorrect, I have kind of slacked on keeping up with music for a bit.
2:16 I never believed in minor major 7 chords, but that actually made me almost fucking cry. *Welp, time to start implementing min maj 7 chords...* Edit: 10:13 that sharp 11th sounds also absolutely fucking gorgeous 🥺
Reminds me of something that Rick Beato mentioned about how when he was taught guitar improvisation, it was framed in terms of "avoid notes", like "Play any notes but not these ones and you'll be fine". I suppose it's a useful shorthand when someone wants to know the simplest method to stay out of the way during a jam when they're lacking confidence, but it's so much more rewarding to learn that every note has its own character in a given context
Learned so much from this video. Like, why didn´t teachers just explain to me that upper extensions are basically just 7 + whatever the note is in the scale? It seems really obvious now, but the sheer unintuitiveness of them telling me that there 8 notes in an octave and then referring to stuff as 9 and 13 just made my brain quit.
Charles your videos are amazing. I am teacher and would like to show your videos to my students. It would be really helpful to have an output diagram of what keys you are pressing so that they didn’t have to decifer the piano upside down. Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
it honestly feels amazing having played all these chords and knowing what they sound like but actually understanding their function and why they sound how they do in context
Absolutely phenomenal explanation. I’m a classical violinist and pianist and this is so helpful in understanding and applying these extended jazz chords. Thank you!
This is the first video in a long time where I just couldn’t stop myself from watching even if I tried. Listening to this lesson has really opened my mind to the fact there really are no wrong notes. Watching you depict each chord and the context of them was such an eye opener for me, and you delivered it in such a fun and charismatic way. I wish you the best !
When writing a song, I've literally found notes that I thought sounded good together in a context and googled "what chord has these notes?" because I felt that naming it legitimized it. Thanks for the video. It's good to know I can't go wrong.
If you added more black keys, it might be possible to make it symmetrical. Though, I don’t think 100% symmetry could ever be possible no matter what the divisions are.
this is the video I’ve always needed because it really highlighted a lot of the most iconic upper chord tone alterations along with in what context they’re played in chord progression wise, ALL IN ONE VIDEO
that is great content dude. I remember how u started some years ago and i'm so glad of the direction u're going now. Keep doing that, we can tell you love it !
Yo Charles, what should i say?! Absolut banger!,.. as always. ;D You're the best and most level headed music educator i've encountered period. I'm always lookin' forward for your uploads to ignite my flame again and again. Wish i could afford your improv. course tbh. Nvm, much love peace and ofc. harmony to ya.
I love that you experience music in such an intense way, it's exactly how I feel about it. And you're teaching has blown me mind. I really do feel like I can just try whatever and make something beautiful. I'm seriously so grateful for each of your videos. Whether they're funny or focused, they teach important music principles and I always feel like a better musician after watching. Thank you so much!!!
As someone who is mostly self taught with piano, your videos are always so engaging and educational, I love watching your videos and you inspire me to keep playing piano even when I feel like I can’t play or improve, so thank you!
Symmetrical division of an octave into - 2 parts = tritone - 3 parts = two tones (augmented) - 4 parts = diminished - 6 parts = whole note scale (9b5#5)
Bill Bailey also made the case that there are no wrong notes, especially when it comes to jazz. He then went on to play random notes while harmonizing with those random notes.
Thank you for putting the chord names in the corner as you play, been desperately wanting this for your other videos for yonks now, makes playing along and learning way easier and more fun.
Loved the video. For future improvisers when you alter pitches think about the scales/modes the change can come from. Like the #11 is common to the Lydian mode. #9 can be seen as Dorian. Hope this helps someone
Dude you're like the Mister Rogers of music. You should have a music show for kids lol edit: *Right as I was typing this you stared playing Mr. Rogers...*
When I was first learning how to improvise they always told me “there is no wrong notes. Just wrong resolutions” and basically yeah. I learned in Music Theory later that thats right. And you took it another step further for me thank you
@@anthonyflanders1347 I think you're right! ☺️ But then, that's obviously true, that 6 (semi-tones) is the only number that is the half of 12 😋 I mean, when you divide any number in half, there's only one answer... That's primary school logic and hardly a fun fact either, isn't it?
Okay let’s take a moment and appreciate that 5:10 just blew my mind. I’ve been a musician for almost 25 years and never thought of 9 11 and 13 as 2 4 and 6 up the octave. :)
You just showed that one can construct a chord with any interval inside ; this has been known since the baroque period, multiple treaties have been written describing this at the time.
i’ve been studying music theory for nearly 10 years and i’ve never thought of it like this, this is super interesting. thank you for helping me to expand my options when it comes to writing!
Not gonna lie, I'm a music student in college at this time and this video is literal inspirational. Ya got teachers going "WhAt'S tHiS iNtErVaL" all the frickin time and saying "No that's not right." This video was super awesome Charles keep it up!
"Every note will have a function in literraly every chord you can play" hmm, but that's not what you showed. You just showed that you can put any note in context to a root note (which has at least a 5th between it) in Jazz Harmony. A minor 2nd in lower registers will sound much more dissonant than in higher registers. A sharp 4 sound different than a sharp 11. A c# is hard to fit in a Cmaj9. Or a d in a Calt. I get your point, but I think the title and synopsis are missleading in this case. Besides that, I love your content.
I was thinking the same thing, but I guess saying, “you can fit any not to any root bite in specific context” is not as catchy as “proof wrong notes don’t exist” still good content
The problem is that as a TH-camr he needs those catchy titles so “you can fit any note in relation to a root note and make it sound nice” or any other suitably true statement about his content will not get him the views.
Just love it when you teach theory. you give Great context and make application so much easier with your examples… even a little ear training. All the while thinking you’re hanging out at a friends crib and he tells you bout the latest cool thing they discovered. Great channel always looking forward to new content
There's a popular saying "there are no wrong notes, it's the notes that follow that are wrong". A "wrong" note is simply one that doesn't make sense in context. If you accidentally play a chord/melody with too much tension, you just have to resolve it appropriately :)
I feel like there are 2 completely separate conversations here: 'Any note can be fit into some chord based on any root note.' = Good lesson here. But I don't see the direct connection to 'How to sound less bad when you feel like what you're playing feels wrong', which is also a good conversation to have, but it's not the same conversation as the rest of the video. Just because you can fit any note into some kind of chord based on whatever root note doesn't mean that *that* chord will fit in the song where you're trying to play it. And because the two separate conversations are conflated together, that point doesn't come across clearly to the viewer.
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I’m a guitarist/bassist/drummer and a few other instruments, but not keys. But I learned SO much from this. I once saw Victor Wooten do a bass clinic and he touched on this and showed how to “groove” on the “wrong” note until it became right. You helped make that make more sense. Thank you!
I was really tired and almost fell asleep to you improving the minor 2 and imagined this girl running through the snow and it was very gloomy outside trying to run away from something and then you stopped playing and I woke up and realized that your playing paints such an amazing picture, thank you Charles
Couldn't agree more with the "you're only a half step off from 'right''" concept. This is ESPECIALLY true when soloing guitar... land too low - bend up; land too too high - whammy down.
As a guitar player who mainly improvising over rock and blues music, I often will use all 12 notes in one solo. It's all about constructing phrases in a way that make the solo make sense. Blasting through chromatic notes to get to a target note is an easy way to start!
You could do a stream wherein you just take suggestions from chat and improvises over it. I'd love that. Honestly a large part of why I watch your videos is because when you're in the middle or done explaining, you just go absolutely haywire and play little pieces that just caress my eardrums in all the right places.
Four consecutive minor thirds are also a symmetrical division of the octave (which make sense since two consecutive minor thirds are a tritone). The tritone being symmetrically splittable gives us all those delicious octatonic scale riffs. (i.e., CEG, EbGBb, F#A#C#, AC#E)
Recently I've been understanding more and more about harmony, mostly just by experimenting with my own compositions, and it's the most fun thing ever. Just playing with tension and release and finding ways to harmonise melodies is so satisfying
CmM7(b11) (minor third and major third octave above) could work in a progression where it is used as a pedal point. Like Em -> CmM7(b11) -> Aadd9 or Amadd9 -> Dm9 or Dm69.
Aside from the fact that this is amazing in general, this video is a great lesson in why harmonies work in every key. Great job explaining everything, and thank you for taking my music comp to another level!! Anyone that plays an instrument that has a basic ability to play notes will gain a better understanding by not just watching this video, but studying it in depth. I just started teaching my 3 brothers how to make music with me, and this video is an amazing tool. You don't even have to know the letter of the notes you are playing. I use a tuner app to display the notes we are playing in our lessons, and even my 10 and 8 year old boys understand it. This video should be a part of any musicians practice that wants to improve their improv skills.
As a guitar playing songwriter, when I figured this out about 6 months ago (I think it was an Adam Neely vid that mentioned this idea tho not as in depth) it freed up my fear of poor melody. This explanation is more in-depth and worth the exploration. Free your mind and the rest will harmonize.
Dive into Improv more in depth at introtoimprovisation.com/ OR just get started on the piano at introtopiano.com/
hello :)
Charles Cornel
Have you seen the "legend of 1900" movie?
Part from it th-cam.com/video/fHbPt131mFs/w-d-xo.html
Please answer
You should check out the Kirby superstar video game music! One of the songs got nominated for a Grammy this year.
Please react to Ravel!! His harmonies are so jazzy. From the top of my head, I can think of flat 6 chords with the 5, and b major over Eb major. Pieces like Alborada del Gracioso or Valses Sentimentales et Nobles are *spicy*
Can you please take a look into anomolie? i know you mentioned him in the Mario kart video but i would really enjoy a more indepth look at his music.
This "If that doesn't sound right, you're one half step away from a right note" is particularly known to guitarists, as when resting on a "wrong" note while improvising, you can just slowly bend the string to reach that half step and totally make it seem intentional
I do that all the time too
I see it as mistake, people see that as *fancy*
Trombonists share in this knowledge as well
Guitarists reading this: he knows too much
This is something Victor Wooten always taught
You're gonna need that poker face tho 😐😶
As a classical musician that's been trying improvisation for the first time this year, this is super helpful!
Yea! Get it!
Also, thinking about intervals instead of notes. That's the one big difference I can see between improvisers and performers.
I just posted this in the main thread. It might also help you: I have just discovered that, in a diatonic progression, any of the 7 available arpeggios can be played at any point in the progression because you are always playing either chord tones or upper extensions! That means that in a tune like Autumn Leaves I can play melodically by ear and go up (or down) in thirds from any note and it will sound cool as long I resolve properly at the end. So now, instead of constantly trying to land on the right chord tones I'm treating every note as a potential chord tone. This is totally liberating.
As a singer with very basic piano skills who can't read sheet music, this is super helpful! xD
Ah! Congrats! Coming from a jazz musician, I love when classical musicians expand on their talent! It'll really help you playing with bands of different genres and will definitely help your composing. When I'm playing drums in jazz combos, I'm usually the band leader, so I truly get to listen and watch the other players since most of what I do during other folks' solos is muscle and spatial memory. The main thing I always see during solos from classical musicians is them overthinking and then hesitating over playing "wrong" notes. In my experience, it really affects the sound of their solo since it loses some of the passion and "soul" that you really want in a solo. You can really hear it in pianists for example, since they'll start to lose dynamic changes and play softly due to that hesitation. Don't be afraid to play loud! Don't care what people think! It's hard, but try and forget all the constraints that you've been taught over the years. FUCK it up! The best music is sometimes about fucking it up. :)
You gotta love it when Charles voice harmonises with the C-chord at 1:26
He’s so musical that he just speaks in key
I think he talks in E
@@eliasschneeberger1337 Naaaaa
@@eliasschneeberger1337 just talks at a C over the C major chord. So he’s actually not harmonising but we’ll let this guy have his funny comment
@@marcelloberry6829 harmony can have two meanings
As a guitarist who cannot read music and who doesn't really have a whole lot of formal musical education I find your videos fascinating and incredibly educational. Makes me want to improve upon my own musical knowledge.
Bro this comment could come from me lol!
@@martmakesmusic It's bad. 20+ years of playing and I still haven't learned the fundamentals. 🤣
what's frustrating as a guitar player who can read music and does understand. It's frustrating that we cannot feasibly play the full voiceings of a piano and we have to deal with shell voicings to just give people the idea of the harmony we intend to play. Either that or we have to play this chords arpegiatted (not necessarily sweep picked) so that we can get the full voicing. Just in single note lines. :/
Same, makes me want to get it together.
@@Roanski yees..oh man😂😂
I also think an important part of fitting a note into a chord is thinking about where the note might move melodically, since there's always a way to nicely resolve a chord when you think about where all the notes could move, even if the initial chord itself sounds dissonant as hell. For example a #9 in a dominant chord sounds really dissonant (since its basically a minor 3rd in a major chord) but it sounds amazing once you give that #9 a note to move to (for example the 5th of the following I chord) and resolve it.
The "any note over any chord" thing is a theory flex framed as a cool property of chords but I think it actually perfectly illustrates the shortcomings of strictly vertical, chord-based framing of music theory and questions about whether intervals sound "good". Music happens over time, and chords are only an instantaneous snapshot. Intervals and chords can be static and restful or dynamic and directional. It's not "does this note sound good", it's "what is this note doing". He asks "is a b9 wrong" and answers "a b9 wants to resolve", but the answer to "is a b9 wrong" is just "it sort of depends but no" and the question he's actually answering is more like "what does a b9 mean" or "what does a b9 want to do" because the answer is "a b9 is tense and it wants to resolve". I've made it a point lately to frame things in this way and found that things that are extremely dense to explain as chords are often quite simple and even more meaningful to explain as lines.
@@austinm7801 I agree with you, but the exercice framed as just the analysis of the chords structure is helpfull to people who are still counting intervals and learning types of chords. It also helps a lot in the perception of intervals and chords to just listen each note and their relationship with the other. Like, there's utility is both ways of thinking.
I don’t think #9s are dissonant. #9 #5 chords are one of my favourites tbh
@@ShuAbLe definitely utility in both. I think the more vertical or chord based analysis is dominant by far and a line-first framing of a piece of music makes it easier, not harder, to understand how chords function.
@Ben Maddox you may not consider them dissonant, but if you accept one of the common definition of dissonance in western euro. music theory, sources cite #9 and #5 as dissonant based on the simple ratios yielding less acoustic "beating." and thus in that instance having tension. It is also very contectually and culturally based.. I.e. the b9 is commonly cited as being the most dissonant interval, or high on the list in comparison, but there are cultures where the b9 is more prevalent or a microtonal variant thereof. A #5 #9 chord is dissonant purposefully since, in western functional harmony and tension & release schemas, it causes tension to be released to a more stable, consonant chord or you keep ratcheting up the tension by throwing more alterations to create a specific soundscape or mood that cannot be obtained any other way. I love the b9, #9, and #5 and all the alterations, to be clear, but they are all technically dissonant (they all create half steps on a chord and cause that acoustic beating & tension) even though they "sound good" to you/me. If troll then okay lol major chords are dissonant to me xD.
You can play a jumble of random notes but as long as you land on a chord tone on the downbeat it sounds like you know what youre doing
@laras loren wtf
Honestly you're completely right. This is a common trick with a lot of jazz musicians. Gently slipping out of key and then going back in as a way of tickling the ear. Great way to create interest.
Charles, have you ever considered implementing an overhead view of the keyboard in your videos? I think it could really help us with understanding more of what you're playing and what we hear. Love the theory videos btw.
Yes
Don't BOTHER. We're fine - your keyboard's ALREADY SUPER-EASY to SEE 🎹👀😁
@@shanonkiyoshi4784 if mirrored kinda, but otherwise nr. But then again I haven't played piano in years and even the I was a beginner so who knows?
Never thought of this. I've been playing forever so I just know by ear/the music lingo. But that makes sense.
@@shanonkiyoshi4784 bro not everyone understands the piano in reverse. Don’t be such a prick
1:14 *C* - 1:29 *Db* - 2:24 *D* - 3:38 *Eb*
5:10 _upper extensions_
7:13 *E* - 8:38 *F* - 8:59 *Gb* - 10:47 *G* - 11:58 *Ab* - 12:14 *A* - 12:59 *Bb* - 13:54 *B*
14:35 The last trick - 17:21 Intro to improvisation
-
00:00 Introduction
01:14 C in *C* (tonic)
01:29 C in *Db* (maj7)
02:24 C in *D* (b7)
03:38 C in *Eb* (6 / 13)
05:10 _side note:_ Upper extensions (9, 11, 13)
07:13 C in *E* (b6/b13)
08:38 C in *F* (5)
08:59 C in *Gb* (tritone / b5 / # 4 / # 11)
10:47 C in *G* (4 / 11)
11:58 C in *Ab* (maj3)
12:14 C in *A* (min3 / # 9)
12:59 C in *Bb* (2 / 9)
13:54 C in *B* (b9 / min2)
14:35 The last trick
17:21 Intro to improvisation
19:02 Intro to piano / Outro
19:36 End screen
Woah, great job and thank you
Love you friend, thank you.
You forgot to include the part where he says “sus” a dozen times consecutively
Jacob Collier: interesting
th-cam.com/video/tvRRvxl0UZE/w-d-xo.html
Finally its here
Also Victor Wooten, and... any slightly adventurous improvising musician
@laras loren shut up, bot
Earnestly laughed
Collier: been there done that
Ive learned that most of the time when we sound "bad" when improvising it's less about the notes or harmony and more about rhythm or how we place the strong beats. If you can swing hard the odd bad note is fine for the reasons in this video but without rhythmic conviction it's going to be hard to sound good.
Ohhhh, this is similar in singing, too. You can be a little flat or have awkward lyrics or rhythm, but if you put pressure behind it and project properly with confidence, it sounds more like a style and less like a mistake. You have to bet on your own horse.
That's why I grew up hearing "if you're going to play a wrong note right now, play it confidently and make it look intentional." I wouldn't necessarily say project a wrong note ar a performance but just act intentional. It was mainly said during rehearsal and practice.
It would be fun to see you explaining why certain jazz artists like Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane, Bill Evans etc. are that popular.
Like explaining what makes them out as unique musicians
And I wouldn't mind going in to detail there
They are famous musicians because they play instruments.
This is random. But from my experiences while listening to music at work, construction to be specific, I find that people are more accepting of most Miles Davis but only some John Coltrane. They hear Giant Steps and aren't sure if it's music haha.
Herbie for stylistic innovation, pushing jazz in a more electronic and modern direction.
John Coltrane also for stylistic innovation, opening up the structure of jazz to lead to more untethered things like 'A Love Supreme' and even Ornette Coleman's stuff.
Bill Evans for harmonic innovation - he brought in more harmonic choices and motions (specifically for piano), borrowing chord shapes from classical backgrounds.
i really like this idea
9:07 The augmented chord (all major thirds) is also symmetric. So is a fully diminished chord since it's all minor thirds. So is the whole-tone scale which is all major seconds.
The chromatic scale, too. All minor seconds
They don’t symmetrically split the octave though.
@@onnapnewo yes, they do. They don't split it into two, but they do split it symmetrically.
The major third splits the octave symmetrically into 3, the minor third into 4, the major second into 6, and the minor second into 12. All of them symmetrical.
The word "split" doesn't imply a division into 2 parts specifically, so any number of parts is still a split.
@@user-uz7gb7gb4v Technically yes, but that’s not the way he demonstrated in the video, nor what he seemed to mean. He played a note, went up a tritone, then went up another tritone, ending an octave above the original note. He didn’t talk about further subdividing the octave equally.
That being said, I was responding to the person above who was just talking about symmetric triad chords, which don’t even span an octave.
@@onnapnewo Then that's not saying much that the "only symmetrical division" of the octave is a tritone if that literally means the halfway point. There could only ever possibly be one halfway point, so of course it's the only one. It doesn't mean anything
9:00
Ahhh! THE TRITONE!!!
Fun fact although as charles says the tritone divides the octave evenly with respect to the twelve semitones, from a physics point of view the fifth is the center. The increase in pitch as we go up notes is not linear. Each octave, instead of adding a set amount of hertz, doubles the frequency. A4 is 440 hz, and A5 is 880, A3 220, etc. The fifth is halfway in between (thus E5 is 660 hz, averaging the pitch between A4 and A5). This is why the fifth works so well, because the beats of the frequency line up nicely. There is math for all intervals, the math is just easiest for the octave and fifth.
Oooo what a nice way to think about music. Having no music training myself, this really helps me visualize all this
The frequency of the tritone is the geometric mean of the frequencies of the root and the octave. So depending what you mean by "physics point of view", the tritone is still the center.
This is true on a tempered piano, but the way Nicholas b said is true for Just intervals. Split a note in half you get an octave, keep splitting it symmetrically, you get a fifth, then a fourth, then a major third, then a minor third etc... this is why these intervals sound consonant. Now back when we had Pythagorean tuning thirds were treated as dissonant because they were so badly out of tune. In equal temperament the tritone is the sad interval that is so out of tune we've been treating it as a dissonance, and it's a weird paradox because tonality rests in a sense on this need to resolve the dissonant tritone, but if you do something like 7 limit tuning you get the Justly tuned tritone from the harmonic series. This tritone is a consonance. It does not beat. It is sung a cappella in barbershop, for example, and in other traditions where you can tune chords "by ear." Adam Neely did a video on Lebo M singing it at the beginning of the Lion King. This is just to say it's more common in popular music than you might think. This tritone, however, the one that actually arises from even partials of the frequency and thus sounds "in tune", will not quite split the octave in half in the way Charles and you are saying.
Agh! Jazz!
No, the tritone is interval that divides an octave equally in two. The octave is a frequency ratio of 2:1, while the (equally tempered) tritone is √2:1, and as we all know, √2 is defined to be the number that becomes 2 when we multiply it by itself. That is to say: tritone × tritone = octave.
The (just intonation) fifth is 3:2, which if you stack twice, you get 9:4, not an octave (2:1 = 8:4).
Charles and I said the same thing right at 11:28! He started playing and I was like “isn’t that Mr. Rogers?”
Playing around with chords and randomly hearing a bit of Mr Roger's theme, then trying to play it, is the most stereotypical pianist thing ever.
made my brain happy
I got to this right as I read this comment.
That was absolutely beautiful.
Thank you for this.
6:40 MIND = BLOWN
I hope everyone in your audience comes to appreciate and even love Jazz a fraction as much as you do. Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm for this wonderful form of art!
He has played a part in refreshing my love for music by starting to explore jazz; coming from a classical context, this makes me feel alive
Damn mate. This melody at 8:30 made me tear up, and I'm not even that emotional. Amazing what a skilled pianist can do while just experimenting.
Reminded me super hard of Brings - Superjeilezick and I'm a bit embarrassed that that song was my first association with this melody
8:09
Me too. This is a nice use of tension and release.
When Joshua Raoul Brody was teaching us improv singing he said, "Any note, confidently sung, is part of the chord." That was a real lightbulb moment and made it so much easier for me.
0:21 This was an amazing piece of improv!
Your musicality and creative genius astounds me...
For me the most interesting thing is how to use each interval in a *tonic* function chord. Cause the perfect fourth and minor second and minor seventh work fine as dominants in V9sus, V7b9 or just plain V7, but using them as tonics is so much harder. I(addb2) could work for a very specific tonic sound, and the seventh in I9(#11) can be voiced such that it serves a more tonicky function (#11 on top i'd say), but I'm genuinely of the belief that you can't ever tonicise a note with its perfect fourth in the chord. I(add11) feels to me more like a failed attempt at tonicising IV. George Russell would be proud of me
I have always thought that your tune “Seize” was a great example of how one note can work with a lot of chords. The way each chord evokes a different emotion all with the same note is fantastic.
im gonna need a full cover of the improv you made at 4:00. and an explenation which notes you used exactly because it sounds awesome
I think he is going from a Eb6 to Fm7 and then Bbsus, atleast thats what i got from looking at his fingers on the keys
Okay serious question: When you accidentally found your way to 'a beautiful day in the neighbourhood', were you in the original key of it, or were you transposing it on the spot?
I have no idea if he was in the original key, but if you have a good relative pitch, it doesn’t even occur to you that you are transposing it on the spot. You just play the song and whatever key you happen to be in.
It was the original key, C Major.
@@FriendlyNeighborhoodNitpicker yep! I have strong relative pitch, and I never ever think about the key relationships, I hear things in terms of pitch relationships (where the term realtive pitch comes from lmao). Makes it very easy to play any song with a group as all I've gotta do is find the root and then I can go as long as I know the song.
When
@@steve7745 I remember my choir teacher having us learn a piece using the whole do-re-me instead of the lyrics to assess the relationships between notes. So that then when he gives us a note to refer to as the root... We would then go up a whole step for re, and so on so forth. Then assign the note to what's written. Like it sounds complicated writing this down. But I still play the situation in my head right now. Then he would switch it up and some of us just got it quickly even with a new reference note. He also gave us a reference pitch for a different note ith the scale ( ex. Fa instead of do) and we had to figure it out from there. It was fun to do, really made me think and start to grasp pitch relationships better. I think it helped me when I had to take aural skills at uni. I did pretty well even at the beginning. Also how it is I can tell someone the pitch of an alarm by humming the note and hearing it in a chord or scale and figuring it out. I'm definitely not the best, I don't think I have perfect pitch or anything... But I've definitely learned a lot from the different exercises my teachers on instrument or for voice have taught me. Sadly due to mental illness, I had to take a break from school this past year and I haven't had motivation to keep on playing...but still sing bc I couldn't go without any music. So if my terms and what not are incorrect, I have kind of slacked on keeping up with music for a bit.
No such thing as wrong notes is THE EXACT words I would say in my high school years to my music teacher. But it was so long ago so
8:15 this part kind of reminds me of never let me go. Harmony is super cool!
2:16
I never believed in minor major 7 chords, but that actually made me almost fucking cry.
*Welp, time to start implementing min maj 7 chords...*
Edit: 10:13 that sharp 11th sounds also absolutely fucking gorgeous 🥺
Reminds me of something that Rick Beato mentioned about how when he was taught guitar improvisation, it was framed in terms of "avoid notes", like "Play any notes but not these ones and you'll be fine".
I suppose it's a useful shorthand when someone wants to know the simplest method to stay out of the way during a jam when they're lacking confidence, but it's so much more rewarding to learn that every note has its own character in a given context
Learned so much from this video. Like, why didn´t teachers just explain to me that upper extensions are basically just 7 + whatever the note is in the scale? It seems really obvious now, but the sheer unintuitiveness of them telling me that there 8 notes in an octave and then referring to stuff as 9 and 13 just made my brain quit.
Same. I took 2 years of music school in college and never fully understood 9, 11, 13 chords until he explained it
Oh my, that G flat maj7#11 chord at 9:38... I wasn't sure how you'd turn a tritone into something nice, but that chord stirred my very soul.
Charles your videos are amazing. I am teacher and would like to show your videos to my students. It would be really helpful to have an output diagram of what keys you are pressing so that they didn’t have to decifer the piano upside down. Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
11:45
OH that one hit me real good
I love how Lydian (the prettiest mode in my humble opinion) is characterized by having the "ugliest" note added to the major scale.
it honestly feels amazing having played all these chords and knowing what they sound like but actually understanding their function and why they sound how they do in context
Well explained! Quality remaster of your older video. Although I was sad you didn't mention Gm11 since minor 11s are some of my fav chords :D
Absolutely phenomenal explanation. I’m a classical violinist and pianist and this is so helpful in understanding and applying these extended jazz chords. Thank you!
14:00-14:30 reminded me of 'Prelude in E Minor' by Chopin (Op.28 No.4). A friend of mine taught me that piece and it's neat to play.
kinda reminded me of liebestraum no 2 toos
This is the first video in a long time where I just couldn’t stop myself from watching even if I tried. Listening to this lesson has really opened my mind to the fact there really are no wrong notes. Watching you depict each chord and the context of them was such an eye opener for me, and you delivered it in such a fun and charismatic way. I wish you the best !
When writing a song, I've literally found notes that I thought sounded good together in a context and googled "what chord has these notes?" because I felt that naming it legitimized it. Thanks for the video. It's good to know I can't go wrong.
Well if something sounds good then theres nothing wrong
1:44 was thinking of putting a Db on top of a C major chord since thats one of my favorites
*plays a Eb in band class when everyone plays an E*
when you played that D7 in 2:58, I immediately thought of a Beethoven Piano Sonata in F# Major, 2nd Movement
I'd love to see a similar effort done in 19-tet as there is no symmetry but it leads to very interesting chord combinations
If you added more black keys, it might be possible to make it symmetrical. Though, I don’t think 100% symmetry could ever be possible no matter what the divisions are.
this is the video I’ve always needed because it really highlighted a lot of the most iconic upper chord tone alterations along with in what context they’re played in chord progression wise, ALL IN ONE VIDEO
i can’t wait to play around with these when I come back home from university
Woahhh
I took piano lessons for 10 years, and I learned more in the last few months watching your vids than I have the last 3 years of lessons lol
13:00
Unsure what it was about that Bb section that really got to me emotionally but genuinely enjoyed that section.
Charles the entire time: "Yeah just take this C and make a Hsus#17b12 chord. ITS EASY, EEEEEEEEEEAAZZZYYYYY"
that is great content dude. I remember how u started some years ago and i'm so glad of the direction u're going now. Keep doing that, we can tell you love it !
Yo Charles, what should i say?! Absolut banger!,.. as always. ;D
You're the best and most level headed music educator i've encountered period. I'm always lookin' forward for your uploads to ignite my flame again and again.
Wish i could afford your improv. course tbh. Nvm, much love peace and ofc. harmony to ya.
I love that you experience music in such an intense way, it's exactly how I feel about it. And you're teaching has blown me mind. I really do feel like I can just try whatever and make something beautiful.
I'm seriously so grateful for each of your videos. Whether they're funny or focused, they teach important music principles and I always feel like a better musician after watching. Thank you so much!!!
Charles is literally brute-forcing the piano
As someone who is mostly self taught with piano, your videos are always so engaging and educational, I love watching your videos and you inspire me to keep playing piano even when I feel like I can’t play or improve, so thank you!
6:49 Deez NOTES
HA GOT EEM!!!
Symmetrical division of an octave into
- 2 parts = tritone
- 3 parts = two tones (augmented)
- 4 parts = diminished
- 6 parts = whole note scale (9b5#5)
Bill Bailey also made the case that there are no wrong notes, especially when it comes to jazz. He then went on to play random notes while harmonizing with those random notes.
disappointed about the lack of #15 mention for B
Or that's just b9 right?
does it exist?
@@UnGlame Not in the context of stacking thirds and tertiary harmony due to the natural 9th already being present in the chord voicing
@@UnGlame look up super ultra hyper mega meta lydian
minecraft geometry dash man
7:45 big ole' drool
4:48 hehe nice
Thank you for putting the chord names in the corner as you play, been desperately wanting this for your other videos for yonks now, makes playing along and learning way easier and more fun.
I somehow manage to only play wrong notes
Paradoxon
that eb maj jam was really cool
Love the examples! Have you thought about dep diving into arrangement? Specifically how instrumental arrangement affect how music moves?
I love how context can change these "wrong" notes from something that doesn't sound right, to something that sounds straight up beautiful.
Great video! Some cool inspiration in here with chords I don’t use that often. Off to explore now. Thanks for the positive energy
Loved the video. For future improvisers when you alter pitches think about the scales/modes the change can come from. Like the #11 is common to the Lydian mode. #9 can be seen as Dorian. Hope this helps someone
Dude you're like the Mister Rogers of music. You should have a music show for kids lol
edit: *Right as I was typing this you stared playing Mr. Rogers...*
When I was first learning how to improvise they always told me “there is no wrong notes. Just wrong resolutions” and basically yeah. I learned in Music Theory later that thats right. And you took it another step further for me thank you
9:07 Charles, that is _obviously_ false, come one: There are 4 others intervals that symmetrically divide the octave, too:
· 6 half-step intervals stacked → the tritone interval (indeed)
· 4 half-step intervals stacked → the augmented triad
· 3 half-step intervals stacked → the diminished scale
· 2 half-step intervals stacked → the whole-tone scale
· 1 half-step intervals stacked → the chromatic scale
I think he meant it’s the only interval to symmetrically separate the octave into two pieces
@@anthonyflanders1347 I think you're right! ☺️ But then, that's obviously true, that 6 (semi-tones) is the only number that is the half of 12 😋 I mean, when you divide any number in half, there's only one answer... That's primary school logic and hardly a fun fact either, isn't it?
2:26 the c applied to d made me immediately think of "black coast - trndsttr (lucian remix)"
At 4:40.... Ebm69 ... nice.
Okay let’s take a moment and appreciate that 5:10 just blew my mind. I’ve been a musician for almost 25 years and never thought of 9 11 and 13 as 2 4 and 6 up the octave. :)
You just showed that one can construct a chord with any interval inside ; this has been known since the baroque period, multiple treaties have been written describing this at the time.
i’ve been studying music theory for nearly 10 years and i’ve never thought of it like this, this is super interesting. thank you for helping me to expand my options when it comes to writing!
Not gonna lie, I'm a music student in college at this time and this video is literal inspirational. Ya got teachers going "WhAt'S tHiS iNtErVaL" all the frickin time and saying "No that's not right." This video was super awesome Charles keep it up!
And that is why, kids, everyone is valid. Be proud, find your context, your harmony and be beautiful
"Every note will have a function in literraly every chord you can play"
hmm, but that's not what you showed. You just showed that you can put any note in context to a root note (which has at least a 5th between it) in Jazz Harmony.
A minor 2nd in lower registers will sound much more dissonant than in higher registers.
A sharp 4 sound different than a sharp 11.
A c# is hard to fit in a Cmaj9.
Or a d in a Calt.
I get your point, but I think the title and synopsis are missleading in this case.
Besides that, I love your content.
I was thinking the same thing, but I guess saying, “you can fit any not to any root bite in specific context” is not as catchy as “proof wrong notes don’t exist” still good content
The problem is that as a TH-camr he needs those catchy titles so “you can fit any note in relation to a root note and make it sound nice” or any other suitably true statement about his content will not get him the views.
Just love it when you teach theory. you give Great context and make application so much easier with your examples… even a little ear training. All the while thinking you’re hanging out at a friends crib and he tells you bout the latest cool thing they discovered. Great channel always looking forward to new content
*First!*
If you play the wrong note, make it the right note.
No one cares
@@Maorpix just one time in my life I wanted to be first 😢
@@BenjaminMorrenMusic You're first. I care.
There's a popular saying "there are no wrong notes, it's the notes that follow that are wrong". A "wrong" note is simply one that doesn't make sense in context. If you accidentally play a chord/melody with too much tension, you just have to resolve it appropriately :)
I feel like there are 2 completely separate conversations here:
'Any note can be fit into some chord based on any root note.' = Good lesson here.
But I don't see the direct connection to 'How to sound less bad when you feel like what you're playing feels wrong', which is also a good conversation to have, but it's not the same conversation as the rest of the video.
Just because you can fit any note into some kind of chord based on whatever root note doesn't mean that *that* chord will fit in the song where you're trying to play it. And because the two separate conversations are conflated together, that point doesn't come across clearly to the viewer.
Wow, this is what's possible when you completely and thoroughly understand music theory. Very impressive and very educational!
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I’m a guitarist/bassist/drummer and a few other instruments, but not keys. But I learned SO much from this. I once saw Victor Wooten do a bass clinic and he touched on this and showed how to “groove” on the “wrong” note until it became right. You helped make that make more sense. Thank you!
I learn so much watching this guy and I can’t help being entertained as well… he is a genius 😂… love hearing him play by ear
I was really tired and almost fell asleep to you improving the minor 2 and imagined this girl running through the snow and it was very gloomy outside trying to run away from something and then you stopped playing and I woke up and realized that your playing paints such an amazing picture, thank you Charles
Couldn't agree more with the "you're only a half step off from 'right''" concept. This is ESPECIALLY true when soloing guitar... land too low - bend up; land too too high - whammy down.
4:41 - Nice!
This is the most useful video I have ever seen in understanding harmony, So helpful when showing all the examples.
As a guitar player who mainly improvising over rock and blues music, I often will use all 12 notes in one solo. It's all about constructing phrases in a way that make the solo make sense. Blasting through chromatic notes to get to a target note is an easy way to start!
You could do a stream wherein you just take suggestions from chat and improvises over it. I'd love that. Honestly a large part of why I watch your videos is because when you're in the middle or done explaining, you just go absolutely haywire and play little pieces that just caress my eardrums in all the right places.
11:11 when the G7 is sus
😳
Four consecutive minor thirds are also a symmetrical division of the octave (which make sense since two consecutive minor thirds are a tritone). The tritone being symmetrically splittable gives us all those delicious octatonic scale riffs. (i.e., CEG, EbGBb, F#A#C#, AC#E)
Ugh. Such great inspo, and the noodling from a certain chord specifically the Bb9 to Bbmi9 was so beautiful
Recently I've been understanding more and more about harmony, mostly just by experimenting with my own compositions, and it's the most fun thing ever. Just playing with tension and release and finding ways to harmonise melodies is so satisfying
Videos like this change everything about how i understand music
CmM7(b11) (minor third and major third octave above) could work in a progression where it is used as a pedal point. Like Em -> CmM7(b11) -> Aadd9 or Amadd9 -> Dm9 or Dm69.
Aside from the fact that this is amazing in general, this video is a great lesson in why harmonies work in every key. Great job explaining everything, and thank you for taking my music comp to another level!! Anyone that plays an instrument that has a basic ability to play notes will gain a better understanding by not just watching this video, but studying it in depth. I just started teaching my 3 brothers how to make music with me, and this video is an amazing tool. You don't even have to know the letter of the notes you are playing. I use a tuner app to display the notes we are playing in our lessons, and even my 10 and 8 year old boys understand it. This video should be a part of any musicians practice that wants to improve their improv skills.
12:06 oh no, you cheated out of going Ab minor! I was looking forward to seeing how you'd figure that harmony out lol
As a guitar playing songwriter, when I figured this out about 6 months ago (I think it was an Adam Neely vid that mentioned this idea tho not as in depth) it freed up my fear of poor melody. This explanation is more in-depth and worth the exploration. Free your mind and the rest will harmonize.