mirror image: if i write C-E-G on paper and put it in the mirror, it will never give me what Nick is describing nor what Collier described. it will ONLY give me G-E-C everytime. Therefore true Negative harmony, has a huuuge degree of inelegance because its asking you to give equal prominence to it(N.H.) as you give to Harmony. Its always a "Bookends" battle. "HARMONY wants to call C-E-G C major and Negative Harmony wants to call that same exact chord G minor. But since our minds are so engrained with the influence of left to right syntactical bias, we can only refer to C-E-G read right to left as, "G minor right to left harmony, or "G minor Negative Harmony, or if you're from Alabama G ass-backards minor.
Thank you for the live update. It's a little ironic that I study jazz and rythems and blues in the tremé in new Orleans yet I'm pretty positive 75% of my studies lately come from your channel (pleural now! Grateful for the live) thanks a million man for not dumbing down lessons and making us keep up!
Your inclusion of the mirror image modes and the possibilities of their use with negative harmony options is excellent. All round very clear and concise explanation. My favourite out of the ten I've seen so far on TH-cam. Notes taken! Thank you.
I paused and got a guitar out and mixed Ionian and Phrygian in a call and response making sure to resolve the Phrygian phrase to the Ionian mode. It’s a exotic sound. Thank you!
Certainly one of your best lessons Rick. I think people really need to play around with these chords on a piano to get the sound in their heads. All of this is wonderful, but unless people are hearing these particular sounds before they execute it out on their instruments, it's probably too abstract a concept for most people. However, that goes with everything dealing with language and ideas.
I think is the most interesting video you've done so far. Keep up the good work, Rick! Student composer and theory teacher here, been massively helped by your videos. Even with topics I already understand I'll always pick something up.
Rick I'm really surprised how much I've learned just watching your videos. I use to know practically nothing about music theory but now I've been watching your work here, I actually feel confident I have a decent foundation. Now I just need to train my ears... Oh your working on that too. Thanks sir!
watched 4 youtube videos on negative harmony before this one. you are the first to explain that the concept is based on opposite or 'undertones" . this explaination is simple and the concept was immediatley understood. thx
I have heard this in my ear in music before, but I didn't recognize the inverted harmony. This is a major musical concept I didn't know. Definitely one of the best videos you have posted yet! Good luck with your new YT channel.
Great video! Wish I had this a few months ago lol. The thing I like about negative harmony is that its a relatively easy way to explore modes and song ideas without drastically altering the aesthetic and voice leading of the music.
Wow! This lesson illuminated chord progressions that I have heard in movie and television soundtracks. Also, in Bartok, who has always mystified me. Great stuff, Rick!
Absolutely fascinating. I’ve been a musician for decades and never come across these concepts before. I just tried to share this with my wife and she just about ran away screaming. I guess all this theory isn’t for everyone, but I’m loving this! Thanks Rick!
I was in the middle of watching another video on this subject and I saw the thumbnail for this one. I instantly ditched it for Rick's video, you know your going to get the truth. That's how good this channel is its soo obvious Rick really knows what he is talking about.
The interesting thing is, the "negative harmony" version of any diatonic chord in a major key is a chord borrowed from the parallel minor key. In other words, the concepts of negative harmony and modal interchange are very closely related!
Mr. Z No it's because Rick assumed that Cm is the "negative" (😷😖😷) of C, which is an arbitrary assumption with no acoustical/mathematical basis whatsoever.
I love this channel and I'm this much closer to order your theory book. The harmonic series as described is very useful for pretty much most situations... then clarinets come around and throw it all off with their harmonic series built around the 12th instead of the octave. This niche topic may actually be a topic worth exploring at some point -- compare and contrast a clarinet choir and a saxophone choir playing the same piece. I daresay that the saxophone choir will 'blend' better with itself than the clarinets will, to say nothing of how much 'presence' the low clarinets contribute (and, being a bass and contraalto/bass clarinetist, strong presence can make a huge difference in a clarinet ensemble or wind orchestra; most low clarinets players are too... timid). For the most part, composers and arrangers need only worry about the mainstream harmonic series, but special consideration does need to be taken once clarinets come in; for the most part, it's negligible, particularly orchestrally (Eb, 2 Bb, Bass at most), but it does need mentioning.
Thank you for the clearest explanation I have found on negative harmony. Concise, articulate and understandable. I appreciate your work and desire to share the knowledge.
As a fiddle player, I have always favored the double minor scale. I love playing music that really evokes the character of my fiddle. You have probably noticed that a string group of players that isn’t working with a tempered instrument (such as a piano or keyboard) plays their sharps a little sharper than the same flat (D# is a little sharper than Eb). Tempered instruments are always a little out of tune somewhere. They make a few small compromises to make the keyboard a reasonable size and easier to play. Nothing wrong with that, I love my piano too. But, that’s part of why some keys sound better on the piano than others. Btw, I don’t have perfect pitch, I am only hearing relatively. Thanks Rick for bringing this up. I don’t think that I even learned about this in school.
Agreeing with Jamsville, best explanation of this concept I've come across thus far. It's after all not that hard, but there is tendency to clutter it up. Thanks for a great video Rick !
Thanks a lot God of music theory, I watched 3 videos before seeing yours to fully comprehend how negative harmony is applied, when you referenced using the circle of fifths to find the negative harmony of each note, my mind fully understood in that second. You're a brilliant teacher and your ways of teaching are so pleasing to hear and watch, thanks for being my auto corrector when it comes to music ❤️
The end part is a very complicated way of saying "Compare the chords in C Ionian to C Aeolian."(then call that "parallel major/minor) Now simply write C Aeolian backwards instead,if you wanna try to impress someone by calling the comparison "negative harmony".
great work! Needed this video! I share all these videos with my son, as he is learning the theory now in high school that I have forgotten since college a billion years ago. Your videos help us both, as he is an aspiring Jazz trombonist, and an all county concert Euphonium player. APPRECIATE YOUR HARD WORK on this! Thanks again!
Also, if you write out a major scale, one octave on the guitar, and then flip it upside you get the Phrygian scale. This is a very easy way to keep track of which scales invert to each other.
Mirror modal equivalents. I discovered this on my own. This is the first time I have ever heard of this anywhere outside of my own discovery. I use this idea, coupled with some others, to teach modes.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video Rick. So many similarities... I too ran the gambit of Music scenes, and bands, 25 years of playing 5-6 nights a week and getting good traction, to just have it go poof... Numerous times. Back in Austin, myself for the second time...same as it ever was. I need to find my "Atlanta". Hell I'm 60 years old already. Damn... not giving up.
Nice explanation. It could be added that, just as every chord and note have their mirror negative images, you can play the negative version of a song by substituting both the chords and the melody by their negative equivalents. Steve Cruickshank has done many songs in this way (they're on YT), and the results are often quite nice.
Awesome vídeo, Rick. Please, do anoter videos, maybe a serie, teaching and giving exemples of negative harmony being used in a pratical way. I love your channel
Im making notes, really enjoy watching you explain with the white board. i believe i should re -watch the vid and re-write notes in reverse. Thank you, your lessons are brill!
My friend has never heard of this and says it sounds like a weird, cool concept. Says they like your videos a lot and wish you did more in depth videos like this. Keep up the good work!
The interlude to Alban Berg's opera Lulu, is a palindrome. Also, the 2nd or 3rd movement of Four Intermezzi for guitar and flute by Otto Joachim is a bunch of 12-tone row palindromes within the overall movement's palindromic ABA Ternary form. Also, one of my favorite composers for guitar, Dusan Bogdanovic, recently wrote a quasi-palindromic piece for two guitars. Ngombi Variations, based on an actual two-measure pentatonic melody by a group of Central African pygmies whenever twins are born in their tribe, is in 7 variations. The mirroring of the "twins" concept is most apparent in the middle-most variation which is a ricercar in palindrome, with the guitar parts even switching halfway through. Also, first variation is titled "Prelude" and last is titled "Postlude". One of the variations in 4/4 time has one guitar playing [3+3+3+3+4] while the other guitar is [4+3+3+3+3] sixteenth-note rhythmic phrasing. Would love to see a video of examples of polystylism. For example, "Mother" by The Police, which is a twelve-bar blues in Middle-Eastern sounding 7/8 time with harmonic-minor sounds.
I know it's stupid to say "Oh, so descending is the opposite of ascending" but that's what I realized upon being reminded of mirror modes like, emotionally, it's easier to make descending lines on brighter scales to sound sad or intense because you're moving on an inversion
This is very helpful and concise. It's like drinking from a firehose, but now the information is accessible and repeatable. Thank you for bringing the power of the internet to bear on these subjects.
As soon as you mentioned modes I better understood what you were on about. I had looked into modes and intervals many years but had all but forgotten about it. Thanks. I have some ideas I can work on now.
Rick, I hope you get to see this, even though this video is quite old. Your videos are helping me A LOT with learning music. Your channel is like a FAQ section. Any doubt that I might have is already solved in a video, broken down, analyzed and put in a didactic way. I just wanted to thank you for giving out all this priceless content for free. To put it simple, it's fantastic.
What i am currently still figuring it out is why do we use the dominant of the tonic as an axis to form (or perhaps to "negatiate") the negative harmony? As you have stated in your video, you use the G phyrigian as the "negative" version of C ionian. My question is that why we have to start with that G instead of keep using C (which will resolve to C phyrigian). It seems more logical to me to construct the negative harmony from C ionian to C phyrigian, as their corresponding notes have the same intervals (WWHWWWH). By using that concept, we will end up to something like this C --> Fm Dm --> G Em --> A F --> Bbm G --> Cm Am --> D Bdim --> Fdim Edit: I have looked through some references on the internet and every articles i read doesnt quiet explain why a tonic-dominant axis is used to transform negative harmony. Why cant we use C-F or perhaps C-B axis?? I figured out what I had written above was the "mirror chords" with respect to C, which means the C act as an axis (a single note axis which reflects the adjacent intervals).
Wow, this lesson is awesome! I'm researching on orchestral composition and I didn't even know this video would be so informative on the matter. I usually put some of your videos on my watch list and this one just happened to be exactly what I needed at the moment! Thanks! And greetings from Brazil!
Hands down, the best explanation of this concept. I get it! Thank you. Would you please do a series on this subject, and give real-world chord-progression advice based on these principles?
Excellent explanation! This is so far the best video I have seen on explaining negative harmony, thanks so much for sharing ! One thing: minute 7:22, the video says D- /Ab, but it is actually D- over Eb.
Is there any more repertoire out there that you can point to that uses this besides the Bartók and Copland’s pieces??? Would love to get this in my ear more and figure out the contexts in which this is employed. This past summer, I utilized the mirror harmony on all other “pressing scales” and have gotten verrrry interesting results. As a music theorist/young scholar, I guess the next step is to find more evidence/primary sources that utilize this.
Thank you for this Rick!! I've enjoyed other videos of yours but this one made me a fan for life-liked, subscribed, all in. Excellent explanation with just the right level of detail-clarified but not oversimplified, comprehensive but not over explained, and many open avenues to explore. Did the Beatles come up with those great color chords at random? Maybe, but now I know why they work and where they breed. Roll over Thelonius Monk!
Hey Rick! Have you ever seen anyone go nuts with the overtone series (and undertone series too, why not) and turn it into a "scale" and use it in a practical and musical way? Maybe using the overtone series of the key of the song and use it in a solo or of a particular chord and play the "scale" over the chord. Love your stuff! Cheers from Brazil!
Luiz Pires Johnny Reinhard uses the 7th octave of the overtone series as a 128 note (!!) super chromatic scale. Most impressively, he uses this for improvisation!
That's a great video on negative harmony. Never thought about it that way. How about a video on reharmonizing an actual song with negative harmony. Maybe one that it not just diatonic and a little more complex. That would be a treat! Thanks for all the work and effort you put in your videos giving so much precious knowledge away for free. Love it.
Thanks for the video. I'd like a bit more of your thoughts about what is useful about negative harmony and how you or others can use it to make music. I'm sure it's my ignorance but it feels like a clever yet faddish youtube theory concept but not really a useful musical tool - would love to be shown how it is otherwise.
Hey Rick, do you think you could get Billy Corgan on Sounding Off? He's promoting his solo album, so it shouldn't be that hard to get him on. It seems you two would have a lot of interesting stuff to discuss, from studio techniques to the state of the biz.
I found this video today by accident, so this is the first I have heard of the term "negative harmony". But I actually stumbled on this concept on my own several years ago, while doing inversions using the canonic utilities in Finale. I used the middle line (D) of the bass clef as the inversion point. dorian mode was same either way, then Phrygian flipped into Ionian, etc. I thought this was just interesting, but I didnt know until today that there was a whole harmonic theory based on this.
The overtones are comprised in equal temperament. The E-G minor third is a wider interval than the G-Bb minor third. 1:6 vs 1:7 ratio. With just temperament you can hear the subharmonics, not with equal temperament. That is why real orchestral music sounds better than sample libraries. The tuning is fluid. In the key of C the Bb is flatter than if I was playing in the key of Eb.
The overtone frequency aspect of this one is interesting... a conventional major chord sounds 'right' at least in part because it sounds much like part of a single tone, but there's also the aspect of reinforcement of further overtones (where two notes in the chord share an overtone frequency) - which is rarely emphasised except in styles like barbershop which use particular chords and just intonation specifically to do this, and generally aim to emphasise a number of overtones through different pairs of note within the chord. The clearest example being with the 'flat 7th' chord where the frequency ratios are 4:5:6:7 - if you look at the overtones of each note, you'll find all the pairwise combinations of notes double different sets of overtone frequencies. The undertone series has the interesting 'opposite' property that the 'root note' frequency (which is at the top, in this case) is an overtone of every note in the undertone series. So reflections of major, minor, and dominant 7th chords particularly, should have the effect of 'over emphasising' a single overtone frequency (though it may require some microtuning). Whether that's a pleasant effect to achieve is another question :)
Wow.... a bit of a head spin. I played around with palindromic scales when I was younger and just learning modes (what happens if I use the same intervals in the opposite direction?) but never thought to “mine” the concept for ideas. Yum. Also - Eb-/D-? I LOVE that chord. Thanks!
I'd like to hear this done on an instrument that doesn't fudge it's overtones and preserves their true fractional values. With the piano and other contemporary Western instruments, it’s more a kind of structural exercise in mirroring than a compositional tool based in nature. Also, I haven’t studied the Copland piece, and while the Bartok does use tonal folk tunes as the basis for many of its melodies, neither the Copland or the Bartok are tonal pieces, and use mirroring motifs rather than “negative harmony,” which I must admit in all my years of studying college-level music theory is a term I have never heard or read before now.
i used it and its all c-minor chords, just gives the chord in different roman numeral order. although i did end up playing a progression i wouldnt have on my guitar, c minor and Bb major on second string. then g minor f minor on low string back to cminor, sounds nice. in normal roman numerals i VII v iv .
You're really the best teacher in everything music...
I agree. There's no one like Rick out there, with such a level of knowledge in so many aspects of music, throughout so many genres and styles.
I agree @Nahre Sol!!
Rick, this is hands down the best explanation of this concept I've seen. Thank you so much!
Ditto!
I agree
Yes. Because you place it in context, with clear diagrams.
mirror image:
if i write C-E-G on paper and put it in the mirror, it will never give me what Nick is describing nor what Collier described. it will ONLY give me G-E-C everytime.
Therefore true Negative harmony, has a huuuge degree of inelegance because its asking you to give equal prominence to it(N.H.) as you give to Harmony.
Its always a "Bookends" battle.
"HARMONY wants to call C-E-G
C major and Negative Harmony wants to call that same exact chord G minor.
But since our minds are so engrained with the influence of left to right syntactical bias,
we can only refer to C-E-G read right to left as,
"G minor right to left harmony,
or "G minor Negative Harmony,
or if you're from Alabama
G ass-backards minor.
that's not how it works guudii 😂
If you watch this backwards its exactly the same
This makes more sense re negative harmony than anything else I've seen....as always Rick, you're a great teacher, Cheers!
Thank you for the live update. It's a little ironic that I study jazz and rythems and blues in the tremé in new Orleans yet I'm pretty positive 75% of my studies lately come from your channel (pleural now! Grateful for the live) thanks a million man for not dumbing down lessons and making us keep up!
Your inclusion of the mirror image modes and the possibilities of their use with negative harmony options is excellent. All round very clear and concise explanation. My favourite out of the ten I've seen so far on TH-cam. Notes taken! Thank you.
Rick Beato is the best teacher I have known.
I paused and got a guitar out and mixed Ionian and Phrygian in a call and response making sure to resolve the Phrygian phrase to the Ionian mode. It’s a exotic sound. Thank you!
This is absolutely fascinating. "Mirror Modal equivalents" is covered in the Beato book (I've 4.0), pages 100-102, the last 3 pages of ch.1
Certainly one of your best lessons Rick. I think people really need to play around with these chords on a piano to get the sound in their heads. All of this is wonderful, but unless people are hearing these particular sounds before they execute it out on their instruments, it's probably too abstract a concept for most people. However, that goes with everything dealing with language and ideas.
I think is the most interesting video you've done so far. Keep up the good work, Rick!
Student composer and theory teacher here, been massively helped by your videos. Even with topics I already understand I'll always pick something up.
Rick I'm really surprised how much I've learned just watching your videos. I use to know practically nothing about music theory but now I've been watching your work here, I actually feel confident I have a decent foundation. Now I just need to train my ears... Oh your working on that too. Thanks sir!
watched 4 youtube videos on negative harmony before this one. you are the first to explain that the concept is based on opposite or 'undertones" . this explaination is simple and the concept was immediatley understood. thx
I have heard this in my ear in music before, but I didn't recognize the inverted harmony. This is a major musical concept I didn't know. Definitely one of the best videos you have posted yet! Good luck with your new YT channel.
Great video! Wish I had this a few months ago lol. The thing I like about negative harmony is that its a relatively easy way to explore modes and song ideas without drastically altering the aesthetic and voice leading of the music.
Wow! This lesson illuminated chord progressions that I have heard in movie and television soundtracks. Also, in Bartok, who has always mystified me. Great stuff, Rick!
Absolutely fascinating. I’ve been a musician for decades and never come across these concepts before. I just tried to share this with my wife and she just about ran away screaming. I guess all this theory isn’t for everyone, but I’m loving this! Thanks Rick!
If I watch this video backwards will my head miraculously reassemble itself?
ʇɥƃıɹ ǝɹɐ noʎ 'sǝʎ
.lliw ti sey
hahaha
Bravo!
Yes but it will only be a reflective mirror image and you'll have to change your name to palindrome
I was in the middle of watching another video on this subject and I saw the thumbnail for this one. I instantly ditched it for Rick's video, you know your going to get the truth. That's how good this channel is its soo obvious Rick really knows what he is talking about.
The interesting thing is, the "negative harmony" version of any diatonic chord in a major key is a chord borrowed from the parallel minor key.
In other words, the concepts of negative harmony and modal interchange are very closely related!
I know what you mean. The unique quality of negatove harmony is in the voicings you will discover, and therefore hopefully new melodic ideas
Hit the thumbs-down by accident. Sorry about that ..
Mr. Z No it's because Rick assumed that Cm is the "negative" (😷😖😷) of C, which is an arbitrary assumption with no acoustical/mathematical basis whatsoever.
I love this channel and I'm this much closer to order your theory book.
The harmonic series as described is very useful for pretty much most situations... then clarinets come around and throw it all off with their harmonic series built around the 12th instead of the octave. This niche topic may actually be a topic worth exploring at some point -- compare and contrast a clarinet choir and a saxophone choir playing the same piece. I daresay that the saxophone choir will 'blend' better with itself than the clarinets will, to say nothing of how much 'presence' the low clarinets contribute (and, being a bass and contraalto/bass clarinetist, strong presence can make a huge difference in a clarinet ensemble or wind orchestra; most low clarinets players are too... timid).
For the most part, composers and arrangers need only worry about the mainstream harmonic series, but special consideration does need to be taken once clarinets come in; for the most part, it's negligible, particularly orchestrally (Eb, 2 Bb, Bass at most), but it does need mentioning.
This is brilliant, Rick, thanks! I've never seen all this presented so succinctly in one place.
Watching your videos, along with Neely's and Levin's made me start studying music theory with much excitement. Thanks a lot!
Great lesson Mr. Rick.
This is the best harmony lesson i've seen on youtube.
Much love & respect from srilanka
❤🙏
Thank you for the clearest explanation I have found on negative harmony. Concise, articulate and understandable. I appreciate your work and desire to share the knowledge.
As a fiddle player, I have always favored the double minor scale. I love playing music that really evokes the character of my fiddle. You have probably noticed that a string group of players that isn’t working with a tempered instrument (such as a piano or keyboard) plays their sharps a little sharper than the same flat (D# is a little sharper than Eb). Tempered instruments are always a little out of tune somewhere. They make a few small compromises to make the keyboard a reasonable size and easier to play. Nothing wrong with that, I love my piano too. But, that’s part of why some keys sound better on the piano than others. Btw, I don’t have perfect pitch, I am only hearing relatively.
Thanks Rick for bringing this up. I don’t think that I even learned about this in school.
Okay, your live video got me to watch this! I'm 47 and always learning and always will be! I learn from you bro, you are a great teacher, my friend!
Agreeing with Jamsville, best explanation of this concept I've come across thus far. It's after all not that hard, but there is tendency to clutter it up. Thanks for a great video Rick !
You have a great way of breaking down complex topics succinctly. I hope Berklee and Juilliard get in a bidding war for you.
When you drew the circle of fifths made it so clear to me how to find the negative equivalent. Thank you Rick
Your ability to simplify concepts is amazing.
Thanks a lot God of music theory, I watched 3 videos before seeing yours to fully comprehend how negative harmony is applied, when you referenced using the circle of fifths to find the negative harmony of each note, my mind fully understood in that second. You're a brilliant teacher and your ways of teaching are so pleasing to hear and watch, thanks for being my auto corrector when it comes to music ❤️
i had ended music school yrs ago, im so happy to hear aliquotes again, great work, please dont stop.
Dude... Thank you for gifting us with life changing musical information on the regular.
The end part is a very complicated way of saying "Compare the chords in C Ionian to C Aeolian."(then call that "parallel major/minor) Now simply write C Aeolian backwards instead,if you wanna try to impress someone by calling the comparison "negative harmony".
great work! Needed this video! I share all these videos with my son, as he is learning the theory now in high school that I have forgotten since college a billion years ago. Your videos help us both, as he is an aspiring Jazz trombonist, and an all county concert Euphonium player. APPRECIATE YOUR HARD WORK on this! Thanks again!
Also, if you write out a major scale, one octave on the guitar, and then flip it upside you get the Phrygian scale. This is a very easy way to keep track of which scales invert to each other.
7:22 - The reflection of D minor chord of the Ionian mode should be the Eb major chord of the Phrygian mode, not Ab major chord.
Excellent video btw.
And 7:39 the correct combination is Gm/ Bb, not G major.
And at 11:00 the Dº should be a Dbº (then it matches the Circle of 5ths logic as well).
Mirror modal equivalents. I discovered this on my own. This is the first time I have ever heard of this anywhere outside of my own discovery. I use this idea, coupled with some others, to teach modes.
This video and Adam Neelys "Why is Major 'Happy' " along with Adam's unlisted bonus video included in that video are amazing.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video Rick. So many similarities... I too ran the gambit of Music scenes, and bands, 25 years of playing 5-6 nights a week and getting good traction, to just have it go poof... Numerous times. Back in Austin, myself for the second time...same as it ever was. I need to find my "Atlanta". Hell I'm 60 years old already. Damn... not giving up.
Rick, you simply are one of the best Music Educators out there!
Nice explanation. It could be added that, just as every chord and note have their mirror negative images, you can play the negative version of a song by substituting both the chords and the melody by their negative equivalents. Steve Cruickshank has done many songs in this way (they're on YT), and the results are often quite nice.
Awesome vídeo, Rick. Please, do anoter videos, maybe a serie, teaching and giving exemples of negative harmony being used in a pratical way. I love your channel
Rick. You are an amazing teacher providing the logic behind every aspect of music
I used Rick's bit about Negative Harmony in a video to further muddy the brownest of waters. All due respect, and thanks to Rick, who is amazing.
This is the best channel in the world
Touchè! You finally adressed this issue. One of the best videos! You have lot of ability to teach!
Thanks.
Im making notes, really enjoy watching you explain with the white board. i believe i should re -watch the vid and re-write notes in reverse. Thank you, your lessons are brill!
My friend has never heard of this and says it sounds like a weird, cool concept. Says they like your videos a lot and wish you did more in depth videos like this. Keep up the good work!
This is the best explanation on negative harmony I’ve found so far. Congrats!
Brilliant 👏. Most videos on negative harmony make it difficult to understand. Thank you for making things simple.
Rick, this is by far my favorite video lesson of yours so far! Really got me thinking.
Now I am really interested in hearing you apply it in your brilliant own style actually.
The interlude to Alban Berg's opera Lulu, is a palindrome. Also, the 2nd or 3rd movement of Four Intermezzi for guitar and flute by Otto Joachim is a bunch of 12-tone row palindromes within the overall movement's palindromic ABA Ternary form. Also, one of my favorite composers for guitar, Dusan Bogdanovic, recently wrote a quasi-palindromic piece for two guitars. Ngombi Variations, based on an actual two-measure pentatonic melody by a group of Central African pygmies whenever twins are born in their tribe, is in 7 variations. The mirroring of the "twins" concept is most apparent in the middle-most variation which is a ricercar in palindrome, with the guitar parts even switching halfway through. Also, first variation is titled "Prelude" and last is titled "Postlude". One of the variations in 4/4 time has one guitar playing [3+3+3+3+4] while the other guitar is [4+3+3+3+3] sixteenth-note rhythmic phrasing. Would love to see a video of examples of polystylism. For example, "Mother" by The Police, which is a twelve-bar blues in Middle-Eastern sounding 7/8 time with harmonic-minor sounds.
I know it's stupid to say "Oh, so descending is the opposite of ascending"
but that's what I realized upon being reminded of mirror modes
like, emotionally, it's easier to make descending lines on brighter scales to sound sad or intense because you're moving on an inversion
This is very helpful and concise. It's like drinking from a firehose, but now the information is accessible and repeatable. Thank you for bringing the power of the internet to bear on these subjects.
As soon as you mentioned modes I better understood what you were on about. I had looked into modes and intervals many years but had all but forgotten about it. Thanks. I have some ideas I can work on now.
Rick, I hope you get to see this, even though this video is quite old. Your videos are helping me A LOT with learning music.
Your channel is like a FAQ section. Any doubt that I might have is already solved in a video, broken down, analyzed and put in a didactic way.
I just wanted to thank you for giving out all this priceless content for free. To put it simple, it's fantastic.
The circle of fifths explanation is truly brilliant! 10/10!
Best explanation all over the internet
You blow my mind every time I watch one of your videos. Superb content Mr. Beato
Rick you're moving up in the world, it's time to get a white board with a staff.
or a chalk board and dashed lines
Hahahahaha...
A white beard with a staff is what we need
*rickroll
GRACIAS DESDE ARGENTINA!!! Muy buena explicación. Saludos!!!
What i am currently still figuring it out is why do we use the dominant of the tonic as an axis to form (or perhaps to "negatiate") the negative harmony? As you have stated in your video, you use the G phyrigian as the "negative" version of C ionian. My question is that why we have to start with that G instead of keep using C (which will resolve to C phyrigian). It seems more logical to me to construct the negative harmony from C ionian to C phyrigian, as their corresponding notes have the same intervals (WWHWWWH).
By using that concept, we will end up to something like this
C --> Fm
Dm --> G
Em --> A
F --> Bbm
G --> Cm
Am --> D
Bdim --> Fdim
Edit: I have looked through some references on the internet and every articles i read doesnt quiet explain why a tonic-dominant axis is used to transform negative harmony. Why cant we use C-F or perhaps C-B axis?? I figured out what I had written above was the "mirror chords" with respect to C, which means the C act as an axis (a single note axis which reflects the adjacent intervals).
so why do we use G phrygian instead of C phrygian? Rick lost me at this moment 😢
Wow, this lesson is awesome! I'm researching on orchestral composition and I didn't even know this video would be so informative on the matter. I usually put some of your videos on my watch list and this one just happened to be exactly what I needed at the moment! Thanks! And greetings from Brazil!
Hands down, the best explanation of this concept. I get it! Thank you. Would you please do a series on this subject, and give real-world chord-progression advice based on these principles?
Excellent explanation! This is so far the best video I have seen on explaining negative harmony, thanks so much for sharing ! One thing: minute 7:22, the video says D- /Ab, but it is actually D- over Eb.
Amazing, clear explanation and examples!
This is a great video. My only question that doesn't seem to be addressed anywhere is why we are using G Phrygian rather than C Phrygian?
i have the same question, rewatched the video several times so far :)
omg, I was not aware of musical palindromes! Good heavens, it's like physics mixed with music mixed with divine intervention, everything just FITS!!!
I bet that’s why Dorian feels so modal. Great vid!
Is there any more repertoire out there that you can point to that uses this besides the Bartók and Copland’s pieces??? Would love to get this in my ear more and figure out the contexts in which this is employed. This past summer, I utilized the mirror harmony on all other “pressing scales” and have gotten verrrry interesting results. As a music theorist/young scholar, I guess the next step is to find more evidence/primary sources that utilize this.
This is why modal interchange works vis-a-vis the minor subdominant relationship (i.e. borrowing chords from the minor subdominant in a major key)
Seeing it explained via circle of 5th's vs. backward circle of 4ths blew my mind!
Finally understood negative harmony. Thank you Rick, you are the best
Love being a sub here Rick! Your channel is killin man! Keep up the awesome content!
Thank you for this Rick!! I've enjoyed other videos of yours but this one made me a fan for life-liked, subscribed, all in. Excellent explanation with just the right level of detail-clarified but not oversimplified, comprehensive but not over explained, and many open avenues to explore. Did the Beatles come up with those great color chords at random? Maybe, but now I know why they work and where they breed. Roll over Thelonius Monk!
Hey Rick!
Have you ever seen anyone go nuts with the overtone series (and undertone series too, why not) and turn it into a "scale" and use it in a practical and musical way? Maybe using the overtone series of the key of the song and use it in a solo or of a particular chord and play the "scale" over the chord.
Love your stuff! Cheers from Brazil!
Luiz Pires
Johnny Reinhard uses the 7th octave of the overtone series as a 128 note (!!) super chromatic scale. Most impressively, he uses this for improvisation!
That's a great video on negative harmony. Never thought about it that way. How about a video on reharmonizing an actual song with negative harmony. Maybe one that it not just diatonic and a little more complex. That would be a treat! Thanks for all the work and effort you put in your videos giving so much precious knowledge away for free. Love it.
Awesome as always Rick!
This video is great. I love palindromes in language, music, math and life...
Great stuff. Makes you look at (and hear) music in a different way. Thanks for posting.
In my music degree course that covered this, the instructor spent way more time than you did, but didn't explain it nearly as clearly as you did.
Thanks for the video. I'd like a bit more of your thoughts about what is useful about negative harmony and how you or others can use it to make music. I'm sure it's my ignorance but it feels like a clever yet faddish youtube theory concept but not really a useful musical tool - would love to be shown how it is otherwise.
Absolutely Excellent explanation. You are a great Teacher, Rick!
Hey Rick, do you think you could get Billy Corgan on Sounding Off? He's promoting his solo album, so it shouldn't be that hard to get him on. It seems you two would have a lot of interesting stuff to discuss, from studio techniques to the state of the biz.
I found this video today by accident, so this is the first I have heard of the term "negative harmony". But I actually stumbled on this concept on my own several years ago, while doing inversions using the canonic utilities in Finale. I used the middle line (D) of the bass clef as the inversion point. dorian mode was same either way, then Phrygian flipped into Ionian, etc. I thought this was just interesting, but I didnt know until today that there was a whole harmonic theory based on this.
I never knew there was so much complexity to this concept. Thanks for the great vid
Thanks Rick, I think I actually understand it! You are hands down, the best!
The overtones are comprised in equal temperament. The E-G minor third is a wider interval than the G-Bb minor third. 1:6 vs 1:7 ratio. With just temperament you can hear the subharmonics, not with equal temperament. That is why real orchestral music sounds better than sample libraries. The tuning is fluid. In the key of C the Bb is flatter than if I was playing in the key of Eb.
Thankyou Rick, this clarified my hazy understanding of negative harmony.
The overtone frequency aspect of this one is interesting... a conventional major chord sounds 'right' at least in part because it sounds much like part of a single tone, but there's also the aspect of reinforcement of further overtones (where two notes in the chord share an overtone frequency) - which is rarely emphasised except in styles like barbershop which use particular chords and just intonation specifically to do this, and generally aim to emphasise a number of overtones through different pairs of note within the chord. The clearest example being with the 'flat 7th' chord where the frequency ratios are 4:5:6:7 - if you look at the overtones of each note, you'll find all the pairwise combinations of notes double different sets of overtone frequencies.
The undertone series has the interesting 'opposite' property that the 'root note' frequency (which is at the top, in this case) is an overtone of every note in the undertone series. So reflections of major, minor, and dominant 7th chords particularly, should have the effect of 'over emphasising' a single overtone frequency (though it may require some microtuning). Whether that's a pleasant effect to achieve is another question :)
Wow.... a bit of a head spin. I played around with palindromic scales when I was younger and just learning modes (what happens if I use the same intervals in the opposite direction?) but never thought to “mine” the concept for ideas. Yum. Also - Eb-/D-? I LOVE that chord. Thanks!
I'd like to hear this done on an instrument that doesn't fudge it's overtones and preserves their true fractional values. With the piano and other contemporary Western instruments, it’s more a kind of structural exercise in mirroring than a compositional tool based in nature.
Also, I haven’t studied the Copland piece, and while the Bartok does use tonal folk tunes as the basis for many of its melodies, neither the Copland or the Bartok are tonal pieces, and use mirroring motifs rather than “negative harmony,” which I must admit in all my years of studying college-level music theory is a term I have never heard or read before now.
Best explanation on this topic so far! Thanks
The best teacher ever! I wish Rick was my uncle. What a cool ass guy!
Thank you Rick for this amazing explanation of a seemingly distant and far out concept! Loved the video
I've been saving a couple of these for a quiet evening... good one!
i used it and its all c-minor chords, just gives the chord in different roman numeral order. although i did end up playing a progression i wouldnt have on my guitar, c minor and Bb major on second string. then g minor f minor on low string back to cminor, sounds nice. in normal roman numerals i VII v iv .