How to Write Four Chord Loops | A New Theory of Pop Harmony
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- clickbait title: explaining the GENIUS of ARIANA GRANDE using MUSIC THEORY
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CREDITS:
You're Welcome: You're Welcome: Vocals by Lou, bass by Adam Neely, string quartet formed from 3 Bojan Cicics and an Imogen Seth-Smith, animation by Miles Kitaro
Our Axis: Vocals by Trevor Laake
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Hey everyone, I understand that pure dry music theory talk isn't what most people expect from this channel, and I don't expect it to go very far because of that. However, this video is the product of around a full year of theorization and headaches, so I would be very thankful if you took some time to share it. Love you all!
You've created an incredible amount of captivating and compelling music, so I personally cannot wait to watch this :)
I honestly wouldn’t have any issue if this channel became about music theory entirely,
I am 100% here for this
Leaving home is easy. Do you take the easy route back though? I'd love to see your theory applied to Spiral Staircase.
Or my Sunshine Song which is a microtonal 4 chord loop C Am^ Em^ Ddim7
Love you more!!!
As a music layman, this video feels like I walked into the wrong classroom but the lecture was presented so well that I stayed for the whole thing anyway
couldnt have said it better myself
Yeah that describes this exactly
lmao same
Great analogy
.. and having sat through it I feel smarter and dumber at the same time :)
"all modern harmony is actually just applied voice leading"
Finally, someone says it out loud!
Pro tip: watch Alan Belkin's series on Modern Harmony...
Yeah thats what i have been thinking aswell!
Yeah lol I stopped for a minute to think about it but it's so true.
This comment is everything. Sums up a feeling I've had for decades but struggled to articulate.
any harmony teacher will tell u this
I was not expecting to see Adam Neely's fursona today, but I'm here for it!
i like the comparison between I-V-vi-IV and primary colors. Because when people point out how so many songs use it and they all go together, it's like yeah, they do! It's just like how the most fundamental colors mesh well with a lot of other colors, too
Hey, carykh! I love your videos!
why are you here?
@@ijmtfhgffshg2348 Why are any of us here? Just to suffer?
There are more chord progressions in music but primary colors covers almost all colors that human can see. Like your evolution and ML series BTW~
Didn't know you were a music theory guy!
not just one, but TWO absolute bangers in this music theory video. amazing
am i surrpised Jan Misali the cute fraud is following patricia
I swear everyone i know follows Patricia
It wasn't something I knew but it's something that, knowing it, makes complete sense.
Jan Misali has the best taste
i guess you could say "your welcome"
Should've known two of my favorite youtubers knew each other
I was thinking, "this Our Axis thing isn't all that catchy, I think the proof-of-concept failed", but now here I am three weeks later and it's still stuck in my head. You win, Patricia.
I think what people like Sideways miss in their analysis is that there's more to the dynamics of a song than solely the harmonic progression. The perspective on a chord loop and the way it's played have a HUGE impact on the how the journey of a song feels. I've heard some songs that are way more of a thrilling of a journey than any classical pieces that use very repetitive chord loops, but beyond the resolutions within a chorus, there are also greater resolutions that come from changes in volume, introduction and removal of instruments, and different melodies over the same chords.
Late, but as someone who's primary musical diet is comprised of the horribly named) IDM and British rave genres, I suddenly came to the realization that When David Heard was kind of a cheaty example to pair with that scene when recontextualized as a show of the power of harmony... Because I realized that big cadence read to me as *it's own loop of tension and release.* It was a choral riser, with the tension being the huge, dissonant swell of noise accompanying each word, and the release being those little shifts in dynamic as each word starts and ends, and *especially* the big gap of silence before Goku's Super Saiyan form is revealed.
That and the common cultural association of a choir implying the unleashing of divine power.
My ears were attuned to that this whole time because IDM and rave don't rely quite as much on harmony as pop or choral would for their musical motion. Dynamics and timbre are what really sell it for them, so... Yeah. Many ways to hear things, eh?
If you were to use just the harmony with *no* dynamics, it wouldn't be nearly as effective. Even his classical example makes use of significant amounts of this sort of... Micro-scale tension? At least to my ears.
"Welcome to your first day in art class, kids. Today we'll be learning about why primary colors are fucking dogshit." XD
Taken out of context, it sounds like a tumblr shitpost
literally the foundation stone of traditional art pedagogy everywhere. "Everything you have ever thought of is kitsch, here is why the stuff you want to make sucks with big complicated charts that you're too dumb to understand, you will learn to understand art exactly like me if you want to have a career".
delete the "XD" and i will like the comment
The song at 14:04 I hear as being in Bb major and I think this is because of the melody. The melody seems to clearly resolve to Bb and this sets the context in which I hear the 4 chord loop. I know some people have an issue with chord progressions that don’t have the 1 chord in them but I 100% hear this chord progression as IV vi V bVII.
Great video by the way! Very refreshing take! 🙂🙂
I did at first too. Soloing Bb major scale over the first three chords, then Ab Lydian over the last. But then I noticed it could just be a I-iii-II-IV (the turnaround at the end of Yesterday verses is I-vi-II-IV-I, so just vi subbed for iii) in Eb. I tried that with an F Mixolydian over F and it sounds just as good. To me it seems it could be analyzed and/or soloed either way. The real question is Ab or A when improvising. The Eb seems to be so tonally centered that the A of Eb Lydian doesn't sound good to my ear, and I prefer Eb Ionian. However, the Gm seems to be able to be either G Phrygian (Ab) or G Aeolian (A) but the M2 interval of the A sounds a little more tonally centered. Final Ab feels more Lydian like plagal cadence return to Eb Ionian. Interesting progression for sure. It seems to straddle two keys, but I still feel the I iii II IV spelling looks more logical (like a Beatles progression, cause they loved that II chord).
I hear it so too, but listening to the whole song, Gm is the tonic.
Exactly!! The Gm totally feels vi to me. But that's just in this excerpt.
@@paulariihimaki5548 Bb and Gm are the same scale... #modes
@@discussionfortherightway.9725 Yeah I know, I'm a music theory teacher. Maybe you don't know what "tonic" means...
My favorite thing about that guy’s Allstar covers is that he did like a thousand of them, and you can still always see him reading the lyrics off his screen in every one. I cannot be convinced that it is not deliberate staging
Personally, I find it very hard to remember the order of lyrics.
Sometimes I don't remember the word, other times I don't remember the order of the words , especially if it comes to a repetitive progression, I just get lost in space, n can't tell, so idk XD
@@MalkuthEmperor I hope you won't take this personally but the world is gonna roll you
I've gotta say, for the second musical break it's amazing how much timbre changes my perception of the harmony. It felt kind of jarring when just played on piano but when produced like a pop song the jagged edges seemed to disappear, changing a harmony exercise into moments of emotional energy
That cute little puppy hiding under the stage!
I am getting big ViHart vibes from this video, not in like imitation, but in influence. I feel this same innate, experimental joy in this video that I feel with a lot of hers, though it definitely has that Patty Taxxon exploratory feel.
Idk if I'm making any sense. But this is the best video essay of the year. Thank you :)
she was my favorite youtuber when i was a young teen
@@Patricia_Taxxon SAME I absolutely loved her
@@Patricia_Taxxon "So....I'm in a good mood today, let's roll with that..."
Gah...if that's not a total mood. My best days, when I'm feeling fully awake and alive....I tend to find petty bullshit very easy to either ignore...or even start to parse out the actual value in it. Feeling like shit tends to make me very judgmental and petty. Anyway, I just loved that one line lol...
But missing the awesome drawing.
your vibes are irrational
I think there's something beautiful about four-chord loops. I feel like a lot of people watch videos like The Axis of Awesome's and leave with a takeaway of "pop music is so unoriginal, all these people have no talent, etc." But my takeaway was completely opposite - you can get a lot of variation out of those four chords. Sometimes, a nice four-chord loop can sound better than a long, winding progression for a particular context. There's something grounding about it. It doesn't even necessarily make the song "repetitive" as a whole, any more than having a backbeat does.
This was amazing, i would watch a complete course on this subject!! Low key i was getting tired of everyone on youtube hating on pop, we need more nerding on the theory behind it!!! I've seen a lot of big jazz and classical channels attempting to writte a pop song and then failing miserably... But here you are writing an entire album and making this incredible explanation. I mean you are a true legend!!
Fr the whole "haha pop dumb haha 4 chords get it haha where's my augb7#17 chords at" is just so grading, but I guess it makes sense because in every field there are douches that want to feel good about themselves
I'm begining to thing that thease fixed labels are the reason why music theory is so difficult for people.
For me especially I've always had trouble with recognising what a cirtain progression is.
For example the tonic of a progression is sopposed to be " the most stabile" as they teach us, but to me, it doesent sound stabile at all sometimes, and other times it's something in the middle, and really no wonder, since it's all dependant on context.
It's a usefull refference tool for sure when you want to recognise the elements within a scale, within a harmony, but this doesent seem to have much to do with the actual feeling which a given progression gives.
And with so many variations in which you can place even the same 3 notes, and all of them perfectly capable of creating nuanced emotions in of themselves, its no wonder that our " chord to scale analisys" isn't really sufficient in order to be able to make a generalised analisys true for everyone, or even most people.
Generally speaking, I think that when people attack pop, it's either because they enjoy more dense technical music, or they are talking about the fact that for example jazz or something is harmonically more complicated, and thus better when the criteria for what's" better" is " that which is more complicated" .
I used to be a snob about this stuff, but really over time I grew out of it, and generally analysing myown opinions from then, I think that it's just the case of lack of empathy with other people's musical emotions, and lack of empathy towards the music itself.
It's like when we don't like a cirtain food, and we think that that food has a horrible taste; music is in my view an acquired taste, yet there are still some kinds of progressions and songs which I don't enjoy, no matter how many times I've been exposed to them, and even if I can understand it on an emotional level ( which usually at least makes me feel neutral towards a song which i previously didnt like)
This beeing said, I do think that it's sometimes fun to shit on things we don't like, just for the sake of fun, especially when it comes to taste, since it is subjective and it is generally harmless if it is with the apropriate bounds of " all parties are aware what's happening, and its not with the purpoce to offend or hurt in any real sence, but maybe just to tease or to make wacky stuff up"
Having said this tho, there are many snobs which generally have a distaste for cirtain ganres, and its to the point that thease people will litterally look down on someone who listens to a type of music, and it's frankly pretty disturbing to me, because I have some friends which on most topics are great, but when it comes to turbo folk, it's like they just consider the people listening to that music as moral ingrates..and it's pretty disturbing.
I will say tho, that as someone who has also had that simular reaction to turbofolk before, I understand whare it's coming from.
In this case it's because this music is connected to a particular culture which that music tries to promote, and that is of " the shallow, all I need is money, bitches, and drugs" type of culture, and the reach of this kind of music whare I live has really almost given a push to thease kinds of ideas, to the point whare people actually take thease ideas seriously enough to live by them to some degree ( which kinda results in half the country or more having credit cards debt, in order to look rich infront of their friends)
Okay, I have to step back a little, because it's gonna sound like I think that " the music" changed thease people's lives for the worst, which I don't think is what happened.
What I think happened was " the people were in a shit socio-economic situation, in large part due to capitalism, and then the music just gave them ideas which they were likely already feeling, and so it just made it more acceptable to flounder money when you don't have any"
Something like this in general, and I use "capitalism as well, a standing for the many things which capitalism stands for, which I won't go into"
Back to something from earlier, I feel like I need to justify a statement I've made earlier, because it's on topic, and that is when I said " something like jazz is more complicated than pop" , and the reason I say this is that since Jazz is more dence with harmony, than by default it has more emotional variation within it, in order to be able to analise it. Going by the logic " if 4 chords take us an hour to analise, then 8 chords should take us 2 hours or more, " ( since the possible variations increased substancially)
As was my main point however, this does not say anything about whether pop is better or worse than jazz, or vice versa, but is merely commenting on the general state of things( general because jazz is not a complex monolith whareby every song is dence to the brim and offers the same complexity)
In conclusion, I think that what you said is correct, and pop should really be treated more seriously as a great framework with which to create emotions and theories.
Speaking of which, I spent the last 4 hours analysing a Dua Lipa song called "dance the night away" and god damn, I finally started to understand how substitutions work. And I found so many useful and straightforward concepts for composition within that one song that I'm just astounded at how that's even possible. I was litterally trying to see why 2 out of the 4 pre chorus chords can be changed with other chords.
And a bit of what I found is:
Em7,Bm and G can be used interchangeably with eachother, and so can F#m, A, F#.
And this is all because of the fact that the vocal songs the notes "B-D, C#-F, D-F#, G" over the chords " Em7, F#m, G, E"
And the notes in the melody are all main notes in the construction of those interchangeable chords I mentioned.
Try it if you play an instrument! Sing or hum the melody of the song, and then use different variations of thease chords on top of the melody.
It's so much fun!
hope I didn't bore you with this last bit haha.
Anyway, have a nice day
"Tagg says it's a circle" (shows a square)
iconic
I mean... they are topological isomorphism after all.
an incredible learning experience AND i get to see a furry adam neely. maybe 2021 will be alright
Why? It was going so well. You jinxed 2021
or so you thought.
Wow, as a classicaly trained composer and music theorist I'm amazed by this inspiring theoryzation of pop music that makes me listen more carefully and openly to it, being prepared to letting myself be surprised in unexpected ways. I love your two pop songs you wrote for demonstration purposes. They're sounding both somewhat familiar and attention-drawing strange. Very beautiful and artful! And that's what I'm always interested in: art! Craftsmenship! Music has to draw my attention both to my gut feeling as well as to my brain. And your whole lecture and your music does that wonderfully. Thanks a lot!
That one fucking modulation in the string quartet section of Your Welcome is SOOO GOOD. Absolutely fantastic video, I feel like you absolutely nailed on the head how I and probably many others intuitively write cyclical progressions without necessarily directly referencing music theory concepts, but rather by feeling progressions through a series of departures and resolutions.
Love it! 💗💗💗
finally someone noticed the modulation
"Using secondary dominants gives you mad cred with music youtubers" lmao
We need to refer to all chord progressions by the names of Lady Gaga songs they’re featured in
And now we know what Adam Neely's fursona looks like.
The lord's work
I don't know what "music" is but I'll still watch the entirety of the video because I love hearing Patty talk!!
same
Uh, no.
A really wonderful summation of and expansion on a lot of the things I’ve seen floating about and that I’ve been thinking about for a while: that traditional functional harmony doesn’t work well for loop-based songs, but that Tagg’s approach doesn’t always feel right either. Your taxonomy of chord changes has given me lots to think about, and plenty to guide my experiments, and that’s what music’s all about.
@@DevonRiding-db It doesn't work well because functional harmony is a model that mainly describes 18th century compositions.
"People are using this current theory every day to communicate with each other and create music"
True, functional harmony gives us words to communicate. It's kind of an approximate model. It just isn't as effective as a modernized model.
The goal of a modernized theory is to find new ways of communicating ideas, to be more accurate, to express more with less, etc.
This videos also a good guide to not getting copyright claimed
my two cents on the Rosalía progression, Phrygian is a common chord color in flamenco musical styles. seeing as her background is in flamenco, I wouldn't be surprised this chord choice was at least partially influenced by that decision. But also, four chord loops work well at creating interesting choices. the song "I Fall in Love Every Night" by Born Ruffians does some interesting things with compound four chord loops (typical mixolydian rock stuff but interesting moments in the middle)
also, two more cents on the doo wop progression - there was a strong relationship with music in that era with classical music, which later on in our western music world we started to subconsciously reject classical functional harmony. hence the relationship to functional motions, vs. modern chord progressions which deviate from a "functional" mindset.
lastly, two MORE cents on Ariana Grande's progression, I see it as an overlap between pop sensibilities in four chords with the recent attraction to lo-fi hiphop and it's relationship with jazz and bossa (not to mention j-pop's relationship with jazz, which is a deep rabbit hole). also, "tonicisation" is a very useful trait of jazz music's contribution to this overlap. would be interesting to see what you think of Best Part by Daniel Caesar, which has the same energy as Thank U, Next.
all of this to say, cultural contexts create interesting variations between established structural fundaments in our societal framework. any chord progression can make any sense so long as the cultural context is reconciled/recognized within it's musical logic. syntax is probably the word?
I love the idea of using this structure as inspiration tho! making or using structures for urself, figuring out their quirks, and finding ways you'd use them to make what you dig, is the best part of making music.
with all these cents I am now poor, lol
oh and the end song is a bonafide banger jesus damn
born ruffians do all sorts of interesting harmonic / melodic stuff i dont hear people talk about a lot mostly because people dont talk about born ruffians a lot. awesome to see them here though
This is the perfect encapsulation of everything I've felt about music theory in my past few years of trying to understand it. In 45 minutes you've taught me what would have taken me 10 years to figure out on my own. Thank you so much
This video finally made me “get” chords and now i feel so powerful in my songwriting
Cat Adam Neely is so cute! Miles always does a good job with these animations!
oh my goodness you coming up on stage ohhhhh i can't take it!
These are exactly the music theory takes I needed to hear. I grew up with a lot of modal music, so when it comes to defining my own chord progressions harmonically, the textbook approaches always feel really confusing. Thanks so much for shining a light on this new way of listening and creating!
im so pumped to watch this over and over again
She wrote "You're Welcome" across from "thank u, next"
Ha ha thats pretty neat
Pretty much what I said.. ha
ok Our Axis fucking goes hard omg. maybe this will be what finally gets me into music as more than just background noise
music is just background noise to you? how is life being fucking braindead
@@dumb_as_rocks well, looks like you know how it feels already wink wink
@@dumb_as_rocks Rude. Not everyone is musically inclined, y'know?
@@dumb_as_rocks ?
@@TheTourtopoulais It's getting hot here. I can feel the heat and smell the smoke.
when the mice came in and started playing beautiful string music i just started crying
I like to imagine this comment out of context
@@farewellnico7080 🤣
15:30 broke my brain, you made me hear Unwritten in a totally new way and I can't undo it. I love this video so much
Man as someone with a mindset so oriented in classical, jazz, and prog, it's really interesting but also like, odd to check out and learn about pop theory. When writing my own music I really don't like staying in a key nor looping any chord progressions because I feel like it gets boring immediately, but at the same time a lot of other music I like uses four-chord progressions or other things like vamps and I can jam to it with no problem.
Idk, it's weird; I like listening to music with these kinds of loops but I hate writing them because when I write them they feel boring and stagnant. Maybe it's because I write only instrumental music? Can pop music work and be exactly as interesting without lyrics?
in my eyes at least the lyrics feel integral to pop, as they provide a lot of meaning and variation. while it certainly isn't impossible to write pop without lyrics, you'd have to be a lot more creative with instrumentation
Did you just forget about dance and instrumental hip hop/trip hop?
Well. Vocals act as.... Vocal leading that really helps with chord looping. Try picking a good chord loop and then really honing in on your vocal leading with sax or trumpet. Something like that.
I think with stuff like loops, it’s really important to have a melody that leads the ear to each chord,
Idk I find voice leading really important to making the loops interesting
Yes. Most progressions sound boring alone. But with the right melody over them and a good beat is where the magic happens.
This has got to be one of the most influential videos I have ever watched in my life. It really offered me an amazing way to understand and enjoy the music that I love to hear and make! I can't thank you enough!
Plagiarism discourse is sad, but I'm glad it managed to lead me to this video because it's excellent. I found it interesting, helpful and entertaining. Thank you so much for brightening my day!
This is one of my favorite videos about music theory on TH-cam. Deserves way more attention than it's had so far.
"So....I'm in a good mood today, let's roll with that..."
Gah...if that's not a total mood. My best days, when I'm feeling fully awake and alive....I tend to find petty bullshit very easy to either ignore...or even start to parse out the actual value in it. Feeling like shit tends to make me very judgmental and petty. Anyway, I just loved that one line lol...
I just listened to your new album. I loved it. Also, I love it when you sing in your music. The songs featuring your voice are my favorite ones :)
Hey hello i forgot to *engage* with this *content* yesterday but yeah everytime Patricia uploads I think I've found the best video on this platform, and everytime I have to correct myself when she uploads the next one. This was amazing and I think I finally understand harmony now.
Also thanks for showing us Adam Neely's fursona.
Yer lil fursona character in that "You're welcome" animation is jus the cutest lil thing
Hearing Adam Neely (in his own Q&A video) say "My Fursona" was the funniest shit to me i swear
@@signisot5264 You know it feels good when your two fetishes come together.
I probably lost my sane somewhere.
The entire year of research put into this definitely paid off. This is really good
Thanks for making this video! I just subscribed and I love the depth that it goes into and how it looks at it from a different perspective than standard classical music theory. Especially being that it's a completely different style of music and has many different conventions. I also LOVE the bit about "these are my subjective responses and thoughts about these changes" considering where the origins of the different names for Augmented 6th chords came from. Not that this is offensive in any way, but including that disclaimer I think is very useful.
0:53 ohh shit go off
I don't think I've seen anybody stand up to Rick Beato like that 🙏🙏🙏
It could be because he comes off as the kind of person who, when told something about music that differs from his perspective, will gladly tell you why you are 100% wrong.
It's always funny to read some of the TH-cam comments in his videos where the comment didn't start off completely positive or brown-nosey actually. It's usually met with some form of the following:
1. Are your ears even working, bro?
2. How many videos have you made that have been watched by millions, bro?
3. I have 1 million subscribers. How many subscribers do you have, bro?
4. How many records have you produced that have gone platinum, bro?
5. You just don't know what you're talking about, bro.
6. *literally anything that just tries to put you down*
If the commenter was from one of Rick's loyal fans, then his snide reply is always met with some version of "Oh my god I am so sorry; don't take it the wrong way, *tries to win back his approval through compliments, calling him a genius, etc".
For a person who has accomplished so much, he sure comes off as thin-skinned from his comment history.
@@aguzman11189 That's true, I haven't looked at his comments much. Even if you don't think Rick is a pretentious douche, his videos are at the very least not very good. His videos are extremely drawn out way longer than they need to be, and he (somewhat arrogantly) never consults any outside sources like 12tone or Adam Neely do.
@@teddydunn3513 Are you talking about his videos where he live streams a music theory lesson? Or videos like "What Makes This Song Great?". I personally like that series a ton; it's helped me have more of an understanding of why a song sounds the way it does.
I can see what you mean about the livestreams. I never watch those for the same reasons, where it's like 45 minutes about a topic that could be explained in 2 minutes. I personally see it as just him using his channel to sell his Beato Book 2.0 (or whatever version it is now) or his ear training course. Absolutely nothing wrong with that; a guy's gotta put food on the table and it's pretty clever how he has managed to generate revenue from his knowledge and skills in the art he is so passionate about. But because of the livestream format, you can't expect it to be of the same caliber as his other video series, where I imagine he puts 100x the amount of effort into it.
@@aguzman11189 I'm more talking about his live streams and his theory videos, and especially his rants. The "What Makes this Song Great?" series is actually pretty good imo.
Andres Guzman-Ballen I have always kind of instinctively avoided the Rick Beato videos in spite of them always being recommended to me. I guess now I know why.
Re, the "Thank you Next" chord loop, That progression is from Bill Withers, "Just the two of us"
Bill resolves it by stopping at the Bm flat second time around.
Without the resolution, the whole thing's rolls forward.
That cover of unwritten is adorable
All I can say, All I have ever said is... Poggers. Just Poggers, also keep up the good music. I've been listening to it while gaming (CS:GO, TABG) and it has improved my gameplay experience one ton. Appreciate it my fellow gamer, appreciate it.
>TABG
unequivocally based and landfall-pilled
Our Axis still drives me insane, two years later. The bit where, instead of coming back down to reset, turning a loop into a spiral staircase? That moment lives in my head rent-free
this video was like a musical asteroid colliding with my steady orbit. i have watched it countless times seems, and i learn so much each time. it changed my entire trajectory as a musician and artist. i am very thankful for your brain
"Adam what do you want for your fursona?"
"I just wanna be a cool cat."
Pure dry music theory fuck yea!!!!
I'm not being ironic I'm genuinely hyped
@@MAUD_IFY I can totally relate with the ironic part as these empty soul analysis of the most sacred cosmic law of music is flirting with hybris -_- departure resolution... OMG :/
@@OdysseyBill what is your point?
@@MAUD_IFY this more or less www.amazon.com/Secret-Lore-Music-Hidden-Orpheus/dp/0892816600
ban Amazon buy it from your local bookstore ;)
Seeing pop music analyzed sincerely is incredibly refreshing, and the two songs you made are so catchy! This is really well done all around.
Nailed it, absolutely nailed it. You put into words what I've been thinking for years.
Check out the little Patty hiding under the stage doing all the computer work and just chilling, love that little reveal.
The final song sounds like an EDM remake of a 1970s Yes song, with the grandiose, abstract and layered vocals and the unexpected chord changes
getting "all of western harmony is applied voice leading" tatted on my forehead
pics plz
Pretty interesting! This reminds me of 12tone's own extension of/alternative to that original chord loop theory, but coming at it from a very different angle.
You are literally such an inspiration. PLEASE, do whatever you want on this channel, I'm here for all of it.
30:46 my brain started melting until I realized you were probably just taking revenge against everyone out there with perfect pitch
it sucks that the likes/dislikes are turned off. this is a banger patricia video
"a couple more things before the video is over"
Video progress: 1/3
Ohhh I think I love you a little XD
5:03 just setting a marker for when unwritten plays, love the lofier cover
said "holy shit" out loud at 37:39 when you revealed doing a secondary subdominant into the relative major with the flat vi. i did not expect that to work
Would also like to point out that contemporary pop music is mostly sonic functionality rather than traditional harmonic functionality of classical music/pre 21st century pop and rock. It’s more about energy flow and restriction, muting and adding elements within an arrangement. Rather than the tonic/dominant and consonant/dissonant relationship of traditional functional harmony. You can very easily map out and quantify the energy flows of contemporary pop music. The first contemporary pop songwriter to really hone this distinction was Max Martin.
21:07 I actually like your minor plagal version. It sounds like a Radiohead song to me. Definitely some unexpectedness in there but I think it works to keep the listener engaged. Just imagine Thom wailing over it!
Oh my god You're Welcome is gonna be stuck in my head forever now.
I can't believe you just calmly went back to the video after that.
21:26 "This sucks.." are you kidding?! That Ebm6 to Bb was the shit!
I think the point is, it's not very Pop-y at all
You are an icon!! I'm revisiting this video (and others of yours) after a couple of years, and it's been great.
I just had some passing thoughts on your chromatic mediant section, specifically the biii/bvi discussion. Using the bvi as a way to incite a minor plagal cadence to the bIII really sounds fantastic to my ears!
Perhaps you've thought of this already, but Video Games by Lana Del Rey (in E minor) dramatizes what I'll call a bvi to resolve to a minor i at the end of the chorus, essentially as an even sadder minor plagal cadence. It's almost as if the c minor chord tried to resolve to G, but got lost along the way home and landed on E minor instead.
Even the chord progression alludes to this possibility, beginning by alternating between Em and G before ending on C that resolves to E minor again, like far more common bVI-i resolution. I've seen comparisons of the bVI in minor to the IV in major, but never the bvi in minor to the iv in major. I'm curious as to your thoughts on the extra sad minor-plagal-esque bvi-i and if you've seen or written anything similar!
"...teetering precariously and cadencing directly..."
damn that's a good sentence
Bloody hell. This idea (that the transitions are the basic building blocks, and that you optimise for big cadences throughout the loop), seems to explain everything I want to do when I try to write music.
pop music about to go super saiyan evry 10 minutes i spit
Multiple Gokus are more powerful than just one
The little diversion on the Natasha b song is so beautiful
good to see someone who can back up their theories with actual music that they made
Really appreciate the work you put into this, it's definitely an area of music theory that needs new models of analysis and I think you've come up with some really good insights. Further to what you've said about the ambiguity between some departures and resolutions I think it's important to acknowledge that the position of a chord in a loop affects how a listener perceives it. Any chord falling on strong harmonic beats (1st and 3rd bar of the loop or 1st and 3rd beat depending on the speed of the harmonic rhythm) is going to sound more like it arrives as a resolution rather than a departure. I think this could be exploited for some interesting effects when using chords that have multiple functions under this model.
i've had "you're welcome" on repeat all day
This is one of the best music theory videos I‘ve ever seen on YT. Your way of thinking about these chords changes and the theory you presented in this video reflect the way I hear them so well, it's almost uncanny. Oh, and you're a great pop song writer as well!
2:41 "its a circle"
*S Q U A R E*
But Group theory would say it's Cyclic....!
@@timbeaton5045 spotted a mathematician in the wild
Our Axis is a banger and I haven't been able to stop listening to it for a couple weeks at this point. Thank you for this unusual and wonderful masterpiece
Trying to avoid being weird but, I've been letting music affect me more this year than in previous years and its both destroyed and emboldened me in beautiful ways. I'm still early on my journey of finding out what it is about music that grips my heart so tightly, but I think this theory works really well. I relate to how you view music, I guess is all I'm saying.
Genuinely brought to tears multiple times in this video from how the chords affected me, especially Our Axis at the end. Your year of effort beared exceptional fruit, and I hope you're proud of the work you've put in! Thank you!
Great job on this vid, dude! A good fresh take on 4 chord progressions. Thanks!
"jacob collier infected me im sorry" 🤭
This video was lovely! In addition to being a cool method of analysis this was a really strong demonstration to me of the fact that music theory isn't some set of rules that define music, but instead it's people making up tools to think about that music-and that you can make up your own tools whenever your existing ones don't fit.
For me, a jazz musician, the third chord in Pienso En Tu Mira seems to work because of two things, the notes in the chords, and the relationship of the third chord to the first/last chord in the loop. All the notes in an Ab chord are contained within an Fm7 chord (F, Ab, C, Eb). When we go from the F chord to the Ab chord, there is an implied movement (rootless voicing) from that F Major chord to an F minor 7 chord. Also, the Ab is a IV chord to the Eb so that's why we get that cadence feeling when the loop repeats. These are just my thoughts as a jazz musician and am no opposed to other perspectives!
It is also the same chordal relationship in the Beatles You Won't See Me
You have no idea how valuable this is!
It's so great to see new ways of thinking about things.
the chorus of Our Axis gave me chills when it hit my gOD. thats how i remember Pendulum sounding
giving me hold your colour vibes
such a refreshing pop song to say the least ....exhilarating new feelings yet absolutely somehow pop! Sophisticated pop is where its at, you know a lot of interesting harmonic exploration in bossa nova era ... then people like Djavan... bobby caldwell, steely dan, stevie wonder, level 42.. so much here for us to explore. Thanks for the inspiring video and sharing your music!
AW YEAH BABY ANOTHER LONG ESSAY FROM PATTY
Watched this whole video for the third or fourth time in a year. Such an awesome resource. This is my first time watching since learning the framework from the metaharmony channel, and it makes it a lot easier for me to identify which changes are departures and which are resolutions.
My first exposure to the 4 chord structure was Todd in the Shadows. He had (and still has) a running joke where everytime he hears a song that sounds similar to Don't Stop Believing he pretends to dramatically find out that it's the 4 chords of pop
Fuck she mentions it hahaha
GOD THIS WHOLE THING IS SO GOOD
Patricia really broke down the four chords, gave us a song that slaps, explained even more, and then gave us a song that blows your tits clean off. Thank you Patricia
This was the first video of yours that I watched. Imagine my surprise when I watched the rest! Great channel. Will definitely check out the tracks too, once I've finished working on a few chord sequences.
While I REALLY like both of the original compositions in this video, it stands out to me that your style of lyrics is extremely not pop. That's not a complaint, just makes me think there's a whole avenue of analysis that can be done on writing lyrics in this style as well and it's a pretty crucial component to getting that style down
I love your video! It really churned me and gave me a new perspective on my songwriting. The Get-Lucky-Progression would fit into your video for analysis very well. Thank you very much, Patricia. By the way, Our Axis is such an ear worm to me.
That ending song was a chromatic mediant fever dream and I am HERE for it
I love this video so so so much. Any time you discuss art, I feel like I'm getting a perspective that makes things click into place for me in a way they didn't before, and as someone who's already fascinated by music theory, watching this was enthralling. thank you so much, i'm so glad you make the things you do
Lemmie watch this 3 more times, then I'll tell you my thoughts