Yooo I love this technique! I wish more musicians understood the power of playing “off” of the melody line, changing keys within the key! Great job! 🔥🔥🔥🔥
That’s just it - understanding it. I wonder why I hadn’t grasped this before. Even KC’s statement about changing keys within the key is another helpful contributory nugget in the process 🙌🏾..
I took a private lesson with Rob Araujo and he taught me this. It took me about 2 years to really implement it but this is what all the monster players are doing.
@Nixonkutz3018 Exactly, what I was going thru. But what tremendously helps you narrow down all of the possibilities that the chord could be, is by choosing what scale degree the melody 🎵 note is going to be from the beginning. Which is awesome because it gives you a road map for chord selection with understanding on the fly. In all my years of studying and being a TH-cam fanatic 😂 I have never heard it explained like this. Thank you Jeff.
Interesting approach never did it that way before. I did the typical use melody and create a new bass line then create a new chord based on relationship of those notes. This using melody, deciding what chord tone it will be and create the new chord off that. I like the results you got plus good exercise in voice leading.
And the truth is…I’m not even thinking about voice leading here. Just trying to find cool individual voicings, which goes a long way. Thx for watching!
And me I just did what Jeff just describe (naturally before wathcing this video). I'm going try the approach you just describe. It's true that I had to work preety hard some time to make coherent bassline (but that was half the fun). Thanks for sharing.
This is amazing! Seriously the most illuminating "trick" (not to diminish it) I've come across in a long time. Thank you for the knowledge and inspiration, Jeff!
Makes sense - the problem I've been having with reharm is trying to pick from the zillions of possible chords that could go with the melody note. This is methodical to narrow that down, then just play them and see what sounds good. Great stuff!
Exactly, But what helps you narrow down all of the possibilities that the chord could be, is by choosing what scale degree the melody 🎵 note is going to be. Which is awesome because it gives you a road map for chord selection Thank you Jeff.
I’ve always liked the idea of “reverse engineering”, which is similar to this idea of approaching the melody/chord “equation” backwards. Reverse engineering can also work on finding out how songs are constructed in general.
Fascinating! It would be interesting to try this technique on a hymn like, What A Friend ( We Have In Jesus ). Not that something similar hasn't already been done. Yet, this definitely brings a fresh approach to traditional popular songs.
Cool video. I must say that I was given this exercise many many years ago after I had asked my teacher how I might spice up bland chord progressions. If you work it through this approach will yield great results
extra chuckle here at 5:55 'is this gonna sound good? who knows! maybe not! so far it sounded pretty cool! :)' lovely moves all over, reminds me of every Robert Glasper intro interlude noodle passage ever
Hahaha, you really killed it when you said we don't need to know anything about chord progressions. I was wondering before you said it, what about harmonic context? LOL
My question is, why aren't there tons of DAW tools that harmonize like this? Cubase has a "distance" function, but that's from prior chord. Scaler gives you tons of chords and progressions, but what is suggested here is that pressing a single note on your keyboard SHOULD enable Scaler (or some tool) to FILTER DOWN THE POSSIBLE CHORDS to just show you all the options Jeff has laid out. Closest tool I know of is FORAGER by Harvest Plugins, where you can pick a scale/mode, and then SPECIFY a "must include" NOTE or even NOTES (i.e. your "keyboard" note above, but manually chosen in the interface), and THEN on top of that, even optionally include chords that would bring in 1, 2 or 3 non-diatonic tones to build the chord from! An IDEAL tool would leverage the knowledge suggested by Forager / Jeff, but ALSO, like Cubase Chord Pads, suggest the SMOOTHEST VOICING (inversion, drop 2, or other voicing etc.) based upon the prior chord! Even better, it would integrate with the DAW so as to let you keyboard control a LOOP from the prior chord and melody notes into this "new" chord so that you could pick the option you want. Anyone know of another VST tool that even partially fits the bill here? Jeff: let's design it and do a kickstarter to build it! (p.s. I have a killer design already for an entirely new arpeggiator/sequencer VST)...
That's probably not common because for any one note, it could be contextualized into basically any chores in existence. Unless you're saying you would specify to the program that the note is the major third or whatever, in which case, it's easy to just play the chord yourself? It sounds like you literally just want the computer to spit out your music for you and say you did something.
I learned this technique from one of Adam Neely's reharmonization videos. So far I've used it for a prog/jazz/fusion reharm of In the End by Linkin Park and Hatikvah. It feels kind of like a cheat, but honestly helps coming up with some sick non-functional progressions. Don't overuse it, but it really has limitless possibilities
*Question: But how do you know what goes with the right hand now?* Playing the melody to 'roe roe your boat' as is will sound wrong with those chords you just came up with up.
This is way too much for me as a beginner ^^. Any suggestions on how to get into this whole topic of building more complex chords (and how they are named) and chord progressions without getting completely overwhelmed?
Great Video! Can I ask... how I could restrict the outcome to "not so out there"? Is there a way to use this to keep it in the pop sound realm? Of course don't use extended chords I guess, but should we only use common chord tones... 2, 3 ,5, 7? Does that make sense? Thanks!! EDIT: Also... I suppose the more you develop the whole tune/song... I suppose the more you lean your chords tonalities to make sense... according to what you have and where it's going?
I don't think this technique is as useful for pop sound. For pop sound I think you would be served better by starting with typical pop chord progressions and then branching out from there to make it your own.
To make it less out there use this process of trying each note as a chord tone of a chord but restrict your pallet of chords to diatonic chords in the key, as well as secondary dominants, and use modal interchange chords for colour.
I'm 35 been playing over 20 years but I feel I'm at a midlife piano crisis. I don't know what to practice. I feel like I've bogged myself down with theory so when I sit down at the piano I go overboard trying to be as clever as possible and the craft suffers. Does anyone else have this problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Listen to music you really like, and either learn it from good sheet music if it exists, or transcribe it yourself if it doesn't. Don't just learn until you can play it passably, learn it as if you were learning a classical piece, that is, dive in to every meticulous detail and make it your own until you have a real performance. Do this a couple times, then go back to working on your own stuff. Approach your own stuff in ways you don't usually. If you usually start at the piano, try starting with an instrument or sound that inspires you. If you usually start with chords, try starting with melody. Shake up your perspective. Try to apply your theory knowledge and tricks AFTER you have something that inspires you.
Maybe I'm quite confused but, at the best of my understanding, if you don't specify the harmonic context - what makes prefereable a chords concatenation with respect to alternatives, hence the reasons for choosing the role of the melody note in the chord - you are "simply" applying functional harmony: if, for example, you randomly pick an interval such that the given note A is the third of "somerhing" given the key of D, you will necessary play a F major chord and if you proceed in this manner along the melody notes, you are just playing a random sequence of chords each containing the melody note in a random position. Infact, (only) at the end of your presentation, you imposed the role of the last melody note (A as the 5 in D major) in order to obtain a cadence and the resolution of the fifth on the root. Where am I wrong ?
i remember when this seemed so advanced. Yet it's so simple upon being able to play what you hear. i am so glad lessons with him didn't work out he was supper rude ,and detached in his interaction with me it was obvious his online persona was fake, not that he even seems cool in his video even. this style of learning is ineffective for real musician ship, and only keeps a person locked in to a particular teacher being spoon fed like a 6 year old while you get strung along like going to a therapist getting no where session after session thats why 99% give up! Just the way the piano lesson game works. Untill you can hear, see, and feel it for yourself!!!
Like a major chord but with the nine, which you can also think of as a two. So, instead of C major (C E G), you add a D in there, which is the 9 or the 2.
Lame comment, this is a good way to think about and visualize reharmonization. What did you expect, a math equation that spits out progressions for you out of a calculator?
The simplest way I can break it down myself is as follows: Treat whatever melody note you have as if it was a component of a chord. Let's say you have the note E, for instance. You could treat this E as if it was part of any chord that would contain the note E. C major, for example, is made up of C E G, so you could play the chord C major and treat the E as the 3rd degree of the C major scale. You could go on to embellish the chord by making a C major 7th, 9th, or what have you. Alternatively, you could play: A minor and have the E note operate as the 5th of the chord Fmaj7 and have the E note act as the major 7th So on and so forth
By starting on d and making a major triad, or by starting on d and playing the major scale up to the 5th note, but honestly this stuff isn't going to help you if you don't know about basic intervals and the major scale
Lame comment, this is a good way to think about and visualize reharmonization. What did you expect, a math equation that spits out progressions for you out of a calculator?
Yooo I love this technique! I wish more musicians understood the power of playing “off” of the melody line, changing keys within the key! Great job! 🔥🔥🔥🔥
¡¡¡¡KC!!!!
That’s just it - understanding it. I wonder why I hadn’t grasped this before. Even KC’s statement about changing keys within the key is another helpful contributory nugget in the process 🙌🏾..
gold comment!
Hey Love PSM
too!
You teaching like very quickly so you have go slow by slow
I took a private lesson with Rob Araujo and he taught me this. It took me about 2 years to really implement it but this is what all the monster players are doing.
Do you know what's this "technique" called? Chord melody? It's hard to find good info about this to study it further
@@MrGustass1 Reharmonization
That BMaj7#11 chord sounded so good!
@Nixonkutz3018
Exactly, what I was going thru. But what tremendously helps you narrow down all of the possibilities that the chord could be, is by choosing what scale degree the melody 🎵 note is going to be from the beginning. Which is awesome because it gives you a road map for chord selection with understanding on the fly. In all my years of studying and being a TH-cam fanatic 😂
I have never heard it explained like this.
Thank you Jeff.
you'll never know how precious this to me,,,,oh gawd
Interesting approach never did it that way before. I did the typical use melody and create a new bass line then create a new chord based on relationship of those notes. This using melody, deciding what chord tone it will be and create the new chord off that. I like the results you got plus good exercise in voice leading.
And the truth is…I’m not even thinking about voice leading here. Just trying to find cool individual voicings, which goes a long way. Thx for watching!
And me I just did what Jeff just describe (naturally before wathcing this video). I'm going try the approach you just describe. It's true that I had to work preety hard some time to make coherent bassline (but that was half the fun). Thanks for sharing.
Was just looking at my Roland thinking of how this works, and pow, this video shows up. Thanks big time for making it!
This is amazing! Seriously the most illuminating "trick" (not to diminish it) I've come across in a long time. Thank you for the knowledge and inspiration, Jeff!
Makes sense - the problem I've been having with reharm is trying to pick from the zillions of possible chords that could go with the melody note. This is methodical to narrow that down, then just play them and see what sounds good. Great stuff!
Exactly, But what helps you narrow down all of the possibilities that the chord could be, is by choosing what scale degree the melody 🎵 note is going to be. Which is awesome because it gives you a road map for chord selection Thank you Jeff.
Oh my god ive never really been able to write interesting music from a melody but I feel now I can
For everybody that's confused and doesn't get it. You never will until you learn your intervals on whatever instrument you're playing this on.
Same theory and voicings can apply to modal borrowed chords, secondary dominants and all that other jazzy stuff haha
This absolutely friggin' blew my mind. Thanks, sir.
Wow...I love that sound and very useful technique. Thanks sir!!
Thanks, Joe! Have fun with the technique!
Awesome. Love the way you add chords randomly to the melody. Wow.
wow this is awesome! I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this... also that was an amazing pitch at the end. Very strategic I liked it. New sub!
I’ve always liked the idea of “reverse engineering”, which is similar to this idea of approaching the melody/chord “equation” backwards. Reverse engineering can also work on finding out how songs are constructed in general.
Thanks for another wonderful tutorial, Jeff. You are definitely a blessed man 😎🇺🇲
This is SUCH a dope concept!!!!
Looking forward to the bundle 👍
As the kids like to say, it’s gonna be LIT!
This is great! I’m signing up!
Thanks, DeMarius!
Fascinating! It would be interesting to try this technique on a hymn like, What A Friend ( We Have In Jesus ). Not that something similar hasn't already been done. Yet, this definitely brings a fresh approach to traditional popular songs.
Thank you so much sir ❤️
I love this technique! It’s like a nice little puzzle with some really cool results!
Wow what an excellent formula to encapsulate an incredibly complicated procedure. Great job!
Hi cool video. Is the sick chords bundle still available?zI know I'm late. Just let me know please. Thanks for the video,a real mind blowing.
Cool video. I must say that I was given this exercise many many years ago after I had asked my teacher how I might spice up bland chord progressions. If you work it through this approach will yield great results
I was thinking of this today and ran across this video! I am definitely learning this!🤲
That 3rd chord in your progression, told me the rest of your progression would be 🔥🎶! Row, Row Row Your Boat never sounded so good! Great content Jeff
really simple ... great lesson .. so many many many thanks to you..
extra chuckle here at 5:55
'is this gonna sound good? who knows! maybe not! so far it sounded pretty cool! :)'
lovely moves all over, reminds me of every Robert Glasper intro interlude noodle passage ever
definitely good concept
you can over do it
I like it for sections of a tune
like a reharm or a second time around on a section
I like it though
Super fun!
Cool Stuff! Great possibilities! Thanx for the informative lesson!!
Jeff "its just stacked thirds" Schneider
Always plugging that m11 haha
Hahaha, you really killed it when you said we don't need to know anything about chord progressions. I was wondering before you said it, what about harmonic context? LOL
Bro, i need you to teach me. I can see me learning very fast with how you detail things out.
Absolutely love this, thank you!
Solid technique. Great explanation.
Thanks for this!
So good.
Exactly what i Need. Thank you
Glad to hear it!
Really valuable lesson here. Thanks
My question is, why aren't there tons of DAW tools that harmonize like this? Cubase has a "distance" function, but that's from prior chord. Scaler gives you tons of chords and progressions, but what is suggested here is that pressing a single note on your keyboard SHOULD enable Scaler (or some tool) to FILTER DOWN THE POSSIBLE CHORDS to just show you all the options Jeff has laid out.
Closest tool I know of is FORAGER by Harvest Plugins, where you can pick a scale/mode, and then SPECIFY a "must include" NOTE or even NOTES (i.e. your "keyboard" note above, but manually chosen in the interface), and THEN on top of that, even optionally include chords that would bring in 1, 2 or 3 non-diatonic tones to build the chord from!
An IDEAL tool would leverage the knowledge suggested by Forager / Jeff, but ALSO, like Cubase Chord Pads, suggest the SMOOTHEST VOICING (inversion, drop 2, or other voicing etc.) based upon the prior chord! Even better, it would integrate with the DAW so as to let you keyboard control a LOOP from the prior chord and melody notes into this "new" chord so that you could pick the option you want.
Anyone know of another VST tool that even partially fits the bill here?
Jeff: let's design it and do a kickstarter to build it! (p.s. I have a killer design already for an entirely new arpeggiator/sequencer VST)...
Ive actually been thinking about an app like this for a few months now. Mix it with something like garage band and you could pump out some songs lol.
@@pman882 yeah it would be a huge boon to composers I think.
That's probably not common because for any one note, it could be contextualized into basically any chores in existence. Unless you're saying you would specify to the program that the note is the major third or whatever, in which case, it's easy to just play the chord yourself? It sounds like you literally just want the computer to spit out your music for you and say you did something.
Bro this helped my writers block holy shit. Thanks man!
I learned this technique from one of Adam Neely's reharmonization videos. So far I've used it for a prog/jazz/fusion reharm of In the End by Linkin Park and Hatikvah. It feels kind of like a cheat, but honestly helps coming up with some sick non-functional progressions. Don't overuse it, but it really has limitless possibilities
Sounds dope!
advanced jazz is my ultimate pursuit...!
Good luck!
this is gold for me, thanks!!
Gold, Jerry. Gold!
It's an amazing tip, Thank you Jeff!
I cant believe that the V-I was considered complex after you did all of those stacked chords
Jeff, just discovered you, great stuff !
Can't wait for the email. Great lesson as usual 🙂
Love your work
Thanks, Julian :)
That...is very clever. OMG so many meh songs I want to try this on!
Great vid. Thanks!
Great theory 🙌🏾.
best video i have seen in so long XDD
So for each note there are 12 possibilities, that is, 12 tests, 12 doughts, 12 uncertainties, .... does that really helps?
*Question: But how do you know what goes with the right hand now?*
Playing the melody to 'roe roe your boat' as is will sound wrong with those chords you just came up with up.
This is way too much for me as a beginner ^^. Any suggestions on how to get into this whole topic of building more complex chords (and how they are named) and chord progressions without getting completely overwhelmed?
Great Video! Can I ask... how I could restrict the outcome to "not so out there"? Is there a way to use this to keep it in the pop sound realm? Of course don't use extended chords I guess, but should we only use common chord tones... 2, 3 ,5, 7? Does that make sense? Thanks!! EDIT: Also... I suppose the more you develop the whole tune/song... I suppose the more you lean your chords tonalities to make sense... according to what you have and where it's going?
I don't think this technique is as useful for pop sound. For pop sound I think you would be served better by starting with typical pop chord progressions and then branching out from there to make it your own.
To make it less out there use this process of trying each note as a chord tone of a chord but restrict your pallet of chords to diatonic chords in the key, as well as secondary dominants, and use modal interchange chords for colour.
Just one doubt, when you use perfect tonics like 11, 5, 4 etc what basis are you deciding if you'll use a major chord or a minor chord?
Hi Jeff I’ve already purchased sick chords volume 1 and it’s really sick . Is there going to be another option getting the Bonus only ?.
Unsure if I’m getting it but I think this technique should be paired with another technique-i.e. chromatic approach
really helpful video:))
So glad it was helpful :)
How would you suggest one go about learning and memorizing the basic chord extensions....e.g. 11th, 9ths, min11th etc...?
Subtract 7 from any number greater than 7
If it's a 9, then 9-7 = 2
If it's an 11, then 11-7 = 4
If it's a 13, then 13-7 = 6
Long time no see!!
Hey!
I feel like I just arrived somewhere
Great video! Wondering what software you use to make your notation on a "drawing pad" with the multiple pages?
Thanks! That’s Good Notes on the iPad
@@JeffSchneiderMusic Thanks!
damn nice, now i need ur opening tutorial XD
I'm 35 been playing over 20 years but I feel I'm at a midlife piano crisis. I don't know what to practice. I feel like I've bogged myself down with theory so when I sit down at the piano I go overboard trying to be as clever as possible and the craft suffers. Does anyone else have this problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Listen to music you really like, and either learn it from good sheet music if it exists, or transcribe it yourself if it doesn't. Don't just learn until you can play it passably, learn it as if you were learning a classical piece, that is, dive in to every meticulous detail and make it your own until you have a real performance. Do this a couple times, then go back to working on your own stuff. Approach your own stuff in ways you don't usually. If you usually start at the piano, try starting with an instrument or sound that inspires you. If you usually start with chords, try starting with melody. Shake up your perspective. Try to apply your theory knowledge and tricks AFTER you have something that inspires you.
Maybe I'm quite confused but, at the best of my understanding, if you don't specify the harmonic context - what makes prefereable a chords concatenation with respect to alternatives, hence the reasons for choosing the role of the melody note in the chord - you are "simply" applying functional harmony: if, for example, you randomly pick an interval such that the given note A is the third of "somerhing" given the key of D, you will necessary play a F major chord and if you proceed in this manner along the melody notes, you are just playing a random sequence of chords each containing the melody note in a random position. Infact, (only) at the end of your presentation, you imposed the role of the last melody note (A as the 5 in D major) in order to obtain a cadence and the resolution of the fifth on the root. Where am I wrong ?
How do I know what notes are the "#11" "maj7" etc of a chord
You just gotta learn your chord tones.
i remember when this seemed so advanced.
Yet it's so simple upon being able to play what you hear.
i am so glad lessons with him didn't work out he was supper rude ,and detached in his interaction with me it was obvious his online persona was fake, not that he even seems cool in his video even.
this style of learning is ineffective for real musician ship, and only keeps a person locked in to a particular teacher being spoon fed like a 6 year old while you get strung along like going to a therapist getting no where session after session thats why 99% give up!
Just the way the piano lesson game works.
Untill you can hear, see, and feel it for yourself!!!
Jeff: plays an F on keyboard
My head: Axel F
fun
It is!
Bruh this is sick... my the first chords that i chose were s**t but damn the second ones though sick
What key are you in for this example….?
Great work 🙏...Which software do you use for publishing your video?
I think this is the formula used to create One Note Samba 😅
I’m over thinking and confused can someone explain this in depth
The video explains this in depth. Take any note and think of it as a chord tone
12 tone row your boat gently through a jam...
A is fifth of D minor?
he's playing also D major 13 -
answer own question
What software do you use for the whiteboard?
Dm, last chord
What's an add 9 chord?
Like a major chord but with the nine, which you can also think of as a two. So, instead of C major (C E G), you add a D in there, which is the 9 or the 2.
"YOULL NEVER BELIEVE THIS SECRET TO MAKING GOSPEL HARMONY
JUST PLUG IN RANDOM CHORDS UNTIL IT SOUNDS GOOD"
Lame comment, this is a good way to think about and visualize reharmonization. What did you expect, a math equation that spits out progressions for you out of a calculator?
1:15 this why i hate music theory😭
Im confused..
Just make it -🌶️-spicy-🌶️-
I wish these chord pack were in a midi format
They are! :)
@@JeffSchneiderMusic all I saw was musical notation and walked away lol. I will for sure be getting them.
Bro I can not get this no matter how I try to beat it in my head. I don’t understand anything
The simplest way I can break it down myself is as follows:
Treat whatever melody note you have as if it was a component of a chord. Let's say you have the note E, for instance. You could treat this E as if it was part of any chord that would contain the note E. C major, for example, is made up of C E G, so you could play the chord C major and treat the E as the 3rd degree of the C major scale. You could go on to embellish the chord by making a C major 7th, 9th, or what have you. Alternatively, you could play:
A minor and have the E note operate as the 5th of the chord
Fmaj7 and have the E note act as the major 7th
So on and so forth
I noticed you always kept the melody note at the top of the chord. Can you use this formula with the melody note elsewhere in the chord?
I think his idea is that in a situation where you already have a melody, this is a way to add harmonies to it.
how do you just know that A is the 5th of D major
By starting on d and making a major triad, or by starting on d and playing the major scale up to the 5th note, but honestly this stuff isn't going to help you if you don't know about basic intervals and the major scale
You lost me ?? If F is Major 3rd, doesn't that mean that in the chord the F has to be a major 3rd in it ??
It is. He plays d flat major, which has f as the major 3rd in that chord.
So, just throw random chords till it sounds right ? Not sure I would call that "formula".
Lame comment, this is a good way to think about and visualize reharmonization. What did you expect, a math equation that spits out progressions for you out of a calculator?
This formula seems oddly random. What you didn't explain is what choices sound good, and why.
How the hell did i know you were going to pick 'A' to be the next note lol 😆 😂
These are not random chords at the end lol
🤔
uhmm... ok
Ok
Well it’s just too basic