All they say "negative harmony". These 15 minutes have explained more than those hours of hype about negative harmony in TH-cam. Kudos to the author of this channel 👏
Great explanation of this concept. I spent last year writing a new introduction for ‘A Theory of Harmony’ By Ernst Levy - the book that inspired the term ‘Negative Harmony’ - to make this text more accessible for a new generation of students, performers, and theorists. Best. Paul
You, sir, are a saint and a scholar. This particular topic has been explained confusingly in other videos since its inception. You helped to understand it, i thank you.
Outstanding video 🙌 I’m currently writing a conceptual piece using leitmotifs, and watching this video has made me really excited about the application of negative harmony to these ideas. Thank you Michael 🙏
This was a real ear-opener. I've heard the sound, but never followed the mechanics like this. I'll be interested to notice what comes to my ears in the next few weeks. Thank you so much.
This is a really cool concept that you don't see a ton of people talk about, I think I'm gonna try inverting my favorite songs now to see how cool this can be, thanks!
New subscriber here I’m sat next to my synth doing what you’re saying coz you have such a good soothing voice & remind me of my old piano teacher when I was a kid teaching me about chords
@@michaelkeithson haha no! I know what you mean though, he was superb & he left, they told me he’d gone to live with his mother, I was eight years old & knew he’d died, then I got a horrible Romanian woman who did what you said, sit up straight, put your fingers here, you are lazy, you haven’t practiced. Made me hate it, so I stopped, Ive now got three workstations, two drum machines, effects unit, no computer yet but I love making music, basically taught myself afterwards about music theory, but your tutorials are so helpful 👍🏾
@@TayWoodeIt’s a shame that the wrong teacher can end up putting you off playing an instrument. Glad you found other ways to hold on to your music though 👍
Thx for your insights and "pre-digestions" ... I think I will need some time to wrap my head around it ... but at least I have a BIG clue ... 👍🏼 ... and THX for the pdf ... it helps a lot, to be able to look things up so easily !!!
Another outstanding video!! I’m so glad I saw this on a Friday!! I can’t wait to get home and play around with negative harmonies!! Have a great weekend Michael!
I often re-watch your videos and I know that I will learn something new each time. Negative Harmony sounds very convenient for music mixing.. Thanks a lot!
Once again, thanks to you, I’ve understood everything. I’m really a fan of your teaching style. I’m always able to grasp quite complex concepts. I’m going to try this out right away.
Probably not saying anything new about your incredible videos. You take something that seemingly complex, often intimidating, and make it interesting enough to make us win a dash to our keyboards. Thank you, Michael.
From many sources that I got to understand this subject, your video was the best. Thanks Michael for your musical knowledge and very clear way to explain.
Thanks for the comment Guillermo. Yes, some of this theory stuff is just illuminating things we've been doing all along!! I think it's important to remember sometimes that 'theory' follows the 'sounds'. We discover things that sound good and then investigate to find out why and create the 'theory' behind it. The 'Theory' doesn't come first. 👍
A lot more to unpack here than meets the eye (ear?)... especially in terms of application. Certainly, expands the canvas for compositional experimentation. Greatly appreciated, as always!
This is a really good explanation of what negative harmony is. I still think it's interesting but it just sounds like modal interchange to me like you said.
I played the last chord progression on a guitar that resolves via 4ths to a C major or C minor. The negative harmony came alive. I am totally new to this idea but it's truly is something to spice up your creative juices.
Cool! This isn't something I've come across before, but it's a very cool little idea. I do like to play around with modal interchange so this is a nice little tool to have in the back pocket in those instances!
Yeah, definitely a good way to think about it, all these bits are useful to have a grasp on in case they come in handy at some point. Thanks for the comment Mick 👍
There's an interesting connection with diminished chords as well. Normally you can take a diminished chord and lower a note to get a dominant, but you could also raise a note to get a minor 6 chord. With G#dim you'd get Dm6, Fm6, Abm6, and Bm6. These minor 6 chords work as negatives for any of the dominants you'd get from the diminished chord.
I get what you are saying about the term ‘negative’ referring to an inverted image in photography…I still prefer a less visio-technological analogy and a more fundamental analogy…I studied lots of maths and physics… in physics its called symmetry, and symmetry is fabulous (thanks to Emma Noether) for understanding conservation of energy/momentum….. in mathematics symmetry i think between two conceptual things is called a dual, as in dual symmetry. A lot of people feel that music is related to maths, and now i can see why… and this is why i prefer the term ´dual’… there may be more subtle analogies based on symmetry between the subjects i care about: music, math, physics (string theory, by the way, is totally structured on symmetry and ´strings’; objects that make music in one dimension… THANK YOU for you excellent work!
Nice job, and good luck. I did a video on this several years ago and the acoustical physics police are still commenting on my video with all sorts of nitpicks and other non-musical nonsense. :)
It means this piece intro is negative harmony concept. The bass and melody are in complete inversion, and the 2 notes above the bass and below the sopran is in perfect inversion too.
Can you explain more about the Jazz language of music? I'd love to listen to you explaining about that concept. I feel like you're one of the few people there who can explain music clearly
Oof! That sounds like a very broad and deep subject. I'll have to have a think and see if I can find a good angle to talk about! Thanks for the suggestion though!
what happens when a piece modulates to another key? Do we change the mirror axis in the middle of the new key? And what about temporary modulations? Secondary dominants, etc... ?
Hey Enrico! Good question. I think if you modulate to a new key centre I would change the axis point to the new key although if you're just temporarily using non diatonic chords like secondary dominants, diminished chords, modal interchange, etc., I would stay in with the current axis and adjust those chords and notes accordingly. Remember though, these are 'tools not rules', you're free to try things any which way and see what you discover! Happy exploring!
Thank you Michael for explaining this clearly, I also appreciate the way you present the information, straight to the point and no distracting background music, I have a question please with regard to the 6th degree of the scale for instance the note A in C major, I used to think of it as a stable note along with the 3rd note - alternatives to the tonic, how come that in this theory here that sixth is regarded as unstable, yet the fifth being stable?
“Mirror harmony” might be a better term. The popular conception of negative harmony - the octave dissected along an axis that lies half-way between the tonic and the fifth - is, in 12TET, just one of twelve different axes along which you can dissect the octave to generate negative harmony, and depending on what you’re generating negative harmony FOR, it’s NOT necessarily the most useful, nor is it the most intuitive to wrap your head around. That would be the axis that, in the key of C major/A minor, has D at one end of it and Ab at the other (meaning D and Ab remain themselves in the inversion). This produces negative harmony not in the parallel major/minor key (as with the most widely discussed method) but in the RELATIVE major/minor key, particularly useful as a compositional aid if you want to include “positive” and “negative” inversions of the same melody fragments or chord sequences in the same piece of music, without needing to modulate. If you have a keyboard to look at, it’s also the easiest way to grasp what negative harmony is, in the simplest and most intuitive terms, because of the way the notes are laid out symmetrically. The positive and negative inversions then not only sound like mirror images of each other, they literally look that way too.
@@michaelkeithson Hey! I'm not sure if you will see this. Can you help me to understand how/if this translates to things that are not diatonic to our original key (like w/ an N6)? Staying in C major for example's sake... I - vi - N6 - V. Would C - Am - Db6 - G become Cm - Eb - Bm - Fm? You mention how you have to retain the function of the chord when translating, and I think function of normal N6 is to pull to the dominant, so would we say its negative of Bm (vii) serves to pull to iv? What about augmented chords? G7/V7 became Fm6/iv6, but if you raised the 5th (which becomes the tonic) in the original would you, then lower the tonic when negative? Sorry if these questions make no sense. Edit to say that my partner kind of agreed with the questions not making sense. He said something like 12 tone functional harmony works sort of like a math equation and if trying to think about negative harmony from a functional sense outside of diatonic chords/pitches you start to get into an issue like trying to rewrite a physics equation by moving variables around, even if it doesn't make sense. Oi vey
@@WildsideSky Hey, good questions. I'll give you my thoughts but don't take them as gospel. C - Am - Db6 - G does become Cm - Eb - Bm7 - Fm. Don't forget the 7th we've added to the Bm. I think you're correct in that our N6 wants to pull us to the tonic and it does translate like that in our negative harmony inversion although in the original progression it doesn't move to the tonic as you'd expect, it moves to the tritone - so similarly in our translation it also doesn't move to the tonic, it moves to the tritone. I think it you were to change the G to a C in your original progression (and therefore change the Fm to a Cm) it might feel like you expect it to. In answer to your question about augmented chords, I understand that augmented chords become minor major 7 chords. The notes of G+: G B D# becomes C Ab E (which alone looks like another augmented chord) but we still add in a F to the root because the root note is defined by our reflection. The G+ chord is originally a 5th above the root, so the translated chord should be a 5th below the root. So we end up with F(root note) Ab C E which creates an Fm major7. Hope that makes some sense and is somewhat helpful!
Amazing, as always ! How about making a specific video on the circle of fifths 🙂 ??? I know it sounds like a basic topic, but I'm sure with your pedagogy you could demystify it even more, tell us how/if you use it, and enable everyone to use the circle of fifths even better ?
Jacob Collier has a version of Danny Boy that he uses negative harmony in some of his cadences. It is really cool to have the same amount of gravity or tension towards resolving a phrase while being completely unpredictable.
If you would make a rule out of this concept, it would be like that: (always related to the same Tone): Major and Phrygian are negative pairs Minor and Mixolydian Dorian stays Dorian Phrygian and Major (logically) Lydian and Lokrian Mixo and Minor (logically) Lokrian and Lydian (again are logically negative pairs) The Pairs stay the same pairs. Simple to understand like the intervallic movement of a standard major Scale. Major cannot be minor on the other day!
Great video! Can you please explain where to put axis of symmetry in a minor key, specifically in harmonic and melodic minor? And what about modes? Can it be done?
Its just inversional harmony around an axis of symmetry, post-tonal harmony has been dealing with this stuff for nearly 100 years and covers it better. Especially looking at a fixed do pitch integers around a mod 12 by adding them you can see they if have the same axis or not. See George Perle, Elliot Antakoletz, and well as Straus post-tonal theory text. Good explanation btw.
Yep, agree that this stuff has been happening for years but seems like this specific version has become popular in recent years due to the likes of Steve Coleman and Jacob Collier.
@@michaelkeithson Im not familiar with either of those two I'll check them out thanks and Im liking your channel I avoided music theory on youtube for years but grad school does that to you.
Thank you very much for the free PDF about this NEGATIVE HARMONY LESSON... Thanks for the GOD-Given Wisdom to you by sharing this to us in an easiest way...GOD Bless you always...
Thanks Ray, glad you enjoyed the video. I'm sure how feasible this is as an improvisational tool. I don't think it would be too difficult to memorise all the reflected chords within a key so you could swap them out at will but reflecting a melody would take brain power that I don't think I have! Let me know how you get on!
This was useful and interesting. One question though - I was dying for the last two examples in the "movement in fourths" section to resolve to the third (in major or minor). How cool would that be?
Any plans on doing a video for a similar exposition of the fabled Lydian Chromatic Concept by Mr. Russell? I could use a "big picture" of how those scales work, e.g., the history necessitating the LCCs creation and your style of explication and analysis.
Hey Walter! I have thought about a video on the Lydian Chromatic Concept, but I think it's not that high on my list. Hopefully I'll get to it at some point! Cheers for the suggestion
I like theories that use the circles of chromatic/fifths in some way that feels functional. I wonder if there are any simple takeaways in how to construct and progress with shell voicings on the guitar, which is limited in note selection and spread. My brain just got a shot of WTF was that, thank you.
Thanks for the comment man. Glad you enjoyed the video. Maybe you could play around with that example of movement down in fourths using 6 chord shells (Ab6, Eb6, Bb6, Fm6, C). 👍
@@michaelkeithson Fun facts I found from further foolery, messing with the reflection axis rotation. As an identity, reflecting C major about the D/G# axis on the circle of fifths returns C major (that's useless, so of course I had to identify that one first). It works because D is the root of the Dorian mode, which is symmetric about it's root. As one would imagine, a simple pattern emerges in rotating the reflection angle. Reflecting C major about C gives C Phrygian, which follows because the C major interval sequence in reverse order gives Phrygian. G gives C Dorian, and on to the rest. I'm not sure what they call modes that don't have a root, but you could just as easily map those too. Even more interesting is the half step rotations of the axis & a consequence of the rotation being about a pole (goes off in two parallel directions), you only need 180 of rotation of the axis to span the space. This property is reminiscent of what physicists are always yammering on about 1/2 spin particles, the Fermions. For years physics creators here on you tube have made a meal out of helping folks conceptualize that property, which many say isn't understandable in physical terms. Though not fleshed out, I've yet to see something this simple or elegant. Definitely not the first time a musical concept seems to be connected to fundamental science in some vague yet profound way.
Hey Rick, yes I think I will eventually create something on modulation although it's such a wide topic with many options. I need to work out what my angle would be. Maybe something like 'invisible key changes' that focusses on a few of those subtle movements where you barely recognise you've changed key. Stay tuned, I promise I'll eventually get to it! 👍
All they say "negative harmony". These 15 minutes have explained more than those hours of hype about negative harmony in TH-cam.
Kudos to the author of this channel 👏
🙏 Thank you Sergiy, it's great to hear that you feel that way!
Your explanations are the best on the Internet. 100%. Your teaching is amazing!
Cheers man, I appreciate the kind words and support. Thank you 🙏
How come you always perfectly time your uploads to clue me on the stuff I’m confused about? Thank you so much!
Ha! Nice. Glad this video was timely for you. Hopefully you're slightly less confused now! 👍
He can read your mind.
Convergent Evolution ❤
Oh, I know the answer, because this happens to me too. I’m confused about everything 🤪
Great explanation of this concept. I spent last year writing a new introduction for ‘A Theory of Harmony’ By Ernst Levy - the book that inspired the term ‘Negative Harmony’ - to make this text more accessible for a new generation of students, performers, and theorists. Best. Paul
Thanks Paul! I really appreciate your comment. I guess you may well know more about this subject than I do then! Thanks for the work you're doing 👍
You, sir, are a saint and a scholar. This particular topic has been explained confusingly in other videos since its inception.
You helped to understand it, i thank you.
That's nice to hear. Thanks for the nice comment, I'm glad the video was useful. 👍
Outstanding video 🙌
I’m currently writing a conceptual piece using leitmotifs, and watching this video has made me really excited about the application of negative harmony to these ideas.
Thank you Michael 🙏
Awesome! So pleased it's inspired you to create. Happy exploring!!
This was a real ear-opener. I've heard the sound, but never followed the mechanics like this. I'll be interested to notice what comes to my ears in the next few weeks. Thank you so much.
Thanks for the comment. Happy explorations!! 🎵
Very comprehensive! You break things down extraordinarily, and your videos are beautifully simple. I look forward to seeing your successfulness
🙏 Thanks for the kind comment. I really pleased you enjoyed it 👍
This is a really cool concept that you don't see a ton of people talk about, I think I'm gonna try inverting my favorite songs now to see how cool this can be, thanks!
Thanks for the comment! Happy exploring! 🎹👍
New subscriber here
I’m sat next to my synth doing what you’re saying coz you have such a good soothing voice & remind me of my old piano teacher when I was a kid teaching me about chords
Sit up straight! Did you he say that too! 😂
Thanks for the sub, glad you're enjoying the content. Cheers.
@@michaelkeithson haha no! I know what you mean though, he was superb & he left, they told me he’d gone to live with his mother, I was eight years old & knew he’d died, then I got a horrible Romanian woman who did what you said, sit up straight, put your fingers here, you are lazy, you haven’t practiced.
Made me hate it, so I stopped, Ive now got three workstations, two drum machines, effects unit, no computer yet but I love making music, basically taught myself afterwards about music theory, but your tutorials are so helpful 👍🏾
@@TayWoodeIt’s a shame that the wrong teacher can end up putting you off playing an instrument. Glad you found other ways to hold on to your music though 👍
Thx for your insights and "pre-digestions" ... I think I will need some time to wrap my head around it ... but at least I have a BIG clue ... 👍🏼 ... and THX for the pdf ... it helps a lot, to be able to look things up so easily !!!
Cheers Manfred! Glad the pdf will be useful 👍
First class content! I’ve gone from no idea (and avoidance) of this to a decent understanding. Thank you! 🙏
Cheers Ryan. Yeah, it's not so scary after all! Hope you're good. 👍
Your videos are unbelievably clear and concise! ❤
Thanks for the comment, it's great to hear you feel that way 👍
And all this time I just thought negative harmony was two tenors arguing. Thanks for the epic tutorial!
You're the man brother, great explanation and clean examples. And the interlude rocked!
Thank you! 🙏 Glad you enjoyed it.
Another outstanding video!! I’m so glad I saw this on a Friday!! I can’t wait to get home and play around with negative harmonies!! Have a great weekend Michael!
Thanks 🙏. Glad you enjoyed it. Happy exploring!! 🎵
I often re-watch your videos and I know that I will learn something new each time.
Negative Harmony sounds very convenient for music mixing.. Thanks a lot!
Thanks for keeping the view numbers up! 😂
Happy exploring! 🎵
Once again, superbly explained. So clear!
🙏 Thanks Pete!
This is probably the most straightforward and efficient explanation I've seen of "negative" harmony. Well done, and thank you.
Thanks Ryan, I appreciate your comment.
Love the channel. Watched a few more than once. Will recommend. Your subtle asides are gems LOL
Thanks George! Appreciate the support 🙏
Once again, thanks to you, I’ve understood everything. I’m really a fan of your teaching style. I’m always able to grasp quite complex concepts. I’m going to try this out right away.
Probably not saying anything new about your incredible videos. You take something that seemingly complex, often intimidating, and make it interesting enough to make us win a dash to our keyboards. Thank you, Michael.
Thank you Greg, I really appreciate the kind comment, I'm super pleased you feel that way. Thank you 🙏
From many sources that I got to understand this subject, your video was the best. Thanks Michael for your musical knowledge and very clear way to explain.
Thanks Ugo! I appreciate your kind comment.
Great explanation this is a criminally underrated channel. Also nice interlude lol
Cheers, I appreciate the kind comment. Glad you enjoyed the interludes too 👍
Amazing explanation that opens doors to new inspirations. Thanks!
Great to hear! Happy explorations!
I adore your lessons, I wish every teacher was so patient and kind by teaching music... Thanks for sharing music knowledge in a healthy way!
🙏 Thanks Jubitza, I really appreciate your kind comment. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for an awesome dive into this concept! Keep up the great work man!
Cheers man, appreciate the kind words. Glad you enjoyed the video 👍
I love your teaching style. I relate immensely. It’s all about intervals
Thanks man, appreciate the comment 🙏
This is the best explanation I've found yet!
🙏 Thanks Frank! I appreciate your comment.
I love it, I'm excited to experiment with these ideas. I love the way you describe concepts in your videos, very easy to understand. Thank you.
Awesome! Cheers Dan, appreciate your comment 🙏. Happy exploring!
My mind is blown! 🤯Why haven’t I heard of this before?? Thanks for the video
Ah cool! Have fun exploring then!
Welp, better get my guitar out for this one. As always, an ultra clear explanation even my dead brain can afford to understand. Thank you!!!
Cheers Danny. Happy exploring 🎸
Thanks for explaining how we can use it! That’s just as important as what it is.
Cheers Ethan, appreciate your comment 👍
Thanks, very interesting as always. It is like naming things we had been doing unconsciously...
Thanks for the comment Guillermo. Yes, some of this theory stuff is just illuminating things we've been doing all along!! I think it's important to remember sometimes that 'theory' follows the 'sounds'. We discover things that sound good and then investigate to find out why and create the 'theory' behind it. The 'Theory' doesn't come first. 👍
@@michaelkeithson Absolutely. in order to use it as a method and take advantage, rather that wait for inspiration. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for the Pdf. The link works, I received it in my e-mail.
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback, good to know that it's working. 👍
Thank you for the clarification. I especially appreciate the ideas for application.
Cheers Eric, glad you got something from the video! 👍
i really enjoy these videos. Always simple explained and mindblowing hard to practice. Lov' it. Thank you for sharing.
Cheers Julius!
The best lesson of Negative Harmony i have watched ! Congrrats and thanks so much !
🙏 Thanks Geraldo, I appreciate your kind comment. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Another excellent video Michael. 💯
🙏 Thanks John! Much appreciated!
Keep it up these videos are SO good
Thanks man, glad you enjoyed it 👍
A lot more to unpack here than meets the eye (ear?)... especially in terms of application. Certainly, expands the canvas for compositional experimentation. Greatly appreciated, as always!
Yeah, definitely lots you can get stuck in to! Thanks for the comment 🙏
Nobody needs that. Thanx for the explanation, love your vids!
Your videos are ******* brilliant
😂 Thanks for the great comment! 🙏
Perfectly explained and the example 4 bar track was exquisite.
Thanks Tony, glad you enjoyed it 👍
Brilliant as always, Michael!
🙏 Thanks Thomas, much appreciated.
Thanks for the lesson. Your explanation is obvious and easy to understand. The examples are so helpful.
🙏 Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
Beautifully explained
Thanks Nico! 🙏
I really really liked this!
Thanks Kalle, glad you enjoyed it 👍
Fantastic explanation, well done!
🙏 Cheers Austin!
🤯 great explanation!!! Thank you
🙏 Thanks for the comment. Glad you enjoyed it.
Really love your way of explaination..this help too much❤
Cheers Maesdy! I appreciate the nice comment. Glad you enjoyed it. 👍
This is a really good explanation of what negative harmony is. I still think it's interesting but it just sounds like modal interchange to me like you said.
I played the last chord progression on a guitar that resolves via 4ths to a C major or C minor. The negative harmony came alive. I am totally new to this idea but it's truly is something to spice up your creative juices.
Nice! Thanks for the comment. Happy exploring!!
@@michaelkeithson my understanding of my instrument and chord relations just went through the roof. I had been stuck for a long time.
I love your lessons.. how you fuse critical thinking and humor
Thanks man, I appreciate the kind comment 🙏. Glad you're enjoying the content 👍
Such a great exploration! Thanks!
Thanks! Hope it was helpful 👍
Cool! This isn't something I've come across before, but it's a very cool little idea. I do like to play around with modal interchange so this is a nice little tool to have in the back pocket in those instances!
Yeah, definitely a good way to think about it, all these bits are useful to have a grasp on in case they come in handy at some point. Thanks for the comment Mick 👍
Love this channel!
🙏 Thanks Christopher!
Yes, It was interesting, and thanks for the PDF.
Awesome, glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the comment 👍
Great stuff again. Thank you.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Very cool video
Cheers Dan! 👍
There's an interesting connection with diminished chords as well. Normally you can take a diminished chord and lower a note to get a dominant, but you could also raise a note to get a minor 6 chord. With G#dim you'd get Dm6, Fm6, Abm6, and Bm6. These minor 6 chords work as negatives for any of the dominants you'd get from the diminished chord.
Yes!! Gotta love a m6/ø chord! Thanks for the contribution 👍
Thanks this was super helpful and inspiring
Awesome, that's great to hear. Thanks for the comment! 🙏
This was litteraly my first piano lesson
I get what you are saying about the term ‘negative’ referring to an inverted image in photography…I still prefer a less visio-technological analogy and a more fundamental analogy…I studied lots of maths and physics… in physics its called symmetry, and symmetry is fabulous (thanks to Emma Noether) for understanding conservation of energy/momentum….. in mathematics symmetry i think between two conceptual things is called a dual, as in dual symmetry. A lot of people feel that music is related to maths, and now i can see why… and this is why i prefer the term ´dual’… there may be more subtle analogies based on symmetry between the subjects i care about: music, math, physics (string theory, by the way, is totally structured on symmetry and ´strings’; objects that make music in one dimension… THANK YOU for you excellent work!
Thanks for the comment! A lot of it went over my head though! Can’t say ever really got on with maths and physics! 😵💫
@@michaelkeithson Maybe Im listening to too much Einstein on the Beach ? Is that possible? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Glass
Nice job, and good luck. I did a video on this several years ago and the acoustical physics police are still commenting on my video with all sorts of nitpicks and other non-musical nonsense. :)
Thanks Paul! I'm not clever enough to attempt to talk about acoustical physics so hopefully I can avoid that barrage from the keyboard warriors!
SICK INTERLUDE DUDE
🙏 Thanks Michael!
Thank you....well done!
👍🙏
On the color wheel, opposite colors are called ‘complementary ‘. Interesting conversation you are offering here
It means this piece intro is negative harmony concept.
The bass and melody are in complete inversion, and the 2 notes above the bass and below the sopran is in perfect inversion too.
Your interlude music reminds of Lyle Mays. Beautiful!
🙏 Thank you! What a compliment, he was such a great player.
Can you explain more about the Jazz language of music? I'd love to listen to you explaining about that concept. I feel like you're one of the few people there who can explain music clearly
Oof! That sounds like a very broad and deep subject. I'll have to have a think and see if I can find a good angle to talk about! Thanks for the suggestion though!
what happens when a piece modulates to another key? Do we change the mirror axis in the middle of the new key?
And what about temporary modulations? Secondary dominants, etc... ?
Hey Enrico! Good question. I think if you modulate to a new key centre I would change the axis point to the new key although if you're just temporarily using non diatonic chords like secondary dominants, diminished chords, modal interchange, etc., I would stay in with the current axis and adjust those chords and notes accordingly.
Remember though, these are 'tools not rules', you're free to try things any which way and see what you discover! Happy exploring!
Thank you Michael for explaining this clearly, I also appreciate the way you present the information, straight to the point and no distracting background music, I have a question please with regard to the 6th degree of the scale for instance the note A in C major, I used to think of it as a stable note along with the 3rd note - alternatives to the tonic, how come that in this theory here that sixth is regarded as unstable, yet the fifth being stable?
“Mirror harmony” might be a better term.
The popular conception of negative harmony - the octave dissected along an axis that lies half-way between the tonic and the fifth - is, in 12TET, just one of twelve different axes along which you can dissect the octave to generate negative harmony, and depending on what you’re generating negative harmony FOR, it’s NOT necessarily the most useful, nor is it the most intuitive to wrap your head around.
That would be the axis that, in the key of C major/A minor, has D at one end of it and Ab at the other (meaning D and Ab remain themselves in the inversion). This produces negative harmony not in the parallel major/minor key (as with the most widely discussed method) but in the RELATIVE major/minor key, particularly useful as a compositional aid if you want to include “positive” and “negative” inversions of the same melody fragments or chord sequences in the same piece of music, without needing to modulate.
If you have a keyboard to look at, it’s also the easiest way to grasp what negative harmony is, in the simplest and most intuitive terms, because of the way the notes are laid out symmetrically. The positive and negative inversions then not only sound like mirror images of each other, they literally look that way too.
Love it! Thanks for adding to the conversation. Seems like you've probably done a deeper dive on this stuff than me. Thanks for sharing 👍
This was really helpful thanks
Great! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment, much appreciated! 👍
@@michaelkeithson Hey! I'm not sure if you will see this. Can you help me to understand how/if this translates to things that are not diatonic to our original key (like w/ an N6)? Staying in C major for example's sake... I - vi - N6 - V. Would C - Am - Db6 - G become Cm - Eb - Bm - Fm? You mention how you have to retain the function of the chord when translating, and I think function of normal N6 is to pull to the dominant, so would we say its negative of Bm (vii) serves to pull to iv? What about augmented chords? G7/V7 became Fm6/iv6, but if you raised the 5th (which becomes the tonic) in the original would you, then lower the tonic when negative? Sorry if these questions make no sense.
Edit to say that my partner kind of agreed with the questions not making sense. He said something like 12 tone functional harmony works sort of like a math equation and if trying to think about negative harmony from a functional sense outside of diatonic chords/pitches you start to get into an issue like trying to rewrite a physics equation by moving variables around, even if it doesn't make sense. Oi vey
@@WildsideSky Hey, good questions. I'll give you my thoughts but don't take them as gospel.
C - Am - Db6 - G does become Cm - Eb - Bm7 - Fm. Don't forget the 7th we've added to the Bm. I think you're correct in that our N6 wants to pull us to the tonic and it does translate like that in our negative harmony inversion although in the original progression it doesn't move to the tonic as you'd expect, it moves to the tritone - so similarly in our translation it also doesn't move to the tonic, it moves to the tritone. I think it you were to change the G to a C in your original progression (and therefore change the Fm to a Cm) it might feel like you expect it to.
In answer to your question about augmented chords, I understand that augmented chords become minor major 7 chords. The notes of G+: G B D# becomes C Ab E (which alone looks like another augmented chord) but we still add in a F to the root because the root note is defined by our reflection. The G+ chord is originally a 5th above the root, so the translated chord should be a 5th below the root. So we end up with F(root note) Ab C E which creates an Fm major7.
Hope that makes some sense and is somewhat helpful!
Amazing, as always !
How about making a specific video on the circle of fifths 🙂 ??? I know it sounds like a basic topic, but I'm sure with your pedagogy you could demystify it even more, tell us how/if you use it, and enable everyone to use the circle of fifths even better ?
Thanks! I'm not sure there's much to say about the circle of 5ths. I'll have a think, maybe when I start to run out of ideas! 😂
Nest week's episode: rational harmony, Irrational harmony, real harmony, complex harmony, fractal harmony, ring harmony, field harmony, quaternion harmony, vector harmony, matrix harmony, tensor harmony, spinor harmony, twistor harmony, infinities harmony, quantum harmony... and finally 432 Hz. 🤐
You forget stochastic harmony
@@lupourvous259 Was just waiting for it randomly pop into my head.
Thankyou
You are very welcome! 👍
Its magic!
🪄🎹🎵
Jacob Collier has a version of Danny Boy that he uses negative harmony in some of his cadences. It is really cool to have the same amount of gravity or tension towards resolving a phrase while being completely unpredictable.
Time to practice 😤
If you would make a rule out of this concept, it would be like that:
(always related to the same Tone):
Major and Phrygian are negative pairs
Minor and Mixolydian
Dorian stays Dorian
Phrygian and Major (logically)
Lydian and Lokrian
Mixo and Minor (logically)
Lokrian and Lydian (again are logically negative pairs)
The Pairs stay the same pairs. Simple to understand like the intervallic movement of a standard major Scale.
Major cannot be minor on the other day!
Great video! Can you please explain where to put axis of symmetry in a minor key, specifically in harmonic and melodic minor? And what about modes? Can it be done?
Its just inversional harmony around an axis of symmetry, post-tonal harmony has been dealing with this stuff for nearly 100 years and covers it better. Especially looking at a fixed do pitch integers around a mod 12 by adding them you can see they if have the same axis or not. See George Perle, Elliot Antakoletz, and well as Straus post-tonal theory text. Good explanation btw.
Yep, agree that this stuff has been happening for years but seems like this specific version has become popular in recent years due to the likes of Steve Coleman and Jacob Collier.
@@michaelkeithson Im not familiar with either of those two I'll check them out thanks and Im liking your channel I avoided music theory on youtube for years but grad school does that to you.
Cool!
Thank you very much for the free PDF about this NEGATIVE HARMONY LESSON... Thanks for the GOD-Given Wisdom to you by sharing this to us in an easiest way...GOD Bless you always...
Hey Jed, thanks for the nice comment. I'm glad the pdf is useful 👍
Instead of positive and negative, I think of symmetry, and what is the axis of reflection.
Hi, thanks so much for sharing this technique. I tried to download the pdf, but couldn’t not find the server. Thank you so much!
Thanks for your feedback Rodel, can you check if it's still not working? Seems to be ok from my end now.
Thanks for the brilliant explanation! Thank you! one question: how to practice instantly reversing the melody while improvising
Thanks Ray, glad you enjoyed the video. I'm sure how feasible this is as an improvisational tool. I don't think it would be too difficult to memorise all the reflected chords within a key so you could swap them out at will but reflecting a melody would take brain power that I don't think I have! Let me know how you get on!
Omg i love you
I think we should see other people 😬
Ha! Thanks for the nice comment 👍
This was useful and interesting. One question though - I was dying for the last two examples in the "movement in fourths" section to resolve to the third (in major or minor). How cool would that be?
Thank you for actually explaining rather than just showing us the circle of fifths and saying 'flip it'! 😂
Cheers Sean, appreciate the comment 🙏
Any plans on doing a video for a similar exposition of the fabled Lydian Chromatic Concept by Mr. Russell? I could use a "big picture" of how those scales work, e.g., the history necessitating the LCCs creation and your style of explication and analysis.
Hey Walter! I have thought about a video on the Lydian Chromatic Concept, but I think it's not that high on my list. Hopefully I'll get to it at some point! Cheers for the suggestion
I like theories that use the circles of chromatic/fifths in some way that feels functional. I wonder if there are any simple takeaways in how to construct and progress with shell voicings on the guitar, which is limited in note selection and spread. My brain just got a shot of WTF was that, thank you.
Thanks for the comment man. Glad you enjoyed the video. Maybe you could play around with that example of movement down in fourths using 6 chord shells (Ab6, Eb6, Bb6, Fm6, C). 👍
@@michaelkeithson Fun facts I found from further foolery, messing with the reflection axis rotation. As an identity, reflecting C major about the D/G# axis on the circle of fifths returns C major (that's useless, so of course I had to identify that one first). It works because D is the root of the Dorian mode, which is symmetric about it's root. As one would imagine, a simple pattern emerges in rotating the reflection angle. Reflecting C major about C gives C Phrygian, which follows because the C major interval sequence in reverse order gives Phrygian. G gives C Dorian, and on to the rest. I'm not sure what they call modes that don't have a root, but you could just as easily map those too. Even more interesting is the half step rotations of the axis & a consequence of the rotation being about a pole (goes off in two parallel directions), you only need 180 of rotation of the axis to span the space. This property is reminiscent of what physicists are always yammering on about 1/2 spin particles, the Fermions. For years physics creators here on you tube have made a meal out of helping folks conceptualize that property, which many say isn't understandable in physical terms. Though not fleshed out, I've yet to see something this simple or elegant. Definitely not the first time a musical concept seems to be connected to fundamental science in some vague yet profound way.
Fantastic channel :) Do you plan to do a video on modulation? :)
Hey Rick, yes I think I will eventually create something on modulation although it's such a wide topic with many options. I need to work out what my angle would be. Maybe something like 'invisible key changes' that focusses on a few of those subtle movements where you barely recognise you've changed key. Stay tuned, I promise I'll eventually get to it! 👍
@@michaelkeithson fantastic, cant wait 🥰
Yes i totally agree, negative don’t sound correct, reflexion, inversion is more apropiated
👍
it could be called negative because of the + and - side of a battery for example, it is kind of the same idea
Greate one Sir ❤❤❤ next time Sir can you please do video of chromatic mediant 🙏
I'm already ahead of you: th-cam.com/video/SD1mDm8kqW4/w-d-xo.html
How about "Mirrored Harmony"?
So the Phrygian mode is the Ionian mode negativised?
Yeah, kind of. 👍
@@michaelkeithson Dorian is symmetrical, while the other six reflect their opposites, really.