How Coldplay use music theory
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- Опубліковано 5 чер 2024
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0:00 Introduction
0:47 Clocks
3:32 Speed of Sound
5:18 HDpiano
6:08 Trouble
8:00 A L I E N S
8:25 Coloratura
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That spice and music theory analogy is one of the best I've heard. We ll said.😊
You mention that both modes share the same notes, but that we change what note is considered the tonic.
I appreciate the concept, but I'm just wondering how, in practice, do you make people re-interpret the tonic note? What tricks and devices are being used to convince us that we're in a different mode - and the tonic has changed - rather than it's just, you know, the same mode and tonic, but we're playing a new higher / lower melody within that?
This is also with regard to how you've pointed out that there can be ambiguity - sometimes deliberately - with this sort of thing, to make the tonic - and, thus, the key / mode - ambiguous by design, or even accident.
A discussion of how this is done in various songs - which devices are being utilised - would help put these modal videos into context. And, for budding song writers, some concrete examples to put some flesh on the abstract bones would be handy.
Kind of like when folks learn Pythagoras. Sure, I remember the formula - the square of the hypotenuse is the sum of the squares of the other two sides - but we need some concrete examples of how you might apply this in reality to solve a problem, or it's just an abstract concept. One that people forever say "what the hell do I ever need to know that for?".
(In my case, this is a contrived example, as I'm a programmer and do graphics, which is all geometry, so I use Pythagoras all the bloody time and have no trouble pinpointing where it's useful. But I'm thinking of the average person who, you know, dutifully learns the formula in school... but is never told, at any point, why it's useful in actual practical use. Working out distances between two points, for those still left wondering, by the way.)
I appreciate that there's probably multiple ways to do this. But, actually, that makes it good for a video, as you'll have plenty of examples to show off the different methods of establishing the tonic, when you've gone and switched it up under people's noses.
The rhythm in the "Clocks" loop is actually a slowed-down tresillo!
Their entire second album, Rush of Blood to the Head, is actually incredible. A lot of darkness.
Still their best imo
@@timbir great but viva la vida is their best imo.
@@timbir Absolutely. It was actually released the same week as my favorite album, Interpol’s first Turn on the Bright Lights.
@@11panithilopas9 That one’s good, but not as deeply stirring as Rush of Blood to the Head
That's one of my favorite albums ever! Clocks and The Scientist are still two of my favorite songs.
Coldplay is a band that really does not get the credit they deserve. Clocks, the Scientist, A Rush of Blood to the Head, Amsterdam, Lost, Viva La Vida, all incredible songs.
and more.
Yes to all but Clocks and Viva La Vida… clocks (at least the intro) is kinda stolen from ‘when love takes over’ and although I applaud the story telling in Viva La Vida it’s stolen almost entirely from guitarist Joe Satriani
Their first two albums were great and they definitely have talent but I think the stress of blowing up so fast got to them.
@@guthrowtaylorjohnson5758 all art is derivative in some way. Everything is a remix. If takes nothing away from a musician for them to have another artist as an inspiration. It takes nothing away from a song for it to share melodic content with another song.
Blues wouldn't exist without folk music. Rock wouldn't exist without blues. Rap wouldn't exist without samples. Everything is derivative.
@@guthrowtaylorjohnson5758 When love takes over was released years after Clocks buddy.
@@NormanTiner including Tarkus?
“Glass of Water”, a B-side from Viva La Vida, is in 7/8 in the chorus, has a really nice groove too.
half of "death and all his friends" is also in 7/8
Prospekt march is incredible anyway... :)
The song “Yes” already has a cool Spanish-inspired feel. The strings intro is in Db/Bbm then is injected into A verse that goes between F minor and myxolydian Also every so often, the music goes from 4/4 to a bar of 3/4. Finally, theres is a whole secret song attached to the end of Yes, making it one of my favorite Coldplay songs
This is also one of my favourites!!
I was disappointed "Yes" was not in here. Their most badass song, hands down.
Not to mention, the ending is bombarded with guitars while Chris lulls you to sleep, which you can't because the music is awesome lol
@@t-boney312 yeah but that is another song, hidden track, Chinese Sleep Chant
@@faresbassel in all fairness this song is very hard to define in terms of model. Hooktheory describes the verse as myxolydian but even looking at the chords it has substancial use of minor chords, like Bbm and Fm. Out thing song, though, you are absolutely right.
My personal favourite Coldplay song is "Shiver"!
- 12/8
- Great guitar textures
- Expert percussion work to ebb and flow with the song's atmosphere
- Those falsetto harmonies👌
- A bit of mode mixture too, sprinkling in a few A#s here and there.
Mine too. As a Buckley fan it's only natural
I remember hearing Shiver in Guitar Hero: World Tour and was blown away by the guitar work, Johnny Buckland is severely underrated as a guitarist in my opinion
Fantastic song that! 👍 You might like "Brothers & Sisters" too, if you've not heard it. It has a similar feel to "Shiver". It's from an EP they did before Parachutes. I discovered a lot of their B-sides & not very well known songs are just as good as the ones on their albums.
@@EarlOfMaladyCrescent I didn't know it. Very interesting song Brothers and Sisters, Thank you
@@SantiagoGonzalez-sl5lj Cool, you're welcome! 🙂 I was searching UA-cam one day & came across a B-side of theirs called "Crest of Waves". I thought, "This is really good"! UA-cam then lead me down a path of finding loads of other B-sides & rarities, which I also really liked. I downloaded a load of their singles, (to get the B-sides), & found out about the rarities via their discography on Wikipedia. It's all in a playlist in my iTunes library; 28 songs. (That includes "Moses" & "Atlas", which are non-album singles). 🙂
"Politik" has never failed to make me close my eyes and just let the music sway my mood
100% same
“Yes” gotta be one of Coldplay’s most overlooked songs and it’s full of interesting musical ideas.
Oh yes with those lovely string quartet stings!
Finally you talk about Coloratura! It's one of the most interesting tracks from the last few years I've heard. Time signatures, modes, unusual chord progressions, different sections... it gave me some Pink Floyd vibes actually.
When I first heard Coloratura I had instant Pink Floyd goosebumps! I must have played that song about 10 times in a row to drown in its beauty but also admire the construction. It truly is an incredible work of art.
Coloratura is from far the best song on their las album. The song itself is legit a complete album, a masterpiece
I mean they gonna need something of their own to make up for pop shites (especially in the latest album) lol, p.s. counter-examples would be bands like Maroon 5
Dyou know the time signature of coloratura at 3:45?
People who don't like coldplay only know their radio tracks. Their B sides are amazing. Us Against the World and Coloratura not to mention dozens of others are sublime.
Sadly their better albums aren't played on the radio anymore. I don't know why, but radios think that the more viral on UA-cam, the more listen-worthy a song is...
Two of the three 'S' songs from _Parachutes,_ "Spies" and "Sparks", have always struck me as harmonically intriguing & varied, as well as being haunting and beautiful.
Same with me. Those two songs are really special. Classic songs.
I agree, except I think all 3 (shiver) are classics.
@@douglaspantz 100% agreed with that choice. Parachutes is a great album.
Absolutely right, these songs are something special. Sparks in particular is heavenly
I love the two but the other S means even much more to me haha
Chris Martin doesn't even know how to read sheet music and the man comes up with some of the best piano parts I've seen! And Coloratura, it's absolutely a masterpiece!
Coldplay is one of my favourite bands of all time, right up there with Radiohead and Pink Floyd. I would love to see a deep dive into the music theory of Coloratura because it has a lot to unpack, very much so like the analysis you did years ago on Bohemian Rhapsody. I love these videos and I can’t wait for whatever comes next!
Coloratura is such a sick song
You should totally do a part two to this - right off the top of my head I can think of Amsterdam using modal interchange, Glass of Water with its 7/4 chorus, All I Can Think About is You and Atlas with their climactic, complex piano chord progressions, and People of the Pride, which switches between minor and phrygian. Also, their 2019 album Everyday Life has a lot of interesting tracks, like Cry Cry Cry, Trouble in Town, Daddy, and of course Arabesque. And people say Coldplay is boring!
You should also do a full analysis of Coloratura please please please
Yessssss I totally agree!! Glass of Water is one of my favourite songs by Coldplay, absolute class.
Yes please I want to see his take on Coloratura so bad
YES PLEASE MAKE A PART TWO
Amsterdam is one of my favorites, a solid album to have a hard album track like that be a good as the singles! Rick Beato did a great video on it last year!
Coldplay is very under-rated. I think some people just write them off simply because they are "too popular". They are really generational talent with an incredibly versatile discography. You could probably do a whole other deep dive looking at songs like "Yes", "Glass of Water", "Amsterdam", "Spies", "Trouble in Town", "O (Hidden Track)", "42", etc. These are all songs with strange time signatures, key changes, modal interchanges, unique phrasing, etc.
As someone who admittedly jumped on the bandwagon of actively refusing to listen to Coldplay songs, I'm really glad they were given a fair shot here. I'd be lying if I said I didn't love more than one of their songs when I was younger.
Edit: oh and I also taught myself piano through synesthesia tutorials! Cool that it was given a shoutout here!
"Allow myself to introduce... myself"
@ghost mall .It's a self-taught taught-tology, ^oo^
All hail the grammar Nazis
Some other amazing, musically interesting, but barely known Coldplay songs:
- Square One
- Spies
- Twisted Logic
- Charlie Brown (for its odd rhythm in the chorus)
- Strawberry Swing
- 42
- Amsterdam
42 is SUCH a tune
@@LegoArchitectureNerd when I saw this list I instantly thought about 42 being such a great song, and then looked at the replies and I can see I'm not the only one. I just love how its style and mood progress throughout the whole song, probably my favorite from Viva La Vida
One of my favorite moments in a Coldplay song is in the outro of Yellow when the F# chord is substituted for a F#min7 chord. It just hits super hard when you've listened to the track all the way through. A similar thing happens in the second chorus of What If where the D chord is sometimes substituted for a G chord.
Same thing happens in Spies during the outro... the F# substitutes the G#11 chord used during the verses. Very smart musical trick.
I've always loved that about What If, it almost comes out of nowhere and is such a tonal shift
I love Coldplay. I'm so pleased to see A L I E N S on this list, it's a brilliant, underrated track!
ALIENS hits different. Such a great song. I feel like it would've fit perfectly somewhere in Mylo Xyloto
I relistened to it recently and noticed that a lot of the lyrics feel very reflective about the world as it is today
I’ve always liked “We Never Change” off Parachutes. The guitar and vocals meld really well together.
“A Rush Of Blood To The Head” is a beautiful album. “Clocks”, as well as “Speed Of Sound” from “X&Y”, are my all-time favorite Coldplay songs.
I don't get people's discount of Coldplay either. Their intsrumentals are often expertly arranged and Chris uses his voice in such a unique way. Coldplay is still around, not only because of broad appeal, but because their music is good and they're often trying something new, post- X&Y, with Everyday Life being one of Coldplay's more recent standout albums.
It's the same I feel with Beyonce. People think her music is just generic pop and has gotten "worse" and I'm thinking if they only believe that because she's transcended popularity and not because of her music itself, which has gotten better and less "safe" pop, since she's now big to the point where she can experiment more without losing traction.
Coldplay is one of those bands that are way cooler than people like to admit. Aside from their more well-known radio hits, they have tons of other songs that don't get nearly as much recognition as they deserve - many of their better songs are actually B-sides.
For me, their first two albums are absolutely bulletproof. Parachutes is a comfortable and intimate album that makes you feel warm every time you hear it, while A Rush of Blood to the Head is powerful, dark, chilling, and deeply emotional. I'm not afraid to say that I love those albums, and they've gotten me through many dark times.
Everyday life is such an underated album by Coldplay yet, I think that was their best so far in terms of compostion and application of music theory for a whole album.
I’ve been a fan since 2000, Everyday Life has taken over AROBTTH as my favorite album of theirs. It’s beautiful.
@@cpcathy man, everyday life is on different level. Indeed, its beautiful. It discovers all aspects of one's life. Literally leave me in tears every time.
Please, more Coldplay! Their entire first album "Parachutes" is gold! In fact, all the first four albums are amazing and I wouldn't consider them pop. They did go more towards the pop style later but the whole album "Everyday Life" feels like going all the way back to their first albums and is amazing too!
Would've loved to see Amsterdam, one of my favorite songs of all time. I couldn't believe it when I saw that Rick Beato also considers it one of his favorite songs ever.
Great observations again David. I always thought Don't Panic was extremely sophisticated and subtle for a first song on a first album.
(You must do this with other 'uncool' artists.)
None of the first 3 Coldplay songs I thought of for technicality were even mentioned! Glass of Water, Rainy Day and Death and All His Friends. All from Viva la Vida and Prospekts's March.
Glass of Water and Death... for the time signatures, and Rainy Day for modality.
This video definitely needs a part 2. Songs like Yes, Spies, Twisted Logic, and even recent stuff like Atlas, Coloratura, Human Heart and Trouble in Town really stand out to me when it comes to the feelings they evoke
Hearing Coldplay (especially the older stuff) always makes me emotional. Music was such an integral part of my childhood and Coldplay was a part of that. Although a lot of their music in the recent years has not found favour with some fans (me included at times), I will always appreciate their music and they’ll always be special to me as a band. Love to see a video appreciating and looking more closely at some of their songs!
I see a lot comments writing about their first 3 albums, but I think every album has interesting things. The pathway they've taking of using different cultures as a starting point has been something good, maybe offensive, but it's inspiration after all. I really enjoyed Everyday Life, it reminds me of they roots and I like the genres mixture they did.
Atlas is one of my favourite Coldplay songs, but it definitely feels like it goes under the radar a bit compared to their other stuff. Although I guess that's not surprising cause they've written a lot of music.
One of the best bands ever - I don’t care how much crap i get for saying that. Whatever is going on in “sparks” is still a mystery to me and I got that album right after it came out. Also the bass player is a monster , check out “cemeteries of London”.
I consider Coldplay to be one of the most musical band and consider their songs to be rather unique and kinda one of a kind.
Of course, some would label them as not being cool but being "cool" reflects more on popular trends for an age group rather than on musicality.
My favourite all time band. Been a die hard for 11 years now. There’s beauty on even the newer album
I love Coldplay
Aliens isn’t just 5/4 - it also has a random bar of 9/8 before the chorus which offsets the drumbeat in a super cool way!
I did notice a Chris Martin or two on some of your thumbnails so figured you enjoyed their music.
Everything Is Not Lost, Death And All His Friends, and Coloratura, are the best Coldplay songs.
you should cover their song Midnight from their album Ghost Stories. It's one of my favourite songs on the album but in my experience it's so hard to follow time signature-wise lol
i just started listening to their discography. im even more impressed now
im so glad you've made a video on coldplay, they're my favourite band and i love how musically interesting and diverse they are.
Coldplay's first four albums were absolutely brilliant! Everyday Life album from Coldplay is probably their 5th best LP
You love the same Coldplay I love. Everyday Life felt like coming home after the detours of their albums after Viva La Vida/Prospekt's March (all good albums, but not quite there for me as a whole).
I was really hoping you would include Oceans here, the line cliche that they used there is actually really innovative
👆i agree so much with this. oceans is also a beautiful track in general
I know nothing about scales or music theory, but my ears know what sounds good and interesting and beautiful, and that's why I love Coldplay.
Coldplay at their best are really interesting songwriters who aren't afraid to explore and record sounds they like rather than sticking to what's conventional. (Granted, they do conventional amazingly well, but they're not the ones that stick with me the most.) Thanks for explaining in technical terms what some of these interesting aspects are that keep me coming back to these.
Coldplay is one of my very favorite bands - my first musical love. Essentially everything I listen to is either prog metal or Coldplay! Coldplay is still so lovely and interesting to me.
Great video as usual! I'll add that one of my favorite surprisingly interesting musical features in Coldplay's catalogue comes in "Lost!", where the chord progression in the verses sounds a lot like a standard VI-IV-I-V, but every chord in that sequence other than the second one is nonstandard (I think it's Em7-C-Bm6-Dadd4?). Notably, each of those chords retains the note of G in it, and the first chord in the song that loses the G is the first chord of the chorus (D), on which he sings the word "lost." I think it makes that moment in the song resonate so much more!
They do pretty much the same trick in "A Sky Full of Stars" (D#m B F# A#m but with a G# "stuck" in there all the way) and it's SO important to the feel of the song.
Another interesting bit from the same song, at the end it changes chord progression (maybe to B C# D#m F#?) with no forewarning at all.
@@Mystral42 That's a great observation and I hadn't made that connection until now! And thinking about it, "The Scientist" also has a very similar trick where the main chord sequence in the verses has what I guess I'd call the "feel" of a VI-IV-I-V but it's actually Dm7-Bb-F-Fsus2, and the use of that Fsus2 keeps the F note in there the whole way through (the only time it's dropped is when they finally do play that V chord at the end of the chorus). Really interesting how all three of those songs sound so different but use such a similar trick so effectively!
Viva La Vida is one of the best albums of all time and I will stand by that until I die. Songs like "Yes", "Violet Hill", "42", and "Glass of Water" can never be recreated nothing will ever come close to the pure genius of those tracks. It's truly a shame that a lot of people tend to steer away from Coldplay because of their newer stuff. The end up depriving themselves of some of the greatest music ever made.
A very good and unknown song of Coldplay is Coloratura, it is a 10 minute long masterpiece.
Agreed! It deserves more popularity rather than the mediocre My Universe thing (all flash no substance).
Warning Sign from AROBTTH is one of the only real rock songs of the 21st century, and it blows my mind. Especially the final notes ending the song in a minor key😮
Very interesting content. I listen to all Coldplay classics for my entire life and never really notice the complexity of it. Amazing, thank you so much for this video. Keep rocking
Great video
I think Atlas is another of their very interesting songs
I love all their stuff up to and including Mylo Xyloto. Beautiful sounds, melodies, harmonies, tunings, grooves. I don't listen to them a lot anymore but when I hear a song I do feel and enjoy it. Nostalgia is also a point. You hear something like Clocks and you're taken back to the early and mid 2000s where life was just easier and weirdly, so much different in a way.
Maybe give Everyday Life a shot, the album has some cool tracks!
Seriously, if you stopped at MX, you've been missing out! Ghost Stories is an album I play whilst I work every week (without fail) as it is so very sublime and ebbs and flows beautifully.
Everyday Life is a journey through mixed styles and emotions. Some tracks more impactful than others, but when tied together.... perfect.
Music of the Spheres.... just listen to Coloratura first, and then discover the lyrical beauty of "Let Somebody Go" and "Human Heart". Song writing on another level.
Listening to Coldplay music is just a wonderful experience.
Great job as always David!
Another underrated song by them that has interesting things is "Èkó" from Everyday Life. The intro (I think) is in D mixolydian, while the rest of the song is in G major. It's a very subtle change, but it's really nice and sounds beautiful.
Their later work is a little bit too pop for my tastes, but back when "A Rush of Blood to the Head" and "X&Y" came out, I think they were really in their own, commercially and artistically.
Coldplay is great, they were my favorite band last year
Do you think you could have a deeper look at some of The Killers music? or Billy Joel's? That would be awesome!
Yes! The killers please
Many interestings chord progressions in early Coldplay songs, Daylight, Twisted Logic, and of course Spies which is a gem (and many others)
Moving to Mars has some really interesting progressions.
Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends is a good album, and a pretty good song of the same name, you should have added to this video.
RIGHT. Death and all his friends is such a good song
Great choices, for sure! I think, though, he missed some even more interesting songs of theirs. Those are: Yes (changes in tempo, time signature and mode), Death And All His Friends (7/8 time signature and, hands down, a masterpiece) and Glass of Water (also in 7/8). As a bonus, Politik and Oceans have a non-trivial chord progression.
Trouble, Strawberry Swing, Charlie Brown, Yellow, Lost, among many more.....
The fact this band is hated on so much is.....kinda ridiculous tbh. Tho I think in recent years people have gotten over that. Their latest music is....idk. But, they have, over many albums, created a LOT of stellar songs. That just cannot be argued with. :)
As a massive Coldplay fan, I'd caught up on their interesting arrangements, especially on their early works. Parachutes (the album) has a lot of interesting stuff, particularly Shiver and High Speed.
Talking about odd time signatures, you missed Charlie Brown (it's in 6/8 + 3 bars of 8/8). A deceptively simple sounding song otherwise.
To me I quite like Coldplay but then as that "consistently okay" band that's almost never completely bad. With the old classics that the radio (here) never picked up that I REALLY like for example Shiver and Green Eyes.
They are highly enlightened individuals that have consistently tried to relay some serious messages through their sound.
Finally, appreciation for A L I E N S
Their first 4 albums are amazing.
@ghost mall It's definitely a great album, but some of the songs on that album veer into slightly different genres from the previous ones. For me, they're just styles of music I find less engaging, so I have songs on there that I love (like Charlie Brown) and songs that I think are good but I'm less engaged with (e.g. ETiaW). It's just personal taste, but I suspect a lot of the Coldplay fans who watch this channel were drawn in by the sounds of their earlier albums and don't relate as much to some of the music on Mylo Xyloto and others.
If you hang out in other Coldplay spaces (e.g. the official YT channel, you find a LOT of fans for the albums and songs that haven't been mentioned as much here (so far). 🤔
That's my impression, anyway.
The spice rack analogy was spot on. I bought your album btw, love it!
I love coldplay so much! My first concert ever was them at Wembley earlier this year and it was mindblowing. I've seen so may live vids of them and self taught 50 of their songs on piano. They've got happy songs, sad songs, slow, fast, bright and dark. Every albums different which is what I love. I've never really analysed their music like you did in this video, so thank you
another excellent video, thank you, David.
Excellent video!! Thanks for sharing David 😁
Thanks for the video, as always 😌
The best band ever! I like of every music of their, but My favorites songs are “green eyes” and “shiver”
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Was waiting for 42 the whole time haha, still a good video
Love this take 🙏
Amazing! 🫶🏼
Thank you so much for this incredible video
I love this video so very much! ❤️🎹
Thank you for such a great breakdown of Coldplay music!! 😃 What a great band!! ❤
Great lesson! Thank you!
Great analogy at the end
nice analogy at the end!
LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS VIDEO SINCE FOREVER
Thanks David, your explanations about harmony tricks are always useful and so interesting
Amazing.
All my favorite Coldplay songs are here!
I love all kinds of what would be considered serious music and yet Coldplay is one of my favorite bands.
Thank you for making this video! I've been a Coldplay fan for a long time and always wanted to know more about the harmony and structures of their music. Congrats on the excelent work!
One other song I'd add to this is Shiver, the song is in 12/8 and has surprisingly good guitar work for the band's early career courtesy of Johnny Buckland (who I always thought was severely underrated as a guitarist)
Bravo, David! The choice of spices was a perfect analogy on which to end, in my view.
Thank you!
Love this deep dive into Cold Play-the modal shift chord progression ignited a light bulb in my head! =)
Was hoping you’d mention “easy to please,” a track from one of their early ep’s before parachutes was released. Anyone who hasn’t heard it- definitely go check it out. The stuff they put out pre-Parachutes is some of their most interesting stuff IMO
Aliens and Coloratura are two rare gems in later-days Coldplay
I think Daylight would be interesting for this kind of analysis as well.
For me anything up to Mylo Xyloto is pure gold, I've recently re-discovered this fantastic band starting from the early works, people are too hard on them imho
Nice Everything in its right place + Analyse + Like Spinning Plates rendition at the end of the video.