Understanding In Bloom
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2017
- Nirvana was one of the biggest bands of the early nineties, but what was so special about their sound? Kurt Cobain was a gifted songwriter with a great ear for interesting harmonies, taking fairly standard ideas and twisting them just enough to make them sound unique. In Bloom is a great example: It's a clever blend of functional and non-functional ideas, borrowing from rock, punk, R&B, and even jazz to create something entirely his own.
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In Bloom: • Nirvana - In Bloom (Of...
Functional Harmony video: • Building Blocks: The J...
Mediants video: • When Chords Won't Share
Doo-Wop Changes video: • Building Blocks: Writi...
Borrowed Chords video: • Building Blocks: Borro...
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jasonlyonjazz.wordpress.com/2...
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Hey, I was wondering, as I\m in prep music theory in college, but the F5 to Aflat5 in the intro are a major 6th away not a minor 3rd right?
Hey man I like the style of your video. Let me mention one little thing that isn't correct in your analysis. The second chord during the verse (when the clean guitar enters) is not F# major, but F#sus4. Anyway, good job man!
steven wilson - regreat #9 or porcupine tree - fear of the blank planet
I think you're just over thinking it.
Best part is that Kurt himself wouldn't understand a thing of what you're explaining lol
Daniel Souza yeah. Kurt just had this naturally, like a gift.
Caio Soares Yes. And composing is an exercise too... You can see that each album is more complex than the predecessor
yeah for sure. Serve the servants for example is more complex than in bloom. But my favorite song (when it comes to melody) is Sappy. Such a catchy rythm and such a cool solo.
Serve The Servants is my favorite. Along with Paper Cuts and Radio Friendly
Daniel Souza mu favorite one from Bleach is "About a Girl"
I can imagine Kurts boggled face as he would listens to this 😂
What do you mean?
the yoyo master he would think it’s pathetic and it’s not. You play music, you play what sounds good.
non yobussiness yeah
Lama Su Kurt wouldn’t know what tf 12tone is talking about.
He would have a baffled face but would be nodding along
You articulate what I've been trying to say for 20 years.
Not gonna lie I didn’t expect to find you here
"i was sick of people looking to much into my songs"
Anyway good video
Too*
He was talking about the lyrics when he said that.
Really great video and break down. As a guitarist, and someone who was a huge Cobain fan back in the 90s, may I elaborate a little more.
As a power chord is a shape you can move around fret-to-fret, a lot of this stuff is composed by just using patterns of moving the shape around. The harmony that creates is secondary. So, for example, "Smells like teen spirit" is two power chords on fret 1, (F5, Bb5) then the same pattern/shape moved up to the fourth fret (Ab5, Db5).
I'm certain that's how he wrote. Moving power chords around that sounded good - Breed, Lithium, Drain You etc.
The other thing is Cobain created quite a specific quirk through sloppy technique. Most power chords on guitar are actually root, 5th and octave (rather than just root and 5th). The 5th and octave are on the same fret on adjacent strings. Cobain would flatten one finger lazily across both strings to do that, rather than use two. As a result, he'd often catch a third string (the G-string) and snag a suspended fourth. But not fully fretted.
Listen out and you'll often catch a wayward sus4 in Cobain's power chords.
Alex Ball yes... I learned to play using this "technique" cause I learned by watching him play... You can hear it clearly, Frances Farmer is an example
Daniel Souza Yep, definitely. Once you hear it (and see him playing guitar) it becomes obvious.
you mean the shape moved up three frets right?
Alex Ball ...
Yep! i am reminded of Marc Boland saying that he didn't know how go play chords and he also wrote big hits in a similar way. It's peculiar that songwriting doesn't always need music theory knowledge!
I can't write songs , but I have qualifications in music theory! ..
.. i guess it doesn't help not be able to sing at all
;~)
Alex Ball i was thinking the i doubt kirk new any of these terms and literally was messing with a guitar and said, “this sounds good”
You really don't understand how much of a guitarist's tone is in their fingers until you hear a midi guitar lol
Great vid, love good ol' Seattle music!
tbh midi sounds as a whole don't really sound like the instrument they're supposed to represent
True, but you can get *decent* midi from other instruments, but guitar just sounds horrible.
I'd say the same about midi violins & others in that family, but that's just my bias.
Seltaeb it's not really that tone is in the fingers, it's just very difficult to midi due to the nature of the instrument.
Yes, the way you play something changes the sound, but I think people are too obsessed with the, "the tone is in the fingers" montra. You don't have EQ in your fingers. You can play it more clearly, or tighter, or hit the strings harder, but the "tone" is not really that effected by your fingers as long as you don't suck.
Yeah, that family easily translates worst to midi
I'd also add that the verse lyrics are parallel.
V1"Sell the kids for food / weather changes mood"
V2"We can have some more / nature is a wore"
So on top of the cool stuff going on in the arrangement, the verses are arranged interestingly too!
*whore not wore.
What a wonderful weirdo. I get madder every year that nobody could help him. What we lost...
Yeah man
I never though about Nirvana with a critical music view and I'm surprised about how complex, yet sounding simple, are this song. Thank your for this video
malacelo surprisingly a lot of bands have technical components. Master of puppets was praised by the dude that did their symphony concert, saying it was very technical, James Hetfield said he knew nothing about writing music like that, he only wanted it to sound cool.
Not really that complex though but not as simple as some people like to think
The thing is is that many of these people didn't have a proper form of musical education but had fantastic ears and knew what sounded great
I don't know anything about music theory so this all blows over my head. I just followed Kurt
Wassup Krist! Is that really you?
@@tsungimangwiro2466 nah. Its not
He got his jazz progressions from listening to The Beatles
Haha. Beatles couldn't play any deep jazz or they would have.
@@killinbildvow80 What said anying about "deep jazz"? Whatever the hell that is...
Your thumbnail game is too strong!
srincrivel1 lol hahahahaha
Goggle products wtf
Woo! Thanks for doing my suggestion!
Thanks for the idea!
I also suggested this. :D
Awesome vid, 12tone! In Bloom always stood out to me as a perfect example of what made Nirvana great, which is that Kurt's writing was completely visceral. He was the perfect combination of high talent/low knowledge(of theory), with a great ear. He just felt it. And they delivered it in a way that made everyone else feel it too. My own theory knowledge falls somewhere between Kurt and yourself, so I love hearing about "why" this song works. Keep up the good work!
There are a lot of guitarists who are extremely technically proficient yet they couldn't write a really catchy, clever bunch of riffs to save their life.
Try to understand lithium
He should analyze Endless, Nameless
Please do lithium!!! It’s so weird
Thomas Inda It uses a lot of modal interchange, mainly, specifically starting the riff and melody clearly in D major and then sneaking in some weird, disorienting chords from D minor to wrong-foot the listener, with the bridge really leaning into it with a G5-Bb5 vamp but having the jangly open strings played on the G spell out a full major chord-the progression being distinctly minor but that sneaky B still messing with you, underlining the themes of bipolar disorder and mixed episodes in particular. It's very cleverly written and compelling and tells a cool story but it's not that hard to explain.
meaning is actually pretty straightforward, being a mockery of blind faith found in christianity which he was both baffled by, and jealous of
I think a separate video on the guitar solo alone is warranted. It's pretty incredible!
MegaCrasherMusic To each his own. I hear it as being really well structured for the number of bars alotted. And the phrases balance eachother really well. It's basically noise/bend - melody - noise/bend - melody - noise/bend - melody. The noise/bend sets each phrase up and the melodic bits are well...melodic :p
If i can chime in, its an insanely awesome break. Cobain called them anti solos for how much he tried work against theory in them. This solo is some of his best attempts at it but Spank Thru and Milk It and Radio Friendly Unit Shifter put the nails in the theory coffin. I can only imagine the blank confused expression he'd have if you asked him what key he was in.
Jesse Darty True. Cobain probably didn't know what he was doing from a theoretical standpoint but he had a natural sense of harmony that allowed the melodic bits in the In Bloom solo to make sense. Where he breaks "the rules" so to speak is the balance between noise and melody.
KIBanshee9 his talent is a rare one indeed. Few people can get away with not knowing what theyre doing, but he didnt get away, he got ahead. He left all the guitar virtuosos of the Northwest scene in the dust by playing for what a song called for rather than impressive appregiated hammer on scales that 'better' guitarists were stuck on. He was one the best songwriters but one of the worst guitarists and that counts for something i think
Jesse Darty just because your doing something on purpose, doesn't make it good.
4:23 *I* want that!
The first two sound awesome in minor! The last two feel like they would be better in major though
Okuno Zankok
Somehow this reminds me of Orbital - The box (9:09) ua-cam.com/video/cONv26K0vL8/v-deo.html
i was always fascinated by a lot of the songs on this album, especially in bloom. it just breaks conventions. kurt was a creative person
Keep up with these analysis, they are always very interesting :)
This is so cool!
Please don't stop!!
I like videos like these because they make me appreciate certain songs more than I previously did
Nice video! Very clear and concise!
These videos are great good job!
Great video. The solo I feel deserves it's own video, it feels so disconnected yet fitting.
as soon as I have some money I will patreon this channel... amazing work!
This was a great video!
Been waiting for this 😁
I was waiting for this one
Amazing and instructional video! Thanks, good work!
Wow i don’t have words.. I really love what you do. Keep it up!!!
Very in-depth good job 👍
Loved this
What about analyzing the vocal melody notes together with the chords being played to have a full picture of the song?
Great work, as always! 👍👌
Dude you are just amazing, i wish you could do more and more
i love hyper focus explanations, light it up gold
This is one of the best explanations of functional harmony I've ever heard!
I am speechless... kind of Genius your interpretation ... I was think all this years they borrowed from punk
That was brilliant!
Wow, that was really interesting thank you man!
im so happy that i discovered that channel
Whilst not knowing a thing about musical theory, I did notice that the chord structure of In Bloom was different (not knowing anything about theory, that's the only way I could have described it.) This video was really helpful in learning what made it so intriguing to me, and is slowly encouraging me to learn a thing or two about theory. Great video!
May his beautiful soul rest in peace
Love it!
wow this video is everything that runs through my head when hearing music
I have a request. Can you make a short song by using most complicated scales, tricks and progressions? Your theorical knowledge is really good and you analyze some songs by using this knowledge. But l am curious about how you use them. I would be really happy if you do that kind of thing. Thank you for the video by the way. Keep up the great work.
I would love to watch a video of you talking more about that progression kurt used in that song, cause it's been used in almost all music in the last decade and I feel like I'm the only one who notice it. It is something like *Em - C - Am* but there's lots of variations, it could be all in major chords for example but basically is that same progression. Please it would be really cool of you guys to make a video on that, I've been obsessed with it for years now and I need some explanation haha love your work btw keep it up with the good content.
this is amazing
Can someone explain something to me. How are the chords at 2:00 any different from from the ones at 3:39?
Their the same chords when played, just clean. But he's saying their now major chords?
I fucking love your channel!
My new favorite channel. Fucking brilliant. Please review some extreme music, would love to see you break it all down!
Wait, a channel like this exists... Subscribed!
Very interesting!
Emotional purity from his fingers to his ears I love Kurt music
Whoa! Just discovered you by accident. I can't believe how similar our musical tastes are! Subscribed!
Kurt had an extensive if informal music education, and drew influence from a lot of unexpected places, ranging from big-band jazz to lounge singers to glam rock to underground punk. He probably _did_ study bebop, and contrary to a lot of these comments, definitely would've understood this analysis and probably would've had a few _pages_ of notes on it.
The fact of the matter is, "talent" is just being surrounded by people who know your craft and learning it through exposure rather than needing to go out of your way to study it. It's a matter of environment, not inherent ability. Kurt Cobane probably got a better music education from his parents being musicians than he would have from any sort of formal training.
Can i suggest you something? It's cool to know what is behind famous songs, but you speak only about the guitar part and the power of in bloom, in my opinion, is the combination of the bass line and the drums. Why not talk about the other instruments in the future? And maybe the vocal part?
Well he is talking about chords and harmonies and such, and in this song the guitar was enough for that. If you want to talk about how instruments/voices sound and how these sounds interact with each other, that goes into arrangement and is a completely different section of music theory.
I mean the bass in this song is playing roots most of the time; in other words, what he said applies there aswell
As for the drums, Dliess made that clear.
if you listen to the song, it sounds like all the bass does is play the root of the chord. It doesn't even solo in some chord tone, it's pretty simple. Not really necessary to discuss it.
I agree, that's important in some music, but especially for Nirvana doesn't make sense. In Nirvana's music the root of the chord was often repeated on the bass. It was pretty rare to end up with a bass line that actually changed the composition of what was happening on the guitar. I also think the vocals are not the best place to see Nirvana's music. Kurt Cobain was a much better singer than I think a lot of people give him credit for, but often times he didn't utilize that in Nirvana's songs. In many live recordings he sings off key.
I think Kurt Cobain's biggest strength was his songwriting. He was an insanely good (albeit lazy by his own admission) guitarist, a likewise talented (and yet again lazy) singer based on live and acoustic performances. I think his songwriting was top tier though. Almost all Nirvana songs are fun to play because of their simplicity in execution, yet the complexity of them theory wise is often times interesting.
On a side note, I actually think one of the most interesting things about his music are his chord voicings. He primarily used open chords and barre chords. What's interesting are his fingerings for the barre chords. At first I thought he was lazy and he learned to play them wrong, but that's not the case at all because I have heard earlier recordings of him using normal barre chord voicing. Often times he fretted them in such a way that his chords would be a sus4 or major chord rather than a power chord. It shines through especially in live recordings because he hit extra strings on accident while switching effects and singing.
He's actually really fascinating to look into.
You are right about other instruments, but melody affects how chords sounds, it does matter.
Amazing! Thanks for this! A lot of insights in music theory I've never thought I would have from grunge songs (although they indeed sound great and catchy)!
excellent video
Hey, does the thing with the distorted major chords that sound minor also apply to the song Dreams by Beck?
This song has always been a mystery to my as a song that completely disregards theory yet sounds great. It’s so weird to pull apart a song buy someone who didn’t know anything about theory. Well done.
This turned out to be way more interesting than I thought it would be.
Great video! Kurt's writing skill was amazing. You should also analyse his noisy anti-solo from that song! Anyway, thank you for doing Nirvana as many people don't understand their music.
this is awesome! i love your brain. i'd throw in, possibly just for fun, the theory that kurt was just imitating things he heard other bands do without knowing much beyond power chords. So he wasn't able to replicate it perfectly, but he may have been satisfied with a "close enough for punk" aesthetic. for example the chord progression of "Smells like teen spirit" was reportedly his attempt at the "More than a feeling" chorus by Boston. so maybe something similar was happening in this song at times. anyway, thanks for this rad videos. you're a genius.
Earned my sub!
The reason why power chords worked so well on Nevermind is the layering and the amp choices / pedals etc that Butchie did...Normally would sound thin but he had them sounding HUGE
Great Job! Thank you! Can you do more about "encircling"?
I thought this was going to be a lyrical breakdown. all the music theory went way over my head
Regarding the major chords played on guitar in the verse- it's because it's an easy shape to play. Kurt used that shape almost exclusively- holding the root on the lowest string with his index finger and barring the next 3 strings with his ring finger. When doing that shape with the A string as the lowest string, you get a major shape, which is what's happening in this song. For example, on Smells Like Teen Spirit, where it's Fsus Bb Absus Db. The sus4's happen because he's playing the shape on the low 4 strings. So ultimately it's the convenience of using that one shape more than anything else, and he's exploiting the harmonies that arise from it and making great songs out of them:)
I have been listening to Sturgill Simpson's "A Sailor's Guide to Earth" and I completely forgot that In Bloom was Nirvana. It's great either way! Good video!
As much you wouldn't like to believe.... Kurt probably knew music theory more than he said he knew....Kurt really understood how melody and harmony worked......On a plain is one of his most complex songs.....most of his songs has perfect voicing which u can tell he really knew what he was doing..U just cant come up with an album like nevermind off the top......
Nice video
This is a long shot, but please another Nirvana video. I find Cobains songwriting very interesting cause he uses only power chords which gives him alot of unusual options for harmony
This is interesting to listen to and see drawn out. I write songs in a similar style and similarly dominated by power chords, with a lot of these tricks in mind but never having really actually called them anything, nor particularly associated them with specific genres. I know exactly what's meant by them as you say them since I can hear it going on but just didn't have the language for it. Makes me intrigued to think how it must all come across to someone who learned the theory first, and then wrote songs. And what the differences of approach might be. I guess in this respect I learned from ear, as you suggest Cobain probably did.
I started composing on piano but even there I use a lot of power chords, drone and 7th chords that are essentially like pairs of power chords played simultaneously. Stable bases around which to wind pretty dissonance.
This is maybe my favourite Nirvana song as well. The message of it just flows so well with the music of it. A message I related to a bit even whilst comprehending it, and I like that you point out how it works with the music in here. I shall check out your other videos! :)
Fascinating to watch, even if I have no idea what you are talking about. Kurt is my biggest inspiration - not in terms of the sound of what I write, but in terms of just playing what sounds good to you... and this is the key point that I'm not sure the author of this video understands or appreciates. I suspect that what I compose is quite complex and unusual, yet I have ZERO music theory knowledge... literally no idea what I'm doing. All I have is my ear and what sounds good to me. There is no attempt whatsoever to do anything except what sounds good to me. Kurt was definitely in this camp. He moved from one power chord to the next and searched around for a sequence that sounded good to him. End of! For some people, it really is that simple. That it might be complex or unusual when broken down into musical theory is utterly irrelevant, and utterly aside from the creative process.
There’s amazing features in the harmonies and melodies of nirvana, one of the most remarkable in my opinion is the use of major thirds in the melody over the power chords, giving it a sort of Picardy feel, kind of psychopath, the bridge to the chorus in this song has it, and it contrasts with the minor third sound of the bass progressions as you mentioned.many nirvana songs have that, it feels quite ironic. One of the best harmonies of nirvana in my opinion is frances farmer will have her revenge in Seattle. The melody of smells like teen spirit is also good for analysis, very well constructed using leaps, downward motion and emphasis on the semitones. Those things makes this bands music very unique and expressive.
;~) great videos!
Bought tickets to see them live in summer of 91 at a venue in November 1991 , which was before Nevermind was released, .......cos I liked the album Bleach.
By the time I saw them , things had got a bit intense!
Best channel on UA-cam
I ducking love this song
Do you think you can do a video on In the Air Tonight?
Really kewl video! I wonder if you think about the Eb in the verse as a D# instead then it outlines a B7 tri-sub...I'm gonna check this out!
Aqualung by Jethro Tull.
aqualung , to cry you a song , driving song , bouree ,living in the past, all these tull songs have something special to them , like baroque sound or jazz
The way Cobain played his power chords (with a barred and sort of double-jointed ring finger) meant that a lot of his chord progressions had an androgyny to whether it was major or minor. And his melodies tend to emphasize that uncertainty.
it sounds cool
i know it's not very popular, but what about the mars volta's eriatarka? i find the drums during the chorus very interesting
I got here after watching Rick Beato's coverage of this song ("The Nirvana Hit that uses all 12 Notes") from yesterday (i don't follow him or anything but he comes up in my feed sometimes and I tried to guess which song it was - I immediately thought it was In Bloom -wasnt sure why actually - and got it right!
Anyway I find it super interesting both he and you were very surprised by the use of the D chord. To me it was always a natural thing: being ignorant about music theory myself, but growing up on riffy 80s punk like Agnostic Front, Minor Threat, Misfits, Cro-Mags, etc; using the 5th of a power chord meant not repeat the same thing over and over again, ie give a little variety, yet keeping the same two notes of the chord, which to me meant staying in "key." I'd do that when I played bass too; just play the 5th of the note and make some easy variety haha. It was something I picked up early on and used in probably every single song I ever wrote!
Regarding 02:28 you say he goes to the higher (g flat?) Would that be one octave higher? Is that known as g flat 9 or have a specific name? Also from 02:20 until like 03:30 about the bebop targeting, wow what a concept
Honestly, I have to disagree with you on the interpretation of the major chords. Personally, I find distorted minor chords to sound fine, and I think the reasoning has more to do with the themes of the song. It to me seems to be about how things only seem good when in reality we merely misunderstand the darkness. Therefore major chords ~associated with light~ over a minor progression. That's my interpretation anyways.
He also played power chords from the A string, which were played with two fingers, and used with 3 strings from the E sting
I have never been bored by nirvana. Until now.
Omg that's awesome cuz I've known how to play that song forever now I see it differently
I love this channel, you are amazing. I have your first whiskey if you ever come around kansas
Thanks
Thank you @12tone :) This was very enjoyable. Could you please break down Big Love by Fleetwood Mac?
For those of you who don’t know, cobain didn’t know how to play major and minor chords. What’s likely happening in the chorus is that he’s playing a power chord, but accidentally playing some of the strings below it as well, which if you’re playing them on the A string, playing and extra note below the power chord is gonna sound major.
Hal Leonard Corp have this transcribed stating it's Bb Dorian - I've heard Kurt talk about the dorian mode briefly in an interview, too
Sometimes you're just dicking around on your guitar and find something that sounds good. When that happens, it usually makes theoretical sense. That's why it sounded good to you.
kurt was such a gifted dude
This video is fantastic, and I really like that it highlights how Cobain often used elements that related to jazz and bebop. However, I would have liked to hear at least a nod to the solo, which brilliantly plays with the melodic theme discussed in the video. In fact, there is an earlier version of the song, which they even shot a video for, that has a slightly more traditional sounding solo. It's more blues based, and perhaps a bit more technical, but less exclusive and doesn't play around with the melody in the same way.
What an intense dissection of Cobain !
Can you do the Beatles"Come Together" ??