@@slidenaway nah, i feel like it's the other way around. when the video started i knew it was gonna be either the major 2 or major 3. just not a fan of overusing such peculiar sounds/colours, it's the same if an artist always uses the minor 4. at some point you go _ffs_ ... but maybe i'm just prejudiced and a fanboy-to-be, who knows.
@@STERNWAERTS There's a trope for every artist, maybe this one is not your cup of tea, but I wouldn't say Elliott Smith is less original for having one of his own. If you analyse all music like this most artists become "boring", though I think it matters more how the music sounds than how it's created.
Elliott Smith is one of the few indie rockers whose songs are genuinely hard to figure out on guitar, even if you are advanced. He is deservedly remembered as an amazing songwriter, but I don’t think he gets enough recognition as the guitar virtuoso he was - seriously
More! More! More! I got to see Elliott perform live three times. When he toured for XO, I saw him at the Paradise in Boston. I was right up against the stage, about 15 feet from him. Hands down, best concert experience ever. I'd love to see David do more videos about his music! Elliott is my favorite songwriter.
Fantastic, David. Elliott is a long time favourite of mine. Almost impossible to pick one song but Independence Day is right up there. A whole video could be done on just that one riff alone! Such a phenomenal songwriter. Fiercely melodic, a master of harmony and one hell of a lyricist to boot. Long live Elliott Smith
Wholeheartedly agree. Love all of his stuff. Even like honky bach, the weird b sides from figure 8. Like it’s all awesome but yeah Independence days guitar melodies are phheeeenomenal.
Elliott smith is so hard but rewarding to figure out. If someone could ever figure out how to nail his songwriting style they would still have to tackle his right hand technique lol. Genuinely one of the best artists to ever live.
Almost impossible to pick a favourite song, but the one that amazes me the most is "I Didn't Understand". The a cappella vocal arrangement is just out of this world, topped with a highly unusual, at times chromatically climbing chord progression in the verses. Just blissful.
As far as I know he wasn't a trained musican which makes it more incredible how he pulled of so many songs that have such beautiful melodies and harmonys
I discovered Elliott in the late 90s when our local alt rock station started playing “Miss Misery.” Loved it from the moment I heard it and still think it’s an example of everything he’s good at. Thank you for making a video about him. Moore, please!
If you ever want to see Elliott looking incredibly awkward and ill at ease (even more than usual) look up his Oscars performance where he was nominated but lost out to Celine Dion. I felt really sorry for him because his OST on Good Will Hunting was as important as a supporting actor
@@mikeydflyingtoaster yeah that’s an iconic moment in his career, if not for all the right reasons. He was out of place. He knew it and his fans knew it. Nonetheless, I’m still glad the dude got honored for his brilliance
@@pensivepenguin3000 My favourite Elliott Smith moment was in an interview with a rather over exuberant reporter who was doing a perfect job of making his interviewee as uncomfortable as possible. Anyway, he says "I love the new album! Have you been listening to The Beatles a lot recently?"... Elliott looks a little nonplussed and replies "I've been listening to The Beatles a lot recently my whole life"
It's so nice to see a video about Elliott! hope you do more. It's really hard to just pick one song but one that I really like is Better Be Quiet Now or The Last Hour
Yup! My buddy and I are always talking about how Elliott loved that Major II chord. He also loved a good minor iv and a bVI in a major key. And he loved that bluesy melodic pentatonic lick (5, 4, b3, 1) either with his voice or guitar, often on top of that Major II chord. One of the greatest modern songwriter IMO 😊. Great video David!
ive studied elliotts music, a lot. this is a very nice overview of the basics of the basics of smith without going into more complex or niche stuff. the I II IV is so idiosyncratically him, and he definitely picked it up from the beatles.
That major 2 chord really makes a big difference in how unique his sound is. Evidently that's one of the reason's I've always thought he was so much like the Beatles.
Was just reading an autobiography of Elliott Smith while learning his songs and this video dropped. Please do more analysis video on him!! Thanks for the amazing work
I discovered Elliot Smith this year when I watched a videos of yours about the minor 6th I think, and Between The Bars was there,but I didn’t find it that brilliant. One day in the same month I let Spotify playing some indie bands, and it started playing Between The Bars and hearing the entire song, I realized how good it is. Then, I went to Elliot’s artist profile to look for some other songs. I saw an album (XO) with a cool cover, then I saw that there was two waltz in the album. I was curious about why is waltz #1 after than #2 so I went to hear waltz #1, and it was one of the few songs that, listening for the first time, I let it play without pausing. It was love at first sight. This song is incredible in so many ways, like, how Elliot combined C# Lydian with Bb minor (changing to Bb harmonic minor sometimes). Now I think I’ve already heard it more that 100 times and I won’t stop. I also did find Everything Means Nothing to Me, a song that I think you should do a video about it, or include it at one. Because I think the modulations on the tonality are a really good subject (I still don’t understand perfectly what he does there, even though I know how to play it on the piano). In short, Elliot Smith is exceptional.
I love Elliot Smith, saw him live three times in London, the last was at the London Union which felt super intimate but a bit sad because he seemed quite off. From Rimsky-Korsakov to Elliot Smith, I feel we could really enjoy a beer or three. Thank you.
This is one I've been waiting for. Elliott Smith's been one of my top 5 favorite artists for many years. I would also love to see a video analyzing Nick Drake's music.
Love to see some Elliott Smith content! It’d be awesome to see an analysis of his song “Happiness” - it’s one of my favorites, and I somewhat recently observed that the vocal harmony in the bridge is just 8 chromatic descending notes. Either way, keep up the good work!
Great video, as always! My favorite Elliott Smith song with an interesting chord progression is "Pretty Mary K". I think there's a Neopolitan 6 in there!
Fabulous analysis. As soon as you mentioned the two major immediately thought of the Beatles songs you won't see me and Sergeant Pepper which you both mentioned. There are other features of Elliott Smith songs that remind me of the Beatles especially Paul McCartney's compositions. Maybe you can try analyzing bottle up and explode in a future video.
I first heard Elliot Smith on the radio while driving to work in 1998. I did😢catch his name, or the name of the song. The next day I heard the song again and caught his name but missed the name of the song. I was on apprentice wages back then, so times were tough 😁. I walked in to HMV and asked one of the staff if they could play through his CDs until I found the song I was looking for. The first one he played was Waltz #2 and that was the one. I was hooked ever since. It’s amazing how available music is just now. You really had to work to even get a listen to it back then.
Ah !! only a couple weeks ago i was trying to figure out what is is about “LA” and “Son of Sam” that i liked so much. Your content is awesome keep it up ❤
I’ve watched these music theory videos for years and always wished it would be elliott smith but no one ever made them now years later finally a good one Ty Ty
I've loved music all my life but never known anything about music theory, or been in any way musically gifted. Your videos are really good in giving me at least some understanding of what makes these songs memorable. When I saw Elliott Smith I clicked instantly. Would love to see more videos on him. As for a favourite, I'd say either Between the Bars or Waltz #2
Now, since I am this early, let me take the chance to thank you very much for your amazing videos. You help me to understand music in a different way and I very much enjoy it :)
"Shiva opens her arms now to make sure I don't get too far/I may talk in my sleep tonight 'cause I don't know what I am/I'm a little like you, more like Son of Sam." And that was Elliott in a GOOD mood. 🙃 I've never known what chords he was using, I've just known they were good ones.
The interplay of the major & minor chords make the brightness that much brighter & the darkness that much darker. Like sun rays piercing through black storm clouds.
I rarely think of an artist being a genius. In this case I have no doubts, Elliot was a genius. Hard to choose one song but if I have to choose, Between the bars.
Glad you mentioned the double-tracked vocals at the end. (I'll add that he often doubles the guitar track as well.) It really is critical to his sound. I think he also tends to use longer chord progressions than most singer-songwriters. "Pictures of Me" verse is a 9-chord progression; "Say Yes" verse is a 7-chord progression; "Happiness" chorus is an 8-chord progression; "New Monkey" verse is maybe a 14-chord progression? He also once said, if I'm not mistaken, that transitions were his favorite parts of songs to write, so it's no surprise that he uses pre-choruses more than the average singer-songwriter. (Probably, anyway. I haven't analyzed any data or anything.) "Say Yes" is also interesting because it contains two bridges.
Waaaah you just unlocked the secret of Elliot’s sound! Makes it even more beautiful to me. Love these major / minor switches. Much like the D to Dm in the chorus of « in my life » :)
5 місяців тому+1
Needle in the Hay is probably my favorite... it's definitely got some modal interchange going on too, I think. I feel like Alex G does the same thing often, which may be part of why his stuff reminds me of Elliott Smith so often
Nice video David! For those of us who are fatigued by the barrage of strictly diatonic and strictly 4/4 music your channel has been a breath of fresh air with examples such as Elliott Smith who break from the norm. I had actually not heard of him but I'm definitely going to check out his music! Based on what I saw and heard in those chord progressions I agree with both the modal mixture analysis and the the Beatles comparisons. It seems like Smith often goes from this II chord to a IV chord, much like in some Beatles songs such as "Yesterday." That song is clearly borrowing from Lydian with not only the major II of G but the minor (as opposed to diminished) vii of Em, both of which are in F Lydian but not F major.
The Lydians, baby! Lydian (#4) and Mixolydian (b7) are such powerful sounds to access for music of all genres and instruments. Also note that the pentatonic scale does not include either the 4 or the 7, so you can take a pentatonic melody and run in through Lydian and Mixolydian moments with virtually no problems. Pretty useful!
So interesting!! Never fully realized the prevalence of this chord in his songs until now. Thank you so much for this video, please make more Elliott Smith content!! He really deserves more music theory analysis :))
Thank you, David. Delighted to learn about Elliott’s songwriting and left yearning for more. And you managed to get through this without mentioning the biggies: Waltz No 2, Between the Bars and (swoon) Angeles. I’d love to see analysis of these songs and also a couple of more obscure tracks that I think stand with his best: New Disaster and No Confidence Man. Have you heard of The Little Unsaid?
Nice to dig into these progressions. Yeah, I was going to say that Maj 2 makes the C progression close to C lydian, or in G instead of C. Notice he's also playing the D7 sometimes, the V chord of G, and the II chord in C lydian. The Beatles did this sort of thing quite a lot. Also, the Am verse and A Maj chorus is how While My Guitar Gently Weeps goes. Cheers
Another thing Smith uses often is the major 3rd for brightness. Gmaj to Bbmaj is how I've always visualized/conceptualized his music's feeling as a whole.
A video going into the many songs that use the flat 6 would be amazing. Literally so many songs use it and I would love to see you analyze it. Great Video
Also something I've noticed about the Pop songwriters (like ES and Beatles) who create clever progressions like these -- particularly with an eye toward how the chord is voiced, is that, though they might be thought of as mainly playing guitar, they also played, or composed on the piano. I can say, for myself, this has been true. So this is my plug for stringed-instrument players to get on the keys, at least once in a while! And like many in the comments (who all have excellent taste, btw!), I'm a big fan of Eliot Smith too!
Elliott’s music was heavily featured in the film Good Will Hunting, which is where I discovered him in the late 90’s. TBH I haven’t got much beyond Either/Or, but it takes me back to a certain period in my life and the events going on for me then. I had Shack, Janis Ian, Elliott Smith and Matchbox 20 on permanent rotation in the car.
This is phenomenal analysis. I would love to know a common trick like this for some of my other favorite songwriters like Guided By Voices, Townes Van Zandt, NIrvana, Pavement, Liz Phair….
what's Everybodies favorite Elliott Smith song for it's chord progression? Mine is A Distorted Reality is a Necessity to be Free, particularly the second half of the song "Shine on me baby cause it's raining in my heart"
My fave Elliott tunes: Coming up Roses, Independence Day, Stupidity Tries, Biggest lie… ummm I could keep going….. so nice to see Elliott people on this thread💜
Elliott's use of the Major 2 chord makes a lot more sense when you think of him as a guitar player, who was specifically writing songs on his guitar. If he was just comfortable singing in the key of C, he would start a lot of his songs with that open C chord on the guitar, which is just so easy to slide up 2 frets and play a Dadd9. Such an easy and beautiful chord switch that a lot of singer songwriters abuse. I'd imagine any singer songwriters who primarily play acoustic guitar would have a higher use of the major 2 chord for that reason alone.
Off the top of my head songs from childhood that feature the 1 2 come to me easily- like 'As Tears Go By' (Rolling Stones), Atlantis (Donovan), Ride Captain Ride (Blues Image), Brain Damage (Pink Floyd), Casey Jones (Grateful Dead) etc.. Easy to come up with them but yes each of these artists probably don't have more than one or two others in their entire catalog. That's a REALLY high percentage.
I am sure I have been living under a rock, but I've never heard of Elliot Smith before today. Interesting analysis of the emotional resonance of chord progression. Almost as though the songs were written by ear rather than under rules of common notation and progression forms.
You see the Beatles use the II to the IV after hitting the relative minor sometimes too. Like in Yesterday. I usually check if a II to IV gives me something interesting sounding if a progression has taken me to the relative minor chord.
66% of his major songs having the major 2 is crazyyyyyyyy
already bored of it tbh. appears forced
@@STERNWAERTS oh you’re so edgy
@@slidenaway nah, i feel like it's the other way around. when the video started i knew it was gonna be either the major 2 or major 3. just not a fan of overusing such peculiar sounds/colours, it's the same if an artist always uses the minor 4. at some point you go _ffs_ ... but maybe i'm just prejudiced and a fanboy-to-be, who knows.
@@STERNWAERTS There's a trope for every artist, maybe this one is not your cup of tea, but I wouldn't say Elliott Smith is less original for having one of his own. If you analyse all music like this most artists become "boring", though I think it matters more how the music sounds than how it's created.
It is a bit crazy. The chord progression is only one element though
I'd absolutely love a hundred more videos on Elliott Smith!
How do I like a comment more than once??
Elliott Smith is one of the few indie rockers whose songs are genuinely hard to figure out on guitar, even if you are advanced. He is deservedly remembered as an amazing songwriter, but I don’t think he gets enough recognition as the guitar virtuoso he was - seriously
I remember trying to learn Angeles on guitar when I was a teenager and just giving up.
@@EddieDubs same here- and that’s not even getting into all the crazy guitar work on Figure 8!
My buddy and I learned a few songs and the first one had 13 chords. Can’t remember which, but I think it was last call.
@@EddieDubs At least the fingerpickign in the beginning is usually just one shape. But yeah it's crazy
THIS 100%
It's remarkable how in Son of Sam he constantly modulates between a major and minor and it's so smooth you almost don't notice it
we’re entering the elliot phase of the channel bros
I’m here for it.
i hope so
LET'S GOOOO
Move over thom yorke
Let's hope so
More! More! More! I got to see Elliott perform live three times. When he toured for XO, I saw him at the Paradise in Boston. I was right up against the stage, about 15 feet from him. Hands down, best concert experience ever. I'd love to see David do more videos about his music! Elliott is my favorite songwriter.
Wow I'm well jealous of that! :)
Between The Bars ...when I realized the narrator is the bottle I was amazed...one of the most beautiful sad songs ever.
Please David can you do more videos on Elliott??
THIS
Yes, and when you are done with Elliott, then move on to Sufjan Stevens!
The verse of Waltz #2 (XO) is such a satisfying chord progression to play.
My favourite is Christian Brothers.
Yeah there is so much atmosphere in that chord progression. It takes you around the block.
Fantastic, David. Elliott is a long time favourite of mine. Almost impossible to pick one song but Independence Day is right up there. A whole video could be done on just that one riff alone! Such a phenomenal songwriter. Fiercely melodic, a master of harmony and one hell of a lyricist to boot. Long live Elliott Smith
Wholeheartedly agree. Love all of his stuff. Even like honky bach, the weird b sides from figure 8. Like it’s all awesome but yeah Independence days guitar melodies are phheeeenomenal.
Elliott smith is so hard but rewarding to figure out. If someone could ever figure out how to nail his songwriting style they would still have to tackle his right hand technique lol. Genuinely one of the best artists to ever live.
FINALLY BRO. The ONLY songwriter I genuinely care about and the current videos on him dont really do him justice. Thanks mannnnn
ESP's videos are very good and insightful
Almost impossible to pick a favourite song, but the one that amazes me the most is "I Didn't Understand". The a cappella vocal arrangement is just out of this world, topped with a highly unusual, at times chromatically climbing chord progression in the verses. Just blissful.
As far as I know he wasn't a trained musican which makes it more incredible how he pulled of so many songs that have such beautiful melodies and harmonys
I discovered Elliott in the late 90s when our local alt rock station started playing “Miss Misery.” Loved it from the moment I heard it and still think it’s an example of everything he’s good at. Thank you for making a video about him. Moore, please!
If you ever want to see Elliott looking incredibly awkward and ill at ease (even more than usual) look up his Oscars performance where he was nominated but lost out to Celine Dion. I felt really sorry for him because his OST on Good Will Hunting was as important as a supporting actor
@@mikeydflyingtoaster yeah that’s an iconic moment in his career, if not for all the right reasons. He was out of place. He knew it and his fans knew it. Nonetheless, I’m still glad the dude got honored for his brilliance
@@pensivepenguin3000 My favourite Elliott Smith moment was in an interview with a rather over exuberant reporter who was doing a perfect job of making his interviewee as uncomfortable as possible. Anyway, he says "I love the new album! Have you been listening to The Beatles a lot recently?"... Elliott looks a little nonplussed and replies "I've been listening to The Beatles a lot recently my whole life"
Id love more Elliot Smith videos he is my favorite
Any video on elliott smith is something I'm gonna watch. An elliott smith video from you, on the other hand, I will watch immediately.
Exactly!!
In the last months he has been one of, if not the, most significant musician to me. So happy for this video, your channel is wonderful
So happy to see you discuss Elliott, he is my all time fav. One of the greatest songwriters ever.
Holy crap I'm a raging fanatic of Elliott Smith, amazing to see this here!!! 💙💙💙
One of my favorite songs is Tomorrow Tomorrow
Please David, bring us as many Eliott Smith video analyses as many Beatles videos analyses, please!
Please David keep analyzing artists this way, we learn so much
Thnx for your work ♡
YESS ELLIOTT SMITH ON A DAVID BENNETT VIDEO!! WE LOVE TO SEE IT
❤️
Dear God I've been waiting for this for years.Love the channel and I am obsessed with Elliot Smith for the last 20 years
It's so nice to see a video about Elliott! hope you do more. It's really hard to just pick one song but one that I really like is Better Be Quiet Now or The Last Hour
Yup! My buddy and I are always talking about how Elliott loved that Major II chord. He also loved a good minor iv and a bVI in a major key. And he loved that bluesy melodic pentatonic lick (5, 4, b3, 1) either with his voice or guitar, often on top of that Major II chord. One of the greatest modern songwriter IMO 😊. Great video David!
I actually often refer to that lick I mentioned as "The Elliott Smith Lick" he does it in almost every song on XO 😂, and it's great every time.
I dont know how i missed Elliott’s songs growing up… thx to u for bringing him up in a previous vid… one of my favs now…
Excellent !! Glad I could introduce him to you!
Thank you so much David! I wanted this video for a long time and I like to think that you saw my comments where I ask for it ❤️ keep up the good work
He was one of a kind. Love his music.
Oh my god, finally a video on one of the best composers of the modern era
Super here for the Elliott content!!!
ive studied elliotts music, a lot. this is a very nice overview of the basics of the basics of smith without going into more complex or niche stuff. the I II IV is so idiosyncratically him, and he definitely picked it up from the beatles.
That major 2 chord really makes a big difference in how unique his sound is. Evidently that's one of the reason's I've always thought he was so much like the Beatles.
Was just reading an autobiography of Elliott Smith while learning his songs and this video dropped. Please do more analysis video on him!! Thanks for the amazing work
I discovered Elliot Smith this year when I watched a videos of yours about the minor 6th I think, and Between The Bars was there,but I didn’t find it that brilliant. One day in the same month I let Spotify playing some indie bands, and it started playing Between The Bars and hearing the entire song, I realized how good it is. Then, I went to Elliot’s artist profile to look for some other songs. I saw an album (XO) with a cool cover, then I saw that there was two waltz in the album. I was curious about why is waltz #1 after than #2 so I went to hear waltz #1, and it was one of the few songs that, listening for the first time, I let it play without pausing. It was love at first sight. This song is incredible in so many ways, like, how Elliot combined C# Lydian with Bb minor (changing to Bb harmonic minor sometimes). Now I think I’ve already heard it more that 100 times and I won’t stop. I also did find Everything Means Nothing to Me, a song that I think you should do a video about it, or include it at one. Because I think the modulations on the tonality are a really good subject (I still don’t understand perfectly what he does there, even though I know how to play it on the piano). In short, Elliot Smith is exceptional.
I love Elliot Smith, saw him live three times in London, the last was at the London Union which felt super intimate but a bit sad because he seemed quite off. From Rimsky-Korsakov to Elliot Smith, I feel we could really enjoy a beer or three. Thank you.
Blimey you lucky person that's cool
Always excited to see Elliott smith related videos. I’m just happy people haven’t forgotten about him.
This is one I've been waiting for. Elliott Smith's been one of my top 5 favorite artists for many years. I would also love to see a video analyzing Nick Drake's music.
Love to see some Elliott Smith content! It’d be awesome to see an analysis of his song “Happiness” - it’s one of my favorites, and I somewhat recently observed that the vocal harmony in the bridge is just 8 chromatic descending notes. Either way, keep up the good work!
Great video, as always! My favorite Elliott Smith song with an interesting chord progression is "Pretty Mary K". I think there's a Neopolitan 6 in there!
Yep! That's one I've never even attempted to learn. I don't think I'm ever gnna figure it out:)
elliot smith on david bennet? im hooked
David, please do more of these series where you analyze different artists' music, this is great 👍
one of my favorite channels covering my favorite musician???? i'm in love
Wonderful, thank you for making this... I play Elliot Smith on guitar almost daily, never picked up on this.
This is great! My favorite is Miss Misery.
Fabulous analysis. As soon as you mentioned the two major immediately thought of the Beatles songs you won't see me and Sergeant Pepper which you both mentioned. There are other features of Elliott Smith songs that remind me of the Beatles especially Paul McCartney's compositions. Maybe you can try analyzing bottle up and explode in a future video.
I first heard Elliot Smith on the radio while driving to work in 1998. I did😢catch his name, or the name of the song. The next day I heard the song again and caught his name but missed the name of the song. I was on apprentice wages back then, so times were tough 😁. I walked in to HMV and asked one of the staff if they could play through his CDs until I found the song I was looking for. The first one he played was Waltz #2 and that was the one. I was hooked ever since.
It’s amazing how available music is just now. You really had to work to even get a listen to it back then.
Ah !! only a couple weeks ago i was trying to figure out what is is about “LA” and “Son of Sam” that i liked so much. Your content is awesome keep it up ❤
Cant get enough of Elliott Smith content, this and the ESP channel are amazing
I’ve watched these music theory videos for years and always wished it would be elliott smith but no one ever made them now years later finally a good one Ty Ty
Holy shit an elliott smith video!! Yes! Please do more elliiott smith!!
I've loved music all my life but never known anything about music theory, or been in any way musically gifted. Your videos are really good in giving me at least some understanding of what makes these songs memorable. When I saw Elliott Smith I clicked instantly. Would love to see more videos on him. As for a favourite, I'd say either Between the Bars or Waltz #2
Now, since I am this early, let me take the chance to thank you very much for your amazing videos. You help me to understand music in a different way and I very much enjoy it :)
Thanks!!
i am always amazed every time i listen to "everything means nothing to me".
every single time.
This is the the Atlantis chord progression by Donovan. It's fantastic.
Saw the title and instantly clicked
YYYYYUP!!
Same
And i instantly liked, elliot is one of my favourites
Instantly clicked on the like button more like!👍🏻
Elliott is a hack
muito feliz de ver alguém com tanta relevância fazer um vídeo sobre o ellitott
Just noticed you passed a million. Congrats David, your channel has been a wonderful resource and your quality has been unwavering
I second this!!
3:12 C is the IV chord in G major, not the flat-VI
Oh yeah, looks like I got a little muddled there. I’ll edit that out of the video now. Thanks for the heads up 😊
"Shiva opens her arms now to make sure I don't get too far/I may talk in my sleep tonight 'cause I don't know what I am/I'm a little like you, more like Son of Sam." And that was Elliott in a GOOD mood. 🙃 I've never known what chords he was using, I've just known they were good ones.
Thank you for your work and view
The interplay of the major & minor chords make the brightness that much brighter & the darkness that much darker. Like sun rays piercing through black storm clouds.
I rarely think of an artist being a genius. In this case I have no doubts, Elliot was a genius. Hard to choose one song but if I have to choose, Between the bars.
i agree, i think condor ave and pitselah are my two favourites but i also have a soft spot for the early version of miss misery
Yeah, he was a genius
Glad you mentioned the double-tracked vocals at the end. (I'll add that he often doubles the guitar track as well.) It really is critical to his sound.
I think he also tends to use longer chord progressions than most singer-songwriters. "Pictures of Me" verse is a 9-chord progression; "Say Yes" verse is a 7-chord progression; "Happiness" chorus is an 8-chord progression; "New Monkey" verse is maybe a 14-chord progression? He also once said, if I'm not mistaken, that transitions were his favorite parts of songs to write, so it's no surprise that he uses pre-choruses more than the average singer-songwriter. (Probably, anyway. I haven't analyzed any data or anything.) "Say Yes" is also interesting because it contains two bridges.
Waaaah you just unlocked the secret of Elliot’s sound! Makes it even more beautiful to me. Love these major / minor switches. Much like the D to Dm in the chorus of « in my life » :)
Needle in the Hay is probably my favorite... it's definitely got some modal interchange going on too, I think. I feel like Alex G does the same thing often, which may be part of why his stuff reminds me of Elliott Smith so often
This video is such a gift! Thank you for delving so far into one of my biggest loves
loving the elliot!!!! my favorite is Clementine!!!
huge elliot smith phase and trying to understand the beauty in his music just as you release this. thanks man
Nice video David! For those of us who are fatigued by the barrage of strictly diatonic and strictly 4/4 music your channel has been a breath of fresh air with examples such as Elliott Smith who break from the norm. I had actually not heard of him but I'm definitely going to check out his music!
Based on what I saw and heard in those chord progressions I agree with both the modal mixture analysis and the the Beatles comparisons. It seems like Smith often goes from this II chord to a IV chord, much like in some Beatles songs such as "Yesterday." That song is clearly borrowing from Lydian with not only the major II of G but the minor (as opposed to diminished) vii of Em, both of which are in F Lydian but not F major.
The Lydians, baby! Lydian (#4) and Mixolydian (b7) are such powerful sounds to access for music of all genres and instruments.
Also note that the pentatonic scale does not include either the 4 or the 7, so you can take a pentatonic melody and run in through Lydian and Mixolydian moments with virtually no problems. Pretty useful!
Pretty Mary K is an absolute chord sequence masterpiece. Listen if you haven’t before!
I am so glad you invested in some acoustic treatment, your voice sounds great now!
My favorite artist. Truly a genius!
One of my all time favourites and a bit influence on my music.
So interesting!! Never fully realized the prevalence of this chord in his songs until now. Thank you so much for this video, please make more Elliott Smith content!! He really deserves more music theory analysis :))
I love Elliott Smith so much. You actually introduced me to him in your 14/4 time video. I love learning the music theory behind his songs.
Thank you, David. Delighted to learn about Elliott’s songwriting and left yearning for more.
And you managed to get through this without mentioning the biggies: Waltz No 2, Between the Bars and (swoon) Angeles. I’d love to see analysis of these songs and also a couple of more obscure tracks that I think stand with his best: New Disaster and No Confidence Man.
Have you heard of The Little Unsaid?
Nice to dig into these progressions. Yeah, I was going to say that Maj 2 makes the C progression close to C lydian, or in G instead of C. Notice he's also playing the D7 sometimes, the V chord of G, and the II chord in C lydian. The Beatles did this sort of thing quite a lot. Also, the Am verse and A Maj chorus is how While My Guitar Gently Weeps goes. Cheers
Another thing Smith uses often is the major 3rd for brightness. Gmaj to Bbmaj is how I've always visualized/conceptualized his music's feeling as a whole.
Like film music
Thank you so much. Elliott means the world to me. I adore him & his music. Elliott forever! Xo❤
Great way of explaining theory, this makes sense. Interesting video. I have often thought Elliot's tunes reminded me of The Beatles.
This is the next logical step after radiohead
They're so different and yet they have so much overlap it's really interesting
@angryprimalbug5417 what comes after Elliott??
@@bren519 the smiths duh
@@angryprimalbug5417 I love you
@@sebs11_b73 huh
A video going into the many songs that use the flat 6 would be amazing. Literally so many songs use it and I would love to see you analyze it.
Great Video
Sounds interesting
Such simple yet not common genius ideas. His melodies on top of it too. So clever. It's purely genius.
Also something I've noticed about the Pop songwriters (like ES and Beatles) who create clever progressions like these -- particularly with an eye toward how the chord is voiced, is that, though they might be thought of as mainly playing guitar, they also played, or composed on the piano. I can say, for myself, this has been true. So this is my plug for stringed-instrument players to get on the keys, at least once in a while! And like many in the comments (who all have excellent taste, btw!), I'm a big fan of Eliot Smith too!
Elliott’s music was heavily featured in the film Good Will Hunting, which is where I discovered him in the late 90’s. TBH I haven’t got much beyond Either/Or, but it takes me back to a certain period in my life and the events going on for me then. I had Shack, Janis Ian, Elliott Smith and Matchbox 20 on permanent rotation in the car.
This is phenomenal analysis. I would love to know a common trick like this for some of my other favorite songwriters like Guided By Voices, Townes Van Zandt, NIrvana, Pavement, Liz Phair….
His guitar playing is more piano like with his voicings and walking bass notes. Very distinct and effective!
You just have me another reason to put on Elliott Smith. Great video as always!
what's Everybodies favorite Elliott Smith song for it's chord progression? Mine is A Distorted Reality is a Necessity to be Free, particularly the second half of the song "Shine on me baby cause it's raining in my heart"
My fave Elliott tunes: Coming up Roses, Independence Day, Stupidity Tries, Biggest lie… ummm I could keep going….. so nice to see Elliott people on this thread💜
Good list right there
Elliott's use of the Major 2 chord makes a lot more sense when you think of him as a guitar player, who was specifically writing songs on his guitar. If he was just comfortable singing in the key of C, he would start a lot of his songs with that open C chord on the guitar, which is just so easy to slide up 2 frets and play a Dadd9. Such an easy and beautiful chord switch that a lot of singer songwriters abuse. I'd imagine any singer songwriters who primarily play acoustic guitar would have a higher use of the major 2 chord for that reason alone.
'Shooting Star' may be my favorite track. The guitar tracks are still such a trip to me.
Always loved Independence Day. That's a very musically clever one, I've always thought 😊
brilliant video as always, thank you!!
Off the top of my head songs from childhood that feature the 1 2 come to me easily- like 'As Tears Go By' (Rolling Stones), Atlantis (Donovan), Ride Captain Ride (Blues Image), Brain Damage (Pink Floyd), Casey Jones (Grateful Dead) etc.. Easy to come up with them but yes each of these artists probably don't have more than one or two others in their entire catalog. That's a REALLY high percentage.
I am sure I have been living under a rock, but I've never heard of Elliot Smith before today.
Interesting analysis of the emotional resonance of chord progression. Almost as though the songs were written by ear rather than under rules of common notation and progression forms.
You see the Beatles use the II to the IV after hitting the relative minor sometimes too. Like in Yesterday. I usually check if a II to IV gives me something interesting sounding if a progression has taken me to the relative minor chord.
I’m currently learning Angeles on guitar and then this video drops.