📌 REVISION: at 2:10 I say that both chords in “This Guys In Love With You” are Major 7ths but actually I now think only the latter one is (just like the Oasis song). On the keyboard though I do play both chords as major 7. Sorry for any confusion. I highly recommend you download OpenEar, the free ear training app 🎼 iOS: apps.apple.com/gb/app/openear-ear-training/id1616537214 🍎(on iOS, don't forget to turn 'silent mode' off when using the app) Android: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.openear.www&gl=GB 🤖
@@johnchastain7890 Kronos keyboard does that - tells me what jazz chord I accidentally played. If I tried to use it for ear training, I'd be cheating because I'd already know what chords I programmed or played, tho...🤣
@@internetic2496 nice double meaning with that choice of reference (like wake up and smell the coffee, but also, the song that references is like all sus chords!). Bravo
@@DavidBennettPiano I'd love for you to go into what makes super long songs epic! Echoes, Xanadu from Rush, Heart of the Sunrise by Yes, so many you could choose from!
The thing I always found neat about Crazy Little Thing Called Love was it was a Freddie song through and through. Man didn't really play guitar, he wrote the song using some of the few chords he knew on guitar and let his musicianship shine elsewhere in the composition.
I still think the Maj7 chord is one of my favourite sounding chords. They just sound so warm and endearing. That real love-y and homely, yet jazzy quality to them.
Maj7 chords truly are lovely. Imaj7, Imaj7, IVmaj7, IVmaj7, Imaj7, Imaj7, iiim7, IV6, repeat is a really pretty sounding progression on piano, purely in major key without the usual sickening sweetness.
This is probably the hardest part of ear training for me. I can recognize all the chords in this video easily enough. But once you start adding in upper extensions or getting into slash chords and dense clusters, I find it very difficult to tell what I'm hearing. I like to think I have good relative pitch. I mean, I could play you back a melody very quickly. But it's so much harder to pick out the individual notes of a complex chord than it is notes of a melody. That brings me to my suggestion: maybe do a second part of this video where you tackle more complex chords? I know you've done a video about upper chord extensions. But that was about songs that use them and not really the best songs to identify them by ear. I want to know how to recognize a Cmaj9#11 when I hear it, for example.
I have never, in over 40 years, noticed that Ghost Town begins with diminished chords that ascend chromatically. Keep on moving and - more to the point - keep on grooving, David!
1:55 Pretty sure Herb Albert borrowed this from Gymnopédie No 1 by Erik Satie. Even if you don't know Satie, or French elevator music, or classical music at all, you know this piece, and it's my personal piece for maj7. For min7, my song is Killing Me Softly by Roberta Flack, although sometimes my brain also uses Lady Marmalade. For min7 add 9, it's So What by Miles Davis. One other song that my brain uses is Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston. The opening chord progression is C -> Caug -> C6 -> C7. That's a lot of chord qualities packed into a very small space.
More examples (first chord always): 2:48 Xm7: Love like Blood - Killing Joke 5:33 Xsus4: Dancing with Tears in my Eyes - Ultravox 9:39 X5: Killing in the Name - Rage Against The Machine 4:54 Also a very nice X+ in Synchronicity II by the Police: first one on the "bo" of "Mother chants her litany of boredom..."
Another chord fun to discuss in the context of pop music is the Dominant 7/flat 9. For decades this was known as the signature guitar sound in "I Want You (She's so heavy) " . Then over time audio from the Get Back sessions began showing up, where one can hear George Harrison messing around with that chord in a different song during the rehearsals ("Something" I think, but can't recall for sure right now). When we all saw the Jackson film in November 2021, we saw George ask the visiting Billy Preston to tell him the name of a chord which George played on the piano. George apparently liked how different the flat 9 chord was from the sharp 9 he had used in "Taxman". Anyway, he figured out how to put it into John's song instead of one of his own. In the classical world, Holst and Mahler around 1900 explored the realm of 9ths and 11ths and the uncertain resolutions they can create, in such works as "Mars" in the planets, and the 2nd symphony of Mahler, again to cherry pick a few works.
The Beatles liked using oddball chords and progressions in their songs. (And people are still arguing about the chord that opens up "A Hard Day's Night".)
@@christopherheckman7957 the chord that opens A Hard Day's Night is called a G7sus4. It's been well established that is its correct name since at least 1982. I was 15 and went to a Billy Joel concert at Madison Square Garden in New York that year, and he talked about the chord, then the band played it. Needless to say, I grabbed my guitar when I got home that night and he was right. I then played A Hard Day's Night every time I touched a guitar for at least the next three years or so. 😂
I never know how to play-let's say-C7♭9 (C D♭ E G B♭). Instead, I play C#°7 (D♭ E G B♭). It's just missing the root note. But in a band setting, the bass would probably be playing the root, so all is well. To recap, go up half a step and play the °7. You can always stick in the root if you've got any fingers left.
'Woman' from John Lennon uses both sus4 and sus2 in its main riff. Would have been a better example than an arpeggiod one. Another remark on chord qualities: it's easy to, for instance, hear the difference between a major and minor chord, but the moment you put them in context of music this suddenly becomes entirely different. Therefore, studying listening to individual chords is not very productive. More productive is to listen chords in actual musical context between other chords. I'm very curious how far his 'ear training' thing can take you. There are a lot of 'for beginners' vids and some people are able to play basic songs on youtube by ear (esp when he chord progression is recognizable as a known progression, the base follows the prime of the chords or it all stays very much in) but I doubt many people can listen to 'any' song and follow what is played just like hat when it's more complicated.
This is more of a Chord Progression, but Michael Jackson's "Black or white" actually opens with a "sus4, Major, sus2, major" back and forth movement, and is almost fully based on that those chords, and it sounds amazing. When you played this exact progression while explaining how sus2 differs from sus4, the first thing that came into my mind was that Song!
David, Letting you know how much your videos are appreciated. I’ve been playing guitar for 15 years or so… recently in the last 2-3 years (pandemic hobby), I’ve really explored the music theory behind it all. And it’s seriously comical how much my training has been paralleled by you releasing another video on the exact same topic I was just focusing on that week! From the Beatles (favorite band ever). The ear training. Circle of 5ths to various progressions. You’ve been my mentor from afar! It’s an awesome connection-so again, thanks for all the content!! Keep it up brotha
For Sus Chords: If you listen to "No Good" by the Prodigy, at the 1 minute mark you get a really powerful synth sequence that essentially just hammers wildly between a Minor, a sus2 and a sus4 (I believe c minor, but my absolute pitch is still kinda garbage). But that was so ear drilling, it always helped me to keep the ring of those chords.
I really love the dominant seventh suspended fourth chord, which is prominent in Bargain by The Who. It’s especially climactic on the V chord. V7sus4 to V7 is an amazing progression.
How about Wuthering Heights? The last chord before the chorus is an F7sus4 (on "Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights Heath-") and it's super climactic. It's a iii7sus4 chord there.
@@Landmaaler Do you mean Andy Summers first, chiming, chorused slow raked chord just after Stings opening bass riff? Think that is a minor 11th. Really beautiful.
Every time I hear a major 6th chord The fool on the hill by The Beatles comes to my mind. I was 100% sure it would be one of the examples when you played the chord
SIxth chords are sparkly! They even work as an alternate resolution to the plain old major triad. And when you need it, sus4's are a smoother replacement to the ordinary dominant 7th. Let's hear it for dissonance!
I always use a 7sus4 (or 2, but those are just dom 9th chords) instead of a regular 7th chord. I like the slight dissonance, usually resolve to the dom7 before going to the IV. (I 7sus4 - I 7th)
True about 6th chords being a bit dated. In the 60s and 70s (likely earlier) a 6th was a great way to end a tune if you were a lounge pianist or similar. Sounded even better (and cornier) if you raised it a half step for three repetitions, before backing down to the natural with some show-offy arpeggios to boot.
Suspended chords are interesting because a sus2 is another sus4, just in an inversion. For example, Asus2 and Esus4 use the same notes, so if you're clever with your inversions, you can do interesting stuff with it.
Or, even more simply you can just use them for colour. Instead of playing A for two bars, go A Asus2 A Asus4 A Asus2 A. It's like adding a little melody in your chord by shifting the third around. Very handy things.
Two other noteworthy examples of suspended 2nd chords in action are the main loops of "History" and "Lucky Man" by The Verve. Both songs use Dsus2 and Asus2.
8:15 - Structurally, a 6th chord is just a ho-him first-inversion minor-7th chord, so its critical to _use it_ unlike a m7. (Of course these are not to be confused with French, German, etc. augmented-sixth chords.)
Open Ear looks like a good app. From what little I’ve seen of it so far, I’d strongly recommend it! Waaaaay back in the ‘80s and 90s, I’d recently taken the usual Freshman and Sophomore Music Theory and Ear Training, and I used to have absolutely killer ears! *_My oh my_* how the once-mighty have fallen! After decades of work work work, and a decade of learning Mandarin Chinese, I finally found some time to sanity-check my ears: It was a lesson in utter humiliation! I was mistaking M6s and m6s, iii chords for iv chords, etc. Sometimes even confusing P4s and P5s - possibly the most common-but-novice of ear-training mistakes! (Granted, that’s only in harmonic/simultaneous presentation, but still!) However these sorts of apps, and these sorts of videos, have helped! Thanks, Mr. Bennett!
Sus2 resolves nicely into its minor. It's typical on guitar to switch Am->Amsus2->Am or Dm->Dmsus2->Dm, because you just need to lift the index finger. There are lots of songs which use that.
@@tfwnoyandere you are absolutely right. It’s not really correct to write Amsus2, I meant Asus2. Just wanted to highlight there is a binding to minor, not major in possible usage.
@@tfwnoyandere I also like it, especially Emadd9. Despite it’s dissonant (f# and g in just one semitone from each other), it sounds great. Sus2 is basically the same, but having minor 3d note excluded, hence sounds less dissonant
I've been trying to understand basic music theory for years to apply to my own songs and none of it ever clicked. This year is starting to change that after I found this channel! Seriously all the examples and explanations you give are just so good I'm just kind of mad nobody ever made it this straightforward or easy to understand. You're really a master teacher. Thank you for this channel because without it I'd still be making zero progress
Good video. Another good example for Maj7 is Simon and Garfunkel's "Old Friends". For m7 I instantly thought of the beginning of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Another track worth mentioning is Joe Jackson's "It's Different for Girls", which arpeggiates a power chord on guitar, allowing the vocals to move between major, sus4, and sus2. And while "Michelle" uses the "Hendrix" 7#9, it's far clearer in The Beatles' earlier song "You Can't Do That".
Getting better at this, thanks to composing my own music. Love the chord progression videos and ear training like this. Thanks for all the tips, David.
1:01 David: do you recognize it? me: yeh, the Bohemian Rhapsody break David: it's Mr Blue Sky me: o... ok. Songs I hear in Major 7th; one of Satie's Gymnopedies and the intro of Band on the run. Correct me if I'm wrong!
For the last example, aside from James Bond, I would pick “it’s probably me” by Sting, which opens exactly with the chord you played yourself. Check it out.
This kind of lessons really helps people who doesn't have formal music theory study like me, really appreciate your works, thank you so much and keep on going.
Can you do a pt2 for more advanced players? I’d love an analysis of the “tonic chord” of different scales such as most famously Maj7#11 for Lydian and 7 for mixolydian but also like Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Locrian to start with, maybe also harmonic minor, melodic minor, double harmonic major, double harmonic minor, harmonic major, and their modes as a treat. I’ve mastered sorta bebop harmony (the theory if not the practice as those scales and chords are hella difficult to stretch physically and voice mentally on guitar) but I’d like to have a primer in modal/free/fusion harmony. Maybe this is above most of ur audience’s head, but it’s where I’m lost rn. I saw a Rick beato video on the native triads and seventh chords of each scale (he was doing Lydian dominant and double harmonic major) so I thought your simple clear mind could help. Thanks!
One of the songs used for the Halloween world in Minecraft’s 2015 mash-up pack uses a diminished chord. In the track, you can hear a choir sing a C#dim chord by starting with a G note, then an E note, and then a C# note. Right before the C#, it tricks you into thinking you’re about to hear a C major chord. But then the C# comes in revealing it to be a diminished chord. This chord is also very fitting considering diminished chords can sound spooky, like Halloween.
A great Maj7 song is Old Friends/Book Ends by Simon & Garfunkel. Not only are the first two chords Maj7 chords, the melody consists on the Maj7 notes themselves.
The first chord in Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" is a suspended 2nd chord. He uses a capo on the second fret and plays Bsus2 - F#m - A - E - Bsus2, using open chords two frets up.
You know you've written an iconic song..... ...when someone merely plays an F major chord over and over....while doing nothing else....and it immediately makes you go, "ah! that's Mr. Blue Sky by ELO!"
8:00 for anyone looking for a modern pop song that opens with a major sixth chord, Jukebox the Ghost's "Nobody" is about as clear an example as you'll ever find. The rest of the progression is also great, and full of just about every chord quality in this video.
_Mr Blue Sky_ fun fact: The opening sequence, F - Em - A - Dm, is the same as _Yesterday_ . So if the opening sounds familiar & poignant, there's a reason ;)
Great video! I struggled with this when I was starting out so if anyone wants more examples, here's my cheat sheet Major triad - Hard To Explain by The Strokes, Moonage Daydream by Bowie, Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones Minor triad - A Horse With No Name by America, House of the Rising Sun as made famous by The Animals (apreggiated) Major seventh - Cigarette Daydreams by Cage The Elephant (the second chord), the pickup beat of Fast Car by Tracy Chapman Minor seventh - Wonderwall by Oasis, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths Dominant seventh - Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash (third chord), Let's Dance by Bowie Diminished - All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis (during the "take that look from off your face" line) Augmented - The end of Road To Joy by Bright Eyes and the end of I Know The End by Phoebe Bridgers sus4 - Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead (second chord) sus2 - The Sound Of SIlence (apreggiated), Exit Music (For A Film) by Radiohead, Lua by Bright Eyes Major 6th - Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah power chords - All The Small Things by blink-182 , Sugar We're Going Down by Fall Out Boy, 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago Hendrix Chord - Purple Haze by (wait for it) Jimi Hendrix, Toxic by Britney Spears Minor/Major 9th - Orignal Bond theme
My example for Dominant chords is not a particular song, but "la cadencia andaluza" (Andalusian cadence I think?). It's just that classical flamenco cadence Am, G, F, E7 with that E7 being so clearly a Dominant everyone gets it when I tell them.
Also, I feel sus2 to minor chord feels like sus4 to major, probably because of the semitonal movement although in a different direction. Metallica's The Unforgiven is a great example.
I’ve been watching your videos recently and also recommended them to another friend, for somebody like me who has really small amounts of musical theory knowledge your videos are really helpful. I’ve also downloaded OpenEar in hopes of increasing my chord identification skills a bit more and just expanding my usable chord range, thank you for your work
My favourite Sus2 chords are in Hamilton. For example in Burn where Elisa burns Hamilton's many letters the song lands on a dramatic statement of a Sus2 chord that literally just does not resolve. And that's not the only time where Lin Manuel uses a Sus2 as an open question or defiant statement.
Even better than the sus2 chord is the add 2 chord. Steely Dan calls this the Mu Major chord and they use it a lot - it sounds great, as does the add 9 which is sometimes interchangeable with the add 2. Carly Simon uses a lot of add 9s.
Untrue. The first chord in "Imagine" actually includes a major 7th at the very end of the chord, but the second chord is a straight F major in second inversion with a chromatic walkup at the end from the 3rd to the sharp 4 (which also happens to be the 7th of the C). So really it's exactly the opposite of what you said. It's C maj7 followed by F. If you don't believe me, watch this tutorial and then listen to the original song. He's clearly teaching it correctly here. ua-cam.com/video/q8iYw7D2of4/v-deo.html
@@rome8180 Translation: "True, but I didn't think of it so it's time to get picky." By your level of pickiness, David's own Oasis example would be "untrue" for containing only 1 Maj7 chord, instead of 2 Maj7 chords as he'd set up from the Bacharach example. What we're looking for here is Maj7 feel, on a plagal loop (I - IV). With _Imagine_ there is such a wash of sound involving E, A & B notes functioning variously as major thirds, sixths & sevenths that improvising pianists add the E note to the F chord without blinking. P.S. the C chord is often a straight C (no 7th), sometimes a Maj7 and sometimes a 9th / sus2. But, you see, I don't really give a crap because I'm talking vibe.
@@jcarty123 yes, but David made that disclaimer when he shared the Oasis example. Also, if we're going to say where the major 7 is used doesn't matter, then we're only talking about songs with a C-F chord progression. And there are thousands of those.
I've recently been watching your videos a lot, and also have recently been thinking about doing ear training to recognize chord types. So this is really helpful, thank you, great videos man
Some chord progressions keep the root note the same but change chords by just moving the 'sus' note. e.g. 'Safe from Harm' by Massive Attack: Bm, Bsus2, Bsus4, Bm... which works nicely as the main hook of the song is a continuous 1 bar bass loop
I would argue that Oasis probably took the C-Fmaj7 from John Lennon's Imagine but I'm not familiar enough with either of the other songs Edit: Oops, I was thinking of his acoustic version of Imagine where he plays Cmaj7-Fmaj7. The regular piano riff is C-Cmaj7-F
A good progression to recognise both the suspended 2nd and suspended 4th chords, and to practice hearing the difference, is the song Brass in Pocket by The Pretenders . Maj, Sus2, Sus 4, Maj. Also the Amen cadence in religious music. Sus 4, Sus 2 , Maj.
This was a great idea for a video. Most of the examples were repeats of the same chord which makes those examples better than if it was just a song where the chord is played once.
There's a beautiful. chameleonic chord which is almost worth a separate video - the half-diminished chord (Ø or m7b5). Used in sophisticated modern songs for decades, but used by great composers for centuries. Famously, it's Wagner's ambiguous "Tristan" chord, which caused violent squabbles amongst music academics. It's used in a dramatic and interesting way by Paul McCartney in "My Love", and features in a lot of Stevie Wonder and Donald Fagen songs. It's a 4 note chord with a triple personality. The same four notes can produce three different chords: iv6 = ii m7b5 = bVII9 (with added bass note on vii, because a Dom9 chord has 5 notes) So in the key of E that's Am6 = F#mØ = D9 (adding D bass to the other 4 notes)
It seems like 'Open Ear' (on Android) has gone. It's not on Google Play (the link here doesn't work nor via other references) and the Github repository doesn't mention an Android version... and the app doesn't seem to have been updated for a couple of years anyway. Unfortunate.
Also a I6 chord has the same notes as a vi7 chord. My conjecture is that dominant 7ths outside of cadences used to be less of a thing so classical analyses would label it I6 but ever since jazz made every chord and their mother dominant, people have been hearing 1 3 5 6 as vi7 instead
6:53 get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head GET OUT OF MY HEAD
Strange ... all chord sites I have seen say, it's a Bbm7 in Michelle, but I think we can clearly hear in the sound sample that it's an Bb7(#9), and that makes it something special.
I noticed you liked my comment i made a while ago about Ghost Town by The Specials opening with diminished chords . Nice to see you referenced the song in this video.
Personally, I don't find sus4 chords to be dissonant/suspenseful unless you're directly contrasting them with the corresponding major. I use them commonly when I want to give something a sense of grand scale or vastness. Play various sus4 chords, reverb the hell out of them, and you'll get something big and bright.
Love your well thought out videos. It really helps to understand and recognize the chords and interval relationships giving the examples you do. Can’t thank you enough
Gosh! Take a look at these Beatles-chords: F / Bb7(#9) / Eb6 / D°7 B°7 / C B°7 / C (and check out the effect of this Bb7(#9) in the sound sample at 12:02) ---> best composers of rock music!! (imho) Rather than about melody, sophisticated music is about harmony. In rock genre I recommend "Welcome to the Machine" by Pink Floyd: e minor add 9 / Cmaj7, maybe you want to check it out.
You should make more videos where yr just chilling out at the keyboard.Just playing..It sounds so natural and cool ! Sus2 is Purple Rain too.AND Song To The Siren
📌 REVISION: at 2:10 I say that both chords in “This Guys In Love With You” are Major 7ths but actually I now think only the latter one is (just like the Oasis song). On the keyboard though I do play both chords as major 7. Sorry for any confusion.
I highly recommend you download OpenEar, the free ear training app 🎼
iOS: apps.apple.com/gb/app/openear-ear-training/id1616537214 🍎(on iOS, don't forget to turn 'silent mode' off when using the app)
Android: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.openear.www&gl=GB 🤖
It's amazing. I find that some of my fretboard misfires are exotic chords that I can use!
@@johnchastain7890 Kronos keyboard does that - tells me what jazz chord I accidentally played. If I tried to use it for ear training, I'd be cheating because I'd already know what chords I programmed or played, tho...🤣
@@GizzyDillespee Does Kronos ever come up blank? THAT would be scary! 😱
I just downloaded it and its excellent. Thanks for the recommendation.
my favorite chord is Bb/C (b flat slash c)
1:55 Sounds also like Gymnopédie No.1 by Satie, but it's a different key
That's where I thought he was gonna go
I heard it and I was like dude that's not oasis that's Erik Satie
Absolutely.
It is so obvious that it is hard to imagine he missed it.
Yes!
@@colmx8441 maybe he didn't want to use examples from classical music
A whole David Bennett video without a single example by Radiohead?! It's like an unresolved sus4 chord! 😉
Yeah, too bad Radiohead doesn’t use suspended or extended chords in any of their songs… oh wait
@@zwsh89wake…from your sleep…
@@internetic2496 nice double meaning with that choice of reference (like wake up and smell the coffee, but also, the song that references is like all sus chords!). Bravo
@@zwsh89 thank you!
Lol.
Have you ever considered doing a video about particularly long songs, like for example Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”?
Great song! I'll bear it in mind 😊😊
NGL when you mentioned very long songs and Pink Floyd, I thought about Dogs.
@@naikigutierrez4279 Dogs is great too
Weezer's The Greatest Man That Ever Lived is pretty long... kind of. Let's just talk Weezer!
@@DavidBennettPiano I'd love for you to go into what makes super long songs epic! Echoes, Xanadu from Rush, Heart of the Sunrise by Yes, so many you could choose from!
The thing I always found neat about Crazy Little Thing Called Love was it was a Freddie song through and through. Man didn't really play guitar, he wrote the song using some of the few chords he knew on guitar and let his musicianship shine elsewhere in the composition.
I still think the Maj7 chord is one of my favourite sounding chords. They just sound so warm and endearing. That real love-y and homely, yet jazzy quality to them.
For me it's the sus4 chords. I abuse these all day long on guitar 😂😆
It has a hopeful dreamy quality to it.
Try Maj7 add 9
Maj7 chords truly are lovely. Imaj7, Imaj7, IVmaj7, IVmaj7, Imaj7, Imaj7, iiim7, IV6, repeat is a really pretty sounding progression on piano, purely in major key without the usual sickening sweetness.
Andy Partridge of XTC says that Maj7 chords sound cheesy. I can't make up my mind about them. Maybe it's because Coldplay uses them a lot.
This is probably the hardest part of ear training for me. I can recognize all the chords in this video easily enough. But once you start adding in upper extensions or getting into slash chords and dense clusters, I find it very difficult to tell what I'm hearing. I like to think I have good relative pitch. I mean, I could play you back a melody very quickly. But it's so much harder to pick out the individual notes of a complex chord than it is notes of a melody.
That brings me to my suggestion: maybe do a second part of this video where you tackle more complex chords? I know you've done a video about upper chord extensions. But that was about songs that use them and not really the best songs to identify them by ear. I want to know how to recognize a Cmaj9#11 when I hear it, for example.
Rick Beato has books on that....identifying by ear. And he teaches it rather well.
I have never, in over 40 years, noticed that Ghost Town begins with diminished chords that ascend chromatically. Keep on moving and - more to the point - keep on grooving, David!
1:55 Pretty sure Herb Albert borrowed this from Gymnopédie No 1 by Erik Satie. Even if you don't know Satie, or French elevator music, or classical music at all, you know this piece, and it's my personal piece for maj7.
For min7, my song is Killing Me Softly by Roberta Flack, although sometimes my brain also uses Lady Marmalade. For min7 add 9, it's So What by Miles Davis.
One other song that my brain uses is Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston. The opening chord progression is C -> Caug -> C6 -> C7. That's a lot of chord qualities packed into a very small space.
For major 7 chords I always think of Gymnopedie no 1 by Satie. it’s iconic
More examples (first chord always):
2:48 Xm7: Love like Blood - Killing Joke
5:33 Xsus4: Dancing with Tears in my Eyes - Ultravox
9:39 X5: Killing in the Name - Rage Against The Machine
4:54 Also a very nice X+ in Synchronicity II by the Police: first one on the "bo" of "Mother chants her litany of boredom..."
David Bennett is the BEST music theory teacher that I have ever viewed. He instructs using our favourite songs of different genres
Another chord fun to discuss in the context of pop music is the Dominant 7/flat 9. For decades this was known as the signature guitar sound in "I Want You (She's so heavy) " . Then over time audio from the Get Back sessions began showing up, where one can hear George Harrison messing around with that chord in a different song during the rehearsals ("Something" I think, but can't recall for sure right now). When we all saw the Jackson film in November 2021, we saw George ask the visiting Billy Preston to tell him the name of a chord which George played on the piano. George apparently liked how different the flat 9 chord was from the sharp 9 he had used in "Taxman". Anyway, he figured out how to put it into John's song instead of one of his own.
In the classical world, Holst and Mahler around 1900 explored the realm of 9ths and 11ths and the uncertain resolutions they can create, in such works as "Mars" in the planets, and the 2nd symphony of Mahler, again to cherry pick a few works.
The Beatles liked using oddball chords and progressions in their songs. (And people are still arguing about the chord that opens up "A Hard Day's Night".)
@@christopherheckman7957 the chord that opens A Hard Day's Night is called a G7sus4. It's been well established that is its correct name since at least 1982. I was 15 and went to a Billy Joel concert at Madison Square Garden in New York that year, and he talked about the chord, then the band played it. Needless to say, I grabbed my guitar when I got home that night and he was right. I then played A Hard Day's Night every time I touched a guitar for at least the next three years or so. 😂
@@russell_szabados Check out "The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles" (Dominic Pedler, from 2001). It's got a whole chapter devoted to this chord.
I never know how to play-let's say-C7♭9 (C D♭ E G B♭). Instead, I play C#°7 (D♭ E G B♭). It's just missing the root note. But in a band setting, the bass would probably be playing the root, so all is well. To recap, go up half a step and play the °7. You can always stick in the root if you've got any fingers left.
'Woman' from John Lennon uses both sus4 and sus2 in its main riff. Would have been a better example than an arpeggiod one. Another remark on chord qualities: it's easy to, for instance, hear the difference between a major and minor chord, but the moment you put them in context of music this suddenly becomes entirely different. Therefore, studying listening to individual chords is not very productive. More productive is to listen chords in actual musical context between other chords. I'm very curious how far his 'ear training' thing can take you. There are a lot of 'for beginners' vids and some people are able to play basic songs on youtube by ear (esp when he chord progression is recognizable as a known progression, the base follows the prime of the chords or it all stays very much in) but I doubt many people can listen to 'any' song and follow what is played just like hat when it's more complicated.
Doesn't Argent's 'Hold Your Head Up' do that, with the added bonus of a 13th a bar or two later?
@@tonybates7870 that's a sus2-7, that extra 7 makes it a less clean case of a sus2.
This is more of a Chord Progression, but Michael Jackson's "Black or white" actually opens with a "sus4, Major, sus2, major" back and forth movement, and is almost fully based on that those chords, and it sounds amazing.
When you played this exact progression while explaining how sus2 differs from sus4, the first thing that came into my mind was that Song!
David, Letting you know how much your videos are appreciated. I’ve been playing guitar for 15 years or so… recently in the last 2-3 years (pandemic hobby), I’ve really explored the music theory behind it all. And it’s seriously comical how much my training has been paralleled by you releasing another video on the exact same topic I was just focusing on that week!
From the Beatles (favorite band ever). The ear training. Circle of 5ths to various progressions. You’ve been my mentor from afar! It’s an awesome connection-so again, thanks for all the content!! Keep it up brotha
For Sus Chords: If you listen to "No Good" by the Prodigy, at the 1 minute mark you get a really powerful synth sequence that essentially just hammers wildly between a Minor, a sus2 and a sus4 (I believe c minor, but my absolute pitch is still kinda garbage). But that was so ear drilling, it always helped me to keep the ring of those chords.
I really love the dominant seventh suspended fourth chord, which is prominent in Bargain by The Who. It’s especially climactic on the V chord. V7sus4 to V7 is an amazing progression.
How about Wuthering Heights? The last chord before the chorus is an F7sus4 (on "Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights Heath-") and it's super climactic. It's a iii7sus4 chord there.
Walking On The Moon anyone?
@@Landmaaler Oh I never realized those were 7sus4 chords nice
You might like Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage, whose tonic chord is D7sus4
@@Landmaaler Do you mean Andy Summers first, chiming, chorused slow raked chord just after Stings opening bass riff? Think that is a minor 11th. Really beautiful.
Man I think you don’t know how much these videos help. You always keep giving and giving!
Every time I hear a major 6th chord The fool on the hill by The Beatles comes to my mind. I was 100% sure it would be one of the examples when you played the chord
I always think of John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy" for that chord.
That song has some really pretty passing tones and extended chords. Very dreamy....
Brilliant! So much fun to watch this. I was guessing WAY more songs based off of one chord than I thought I would!
SIxth chords are sparkly! They even work as an alternate resolution to the plain old major triad. And when you need it, sus4's are a smoother replacement to the ordinary dominant 7th. Let's hear it for dissonance!
when can you replace a dominant 7th chord with sus4? Can you give me an example to understand please
I always use a 7sus4 (or 2, but those are just dom 9th chords) instead of a regular 7th chord. I like the slight dissonance, usually resolve to the dom7 before going to the IV. (I 7sus4 - I 7th)
@@empresaglova1268 The Csus4 has the same "flavor note" (F) as the G7. Try it!
True about 6th chords being a bit dated. In the 60s and 70s (likely earlier) a 6th was a great way to end a tune if you were a lounge pianist or similar. Sounded even better (and cornier) if you raised it a half step for three repetitions, before backing down to the natural with some show-offy arpeggios to boot.
@@philmann3476 I'm here all week! Don't forget your server! 😉
Time and time again you are absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for all your work. Unbelievable that this and all of your content is free to watch
Right?! the didatics os this guy is amazing
Thanks!
Suspended chords are interesting because a sus2 is another sus4, just in an inversion. For example, Asus2 and Esus4 use the same notes, so if you're clever with your inversions, you can do interesting stuff with it.
I can sus that!
Or, even more simply you can just use them for colour. Instead of playing A for two bars, go A Asus2 A Asus4 A Asus2 A. It's like adding a little melody in your chord by shifting the third around. Very handy things.
For the Major 6, surely you have to choose Bohemian Rhapsody!
I was tempted, but I was ideally looking for non-arpeggiated examples. And I bloody love Fool On The Hill!
"Fool on the Hill" was my mom's favorite Beatles song. Always makes me smile
Two other noteworthy examples of suspended 2nd chords in action are the main loops of "History" and "Lucky Man" by The Verve. Both songs use Dsus2 and Asus2.
Comment #2 -
Hot takes:
Sus2 is just an inverted sus4.
Major 6 is just an inverted minor 7.
[drops mic] ;-)
8:15 - Structurally, a 6th chord is just a ho-him first-inversion minor-7th chord, so its critical to _use it_ unlike a m7.
(Of course these are not to be confused with French, German, etc. augmented-sixth chords.)
Sus2 is my favourite. Such a chilled out but almost melancholy feel to it.
What’s the dif between a sus2 and a 9th just wondering
@@Marco-jftsj A 9th cord has the 9th additional to the 3rd. A sus2 has the 2nd *instead* of the 3rd.
@@tw11tube ohhhh wow that makes since idk why i didnt think ab that thx!
I have always had the feeling that the first chord in the chorus of Radiohead 's Lucky is a Sus2. Is that correct?
i love how lights theme from death note uses Dsus2 Dm and Dsus4
Open Ear looks like a good app. From what little I’ve seen of it so far, I’d strongly recommend it!
Waaaaay back in the ‘80s and 90s, I’d recently taken the usual Freshman and Sophomore Music Theory and Ear Training, and I used to have absolutely killer ears!
*_My oh my_* how the once-mighty have fallen! After decades of work work work, and a decade of learning Mandarin Chinese, I finally found some time to sanity-check my ears: It was a lesson in utter humiliation! I was mistaking M6s and m6s, iii chords for iv chords, etc. Sometimes even confusing P4s and P5s - possibly the most common-but-novice of ear-training mistakes! (Granted, that’s only in harmonic/simultaneous presentation, but still!)
However these sorts of apps, and these sorts of videos, have helped! Thanks, Mr. Bennett!
Just in case you didn't know it, your content is amazing. Clear, helpful, and interesting.
Thank you! 😊😊😊
Sus2 resolves nicely into its minor. It's typical on guitar to switch Am->Amsus2->Am or Dm->Dmsus2->Dm, because you just need to lift the index finger. There are lots of songs which use that.
Minor sus2 doesn't exist you either meant sus2 or madd9
@@tfwnoyandere you are absolutely right. It’s not really correct to write Amsus2, I meant Asus2. Just wanted to highlight there is a binding to minor, not major in possible usage.
I wouldn't have commented but I got curious since you could have been implying a minor chord with an added second (madd9) which is my favourite chord
@@tfwnoyandere I also like it, especially Emadd9. Despite it’s dissonant (f# and g in just one semitone from each other), it sounds great. Sus2 is basically the same, but having minor 3d note excluded, hence sounds less dissonant
if you check out the last video i uploaded you'll see why dissonance is my goal lol
I've been trying to understand basic music theory for years to apply to my own songs and none of it ever clicked. This year is starting to change that after I found this channel! Seriously all the examples and explanations you give are just so good I'm just kind of mad nobody ever made it this straightforward or easy to understand. You're really a master teacher. Thank you for this channel because without it I'd still be making zero progress
Good video. Another good example for Maj7 is Simon and Garfunkel's "Old Friends". For m7 I instantly thought of the beginning of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Another track worth mentioning is Joe Jackson's "It's Different for Girls", which arpeggiates a power chord on guitar, allowing the vocals to move between major, sus4, and sus2. And while "Michelle" uses the "Hendrix" 7#9, it's far clearer in The Beatles' earlier song "You Can't Do That".
Getting better at this, thanks to composing my own music. Love the chord progression videos and ear training like this. Thanks for all the tips, David.
1:01
David: do you recognize it?
me: yeh, the Bohemian Rhapsody break
David: it's Mr Blue Sky
me: o... ok.
Songs I hear in Major 7th; one of Satie's Gymnopedies and the intro of Band on the run. Correct me if I'm wrong!
2:57 Did anyone else think of "Bohemian Rhapsody" instead of "Rocket Man" when David played the Gm7?
I thought of golden slumber by the Beatles.
I thought of Great Gig In The Sky.
Oh my god, yes! I was looking for this comment 🤘🏻
Your the man. Using examples.. This is much better than just someone talking about it.
For the last example, aside from James Bond, I would pick “it’s probably me” by Sting, which opens exactly with the chord you played yourself. Check it out.
The very first chord in "Under the Wheel" by Split Enz uses exactly the same chord that David played in this video.
The Bond chord is also used in Hey Bulldog's middle 8!!
yes, they did it all!!
If you omit the 9th, you get the "Bernard Herrmann" chord, which he used in a lot of Hitchock's movies.
This kind of lessons really helps people who doesn't have formal music theory study like me, really appreciate your works, thank you so much and keep on going.
Can you do a pt2 for more advanced players? I’d love an analysis of the “tonic chord” of different scales such as most famously Maj7#11 for Lydian and 7 for mixolydian but also like Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Locrian to start with, maybe also harmonic minor, melodic minor, double harmonic major, double harmonic minor, harmonic major, and their modes as a treat. I’ve mastered sorta bebop harmony (the theory if not the practice as those scales and chords are hella difficult to stretch physically and voice mentally on guitar) but I’d like to have a primer in modal/free/fusion harmony. Maybe this is above most of ur audience’s head, but it’s where I’m lost rn. I saw a Rick beato video on the native triads and seventh chords of each scale (he was doing Lydian dominant and double harmonic major) so I thought your simple clear mind could help. Thanks!
One of the songs used for the Halloween world in Minecraft’s 2015 mash-up pack uses a diminished chord. In the track, you can hear a choir sing a C#dim chord by starting with a G note, then an E note, and then a C# note. Right before the C#, it tricks you into thinking you’re about to hear a C major chord. But then the C# comes in revealing it to be a diminished chord. This chord is also very fitting considering diminished chords can sound spooky, like Halloween.
A great Maj7 song is Old Friends/Book Ends by Simon & Garfunkel. Not only are the first two chords Maj7 chords, the melody consists on the Maj7 notes themselves.
The first chord in Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" is a suspended 2nd chord. He uses a capo on the second fret and plays Bsus2 - F#m - A - E - Bsus2, using open chords two frets up.
You know you've written an iconic song.....
...when someone merely plays an F major chord over and over....while doing nothing else....and it immediately makes you go, "ah! that's Mr. Blue Sky by ELO!"
8:00 for anyone looking for a modern pop song that opens with a major sixth chord, Jukebox the Ghost's "Nobody" is about as clear an example as you'll ever find. The rest of the progression is also great, and full of just about every chord quality in this video.
_Mr Blue Sky_ fun fact: The opening sequence, F - Em - A - Dm, is the same as _Yesterday_ . So if the opening sounds familiar & poignant, there's a reason ;)
oh shoot !
Great video! I struggled with this when I was starting out so if anyone wants more examples, here's my cheat sheet
Major triad - Hard To Explain by The Strokes, Moonage Daydream by Bowie, Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones
Minor triad - A Horse With No Name by America, House of the Rising Sun as made famous by The Animals (apreggiated)
Major seventh - Cigarette Daydreams by Cage The Elephant (the second chord), the pickup beat of Fast Car by Tracy Chapman
Minor seventh - Wonderwall by Oasis, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths
Dominant seventh - Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash (third chord), Let's Dance by Bowie
Diminished - All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis (during the "take that look from off your face" line)
Augmented - The end of Road To Joy by Bright Eyes and the end of I Know The End by Phoebe Bridgers
sus4 - Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead (second chord)
sus2 - The Sound Of SIlence (apreggiated), Exit Music (For A Film) by Radiohead, Lua by Bright Eyes
Major 6th - Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah
power chords - All The Small Things by blink-182 , Sugar We're Going Down by Fall Out Boy, 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago
Hendrix Chord - Purple Haze by (wait for it) Jimi Hendrix, Toxic by Britney Spears
Minor/Major 9th - Orignal Bond theme
I think of that dominant 7(#9) as the Taxman chord
My example for Dominant chords is not a particular song, but "la cadencia andaluza" (Andalusian cadence I think?). It's just that classical flamenco cadence Am, G, F, E7 with that E7 being so clearly a Dominant everyone gets it when I tell them.
Also, I feel sus2 to minor chord feels like sus4 to major, probably because of the semitonal movement although in a different direction. Metallica's The Unforgiven is a great example.
Ah, the Babylon 5 chord progression, lol
I’ve been watching your videos recently and also recommended them to another friend, for somebody like me who has really small amounts of musical theory knowledge your videos are really helpful. I’ve also downloaded OpenEar in hopes of increasing my chord identification skills a bit more and just expanding my usable chord range, thank you for your work
I thought that major chord song was A day In The Life.. woke up fell outta bed, dragged the comb across me head..
In my mind I always relate the Dominant 7 (#9) with "Shoot to thrill" by AC/DC.
Pedling between Major 6 and major is effective, Dancing in the dark, Chuck E's in love and so on.
My favourite Sus2 chords are in Hamilton. For example in Burn where Elisa burns Hamilton's many letters the song lands on a dramatic statement of a Sus2 chord that literally just does not resolve. And that's not the only time where Lin Manuel uses a Sus2 as an open question or defiant statement.
Even better than the sus2 chord is the add 2 chord. Steely Dan calls this the Mu Major chord and they use it a lot - it sounds great, as does the add 9 which is sometimes interchangeable with the add 2. Carly Simon uses a lot of add 9s.
@@spindriftdrinker Lin Manuel actually uses both. The add 2 is when the songs are in positive light or still hopeful to contrast the sus 2's tension.
Another example of the minor chord with a major 9 (DmM9) is heard on Pink Floyd's "Us and them"
It’s amazing how many songs I could think of when you played the chords. Thanks.
I literally have the urge to shed tears your content is so good... THANK YOU
Fun fact: The C - Fmaj7 loop, cited here for Oasis, is also both _Imagine_ and _Band on the Run_ .
Untrue. The first chord in "Imagine" actually includes a major 7th at the very end of the chord, but the second chord is a straight F major in second inversion with a chromatic walkup at the end from the 3rd to the sharp 4 (which also happens to be the 7th of the C). So really it's exactly the opposite of what you said. It's C maj7 followed by F.
If you don't believe me, watch this tutorial and then listen to the original song. He's clearly teaching it correctly here.
ua-cam.com/video/q8iYw7D2of4/v-deo.html
@@rome8180 Translation: "True, but I didn't think of it so it's time to get picky." By your level of pickiness, David's own Oasis example would be "untrue" for containing only 1 Maj7 chord, instead of 2 Maj7 chords as he'd set up from the Bacharach example. What we're looking for here is Maj7 feel, on a plagal loop (I - IV). With _Imagine_ there is such a wash of sound involving E, A & B notes functioning variously as major thirds, sixths & sevenths that improvising pianists add the E note to the F chord without blinking. P.S. the C chord is often a straight C (no 7th), sometimes a Maj7 and sometimes a 9th / sus2. But, you see, I don't really give a crap because I'm talking vibe.
@@padeprenom No, I'll look it up! 😀
@@jcarty123 yes, but David made that disclaimer when he shared the Oasis example.
Also, if we're going to say where the major 7 is used doesn't matter, then we're only talking about songs with a C-F chord progression. And there are thousands of those.
I've recently been watching your videos a lot, and also have recently been thinking about doing ear training to recognize chord types. So this is really helpful, thank you, great videos man
Yet another juggernaut of essential fundamental wisdom for the development of musical sorcery. Thank you David!
Thanks 😊
Also: I copied and posted and credited the ending Bond clip to my Instagram for the rest of the world to see. It was an awesome finish.
Some chord progressions keep the root note the same but change chords by just moving the 'sus' note. e.g. 'Safe from Harm' by Massive Attack: Bm, Bsus2, Bsus4, Bm... which works nicely as the main hook of the song is a continuous 1 bar bass loop
the maj, sus4, maj, sus2, maj theme appears in liturgical music, "I Need You" by George Harrison, and a whole lot of Byrds and folk music.
I would argue that Oasis probably took the C-Fmaj7 from John Lennon's Imagine but I'm not familiar enough with either of the other songs
Edit: Oops, I was thinking of his acoustic version of Imagine where he plays Cmaj7-Fmaj7. The regular piano riff is C-Cmaj7-F
Gsus chord is the most Holy of all chords
Also for example of back to back Maj7 chords is from "I'll be Around" by the Spinners
A good progression to recognise both the suspended 2nd and suspended 4th chords, and to practice hearing the difference, is the song Brass in Pocket by The Pretenders .
Maj, Sus2, Sus 4, Maj.
Also the Amen cadence in religious music. Sus 4, Sus 2 , Maj.
This was a great idea for a video. Most of the examples were repeats of the same chord which makes those examples better than if it was just a song where the chord is played once.
As always a great video, bravo maestro!
Thanks!
7:22 - 7:48 black or white - Michael Jackson
Thank you David. Your videos are excellent. I learned something new even after playing piano for 50 years.
Thanks!!
There's a beautiful. chameleonic chord which is almost worth a separate video - the half-diminished chord (Ø or m7b5). Used in sophisticated modern songs for decades, but used by great composers for centuries. Famously, it's Wagner's ambiguous "Tristan" chord, which caused violent squabbles amongst music academics. It's used in a dramatic and interesting way by Paul McCartney in "My Love", and features in a lot of Stevie Wonder and Donald Fagen songs.
It's a 4 note chord with a triple personality. The same four notes can produce three different chords: iv6 = ii m7b5 = bVII9 (with added bass note on vii, because a Dom9 chord has 5 notes)
So in the key of E that's Am6 = F#mØ = D9 (adding D bass to the other 4 notes)
It seems like 'Open Ear' (on Android) has gone. It's not on Google Play (the link here doesn't work nor via other references) and the Github repository doesn't mention an Android version... and the app doesn't seem to have been updated for a couple of years anyway. Unfortunate.
Major 6th was used in My Black Dog by Josie Charlwood... I believe. If you haven't heard of her before, she's definitely worth checking out
Yessss Josie is the best!
what i loved from this channel is because he give us example of what his explained
This video made me realize that the piano intro to "Spillways" by Ghost is so similar to Dr. Dre - Still D.R.E.
A Isus2 chord is a Vsus4 so you can use it as a pivot/secondary dominant. So like
C -> Csus2/Gsus4 (pivot] -> G -> C
Also a I6 chord has the same notes as a vi7 chord.
My conjecture is that dominant 7ths outside of cadences used to be less of a thing so classical analyses would label it I6 but ever since jazz made every chord and their mother dominant, people have been hearing 1 3 5 6 as vi7 instead
In fact I hear the example you listed as a vi7 rather than a I6
Hi David. Great video, but what about the half diminished chord (aka minor 7b5)?
Brilliant choices for the examples! Very enjoyable.
6:53 get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head GET OUT OF MY HEAD
The minor 7th immediately made me think Great Gig in the Sky and Pink Floyd in general.
I feel like anyone starting to do ear training should definitely start with this
😊😊😊
Strange ... all chord sites I have seen say, it's a Bbm7 in Michelle, but I think we can clearly hear in the sound sample that it's an Bb7(#9), and that makes it something special.
That information was absolutely brilliant David. Keep up the good work young man.
When I heard minor 7th I immediately thought about bohemian rhapsody, when Freddie sings "open your eyes" in the intro
Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over" starts on a strummed Csus2.
Excellent, David, thank you for the upload.
I noticed you liked my comment i made a while ago about Ghost Town by The Specials opening with diminished chords .
Nice to see you referenced the song in this video.
Personally, I don't find sus4 chords to be dissonant/suspenseful unless you're directly contrasting them with the corresponding major. I use them commonly when I want to give something a sense of grand scale or vastness. Play various sus4 chords, reverb the hell out of them, and you'll get something big and bright.
Another brilliantly crafted teaching video. Thanks so much.
Always appreciate your lessons, always learn something :)
I learn so much from your channel. Thanks.
Thank you 😊
i add to that is my favorite chord in key of C, F/G (F chord with bass G) or G11 resolving to C
David, thanks for the great instructional video! I share it with my students.)
3:03 - Or "Make me Wanna Holler" by Marvin Gaye :)
Favorite channel on UA-cam. Thank you!
You are some sort of genius my man
Love your well thought out videos.
It really helps to understand and recognize the chords and interval relationships giving the examples you do.
Can’t thank you enough
Gosh! Take a look at these Beatles-chords: F / Bb7(#9) / Eb6 / D°7 B°7 / C B°7 / C (and check out the effect of this Bb7(#9) in the sound sample at 12:02) ---> best composers of rock music!! (imho)
Rather than about melody, sophisticated music is about harmony. In rock genre I recommend "Welcome to the Machine" by Pink Floyd: e minor add 9 / Cmaj7, maybe you want to check it out.
You should make more videos where yr just chilling out at the keyboard.Just playing..It sounds so natural and cool !
Sus2 is Purple Rain too.AND Song To The Siren