The Mystery of Adele's A♮ Harmony
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- Опубліковано 27 кві 2024
- Rolling in the Deep has a cool spicy background harmony that I never noticed
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0:00 Intro
0:54 Chords of Rolling in the Deep
2:55 Why the A♮is there
4:20 Why did I never notice this? Do I need to just git gud?
(⌐■_■)
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Got curiosity stream but I don't think a nebula app for ps4 exists yet (that's our only way of watching TV)
Loved the nebula vid - I’d be super interested to see you and Legal Eagle collab on a video discussing some of these copyright in music issues!
But Chromecasting *sucks* on Nebula 😭
Same thing happens to me when i listen to the chorus of Graceland by paul simon! I hear a minor 3rd while a lot of other people hear a major third! Probably because the fretless bass? What do you think?
@@proodoodaboochoo Both are there! The bass is playing the minor 3rd (G) like a GRACE note to the major 3rd (G#) in the melody. It's like a split scoop and it's pretty cool.
"Repetition....... changes your perception based on prior expectations." Adam really just spent years setting that one up
R e p e t i t i o n g a s l i g h t s
R e p e t i t i o n g a s l i g h t s
if he did this on purpose he's e fucking genius
good im not the only one who expected 'repetition legitimises' then
He made me fall out of my sofa with that juke.
Legitimizes
I love how all these people were either like “I'd never noticed!” or “I CAN'T UNHEAR IT, IT STICKS OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB” meanwhile I've always heard it but just thought it sounded neat and made sense. It's a very nice tension. I wouldn't have been able to tell if it was in key or not unless I sat down with pen and paper.
Yeah I don’t get the “can’t unhear it” thing it’s just a detail in a song I always thought sounded nice
@@danf8172 right? i don't wanna unhear it
Same. I think bc I've been a musician with theory curiosity but no theory knowledge for 16 years, just going off soul
Yeah, same hear, as a casual musician with minimal theory, I heard it and sung along that way. I think it is the case where you have to know enough (eg hear the higher note, sing it by rote) but not enough (eg know what chord changes the song is going through) so you get it right.
@@danf8172 yeah exactly
"You're gonna wish you..." with the major 6th sounds fairly optimistic.
Follow that up with the "...Never have met me" and the minor 6th crushes the optimism both lyrically and sonically. Works for me.
Yeah that is also a way to look at it. cm major 6th “oh are we in gm?” gm b9 “nope actually cm” made clear with the most crushing dissonance on a minor chord the 9b
Ooh that's a great way to look at it!!
Yesssss! A lot of the text has a sort of nostalgia/melancholic vibe to it, “You’re going to wish you” really fits with that, which could be why it fits with the more bluesy 5-6-5 before falling back into the minor 6 to instill that sense of maybe Adele’s persona in the song isn’t as over her ex as she is claiming to be.
Yeah, I definitely hear a progression from the first phrase to the second.
Yes - it’s not really that weird if you look at it as a progression, from a 5-6-5 movement to 5-b6-5.
I remember noticing this while arranging the song for my acappella group and thinking it was weird, but kept it in. Now I’m glad to finally hear some rationale!
Same I played it with a band and I thought whoever arranged it was wrong but then I listened to it again and was like 😳
I know basically nothing about music theory but in high school my choir class covered this song. As a soprano I had to sing the part. I assumed it was put there to avoid overpowering the soloist (Adele’s) belt. If I remember right, the placement of the note is right around the big build/crescendo.
The "repetition legitimizes" has become so meta. I love it.
The “repetition legitimizes” has become so meta. I love it.
The "lepetition regitimizes" has become so meta. I love it.
@@gabrielmiller7640 The "repetion legitimizes" has become so meta. I love it.
The “repetition legitimizes” has become so meta. I love it
The “repetition legitimizes” has become so meta. I love it.
It makes sense to me. That wish is "quieter", almost like the voice wavering a bit when they sing "You're gonna wish you", but then gaining confidence at "never have met me". Thematically, I like it, it adds emotion. It's almost haunting
Hit the nail on the head here 👏
Interesting. I've always heard it the opposite - with "you're gonna wish you" coming out more forcefully (like when you're angry and your voice raises in pitch), then settling back down at "never have met me" (as if in resignation). With descending tonality giving the chorus a darker trajectory.
@@Md2802 this clicks better with me. This bar can be seen as a brief moment of C dorian instead of aeolian, and aeolian is often perceived as dramatic where dorian is rather drama combined with hope/anger/indifference/…
"haunting" is exactly how I hear that note personally. In fact minor 6th chords naturally have a haunting or "mysterious" sound. In actually kind of surprised that this note is controversial, although I guess it makes sense.
Kornel, that's an astute interpretation and justification of it!
I really like that broken, sharp-edged sound of that little half step. I totally hear it, and I love it. She didn’t ruin something, or get it wrong. She invented something.
PERIODT
If you listen to Sonny Rollins on Moritat he does it all the time
@@frankie_lanaro There you go, once again, a black man not getting the credit he deserves. Hats off to Mr. Rollins, then.
9:27 "music isn't really a universal language" - thank you for saying this. Even within Western music, I find genres I'm not well-versed in extremely hard to process. Just take anyone who's not used to listen to classical music or hip-hop to try to describe the nuances of what they just heard - since I don't usually listen to these genres, I am very well aware that most of the music just goes over my head, even though I'm a musician myself and I can dissect, say, progressive rock without any trouble.
@Day no, I'm not well versed in classical music at all and let's just say it bores me to death while an avid listener will get chills whenever they listen to it. Just like having different languages, music can seem nice on the outside without understanding it. That may be why some people think it's universal. But it's false. Unless you learn deeply about the cultural context, you will only get a very basic surface level understanding or even worse, a misconception
AMEN TO THIS
I agree. Maybe it's more accurate to say, "it's a language" 🙂.
The word "universal" seems to imply that everyone will interpret it and respond more or less the same way, across the board. Which is clearly not true, and this video touches on some reasons why.
On the other hand, anyone *can* learn any kind of music, if they're immersed in it. So in that sense, a music is like any other language (French, Cantonese, ASL) universally *accessible*, maybe, but not universally *understood*.
To me, the dissonance of the unexpected A on the word "wish" makes it feel like the word is a knife stabbing into me. It's like the little hint of hate that you feel in grief.
Ooh. That's a nice theory.
Which makes sense because what Adele is singing is sadness and grief but the background singers are angry and defiant. They aren't crying in the corner, they are throwing punches.
Yes, yes. This.
i'm glad i'm not the only one who felt that
Exactly. It underscores the word so effectively -- gives it this very tense character and then resolves down a half step in the subsequent repetitions to underscore its stress. It is a sound of anguish, pain, forlornness that is not conveyed by the expected A flat. The characterization of "blue note" by the one writer fits, too, like throwing a major or almost-major third where one expects a minor third or a major chord where a minor chord would be more expected in a progression.
she retconned the note in the 2nd-4th repetitions of it and musically gaslighted us
Ayy.
you are the disqualified guy aren’t you?
@@SlyHikari03 is that what I'm known as, damn I guess I need to work on my public image
I told this joke to my daughter who is a singer. (I play guitar, bass and trumpet). She took it too seriously snd said I’m illlegetsmizing people who actually get gaslit. She takes things to seriously.
@@Kblmquist she sticks to her principles
@@QuikVidGuy you have no idea. She is ACE. Some of my in-laws are very bible thumper. My in-laws tell her she young and pretty and will find a great guy. My daughter just nope I’m Ace not really interested. Then of course we all have to go down that road. I’m sitting right next to her asking if she’s ok. She says ya they ask stupid questions they get stupid answers. Girl held her own to that family.
This is interesting to me 'cause I also never noticed it was "out of key", but I did notice the first line's note was higher and brighter than the second, which creates an interesting and narratively significant justification between "wish" and "met". I guess I was hearing it as a Bb?
I literally keep singing Bb instead of A natural, I can’t sing that A
To me, it sounds like A *and* Ab. A sharp dissonance.
In this live perfomance, they sing bVI (G in the Key of B-minor): ua-cam.com/video/Mi2cURoOAYY/v-deo.html
Maybe in the original Track one of the background singers didn't find the tone?
There are tones in between Ab and A. To my ear the interval at 2:10 falls a bit short of a proper major second.
It wasn't out of key, just because it wasn't what you expected doesn't mean it was out of key.
eggzactly
The A natural actually makes me feel like Adele is taunting her ex lover when she sings "You're gonna wish you". It's adds a angry bite to the chorus that complements the main lyrics of the chorus. Anger is a stage of greif after all, and having that frictiveness on the first half of the sentence, and then resolving it with the next line makes sense. The other line of the backing vocals (with the two consecutive Ab's) are less angry, and could be more self-oriented.
TLDR: The line that has the spicy note is fittingly spicy.
Yes! I love that! It's like a warning. But, what I hate and it's a crime for me (for me) is that the covers or performances cover to make it into "G - A flat - G" just because to make it sound "correct". Like... What?!
The A natural adds tension- a more cheerful note vs a sadder background.
i remember my high school choir teacher trying to get us to sing it correctly. he gave up at some point and just let us sing Ab because almost nobody could consistently do it 💀
@@adamp108 I believe it is a minor sixth to a major sixth switch and think it's a bit easier than with the thirds
@@tadijateleskovic1443 I'd add that it wholly depends on the context. What kind of dissonant harmonics the other musicians are assertively belting at the moment.
People complained about Adam spending 9 minutes talking about one chord, and he's doubled down by making multiple videos about one note.
I think there could be a bigger meaning for the 5-6-5 for the "you're gonna wish you". the song is a breakup song like you said and the lyrics are filled with grief, especially the chorus in which the 5-6-5 is found. Adele is singing with sorrow through this chorus but the words "you're gonna wish you never met me" contain a bit more anger and vengefulness. maybe the natural 6 represents a slightly uplifting feeling that the anger brings with it. i can imagine adele getting a sudden rush of anger while singing the A natural, but its short lived anger after she calms down and goes back to the flat 6. i dont know how to better explain what im thinking, but i do think that the natural 6 represents something emotionally for adele.
Weird - I've always considered that note to be a super cool quirk of the song. It totally scans fine for me musically; surprised people are finding it so grating
Yeah I quite enjoy it too.
I've always heard the A natural. And for me it sounds like a danger. Or a warning.
Like an ambulance actually. And it feels like that moment before the sorrow. Before acceptance.
Like going to close to a cliffside.
This is what I sing when I hear it. And it's what I like in that song. I'm a bit shocked that you and so many others couldn't hear it.
Yes! I love that! It's like a warning. But, what I hate and it's a crime for me (for me) is that the covers or performances cover to make it into "G - A flat - G" just because to make it sound "correct".
Like...what? That should be a crime!
Or maybe I'm just exaggerating it.
Adam is also shocked that he didn't hear it!
this is exactly how i felt. the threatening nature of "you're gonna wish you never had met me" becomes all that more clear
Bingo. You nailed the feeling. It’s menacing.
Or someone who is watching her grief, but unaffected by it, therefore warranting a major snippet
Adam: "Repetition..."
Me: "Legitimizes! It legitimizes!"
Adam: "changes your perception based on prior expectations."
I feel he built up all of that just for this moment.
@@c64cosmin Adam WOULD play the long con like that.
i feel like he could have made a more dramatic pause there
@@konsey1889 A pause wouldn't work, since the standard "repetition legitimizes" has no pause. You would already suspect something is wrong before he even said anything if there was a gap
4:08 Finally, a music theorist conceding that a pop songwriter might just have talented ears, and wasn't necessarily intentionally applying music theory principles (a bastion of academia) to their writing.
Its Adele...
Music is art rather than science. And the musical theories may be established for centuries yes but it doesn’t mean they can’t be challenged in modern times. Whether this A note was a mistake or not, it still produced great hit and now that someone posted an observation like this, it made it more interesting 🧐
Beethoven screwed with the minds of his contemporaries and future generations in the Eroica having one section of the orchestra playing as if in B-flat but then the horns "prematurely" entered with the E-flat opening theme. Wagner could not reconcile this and wrote up his own "correction.
@@TehKaiser that’s hilarious. Get wrekt Wagner
Adele has mentioned in interviews that she started working on this song after touring the USA for the first time, and spending much of her time listening to blues, and then she mentioned she tried to introduce blues elements in her music. So for me, this natural A, which sounds bluesy, was actually something she and her musicians did purposefully.
When you said, “for the last 10 years,” I died a little bit. It’s been 10 years since that song came out?!?!
Wait until you hear that in your late 40's
10 years ago was 1990.
@@Been.Here.Since.2007 There's no apostrophe in 40s.
@@cptnoremac Next time I type out out, I'll keep you in mind.
And definitely spell it: "40's"
You wasted your time nagging me online.
@@Been.Here.Since.2007 Are you gonna be okay?
@@cptnoremac With you policing our punctuation, we ALL will be ok.
Never thought that one note would be this big a deal lol. I've always heard it as A natural, and it fit perfectly fine to me. But hearing all those covers change it to an A flat just makes it sound wrong... like, it's more depressing somehow. The A natural really brightens the mood of the chrorus' first stanza~
The A natural does the audio equivalent of turning up the saturation of an image.
I remember noticing that the note was 'off', but forgotting it by the next bar. And since I could unfortunately never bring myself to look into music theory as much as I should have as an instrumentalist, I never thought too much of it. It just made me not like that song for a long time, I guess.
I also always heard it as A natural and i just assumed it borrowed melodic minor, prompting the melody to move upwards - instead of a grace note. Even almost hear the next B natural that would follow...
Just sounds like a regular sort of melodic technique to give more of a feel at arriving at those last two bars of it. The last two bars have two Ab's, the back one is approach above by half a step, and the front one is approached from below be half a step. Repeat it for emphasis and you have a nice little call back section that has good motion to it.
Certainly sounds a whole lot better than the versions with the Ab there.
right?? with all A flats its just a generic break up song, but that A nat? thats the sound of a phoenix rising out of the ashes.
two things: When you hear all the cover bands sing/perform the 'Aflat', it sounds wrong
and I feel the A natural gives it a more "positive" feel to the word "wish", making the next three uses of the Aflat all that much more impactful
Hearing minor 6 harmony described as positive made me laugh out loud. No disrespect to your opinion, but to me that sound is haunting. It reminds me of the opening scene in Jaws 2.
I’m surprised nobody mentioned the minor melodic scale in which in Cm, A and B are natural when ascending and flat when descending. It’s been used for centuries
I didn't even think about that!
no no no some dumb composer in the 1700s wrote a practice book with melodic minor scales different up and down in order to "efficiently" practice scales on piano. If you look all throughout classical music, composers like bach, beethovan, tchaicovsky have all written downwards melodic minor lines. When people say that melodic minor keys are different up and down its a load of shit and no one actually writes music with that in mind.
About this note. This is my mom's favorite song so I've heard it a ton. I love the sound this note brings to the song. It's a dark and minor tone'd song, and maybe it's just me but I hear this note as like EXTRA minor. Like the song goes from minor, "I'm sad," to minor "I will destroy your soul, I will poison your family, and I will drown you." it's so venomous, it's so cool!
You're right. It does sound quite sinister at that moment
i like this
Yes, agreed. Something of a disfigured minor!
Thought along the same lines
This is EXACTLY what I was thinking of!
i've never consciously noticed it but i've definitely felt the resolution when the backing hits the Ab on the second line. Adds a nice lift and then settle into the chorus imo.
Yea, to me it feels like some kind of suspension there.
Basically the same to me. I do not know enough about music to have ever been able to hear that note and think, "that's not in this key". To me, it's a nice little resolution when they do hit the natural.
And that's what why feel is more important than theory. In composition and in listening. They call it soul for a reason, and there's a reason soul/gospel RnB is at the foundation of our modern pop music lexicon
The fact that the A natural is used for the word 'wish' may be a subconscious tonal 'lift' to reflect the meaning in the lyric. The A natural also anticipates the big Bb note coming up.
I can't say I've ever specifically noticed the note in a theory sense, but listening to the versions that remove it sounds notably more boring and flat to me. Part of it's probably just the fact that I'm used to the original track, but I genuinely think that it adds a really nice color and it's super satisfying to return to the expected pitch right after. I think it really works.
I write my electronic bass lines like this a lot. I like throwing in those accidental notes, or weird out of place stuff that shouldn't normally be there. Also, you can play wrong as often as you like, so long as you repeat it, because repetition legitimizes, or something like that
Wow you are so cool
I play wrong notes too
@@robertoladrondeguevara3873 cooler than you.
I only play right notes
@@robertoladrondeguevara3873 wow you are so edgy
This A♮ haunted me for 10 years - I assumed it was there to enhance the bitterness of the lyrics. Also, the A♮ creates a subconscious estate of alert on the entrance of the refrain - like you heard something wrong, so you are starting to pay attention to the music to capture the "wrong" note in the backing vocals. Still, it never comes until the next refrain.
My theory as to why it's an A natural and why it resolves down to Ab: Harmonic minor tension going up, melodic minor transition going down. Very classical music, and as such, gospel.
Yes, it creates movement. Very gospel-like to my ears
I was taught that natural 6 in minor “must” resolve upward and b6 in minor “must”resolve down (according to the “rules” followed by classical composers). So if what I was taught is correct (I’m very open to that not being the case), the 5-6-5 in the background melody is not what “classical” composers would have done. I’m probably wrong about this.
For what it’s worth, I’ve never noticed this before (I never listen to this song), but now I hear it and I hate it very badly.
I’ve always struggled with reading music, and I believe I’m tone deaf because you’re giving examples of how this natural note sounds… and it all sounds the same, but how wonderful is it that there is a whole group of people that really understand sound.
Same here. It's like I could never fit into their world 🤣
@@jmtanjusay7045 If you don't play an instrument or you're just not super into music, it makes it harder to hear the nuances. Unless you're actually tone deaf, you can definitely train your ear to be more discerning! It's like a visual artist seeing the difference between very similar shades of green, while a layman probably wouldn't be able to tell.
@@fishfur9530 This. Back then as a kid, I would sing a song back and I wouldn't notice their different notes, people around me would just tell me. And I can't even separate instruments from the main, most cases vocal, melodies. I am still a noob, but it's slowly getting better. I can now kinda tell when my vocal cords can't replicate a specific note or vocal technique.
I had noticed the A nat, but it always seemed fitting. i feel like it accentuates the fact she got knocked down but still managed to stand up again. like, yes its a break up song, but not a song solely about being sad about a break up.
Great video Adam! For another grief-laden 5-b6-5 check out “Exit Music (For a film)” by Radiohead.
Hey David
also wanted to point this out
then I saw this comment, of course David is the person who mentions the radiohead :)
And what would the Beatles example be? 😝
@@vakavanha 3rd bar of the verse of “Because” by The Beatles would be a fair example 😊
David Bennett Piano is a Radiohead/Beatles advertisement disguised as a UA-cam channel
Music is so intricate. We can learn so much from just 3 notes in a background vocal line.
I dunno. This note is one of the first things I noticed. I love how it rubs. And how it is not generic pop. What a song. What a singer.
Adam, you're really A natural at explaining this kind of material ;)
Nice 😁
You disgust me good sir!
But they keep mistaking that sentence as “Adam, you’re really an A-flat natural at explaining this kind of material ;)”. It’s such a strange effect.
This post deserves an award.
I see what you did there. Very sharp.
The fact that he didn't say repetition legitimizes almost kills me
I was sooo prepared to say it
he was singing the a natural, but not the a flat
Another explanation for A: It's part of a chromatic descent in the motive.
When Adele sings "It's rolling in the", the notes are G - Bb - G or 5 - b7 - 5 two times. This is a strong motive. Then the background singers change the motive to G - A - G (5 - 6 - 5) and then to G - Ab - G (5 - b6 - 5).
So, the highest note of the motive goes down a half step each time (from Bb to A to Ab). And that is something, our ears are quite used to, so that it doesn't stick out that much when we hear the A.
Re: the “grief” section. Two things: 1. The lyrics are, just for a moment, triumphant, vengeful: “You're gonna *wish* you / never had met me.” By the time the second line lets you know that what she feels so strong about is a desire to see her former lover's suffering, everything is back on track with the pure sadness. Momentarily sliding into a note that would make the overall chord major in a jarring way creats that represents that fleeting energy of “righteous anger” over what is ultimately just a shitty situation. 2. It's actually a part of the human experience, and of grief in particular, to not be sure about what emotions you're experiencing, or to have counterintuitive emotional reactions. I think these two things combine to make that note as powerful as it is.
You can't apply music theory to songwriting without a strong sense of poetics.
When you played the multiple covers with Ab, I kept hearing a `i iv i` chord progression, like a pedal suspension(6/4). But with the A natural it feels like an extension of the `i` chord rather than a change
Bingo, it's a colour tone in Cm (the 6th) rather than a change.
In fact, it's barely even that right? It's a passing tone, doesn't really need a "harmonic" explanation. They also could have sung F# or F there, it wouldn't really have a harmonic function.
I do like the A♮ followed by Ab 2nd time though, gives a bit of a chromatic movement leading through the phrases
@@Muzikman127 Yes, notice the last two bars of that have two Ab's. It's like one of them is approached from above, while the other is approached from below to, then the same figure is repeated twice to give some completion to it. Those chromatic shifts give motion around in a phrase that also sits constrained. It's nice variety.
I disagree it doesn't have harmonic function though. I think it also has harmonic function and it hears like something like suspension to me harmonically that gets resolved. I don't know what it actually all is written down on paper, but that's how that note feels to me harmonically.
@@Muzikman127 First of all it's not a passing tone, it's a neighbour tone. Small difference, I know, they're both types of non-chord tone, but let's use the proper terms to not get confused.
And more importantly, when harmonized with other voices, non-chord tones do form _passing chords_ that have temporary harmonic function. When not harmonized with other voices, non-chord tones simply serve as a momentary melodic dissonance against the underlying chord, that gets resooved upon returning to a chord tone, like what you described.
But if you listen carefully, you'll hear that in the chorus there is also a second background voice singing *Bb - C - Bb.* What this means is that the background vocals imply a passing chord, F major, and so imply the progression im7 - IV - im7 where the IV is a passing chord. So it's kind of a quick, momentary plagal cadence. Or you could think of it as a iim7 too, whatever works.
Even if you can't hear the second background vocal track, it still isn't correct to say that non-harmonized non-chord tones have no harmonic function: even if they do not form a chord in the classical theory sense, they still serve a purpose in creating a momentary clash with the underlying chord, like I described earlier.
Agreed! Thank you!
It actually felt for me as if playing a bend note on a electric guitar, where you bend it more just above that 1/2 bend in a blues lick just to make it more “bluesy” 😅
I have no significant musical training, just what I've learned in passing through the years, but I grew up listening to very complex music and writing relatively complex music intuitively. I've had several well-trained musicians tell me I have a great ear for harmony and melody (bringing this up for a reason). I've always noticed and loved this particular note choice in the backing vocals, but it never struck me as highly "suspect", for a lack of a better term. I knew it was spicy, but It never occurred to me that it shouldn't work, or is at least "out of key" technically.
These are the little moments that feed my feeling that music theory can often be a hammer looking for a nail. The older I get, the more I'm interested in learning music theory. But at the same time, I've watched it sterilize several peoples playing by avoiding things like this, even when they work. For example, there's a song my band did, where I sang a particularly tense note in passing during a phrase, which felt right and worked in the song. I can't recall the interval, but our guitar player, before he was trained, never took issue with it. But years later when we got back together and he had years of formal training under his belt, he insisted that the note shouldn't work and that I should sharpen that note a half step. He explained why and it made perfect sense on paper. But it completely sapped the energy from that phrase. Had the note been sustained, it might have been too dissonant, but it was a fraction of a second, and had emotive power behind it. Reason I brought up having an ear for melody is that this wasn't me making a mistake. I knew the note was dissonant, but it worked.
Ironically, in the same song, there was a 4-count rest after a diminuendo, before the last bridge section where we always came in a bit late, which made our unison return feel very powerful. But after his training, our guitar player insisted that we play it perfectly on time, and it significantly affected the energy of that part for me. For me, it was an incredibly obvious loss of impact, but for him, it was a satisfying tidying up of our timing.
TL/DR: Sometimes music theory says something shouldn't work, even when it does, and it can cause people to avoid doing things that are interesting for the sake of being "proper". Almost as if they're thinking "Oh boy, if my music professor heard this, he'd ridicule me. I better not do that". Music isn't a science. It's emotive and expressive. Sometimes that means doing things that a sterilized approach would deem "improper". So be it. If it works, it works, music theory textbooks be damned.
Love this one, thanks for the reminder of how priming and prior experiences color our interpretations of the world. Cool to see that highlighted in music especially.
That A natural is where they're showing how things can go from blues to gospel in a blink of the mind's eye. It's an uplifting but rarely noticed moment of redemption or clarity, is how I hear it. Everyone's got their theories.
I say "rarely noticed" because that moment is usually in the heat of the moment. In this song where the A natural occurs, it's all "You're gonna wish you..." IOW, it's not during a very griefy section of the conversation, so to speak.
@@GizzyDillespee Yes, I like your point. At the risk of over-simplifying it "you're going to wish you" is a more cheerful sound than "never had met me" and this can be thought of as telling an emotional story. I think to my ears the shift by a semitone between the two phrases and the fact that it alternates back and forth has an ominous Jaws theme type feeling to it, which is another way of looking at it.
"An uplifting but rarely noticed moment of redemption or clarity" describes perfectly what I am hearing here too!
I’ve always loved that she has that dissonant note in the harmony.
You’re gonna wish you
I've definitely never heard it before ... and I'm glad you pointed it out! The descent from A to Ab in the backing track is awesome. I'm glad I hear it now!
Why'd I wait a week to watch this?? Adam, your analysis in your videos is really interesting and thought provoking; I always walk away with some new knowledge, something to think about, and so on! Keep up the great work, and I can't wait to see more from you!
This reminds me of the chorus of "Dangerous Woman" where some people hear her singing a B natural on the word "Dangerous" but she's actually singing a Bb which is the minor third. I've heard covers and seen transcriptions take either option. Kind of the opposite of this effect of "correcting" a note
do you mean when she sings "something about you makes me feel"? isn't that A when she sings "makes"?
makes me feel like a dangerous
A-G A-A-G Bb-A-G
maybe you mean on "dangerous"? I'm asking because if it's that then I didn't notice it as well
@@myssangela4872 My bad, I definitely meant on "Dangerous" haha. Thank you
@@AlexBaker994 ok ok. cool! I'll listen to it more carefully. Never noticed!
I think it's more misremembering, but a lot of people misremember Yesterday's first line. It's a slightly sharp F to F, but a lot of people play it / transcribe it as a G to F, but if you go in knowing to listen for it, you can hear that the first "yesterday" is basically just F's with the lead one slightly sharp. In the case of Yesterday, though, he subsequently sings the G to F so that makes it easier to misremember.
Bb in a G scale isn’t as out there, anyway. People always throw in parallel minor notes in major. A in C minor is less heard.
I distinctly remember hearing that Major 6 in RITD for the first time, and have been loving it more and more since the initial confusion. Always happy with an Aretha Franklin appreciation as well ❤
As a blues guy and a guitarist, it inherently sounds bluesy to me. I don't know if I ever would have noticed it without the video, but once I heard it, that's the connection I made. When you're playing the blues scale or the minor pentatonic in the usual "box" position, the major 6th falls naturally under your ring finger if you make a barre. So we actually hear this harmony quite a lot in lead guitar work across all sorts of genres.
These are my faves of yours. Love the analysis supprising weirdness in charts songs.
Love it
This A♮ has been bugging me for years and years, but *never* did I expect Adam to make a video about it. I just chalked it up to "pitch as an expressive device," something Adam talks about a bit in his Q&A discussion of "Easy On Me". The conclusion Adam draws about this "musical Mandela effect" is still really insightful and, I think, an important message!
The note changes the mood from sad and droopy to strong and bright. That is why we love the song. It recreates a person's emotional path from feeling down and out to gathering herself up, gaining her strength and announcing her point of view.
👆 totally
Absolutely,
I agree here, I wanted to make a comment about the “conversationality” of the phrases/phrasing and the word “wish” being emphasized. I think you make a better, more succinct point.
I literally came here to say EXACTLY this. Listen to the LYRIC of the backup vocals and there's your answer.
I have no clue about music but I watched this whole thing absolutely fascinated! The detail and deep dive is super impressive, I’m so invested! Great content 🙌🏾
Amazing!! Really interesting! The references of repertoires and perception and history you brought were great!
Knowing this makes the song so much more intense. It’s like she’s so angry that the expected musical “vocabulary” can’t express it.
I can proudly say that I noticed the A natural note a decade before Adam Neely does
Thanks, Adam. I appreciate that this video was more "accessible" to ordinary 2nd semester music students like me, given that numerous past uploads were quite "down the jazz rabbit hole" and much more complex to wrap one's head around!
Keep up the great work ❤️ Greetings from Germany.
This video was my introduction to your channel. You just got a new subscriber👏🏾👏🏾
It's exactly the same as when you're reading a text and there's a typo or even a grammar mistake.
You may not notice it, unless you know you have to look for mistakes, because your brain automatically corrects the mistake into the expected form.
Came to say this!
+
But at the same time, a typo can be left intentionally, to help "stick" the message in the reader's attention.
I notice sometimes meme-pushers do this; leaving a "your" where it should've been "you're"; like an irritating jingle is used in a radio commercial. That one sticking out thing that makes you mad enough to remember.
Ok here’s my theory: I think part of is that, particularly with pop songs, you remember the song by singing the parts back to yourself after you’ve heard it either out loud or in your head. Even though the note is funky and cool, it’s probably hard for the voice to find and easy to forget if you’re just going off memory, and so you reinforce the wrong note in your head when you’re singing/humming it back to yourself. Since it’s in the background vox, it’s easy to not pay attention to it when you’re listening and then reinforce the incorrect memory
Yup. These things are about humans' faulty memory, and that our active perception (unless we're on a truck load of LSD) doesn't give attention to every part. Same thing happens a lot with the song Yesterday. A lot of people sing that very first "Yesterday" at the beginning wrong, but it's largely explained by the fact that it's sung that way elsewhere in the song and so when you go to remember it, it gets misremembered because you didn't sit down and transcribe it or anything, so it often ends up wrong.
Nice lineout, good work. Keep it up, mate!
I actually played a version of this in high school marching band and, when we played it, the song had the A natural in the composition. I wish I had the sheet music, still. I distinctly remember this being a point of discussion in class.
this reminds me of how bob ross always said that once you start painting you see these things that you never even noticed before. and its similar with music. it’s soo important to keep an open ear to things being different from what you expected.
i always assumed it was meant to highlight “wish” as an important word to the theme of the song. they probably didnt consider that when it was added, but it definitely fits with the story adele tells in the song.
I.. I thought that note was legit the REASON everyone loved it? It's so weird and cool. It was the FIRST thing I latched onto in that song. Other people didn't notice it?? This isn't a flex I'm just surprised
you are a genious analyzing that. Love it!
This note is one thing my ears have always perked up on in this song… totally seems intentional to me, especially with this more major tonality hitting on the word "wish".
The direction of the melody heading for C immediately after the phrase in question suggests to me that the harmony felt the tug of a melodic minor approach to the keynote even though the scale is not completed, as the B natural is not used in the ascent. Nevertheless C is the target and the A natural does make a logical sounding movement. I'm surprised you didn't reference this in your analysis. I don't really hear the use of the A as being particularly unexpected here.
The melodic minor was what I thought of too. It seems to me that the sixth (and seventh) degrees in a minor scale are a little more flexible than the rest.
agreed
also A-G-C is from major pentatonic so its sound cool and happy
The point is that G-Ab-G would have been a much more standard harmony part in this context, and the next three bars do use that line. So, the G-A-G line definitely stands out. Sure, it's easy to explain through theoretical jargon - but does that really explain the reason why it was used in this song? It does feel a bit weird that they decided to do G-A-G once and G-Ab-G three times, when doing G-Ab-G four times would have also worked just fine (so much so that a lot of cover versions sing it that way). Also, there are no A naturals anywhere else in the song (and it does use a lot of Ab major chords), so it does sound surprising because of that too.
In other words, the point of the analysis wasn't to explain the A natural theoretically. That's not very difficult. The point was pointing out that it's not something Adam expected, and he used that as an example of how your musical experience may influence the things you expect from music, and may even influence the way you hear things. (In other words, a deep theoretical analysis of what's going on is at least somewhat irrelevant, at least anything that goes beyond "this isn't a common pattern, whereas the 'expected' line is very common" or mentions a couple of basic terms that you can look up like "modal mixture" or "blues harmony". Also, the question why something is expected is also interesting. It's a common cliche in sad music, and it's also the line that was used in the 3 following measures.)
I think when something more unexpected happens, it's valid to ask "why", even if you can easily explain it theoretically. The theoretical explanation doesn't necessarily answer that question. Unexpected things tend to draw your attention to them, especially in such a basic otherwise diatonic minor key song, so they often have some other "meaning" than just the theoretical explanation.
Exactly how i would put it! Ascending (incomplete) melodic minor instead of a grace note of G
@@MaggaraMarine Careful. They don't do G Ab G three times precisely, because there are repeat notes in the lines. There are two Ab's in the last two bars, one could be seen as coming to from above and the other from below, each by half steps. Doing G-Ab-G four times wouldn't have worked just fine, or at least as well as it does, because that ruins a lot of the chromatic motion happening in the line to keep interest in the part, but to the "why", looking at the words being sung and their meaning in that part, it's easy to see why the A natural is used. Just think about what's being said, and say the whole line with the melody of that part in mind: "You're gonna wish you never had met me" The emphasis on the "wish" over the other parts is very apparent in spoken English, and then the disparate meaning across the two bars, "never had met me" is more ominous and gets the relatively more ominous phrasing. This also ignores what it feels like harmonically, since the lines also serve a relation to the rest of the music, it has a suspension-like feel to it.
And looking at it as a whole, it all explains that question of "why" together. Musicians / writers/ composers at this degree don't just go "that sounds good, let's ignore it musically." These things are all intertwined when writing and deciding on how a song ultimately ends up. Even if they're not thinking in the specific terms you're expressing it as, those terms apply to the intent of what they want it to sound like. Dismissing the theoretical parts is ignoring something important.
Really, the whole perception thing is overblown anyways. It's more about people's inherently faulty memories.
This is something I've always loved in this song... and to hear you talk about it now..... beautiful
Great video, the level of analysis is powerful. Cheers from Poland!!
I played this tune a while back and when I learned it, I did notice that note...thought it was quirky and, not instinctual for my brain... but hey...it got us talking about it.
Worth noting too that the backing vocals drop out when the chorus gets reharmed with an Ab chord during the bridge.
Great analysis (as usual)! I had to learn the tune several years ago and I in fact did notice it immediately, but just chocked it up to "the blues thing" ... and then promptly never worried about it, or heard it 😆again.
I've heard this interval already when I was still in the conservatory and it brings out a different kind of emotion on the piece specially the over longingness on a person..(on a slow tempo). My teacher is also a music theorist and he kept on analyzing triadic functions. It really helped on my scores' piano interpretation.
Thank you for the in-depth analysis of the song. 👍👍
One of my earliest memories about music was trying to hum a melody to reference a song. People had no idea what I was humming. I hummed again and they played the real song right after that. I was completely off! Not just a few notes either. Even the big events in the melody were different. And yet, that was genuinely how I had perceived the melody, until I was forced to pay closer attention.
I think we understand music, not as it is, but by comparing to familiar anchors. A child with no experience doesn't have enough anchors to stay faithful to the song.
I see it as interchanging Aeolian and Dorian modes, which I have done in my compositions, choosing to flat the sixth in the melody, or not, depending on which sounds better in the moment.
From someone who knows very little about compositional music theory but was trained professionally as a vocalist years ago, to me it acts as a type of resolution, like they purposefully added the dissonance to have that clash that gets resolved in the second half as part of the storytelling of the song.
Thank you again, not just for another of one of the most informative music concept videos on UA-cam but for one of the most considered, developed and intruiging channels out there. It's like Attenborough for music!
I think it also works really well lyrically. If the 5/b6/5 is “grief” (musically speaking) that we hear on “never had met me” then putting the 5/6/5 on “You’re gonna wish you” transfers the grief to You. It’s not just a breakup song full of grief, it’s a song about revenge. I don’t know if I’ve explained this idea well enough, it’s hard to put into writing.
Ooh, "Rolling in the Deep" is still such a great song all this time later. Can’t wait to watch your analysis here! 😃‼️
I love the deep dive into this because it’s really informative and I like your takes. For me I’ve always noticed this and it’s always been something I liked. Something about it being off gives it a feeling of hopelessness. This one sounds like it was from the gut and not from the books. It makes the music seem less contrived and perfect and more human.
I was always drawn to that note! I'm glad this video exist! When I make beats I try to but something offbeat in it purposely because life ain't perfect.
I think the rythm between Adele's line and the back vocals has an important role in all of this. Try playing both lines at the same time, one in your left and one in your right, if you go Cm G/C Cm in your left (as the back vocals are not singing it, it feels pretty usual and uniteresting) but if you go Cm Cm6 omitted 5th Cm not only does that sound great because of the 10th interval between A in your left and the leading C in your right but there is something about how it's all accented that makes it feel so darn good. I mean try any other rhythm (especially straight rhythms like clear 8th or 16th notes) over it with your left hand not only does it stop sounding like that song but it stops sounding nice as well. Just something crazy I discovered playing this.
That's always been my favorite note in it! Mandela effect for real.
I think she just put it in cos it sounded absolutely dope. No theory necessary
@@JamesMulvale yes
@@JamesMulvale i agree
I've been noticing that note clearly since the first time I heard the song. And I love it!
It really adds to the feeling of the song, like a masked irony, only to be smashed in the next phrase.
So happy to see actual artists (in general) that experience with music and with the elements they are provided to compose nowadays. You 're doing great your work
I've never heard "you're gonna wish you" as an A-flat, always A-natural... in fact, I'd always heard "tears are gonna fall" as having an A-flat-and-a-half (or G-half-sharp if you prefer), with the whole phrase following a pattern of "contracting" the motif each repetition and only rebounding back to A-flat on "rolling in the deep".
I listened to wild cherry’s “play that funky music” this morning and i was singing along to the main melody in the beginning and i was confused when i realized the song and my singing didn’t match up, i stopped and listened and once the first verse started, the riff was similar but different for the rest of the song. that’s one of the things i love about transcribing music too, is finding all the subtle details that you never noticed before
This video has renewed my faith in humanity. I thought I was the only person to have noticed and to have been nearly driven insane by that A natural in the chorus, but I have been given new life after, not only having someone simply point out the jarring note, but having sometime dedicate an entire UA-cam analysis video to it. My heart has been rejuvenated and my soul is at peace…
Yes, that note has always bugged me. While you're at it, listen to the synth pads in Billy Joel's studio recording of "Just The Way You Are". At bar 3 of the bridge (about 2:13 in the song) there is a crashing dissonance as the pad fails to make the transition to the new chord at the downbeat. It was a huge hit and revived Billy's career. How that clam made it onto the airwaves is beyond me.
Wow I never noticed that. Now I can't unhear it.
Glad you made this video, Adam. I have noticed the A nat before, and it always sounded deliberate to me. Dorian mode for life baby.
For what function the A natural serves, it might be more about using the backup singers to do a bit of a counterpoint line rather than filling in harmonic requirements. Having it move from an A natural in the first line to an A flat in the next line creates some downward trajectory for the backup vocal line. Maybe in that instance wanting that motion trumped having the "right" harmony.
I have covered this song often and always loved the dissonance that note created. It added to the ambience to me and really drove in the lyrics.
THANK YOU FOR THIS! Always noticed this and thought I was crazy!
Music is a gift that keeps on giving, like ever since watching these videos by you or Rick Beato, I've been hearing things I couldn't have ever imagined in songs I've heard a million times over and I love it.
I think there's an extent to which it makes it literally sound like crying. Like it's supposed to be a Ab but they are sniffling, choking up, or their voice cracked and it came out wrong. It sounds somehow more sad this way to my untrained ear.
I’ve been singing along to that album for at least 5 months everytime I’m out driving and I always felt weird about that note because I was questioning if I was off or she was singing it sharp. This video is exactly what I’ve been wondering about and I thought I was crazy! 😃