One of the most "wow" uses of the Neapolitan chord is the deceptive ending (Trugschluss) of the fugue of Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor for organ, BWV 582 by Bach. When you are certain the piece is pulling up to the final chord, all of a sudden you have a loud, sustained Neapolitan chord, then a pause, then the real ending comes.
As someone who wants to become a film music composer and hasn’t majored in the music field, your explanations really mean a lot to me. Sincerely, thank you Mr. Beato!
Thank goodness, I've played few piano pieces with this beautiful chord yet had no idea what they were! I finally come to the right channel with a writing board and precise explanation. I think I got them now.... thank you so very much!!!
You can save a lot of money and likely a lot of confusion learning theory from Rick Beato that would cost your first born in a University or Conservatory. My experience with college was that music classes made me feel stupid, on the whole. I did find one harmony instructor at Berklee that put it all together for me very nicely and provided me with enough of the logic behind theoretical problems to help me generate my own questions and my own curiosity for the topic. If UA-cam and Beato's channel were around in the 80's I would have learned all this stuff much more efficiently and with a deeper appreciation.
but what happened to the the b2 chord? his example is using a b6 chord in the analysis explanation.He clearly states a Neapolitan is a flat 2 chord like a tri sub. that i use in Jazz but then switches to a b6 as predominant. Did you notice this too?
9:57 he finally says what it is. All the others also are dominant chords with enharmonic misspelling for sake of voice leading. This harmonic move “predominant to dominant” is the basis of flamenco music, but it’s used as the main dominant to TONIC (ie G is the tonic not C). There is a Spanish Aug6 different than the others we use in flamenco where it’s your Ab7/F#...so we actually use the 3rd inversion to resolve UP to G.
My mnemonic for remembering and identifying these chords (when written in standard notation, not in figured bass) is to think of them as a Dom7 chord built on the ♭6, and then separate them as follows: • Italian is Incomplete Dom7 (R-3-♭7) • German is General, Garden Variety Dom7 (R-3-5-♭7) • French is Flatted Fifth or Dom7(♭5) (R-3-♭5-♭7) I know this doesn't line up perfectly with the figured bass analysis as altered IV6 or II64 chords, but as they normally progress to either the dominant chord or to the tonic 64 chord, it makes sense (in my mind) to view them as ♭6Dom7. ---------- My other way to remember the German from the Swiss (with traditional analysis, German contains the ♭3 of the key leading down to the fifth of the dominant chord, while Swiss contains the ♯2 of the key leading up to the third of the tonic 64 chord) is that Swiss Cheese is Sharp, hence the ♯2.
Excellent video, thank you. In my reaction I kept remembering what I did that helped me back in the day. That was over 35 years ago. I am surprised I remembered from back then. As a musician I still use what I know, but often do not recall why I know it. The following might help those whose ears work faster than their score reading. Most keyboardist probably won't need this as they read scores faster than the average instrumentalist or singer. When I was first introduced to the It6th, Fr6th, and the Gr6th, I experienced them as a kind of dominant function that resolves by expanding both upward and downward to the root of dominant chord. In this example, Ab downward to G, and F# upward to G. Augmented 6ths are like a secondary dominates on steroids, expanding both upward and downward. The Ab is a downward 'Leading Tone' to the dominate root G. And f# is the upward Leading Tone to the dominant root G. Rather than arriving at the dominate, the music expands to the dominate, like an expanding musical inhalation. This feels like the intake of air when surprised by something nice. Your day just got bigger and better, but its just starting, hence the landing on V instead of I. Sometime its is good to have a trick to help tell the difference between the types of augmented 6ths. Not everyone needs it but it really helped me. Like a Dominant 7th chord, each of the types of augmented 6th chords has a Root, a major 3rd and a minor 7th. In this example Ab, C, and F#. But each feels differently in the ear. Here is how I hear the difference between IT, FR, and GR 6th. Italian Sixths: Feels slightly minor. This is because it has both a minor 7th a tri-tone that dominate the quality of the chord. French Sixths: Feels Dissonant. This is because there are two pairs of tri-tone that dominate this chord. German Sixths: Feels Major. This chord has all the elements of a Dominate 7th chord, and the added note, D# (enharmonic Eb), is placed where it breaks up the tri-tone, allowing the Major 3rd to be heard more distinctively. Good luck and God's Speed.
i love mr Beato. my fav is the FRENCH +6, love your re-clarification.... its just the iv min with raised root... Thank you!!!!!!! it is a PREDOMINANT when i see it like that now!!!!. i love mr beato
VERY clear! I'm studying for entrance exams and trying to clean out the cobwebs that are 10+ years old. You helped me do that and more! I think I understand this better than ever. Thank you!!
Salad dressing chords! I totally didn't understand them back when I took music theory, but now I guess the way I see them now having watched this video as a tritone substitution for the V--of-V because the tritone is the same as what you'd want to resolve to the V. It's a nice explanation for why one might use a 7b5, though. I like playing these notes on a bass or playing a bass line on a guitar, which gives really solid half-step motion.
Awesome teaching rick! I can't even explain how valuable your chanel is to people like me. Being time and money poor a lot of us aren't able to get training like this anywhere else, thanks!
This is the best explanation of this on the entire internet, the world and on other planets as well. When those aliens come down here to Earth and need to consult someone on the variations of sixth chords they need to go see Rick Beato. He can set their sorry asses straight.
Pebber Brown, Smile....it is always voice leading. Clare Fischer through all of his compositions showed it. We here learned the old way which is still the Best.
Thanks for another great episode, Rick! I've been appreciating your theory and analysis videos the most, and your production style breakdowns to a lesser degree. I made a contribution to help encourage more videos. Happy Holidays, too!
From a jazzer's ear, I've always thought Italian 6th felt like a bVI dominant 7 without a 5th degree. Like wise, French 6th feels like a dominant 7b5 chord, and German 6th like a bog standard dominant chord. These sounds can all be found in jazz, for instance in a minor jazz blues. The devil is in the details. Namely, the augmented 6th chords are enharmonicly spelled differently, but most importantly, the augmented 6th chords resolve differently than their "dominant" spelled counterparts. That's why we spell them funny, because of their funny resolution.
That's right, it's just a D7b9#11. Each of the three different types contains C & F#, the two defining notes of D7. That's why they resolve to G. The French one has the D and the German one the b9, Eb.
Yeah I was just wondering why even have the term "german aug6 chord" when it really just looks like a V/V. Then I figured it's probably because a V/V is expected to resolve to the V, which this little bugger doesn't.
@5:17 you said 6/4 means second inversion, then @5:30 you said 6/4 means first inversion. Other than that this video is awesome! Keep up the excellent work!
Be advised, you have to resolve your leading tones in classical harmony. As such, a V7-I progression cannot be complete in both chords. Outside one exception., one of them with not have the dominant note. Ref: BITSCH, Marcel, Précis d'harmonie.
I think the easiest way to nail aug6 is just to play a dom chord without the 5th, and with the tonic of the scale you're in as its 3rd note. E. g. G Dom (skip 5) chord will be Ita 6 chord of B min scale.
The Cm section has a iv65 (Fm7/Ab) which presents a problem with the aug2 in the soprano (Eb to F#). The iv6 as stated would solve that problem. Also, the B natural needs to resolve to the C in the alto on the final chord and the tenor resolves to a C. This will mean that the final chord will have 3 root notes and the soprano will have the Eb (3rd.) The solution to all these issues would be to have the F-F#-G in the alto.
The French aug. 6th chord is built on "D" and not "F". In mid to late romantic period, one starts seeing many aug. 6th chords functioning as primary dominants as well as secondary dominants. Happens a lot In the music of F. Chopin, R. Strauss, just to name a few. German 6th resolves to minor 6/4 probably more often (or at least as much) than major 6/4. There would be so many more things worth mentioning, like enharmonic possibilities, but I guess Mr. Beato's explanations are accurate and meet with pretty much all the basics available on the subject.
A couple of points on the N6 chord. Although it is derived from the minor key, it was often used in the major key as well. The diminished 3rd move from the D flat to the B (3rd of the V chord) is very idiomatic and usually displayed in the top voice. This move from N6 to V, creates a false relation between the D flat and the D but this is totally acceptable in this case.
Mind = blown We're doing this at school tomorrow, but I thought I’d stay one step ahead, so I actually have a chance understanding this. Anyway awesome video, v helpful and i think I actually get it.
I always loved best Chopin's use of the German Augmented Sixth, sounding in third inversion, as the penultimate to the cadential measures of the e-minor prelude. A clever, poignant quasi-resolution to the game of elided conversion dominants he's been playing throughout the piece - at last, he allows a fully diminished chord to descend a semitone in one voice to form a dominant seventh, yes, but naturally with the seveth in the bass, just to make it clear this is not *the* Dominant yet, folks.
perhaps an over simplification for memorizing the usage or scale asssociation of A6 chords,for me at least, is to think of it in terms of major scale verses minor scales where in the minor scales the A6 chord is a naturally occurring chord( albeit modified for the different forms) but is not naturally occurring in a major scale . Hence the reference to the A6 is merely a theoretical mnemonic device that identifies it's scale position within a Major scale similarly as the naturally occurring A6 in minor since the A6 is enharmonic to a b7 interval. Both major and minor scales resolve to V generally but the harmonic inference is different.
wow, it seems many years ago I used a German sixth unknowingly and even properly resolved to dominant, I just lowered the octave on the bVI chord to a flat seventh instead of a major seventh and it sounded "baroque" to me, so I used it. I also frequently raised the root by a semitone in a iv chord before dominant, but I guess it's technically secondary dominant use, not augmented Italian, I don't know. It sounded "baroque" too ;)
In the fisrt examples it might be good to play the scale once though before the chords so we can get an idea of the sound in context. The way it was it just sounded like a chromatic movement to chord I rather than +6 to V
Also, Rick, I have always known the enharmonic German Sixth (with the #2 instead of b3) as Swiss Augmented Sixth and I find that very useful to differentiate the Ger+6 in major and minor modes (In major mode the Swz+6's #2 goes to 3, and in minor or modal exchange the b3 remains the same). With that being said, you should explain in another video the common-tone diminished seventh chord (#2 - #4 - 6 - 1 that resolves to 3 - 5 - 5/1 - 1) which I also have always known as Raised Supertonic Diminished Seventh and have found that this notation is so much more useful than common-tone diminished seventh (as it can be used for many modulations as another option for the diminished seventh chord). There's also the fifth grade common-tone diminished seventh (#6 - #1 - 3 - 5 that goes to 7 - 2 - 2/5/4 - 5) which, as you may have already guessed, can also be notated as Raised Submediant Diminished Seventh. I hope you see my comment, haha.
Freddy Munguía This was the primer video for college students that need to pass their theory test :) did I leave out the 5 in the iv65 chord? I made the video at midnight last night :) I will do a more detailed video on the historic origins of the individual Aug 6 chords and some more examples from actual pieces.
+Rick Beato I think it's just a typo, you wrote a Eb on the soprano instead of an F, which makes it a minor seventh chord first inversion (iv65) instead of just minor first inversion (iv6).
@@freddymunguia9810 Rick Beato oh man thank god you clarified this, I was so confused. Thanks for your videos, Rick, and thanks Freddy for pointing out the typo. I thought I was going crazy.
So the Neapolitan 6th chord is different to the 'Italian 6th'..? Rick said before that in the Key of C- that the Neopolitan 6th chord is Db maj triad - then he changes to talk about a F# chord with an augmented 6th.. sorry but I was thrown immediately.
Yes. N6 is totally unrelated to the three Aug 6 chords. Neapolitan 6 is a major chord built in the flattened second of a scale and has predominant function. In C major that would be Db Major which would resolve to G Major. The 6 part just comes from its typical classical use in first inversion. The aug 6 chords are all tritone substitutions of the v/v chord in any given key and the aug 6 name comes from the interval between the flat 6 and sharp 4 of the scale
Yeah, Rick first called it a 2nd inversion major triad, which, I believe, is correct. Then I think he just misspoke thinking 2nd inversion but saying 1st inversion. Simple mind-mouth mixup. For a C major triad, in 2nd inversion, considering the bass note G, you'd have a 4th (C) and a 6th (E) above it. Rick is brilliant!
Great video, Rick! There's just this little annoying sound on the background on some parts of the musical examples. It's a crackling noise, maybe a gorgeous fireplace? haha
I always found the easiest way of remembering these was just as a way of 'approaching the notes of chord V by half-step'. It's not precisely correct, but let's you build backwards from chord V if you can't remember them.
I've been playing around with these chords a bit today, and while constructing 7th chords on steps of different scales, I found that a tertian tetrachord built on the 7th scale step Neapolitan Major (aka Phrygian Melodic) (1 b2 b3 4 5 6 7) results in a chord that sounds like a augmented dominant 7th chord in 3rd inversion (7th on the bottom) but because of the spelling (much like in the Double Harmonic Major Scale) the chord almost resembles a German +6th chord, except, using Rick's "cheatsheet formula" instead of (b6 - 1 - b3 - #4) it would be (b6 - 1 - 3 - #4) that natural 3 leads nicely to the 4th scale step which is the b7 in a V7 chord, so it's nice voice leading. I'm wondering, does anyone know if that's a type of Augmented Sixth that isn't discussed here? or can I claim it, dubbing it the Samoan +6 chord? Seriously though (other than that last part) (P.S. The other ways I've analyzed said tetrachord are as follows. I'll use E. E-half diminished 7 sus2; E-half diminished 7 bb3 ; F#+ 7/E .... none of those seem very logical other than the last one except in the Neopolitan Major scale, its spelling doesn't work.)
Rick! Another amazing video. So my only question is this: why not just call these chords Ab7 and/or Ab7(with a flat 5)? Seems like were just doing a Ab7 (possibly with a flat 5) as a passing chord on the way to G7. No?
The naming would be kinda wrong tho, although the function is the same, as the dominant tritone subs of V7/V. The aug-6th chord is derived from minor 4th chord, inverting it to the first inversion, then raise the root (for example, F) by a halfstep (F#), making it as the tritone of the main tonic (C-F# is a tritone (more precisely, augmented 4th), NOT a diminished fifth in a normal dominant chord, classically. And in the case of Ab major, F is its sixth note, and raising it halfstep = making it aug-6th (the same as m7, the last component of a dominany 7th)
A good video, however you have a couple of little mistakes. I think they are verbal typos but to avoid confusing beginners I will point them out. In the first example you referred to the I 6/4 chord as a first inversion, as I'm sure you are aware a 6/4 chord is a second inversion because it has the 5th in the bass. In the C minor example, you started with the IV chord (F minor) but you had the flat 7 (E flat) in the top voice instead of an F. This would create an augmented 2nd leap in the top voice. You did play the F. An interesting point about the Ger6+ is that, though it is acceptable to move directly to the Dominant, it is impossible to avoid consecutive 5ths. (these 5ths are actually allowed in this case) This is why many composers prefer to interpolate the Tonic 6/4 here. I think that the final cadences would be stronger if the leading note moved to the Tonic. You did ameliorate this in the first example by inserting a flat 7th crotchet right before the Tonic. This is a device which Bach nearly always used when his leading note didn't resolve as it distracts the ear from the leading note.
Hi Rick, still not quite understanding the Aug. 6th. In your example, is it an Ab maj triad with the interval of an Aug, 6th, F# above the root? You said C is the I or the tonic. ? I understand Ab is the b6 of C. Just not sure what chord it is.
F#dim7 is predominant chord in this case -from 4th degree- rising a root of Fdom7 chord by a half step (flat9 sub).The same way we get aug6 chord- Italian from Fmin; German from Fmin7 , and French from Fmin6 ?
figures! I am looking into German 6th chords like in a Queensryche tune to see what they really are. I google it, and they send me to Mt. Beato. I should have looked here first!
Ah. So the Aug 6 chord is borrowed from the Neopolitian Scale. I was trying to figure out what scale it fits in, by thinking it was a lydian b6 scale 😅
So as I unterstand the augmented 6ths as Double-Dominants, every version seems basically to be a Sub V of V.... Labeling the Italian as subV7/V without the 5th, French as subV7/V with b5 and the German one as subV7/V... For myself, I try to unterstand and keep things as simple as possible.... and that seems the easiest solution for me... Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romance, Jazz.... They basically did the same things, they just called it in other ways... The Neapolitanean, as it is used here, I would understand as IVm wirh b6 instead of 5... so the Basic Cadence would still be IV V I If I'm wrong, please correct me
I'm studying in a music school and those chords seems to appear every now and than. I was always wondering what they really are. You are awesome Rick. Now only one questions comes in mind. Are these all the country's than relate to chords or are there any else?
Thank you for this incredibly useful video! I have one question. So, in major scale it's - flat 6-1-#4, but in minor scale it's natural 6-1-#4. Isn't it? And Ger+6 in minor scale is natural 6-1-nat3-#4? Is it right? Because in examples I don't see lowered 6th and 3rd degree in minor scale. Thank you!
Hi Rick, in girl from ipanema, the modulation from F to F# through a C#7 is using the same concept...i think the C# is the german 6 of F and also 5 of F#. Is it?? Your video has really helped me a lot, unless I am totally wrong about this...:P
Would love to see a discussion of Contrapuntal Analysis notation vs current chart notation with some historical time line of their usage. Does Jazz follow counterpoint rules? Rock uses a lot of Parallel Fifths and Octaves etc. In any case thanks for the high level of Music Theory you present.
Caveat: I play jazz guitar and bass (at least on good days I tell myself that); I only had a bit of education in classical harmony. Hopefully someone will correct my fallacies and/or botched explanations! Jazz uses a lot of chromatic voice leading, half step neighbor tone kinds of things, either from below or above. It's very oriented a lot of key changes that would be pretty surprising in a classical context, but often makes sense considered from the Circle of Fifths or, equivalently, as chained together subdominants or ii-V-I or Vsus-V-I type things, with the occasional substation or modulation from nowhere (see the last example). It's got voice leading rules but they're maybe halfway between classical and the relatively nonexistent ones of rock. This often ends up with parallel motion but it's really oriented around the guide tones, with the parallelism being mostly a byproduct of different substitution patterns. It's usually most evident in the bass. If you look at a tune like "Sweet Georgia Brown", it's really apparent. This is really just the Circle of Fifths. In the key of G major: (E7 x4) - (A7 x4) - (D7 x4) - (Gmaj7 -D7 - Gmaj7 - B7) being the first 16 bars, often with a few extra ii-of-V chords thrown in at the player's or arranger's discretion. You could just as well think of them as suspensions. The second 16 bars are the same first eight then (Emin - B7 - Emin - D7) with the turnaround having half measure harmonic rhythm (G7 F#7 F7 E7 A7 D7 G6). (Look at a chart and it'll be apparent.) The turnaround is planing dominant chords down by half steps. This also follows the Circle of Fifths, with the G7 being a sub for C#7 and the F being a sub for B7. On a bass or playing walking bass on a guitar I'd mostly follow the chords by playing arpeggios but would typically either work out the arpeggios to lead up or down to the relevant target notes. So in the first four measures I'd probably play E7 arpeggios making sure I ended up on the harmonic approach G# just before the A or using the tritone sub and playing a Bb as a chromatic approach from above. On a guitar I'd mostly worry about how the tritones connect up, but if I was doing walking bass I'd want those same approaches. A more modal tune will often have a lot of parallelism but when you squint at it it feels like it follows voice leading. A tune like "Recorda-me" by Joe Henderson has a Latin modal front half (Amin9 to Cmin9). Planing up a minor third has kind of a weird resolution to it which I can't fully explain but I guess works because it feels like you're going from C major to C minor. The back half is bebop, when it goes through a ii-V sequence of Bbmaj7-Bbmin9-Eb7b9 down to Abmaj7-Abmin9-Db7b9 down to the tricky Gbmaj7-Gmin7-C7b9-Fmaj7-E7#9. Getting the voice leadings to work out on that tune is a challenge and the bass line on the front half feels quite different than the back half as a consequence. I usually do Latin root-five kinds of stuff in the front half and then switch to keeping the changes pretty strictly outlined in the second half, with a lot of roots and chromatic approaches. That song is more about the rhythm, though.
If Rick (my hero) will permit me to reply on this .................I would say Jazz progressions usually moves with the p4( Perfect 4th) as against classical and rock which usually moves in p5 ( Perfect 5th)! As for counterpoint, Ill leave that to RIck! Counterpoint is one of the most often misunderstood concepts and I think I hear traces of it in Big bands horns arrangements
Thank you crimfan and odia for your responses. I felt bad right after posting the question in that it might be not on the level Ricks site addresses. Figured Bass was exactly what I had in mind when I referred to Contrapuntal Aanlysis. As I recall from taking Theory Classes in 1980 at LA City College, Figured Bass notated what Inversion of a chord was being used thereby also voicings and movement. Musicians new what to play just from that. (One way to avoid parrallel 5ths and octaves was to use inversions I think?) As a blues and rock guitarist I always wanted to know what Jazz musicians knew and now I am finally getting around to it at 73. Thanks again.
Hi Jules! Figured bass is easier than you think ! (It used to scare the shit out of me way back in the past and you will have a good laugh when you discover how easy it is) . Here are the Rules simplified: 1.Make sure you can read music on the Bass staff 2. Whatever figured bass you learn is taken from the root shown on the staff not from the root of the anywhere else 3. Learn to see the intervals as they appear (space then line or vice versa) and then build your chord from there-making sure you count the number from the bottom up EXAMPLE look at a Chord of C in 2nd inversion , your 1st note is G and the next is 4 steps away from G ( c) and the next is 6 steps away from G (E) hence the name 6/4 ........ 4. You may later want to Convert the result into solfa or chords as you wish for a stronger reinforcement
One of the most "wow" uses of the Neapolitan chord is the deceptive ending (Trugschluss) of the fugue of Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor for organ, BWV 582 by Bach. When you are certain the piece is pulling up to the final chord, all of a sudden you have a loud, sustained Neapolitan chord, then a pause, then the real ending comes.
Just gave a listen. Tootally right my friend!
As someone who wants to become a film music composer and hasn’t majored in the music field, your explanations really mean a lot to me. Sincerely, thank you Mr. Beato!
Thank goodness, I've played few piano pieces with this beautiful chord yet had no idea what they were! I finally come to the right channel with a writing board and precise explanation. I think I got them now.... thank you so very much!!!
You can save a lot of money and likely a lot of confusion learning theory from Rick Beato that would cost your first born in a University or Conservatory. My experience with college was that music classes made me feel stupid, on the whole. I did find one harmony instructor at Berklee that put it all together for me very nicely and provided me with enough of the logic behind theoretical problems to help me generate my own questions and my own curiosity for the topic. If UA-cam and Beato's channel were around in the 80's I would have learned all this stuff much more efficiently and with a deeper appreciation.
Excellent, Rick! Nice breakdown of the subtle change in harmonic theory...👍
It's like a substitution for a V/V. In this case, a substitution for D7. Notice that the guide tones (F# and C) are present in all of these examples.
but what happened to the the b2 chord? his example is using a b6 chord in the analysis explanation.He clearly states a Neapolitan is a flat 2 chord like a tri sub. that i use in Jazz but then switches to a b6 as predominant. Did you notice this too?
9:57 he finally says what it is. All the others also are dominant chords with enharmonic misspelling for sake of voice leading. This harmonic move “predominant to dominant” is the basis of flamenco music, but it’s used as the main dominant to TONIC (ie G is the tonic not C). There is a Spanish Aug6 different than the others we use in flamenco where it’s your Ab7/F#...so we actually use the 3rd inversion to resolve UP to G.
You're saving my Music Theory 2 grade.... bless your soul!!!
Quick shout out to my dad for introducing me to your videos!!
You've got an awesome dad!^^
My mnemonic for remembering and identifying these chords (when written in standard notation, not in figured bass) is to think of them as a Dom7 chord built on the ♭6, and then separate them as follows:
• Italian is Incomplete Dom7 (R-3-♭7)
• German is General, Garden Variety Dom7 (R-3-5-♭7)
• French is Flatted Fifth or Dom7(♭5) (R-3-♭5-♭7)
I know this doesn't line up perfectly with the figured bass analysis as altered IV6 or II64 chords, but as they normally progress to either the dominant chord or to the tonic 64 chord, it makes sense (in my mind) to view them as ♭6Dom7.
----------
My other way to remember the German from the Swiss (with traditional analysis, German contains the ♭3 of the key leading down to the fifth of the dominant chord, while Swiss contains the ♯2 of the key leading up to the third of the tonic 64 chord) is that Swiss Cheese is Sharp, hence the ♯2.
Sick man i didn't know about the swiss spelling one thanx !!
When you can understand about 80-85% of the content, it's like a high trying to grasp the entire concept as you explain it.
Excellent video, thank you. In my reaction I kept remembering what I did that helped me back in the day. That was over 35 years ago. I am surprised I remembered from back then. As a musician I still use what I know, but often do not recall why I know it.
The following might help those whose ears work faster than their score reading. Most keyboardist probably won't need this as they read scores faster than the average instrumentalist or singer.
When I was first introduced to the It6th, Fr6th, and the Gr6th, I experienced them as a kind of dominant function that resolves by expanding both upward and downward to the root of dominant chord. In this example, Ab downward to G, and F# upward to G.
Augmented 6ths are like a secondary dominates on steroids, expanding both upward and downward. The Ab is a downward 'Leading Tone' to the dominate root G. And f# is the upward Leading Tone to the dominant root G. Rather than arriving at the dominate, the music expands to the dominate, like an expanding musical inhalation.
This feels like the intake of air when surprised by something nice. Your day just got bigger and better, but its just starting, hence the landing on V instead of I.
Sometime its is good to have a trick to help tell the difference between the types of augmented 6ths. Not everyone needs it but it really helped me.
Like a Dominant 7th chord, each of the types of augmented 6th chords has a Root, a major 3rd and a minor 7th. In this example Ab, C, and F#. But each feels differently in the ear. Here is how I hear the difference between IT, FR, and GR 6th.
Italian Sixths: Feels slightly minor. This is because it has both a minor 7th a tri-tone that dominate the quality of the chord.
French Sixths: Feels Dissonant. This is because there are two pairs of tri-tone that dominate this chord.
German Sixths: Feels Major. This chord has all the elements of a Dominate 7th chord, and the added note, D# (enharmonic Eb), is placed where it breaks up the tri-tone, allowing the Major 3rd to be heard more distinctively.
Good luck and God's Speed.
Gosh I love Rick Beato. I don’t know a lot of other people who can talk at length about types of compressors AND Neapolitan +6 chords.
i love mr Beato. my fav is the FRENCH +6, love your re-clarification.... its just the iv min with raised root... Thank you!!!!!!! it is a PREDOMINANT when i see it like that now!!!!. i love mr beato
Man, Beato's channel is an oasis in the internet desert of politics, memes and cat pics!
VERY clear! I'm studying for entrance exams and trying to clean out the cobwebs that are 10+ years old. You helped me do that and more! I think I understand this better than ever. Thank you!!
Salad dressing chords!
I totally didn't understand them back when I took music theory, but now I guess the way I see them now having watched this video as a tritone substitution for the V--of-V because the tritone is the same as what you'd want to resolve to the V. It's a nice explanation for why one might use a 7b5, though. I like playing these notes on a bass or playing a bass line on a guitar, which gives really solid half-step motion.
this topic didnt make sense for years until I saw this video. also, I highly recommend the book!!!
today, after two months of viewing all the stuff, i have to look for some brainspace to store. Rick- thank you for educating & rock on, Andreas
Awesome teaching rick! I can't even explain how valuable your chanel is to people like me. Being time and money poor a lot of us aren't able to get training like this anywhere else, thanks!
For me as a rock guitarist an absolute eye-opener! Thanks a lot!!
Mr B you are an inspiration to me. I salute you...
Rick these are treasures to any musician. Thank you.
This is the best explanation of this on the entire internet, the world and on other planets as well. When those aliens come down here to Earth and need to consult someone on the variations of sixth chords they need to go see Rick Beato. He can set their sorry asses straight.
Haha! Thanks :)
Pebber Brown, Smile....it is always voice leading. Clare Fischer through all of his compositions showed it.
We here learned the old way which is still the Best.
Yeah! Beato is a great teacher!
You just got Beato'd
Excelent explanation! Crystal clear! Thank you very much!
Thanks for another great episode, Rick! I've been appreciating your theory and analysis videos the most, and your production style breakdowns to a lesser degree. I made a contribution to help encourage more videos. Happy Holidays, too!
Thanks so much Wayne!! Happy Holidays too!
Best explanation on You Tube!
Thank you Rick. I use to mess up these assignment/tests in college because I just couldn't understand it. This is a much easier explanation.
From a jazzer's ear, I've always thought Italian 6th felt like a bVI dominant 7 without a 5th degree. Like wise, French 6th feels like a dominant 7b5 chord, and German 6th like a bog standard dominant chord. These sounds can all be found in jazz, for instance in a minor jazz blues. The devil is in the details. Namely, the augmented 6th chords are enharmonicly spelled differently, but most importantly, the augmented 6th chords resolve differently than their "dominant" spelled counterparts. That's why we spell them funny, because of their funny resolution.
Oscar Cat 🐱
I remember this stuff being very confusing when I just looked up how to stack intervals and then just using those chords by ear
That's right, it's just a D7b9#11. Each of the three different types contains C & F#, the two defining notes of D7. That's why they resolve to G. The French one has the D and the German one the b9, Eb.
Yeah I was just wondering why even have the term "german aug6 chord" when it really just looks like a V/V. Then I figured it's probably because a V/V is expected to resolve to the V, which this little bugger doesn't.
To me the German+6 always looked like a Tritone Sub for the V chord, or a bII7/V
You are a lifesaver! Your video helped me do my theory homework. Thank you!
Neapolitan 6th takes the cake !
@5:17 you said 6/4 means second inversion, then @5:30 you said 6/4 means first inversion. Other than that this video is awesome! Keep up the excellent work!
Got confused too. The second was a mistake.
These are often heard in a row to emphasise a climactic cadence - I remember that sound and the progression as I For-Get.
Sounds like the Germans were hip to tritone subs.
I finally understood this after watching it for the 3rd time Rick. Thanks.
Be advised, you have to resolve your leading tones in classical harmony. As such, a V7-I progression cannot be complete in both chords. Outside one exception., one of them with not have the dominant note. Ref: BITSCH, Marcel, Précis d'harmonie.
I think the easiest way to nail aug6 is just to play a dom chord without the 5th, and with the tonic of the scale you're in as its 3rd note. E. g. G Dom (skip 5) chord will be Ita 6 chord of B min scale.
The Cm section has a iv65 (Fm7/Ab) which presents a problem with the aug2 in the soprano (Eb to F#). The iv6 as stated would solve that problem. Also, the B natural needs to resolve to the C in the alto on the final chord and the tenor resolves to a C. This will mean that the final chord will have 3 root notes and the soprano will have the Eb (3rd.) The solution to all these issues would be to have the F-F#-G in the alto.
I have a music theory pre entrance exam comming up!These will be on the test. Thanks for this info
The French aug. 6th chord is built on "D" and not "F". In mid to late romantic period, one starts seeing many aug. 6th chords functioning as primary dominants as well as secondary dominants. Happens a lot In the music of F. Chopin, R. Strauss, just to name a few. German 6th resolves to minor 6/4 probably more often (or at least as much) than major 6/4. There would be so many more things worth mentioning, like enharmonic possibilities, but I guess Mr. Beato's explanations are accurate and meet with pretty much all the basics available on the subject.
Just coming here from your stream, this video is amazing! Thank you so much for explaining it so well.
Great video as usual! Greetings from Italy!
Good lesson well done nice n clear😎
Rick you are a genius
I just don’t think anyone else in the world could explain this as well as you do
N6 chord always gets over complicated. It’s just a minor 4 chord (iv+) with augmented 5th. Works in minor or major keys the same way.
I hear these in Beethovens piano music a lot :)
A couple of points on the N6 chord. Although it is derived from the minor key, it was often used in the major key as well. The diminished 3rd move from the D flat to the B (3rd of the V chord) is very idiomatic and usually displayed in the top voice. This move from N6 to V, creates a false relation between the D flat and the D but this is totally acceptable in this case.
Mind = blown
We're doing this at school tomorrow, but I thought I’d stay one step ahead, so I actually have a chance understanding this.
Anyway awesome video, v helpful and i think I actually get it.
I always loved best Chopin's use of the German Augmented Sixth, sounding in third inversion, as the penultimate to the cadential measures of the e-minor prelude. A clever, poignant quasi-resolution to the game of elided conversion dominants he's been playing throughout the piece - at last, he allows a fully diminished chord to descend a semitone in one voice to form a dominant seventh, yes, but naturally with the seveth in the bass, just to make it clear this is not *the* Dominant yet, folks.
Wonderful explanation!
Thank you for this excellent lesson!.
🙏🏻thank you, Rick
Thank you very much sir from India😊
kul nice detailed clear explanation
Great video thanks!
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perhaps an over simplification for memorizing the usage or scale asssociation of A6 chords,for me at least, is to think of it in terms of major scale verses minor scales where in the minor scales the A6 chord is a naturally occurring chord( albeit modified for the different forms) but is not naturally occurring in a major scale . Hence the reference to the A6 is merely a theoretical mnemonic device that identifies it's scale position within a Major scale similarly as the naturally occurring A6 in minor since the A6 is enharmonic to a b7 interval. Both major and minor scales resolve to V generally but the harmonic inference is different.
thanks for the good video. greetings from germany
wow, it seems many years ago I used a German sixth unknowingly and even properly resolved to dominant, I just lowered the octave on the bVI chord to a flat seventh instead of a major seventh and it sounded "baroque" to me, so I used it. I also frequently raised the root by a semitone in a iv chord before dominant, but I guess it's technically secondary dominant use, not augmented Italian, I don't know. It sounded "baroque" too ;)
In the fisrt examples it might be good to play the scale once though before the chords so we can get an idea of the sound in context. The way it was it just sounded like a chromatic movement to chord I rather than +6 to V
I have to take an advil now! great stuff sir!
That made sense. Now I just need to work out what I have got wrong about it in order to make me delude myself that I understood it.
another aspect : the Aug 6 is the secondary fifth of the Neapolitan
Ab7 = V7/N = V7/bII
Dear Rick, @ 12:45 there's an intruder in your iv6 chord, unless you meant iv65. Love your videos, happy holidays!
Also, Rick, I have always known the enharmonic German Sixth (with the #2 instead of b3) as Swiss Augmented Sixth and I find that very useful to differentiate the Ger+6 in major and minor modes (In major mode the Swz+6's #2 goes to 3, and in minor or modal exchange the b3 remains the same). With that being said, you should explain in another video the common-tone diminished seventh chord (#2 - #4 - 6 - 1 that resolves to 3 - 5 - 5/1 - 1) which I also have always known as Raised Supertonic Diminished Seventh and have found that this notation is so much more useful than common-tone diminished seventh (as it can be used for many modulations as another option for the diminished seventh chord). There's also the fifth grade common-tone diminished seventh (#6 - #1 - 3 - 5 that goes to 7 - 2 - 2/5/4 - 5) which, as you may have already guessed, can also be notated as Raised Submediant Diminished Seventh. I hope you see my comment, haha.
Freddy Munguía This was the primer video for college students that need to pass their theory test :) did I leave out the 5 in the iv65 chord? I made the video at midnight last night :) I will do a more detailed video on the historic origins of the individual Aug 6 chords and some more examples from actual pieces.
+Rick Beato I think it's just a typo, you wrote a Eb on the soprano instead of an F, which makes it a minor seventh chord first inversion (iv65) instead of just minor first inversion (iv6).
I played it correctly in my example which I recorded first it was just pointed out :)
@@freddymunguia9810 Rick Beato oh man thank god you clarified this, I was so confused. Thanks for your videos, Rick, and thanks Freddy for pointing out the typo. I thought I was going crazy.
So the Neapolitan 6th chord is different to the 'Italian 6th'..? Rick said before that in the Key of C- that the Neopolitan 6th chord is Db maj triad - then he changes to talk about a F# chord with an augmented 6th.. sorry but I was thrown immediately.
Yes. N6 is totally unrelated to the three Aug 6 chords. Neapolitan 6 is a major chord built in the flattened second of a scale and has predominant function. In C major that would be Db Major which would resolve to G Major. The 6 part just comes from its typical classical use in first inversion.
The aug 6 chords are all tritone substitutions of the v/v chord in any given key and the aug 6 name comes from the interval between the flat 6 and sharp 4 of the scale
in the Geman +6 section we labeled the Ab-C-D#-F# to I as double augmented chord, and the Eb version to V as German +6
Rick Beato is to music what Bob Ross was to painting.
Another brilliant lesson as usual! I just wonder in what chord voicings would you apply this to guitar. Please do a video on that as well.
Great explanation. However, just a little correction. You call a I 64 both a 1st and 2nd inversion at different times. Thanks for your help
Yeah, Rick first called it a 2nd inversion major triad, which, I believe, is correct. Then I think he just misspoke thinking 2nd inversion but saying 1st inversion. Simple mind-mouth mixup. For a C major triad, in 2nd inversion, considering the bass note G, you'd have a 4th (C) and a 6th (E) above it. Rick is brilliant!
Rock n Roll man !!
Season's Greetings Rick
Great video, Rick!
There's just this little annoying sound on the background on some parts of the musical examples. It's a crackling noise, maybe a gorgeous fireplace? haha
It's a little distortion from the mic. Sorry! I need to turn down the record level to he camera a bit.
Got it one time
Thanks
I always found the easiest way of remembering these was just as a way of 'approaching the notes of chord V by half-step'. It's not precisely correct, but let's you build backwards from chord V if you can't remember them.
I've been playing around with these chords a bit today, and while constructing 7th chords on steps of different scales, I found that a tertian tetrachord built on the 7th scale step Neapolitan Major (aka Phrygian Melodic) (1 b2 b3 4 5 6 7) results in a chord that sounds like a augmented dominant 7th chord in 3rd inversion (7th on the bottom) but because of the spelling (much like in the Double Harmonic Major Scale) the chord almost resembles a German +6th chord, except, using Rick's "cheatsheet formula" instead of (b6 - 1 - b3 - #4) it would be (b6 - 1 - 3 - #4) that natural 3 leads nicely to the 4th scale step which is the b7 in a V7 chord, so it's nice voice leading.
I'm wondering, does anyone know if that's a type of Augmented Sixth that isn't discussed here? or can I claim it, dubbing it the Samoan +6 chord? Seriously though (other than that last part)
(P.S. The other ways I've analyzed said tetrachord are as follows. I'll use E. E-half diminished 7 sus2; E-half diminished 7 bb3 ; F#+ 7/E ....
none of those seem very logical other than the last one except in the Neopolitan Major scale, its spelling doesn't work.)
Do jazz improvisers use this device?
Rick! Another amazing video. So my only question is this: why not just call these chords Ab7 and/or Ab7(with a flat 5)? Seems like were just doing a Ab7 (possibly with a flat 5) as a passing chord on the way to G7. No?
The naming would be kinda wrong tho, although the function is the same, as the dominant tritone subs of V7/V. The aug-6th chord is derived from minor 4th chord, inverting it to the first inversion, then raise the root (for example, F) by a halfstep (F#), making it as the tritone of the main tonic (C-F# is a tritone (more precisely, augmented 4th), NOT a diminished fifth in a normal dominant chord, classically. And in the case of Ab major, F is its sixth note, and raising it halfstep = making it aug-6th (the same as m7, the last component of a dominany 7th)
My head hurts!
A good video, however you have a couple of little mistakes. I think they are verbal typos but to avoid confusing beginners I will point them out. In the first example you referred to the I 6/4 chord as a first inversion, as I'm sure you are aware a 6/4 chord is a second inversion because it has the 5th in the bass. In the C minor example, you started with the IV chord (F minor) but you had the flat 7 (E flat) in the top voice instead of an F. This would create an augmented 2nd leap in the top voice. You did play the F. An interesting point about the Ger6+ is that, though it is acceptable to move directly to the Dominant, it is impossible to avoid consecutive 5ths. (these 5ths are actually allowed in this case) This is why many composers prefer to interpolate the Tonic 6/4 here. I think that the final cadences would be stronger if the leading note moved to the Tonic. You did ameliorate this in the first example by inserting a flat 7th crotchet right before the Tonic. This is a device which Bach nearly always used when his leading note didn't resolve as it distracts the ear from the leading note.
actually I 6/4 is second inversion. I 6/3 is first.
Hi Rick, still not quite understanding the Aug. 6th. In your example, is it an Ab maj triad with the interval of an Aug, 6th, F# above the root? You said C is the I or the tonic. ? I understand Ab is the b6 of C. Just not sure what chord it is.
HI Rick. Thanks for your videos. They're great. I like your studio setup. Do you do film scores?
so Addictive Keys, Rick? :)
Great vid
at 12:50 you have spelled the iv6 chord incorrectly, you've written an Eb in the top voice.
Gotcha 🙌
How pathetic
F#dim7 is predominant chord in this case -from 4th degree- rising a root of Fdom7 chord by a half step (flat9 sub).The same way we get aug6 chord- Italian from Fmin; German from Fmin7 , and French from Fmin6 ?
figures! I am looking into German 6th chords like in a Queensryche tune to see what they really are. I google it, and they send me to Mt. Beato. I should have looked here first!
So it's basicially an +7 chord without a 3rd, with a 2nd, or with a b3rd that prepares the dominant chord below it.
thank you :)
Ah. So the Aug 6 chord is borrowed from the Neopolitian Scale. I was trying to figure out what scale it fits in, by thinking it was a lydian b6 scale 😅
German sixth is my favorite thing.
So as I unterstand the augmented 6ths as Double-Dominants, every version seems basically to be a Sub V of V....
Labeling the Italian as subV7/V without the 5th, French as subV7/V with b5 and the German one as subV7/V...
For myself, I try to unterstand and keep things as simple as possible.... and that seems the easiest solution for me...
Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romance, Jazz....
They basically did the same things, they just called it in other ways...
The Neapolitanean, as it is used here, I would understand as IVm wirh b6 instead of 5... so the Basic Cadence would still be IV V I
If I'm wrong, please correct me
I'm studying in a music school and those chords seems to appear every now and than. I was always wondering what they really are. You are awesome Rick. Now only one questions comes in mind. Are these all the country's than relate to chords or are there any else?
Andulcian cadence... assuming andalucia is place
If I'm not mistaken, the f# would be the "blues" note(tritone).
Only if leading to or leaving a c but yes you are correct 😊
At 9:58 you say it's like an Ab7(b5) chord but I think you mean a D7(b5)/Ab, which makes perfect sense because it's an altered V/V chord...
Joel Pipkin No, actually they're all functioning as "sub V" chords in jazz lingo. So, its function is that of an Ab7b5.
Thank you for this incredibly useful video! I have one question.
So, in major scale it's - flat 6-1-#4, but in minor scale it's natural 6-1-#4. Isn't it?
And Ger+6 in minor scale is natural 6-1-nat3-#4?
Is it right? Because in examples I don't see lowered 6th and 3rd degree in minor scale.
Thank you!
Hi Rick, in girl from ipanema, the modulation from F to F# through a C#7 is using the same concept...i think the C# is the german 6 of F and also 5 of F#. Is it??
Your video has really helped me a lot, unless I am totally wrong about this...:P
Sagar Kapoor yes its an easy way to modulate a semitone higher
I like the french and neo one hehe
Would love to see a discussion of Contrapuntal Analysis notation vs current chart notation with some historical time line of their usage. Does Jazz follow counterpoint rules? Rock uses a lot of Parallel Fifths and Octaves etc. In any case thanks for the high level of Music Theory you present.
Caveat: I play jazz guitar and bass (at least on good days I tell myself that); I only had a bit of education in classical harmony. Hopefully someone will correct my fallacies and/or botched explanations!
Jazz uses a lot of chromatic voice leading, half step neighbor tone kinds of things, either from below or above. It's very oriented a lot of key changes that would be pretty surprising in a classical context, but often makes sense considered from the Circle of Fifths or, equivalently, as chained together subdominants or ii-V-I or Vsus-V-I type things, with the occasional substation or modulation from nowhere (see the last example). It's got voice leading rules but they're maybe halfway between classical and the relatively nonexistent ones of rock. This often ends up with parallel motion but it's really oriented around the guide tones, with the parallelism being mostly a byproduct of different substitution patterns. It's usually most evident in the bass.
If you look at a tune like "Sweet Georgia Brown", it's really apparent. This is really just the Circle of Fifths. In the key of G major: (E7 x4) - (A7 x4) - (D7 x4) - (Gmaj7 -D7 - Gmaj7 - B7) being the first 16 bars, often with a few extra ii-of-V chords thrown in at the player's or arranger's discretion. You could just as well think of them as suspensions. The second 16 bars are the same first eight then (Emin - B7 - Emin - D7) with the turnaround having half measure harmonic rhythm (G7 F#7 F7 E7 A7 D7 G6). (Look at a chart and it'll be apparent.) The turnaround is planing dominant chords down by half steps. This also follows the Circle of Fifths, with the G7 being a sub for C#7 and the F being a sub for B7. On a bass or playing walking bass on a guitar I'd mostly follow the chords by playing arpeggios but would typically either work out the arpeggios to lead up or down to the relevant target notes. So in the first four measures I'd probably play E7 arpeggios making sure I ended up on the harmonic approach G# just before the A or using the tritone sub and playing a Bb as a chromatic approach from above. On a guitar I'd mostly worry about how the tritones connect up, but if I was doing walking bass I'd want those same approaches.
A more modal tune will often have a lot of parallelism but when you squint at it it feels like it follows voice leading. A tune like "Recorda-me" by Joe Henderson has a Latin modal front half (Amin9 to Cmin9). Planing up a minor third has kind of a weird resolution to it which I can't fully explain but I guess works because it feels like you're going from C major to C minor. The back half is bebop, when it goes through a ii-V sequence of Bbmaj7-Bbmin9-Eb7b9 down to Abmaj7-Abmin9-Db7b9 down to the tricky Gbmaj7-Gmin7-C7b9-Fmaj7-E7#9. Getting the voice leadings to work out on that tune is a challenge and the bass line on the front half feels quite different than the back half as a consequence. I usually do Latin root-five kinds of stuff in the front half and then switch to keeping the changes pretty strictly outlined in the second half, with a lot of roots and chromatic approaches. That song is more about the rhythm, though.
If Rick (my hero) will permit me to reply on this .................I would say Jazz progressions usually moves with the p4( Perfect 4th) as against classical and rock which usually moves in p5 ( Perfect 5th)! As for counterpoint, Ill leave that to RIck! Counterpoint is one of the most often misunderstood concepts and I think I hear traces of it in Big bands horns arrangements
Thank you crimfan and odia for your responses. I felt bad right after posting the question in that it might be not on the level Ricks site addresses.
Figured Bass was exactly what I had in mind when I referred to Contrapuntal Aanlysis. As I recall from taking Theory Classes in 1980 at LA City College, Figured Bass notated what Inversion of a chord was being used thereby also voicings and movement. Musicians new what to play just from that. (One way to avoid parrallel 5ths and octaves was to use inversions I think?)
As a blues and rock guitarist I always wanted to know what Jazz musicians knew and now I am finally getting around to it at 73. Thanks again.
Hi Jules! Figured bass is easier than you think ! (It used to scare the shit out of me way back in the past and you will have a good laugh when you discover how easy it is) . Here are the Rules simplified:
1.Make sure you can read music on the Bass staff
2. Whatever figured bass you learn is taken from the root shown on the staff not from the root of the anywhere else
3. Learn to see the intervals as they appear (space then line or vice versa) and then build your chord from there-making sure you count the number from the bottom up
EXAMPLE look at a Chord of C in 2nd inversion , your 1st note is G and the next is 4 steps away from G ( c) and the next is 6 steps away from G (E) hence the name 6/4 ........
4. You may later want to Convert the result into solfa or chords as you wish for a stronger reinforcement
Sorry when you say I 64 don’t you mean V64 which is the 2nd inversion of the tonic ?
can you use altered or lydian scale on this chords? or which scale would be suitable for the harmony?