Let me tell you about power chords
Вставка
- Опубліковано 3 чер 2024
- When you learn about chords in music theory, you'll often be talking about "triads" - chords with 3 notes. However, there is a type of chord even simpler than that, excitingly called a "power chord". You get a power chord when you play any note plus the note 7 semitones above it, and it can be pretty versatile, for example when you realise this can be implemented in your synth's oscillators!
Content:
0:00 What are power chords?
2:19 The physics behind it
4:07 Tuning oscillators to a power chord
My Foundations of Electronic Music course: courses.underdog.brussels/cou...
My Industrial Techno follow-along course: courses.underdog.brussels/cou...
Find Oscar's video courses here: courses.underdog.brussels 🖤🖤🖤
Join the Underdog Discord channel: discord.gg/z5N9CTA 👾👾👾
Sign up to the mailing list here: tinyurl.com/yy92sx5u 💌💌💌
Pledge to the Patreon: www.patreon.com/underdogmusicschool 🌱🌱🌱
You know, I knew what a power chord was, and I've been playing synths for years and I don't know why, but it never dawned on my why a lot of my presets had 5ths already. the simplicity of your explanation almost blinded me with the light bulb that went off, lol. thanks happy holidays
Hahahah that's what I do it for 😁😁😁
What I really hate is when I load up a preset blasting out 3rds or a specific chord... Any chord change will often take it out of key. Who TF likes being limited to one chord??? inb4 "you could just..." yes, I know. I work around it. It just irks me because I could easily make the chords myself and I MUCH prefer seeing the notes on the piano roll over just the roots.
oh so thats called power chord! been using it a lot but I don't know the theory behind it... thank you!
Speaking as a guitarist, I live and breathe power chords. Learning the way going from an E5 to a G5 has a different "mood" to it than going from an E5 to a G#5 was how my brain first started to understand the relationships between different intervals. In a way, power chords were my gateway into learning music theory.
Though admittedly, they're also many guitarists' excuse to not learn any theory at all. So, there's that too... I guess.
I often marvel at how a major triad's frequency ratio is 4:5:6... so mathematically clean. Our brains and the way they connect to our soul, emotions... it's truly wonderful musical science.
Another gem of a video. Short and to the point, and getting straight to the place where lightbulbs light up and trigger inspiration! Thanks!
Cheers Haslo :) :)
Men you are a legend, best electronic exploication in all UA-cam
i can truly appreciate how you broke out the spectrum analyzer and explained the frequencies, truly fascinating
A good song that I recommend that’s a structure of power chords in a chord progression is Deadmau5 - HR Cephei. Amazing Song
2:10 the good piano players can´t explain it better than you Oscar, explain it by the physics view was brilliant mate, tank you so much
My toaster has a power cord.😁
Dude you and Yalcin Efe are seriously some of the best teachers I’ve ever learned from forever grateful
Yalcin's the freaking greatest, what a legend.
If you're serious about music production stick with Underdog. Don't trust anyone who offers you one trick wonders with aggressive clickbait.
Why did you wait so long to point me to Yalcin??? 😄 Now I have a second favourite tutor.
As always Oscar, you can explain the things very good 👍 Thanks for sharing!
Very cool, well explained and to the point. Thanks a bunch!
Finally someone who explains the concept with the piano thx so much! i was so lost with e.guitar explanations cause i dont know how they work. Clearer than pristine water thx!
mid holiday treat!
Idk what I liked more... The video or the sweater?!
Excellent, thanks Oscar 👍🦡
My guy oscar is bringing it to the point. Another great video like usual.
Thanks! Most people seem too bothered to explain/show the frequencies. And until this I thought power chords were just easy guitar fingering.
The physics aspect of this really helped connected the dots between two concepts I had already understood, but couldn't correlate during application of sound. I could the pitches by ear, but seeing that C was at 130hz on the graph, really painted the picture for me. Thanks for the good editing that illustrated this for me in a way I learn best!
Ahhh, glad it resonates :):
Best theory teacher on youtube.👍
Awesome ..love it
1:56 mins in and already just blew my brains - thank you
Thanks for your videos. I was looking for something like this
Really. Interesting. Thanks
Hey Underdog, this was very helpful. Thank you for the precise and easy explanation.
On a guitar i play mostly using power chords, but still it was very interesting and entertaining to see how other instruments, even synthetizers can utilize the same concept.
Great theory 👍✅⬆️
The Foundations of Electronic Music course is well worth doing, really enjoying that and I get the feeling that once this course has been completed, some of the more complicated tutorials here will be a lot more accessible.
Glad you're enjoying it! :) :)
Thanks for the timestamps, just subbed with notifications on
Ding dong :)
Simple and powerful
Fantastic video
Excellent explanation. Am making power chords right now.
Let the phatness be unconfined!
Short clear and to the point. Thanks
Holy crap this was amazing.
I never really understood these concepts.
I know that they are there but not why or how to use them exactly.
Thanks for the very clear explanation.
Great stuff
Thank you, very helpful
Love it! Thanks!!!
Excellent explanation and application !
Dude, your tutorials are amazing. I've been producing music for years and watching UA-cam tutorials for even longer, and I've never found any videos which explain music theory in a way that I can easily understand. After only a couple of videos Ive been able to fill the gaps in my music theory knowledge. Thanks for the great videos 👍🙏
I appreciate this, thank you :) :)
This is crazy helpful, thank you!
Nicely explained. Great stuff that you share and deliver. Thanks
I watched billion tutorials about the music production,i v been following Underdog for a few month now and i can say that i learned more usefull tricks in few of his video than from all others,And i like the way how he is explaining stuff speacially about music theory,everything so logical and in the way that everybody can understand it.One of the best channels for music production. Thank you Oscar for shareing all this.You are true Undergrounder👊❤
Thanks Jake :D
amazing stuff. Thanks mate
Really interesting thank you!
VERY DOPE VIDEO... SIMPLE & TO THE POINT...
Nice and pedagogic
Great video. One of your better videos. Good job! :)
Great one 😁
You are the best thanks ...
Nice! Thnq a lot!
Little correction/addition: When playing notes on a piano or basically any instrument with equal temperament you will not have any perfect fifths. The interval you play is about 2 cents narrower than a natural perfect fifth (the one with the frequency ratio of 3/2). Might not sound like much, but it makes quite a difference, it sounds significantly less static and fat than a perfect fifth. Therefore it really makes sense to use a second oscillator on a synth and tune it to a perfect fifth instead of programming or playing two notes. With the perfect 3/2 frequency ratio you will have an audible octave below the fundamental frequency, also known as a subharmonic. That is why it has such a rich and fat sound.
Hey Roland! Great observation about it being better to do it in-synth than in-piano. However, I don't see any evidence to support the thing about the subharmonic (I just loaded in a synth to test that, and simply setting 2 oscillators to +0 and +7 doesn't result in any subharmonics). Am I misunderstanding you?
The type of synthesis I've seen generating subharmonics is FM though, there it definitely does.
@@OscarUnderdog You might not actually hear the subharmonic note, but it is definitely there. The correct term for it is combination tone, and the lower additional tone is called the resultant tone.
By adding two frequencies with the ratio of 3/2 you will get a periodicity at the lower octave. E.g. 200Hz + 300Hz will give you a periodicity of 100Hz. This technique of making sounds fatter by adding a fifth above has been around for centuries, for example pipe organs have been built with 16' and 10 2/3' stops in order to get a fake 32' stop (a real 32' stoo is expensive to build and the pipes are incredibly huge). Another great example are multiphonetics played on a trombone or saxophone; the musicians sings the fifth above the note played on the instrument (yes both singing and playing at the same time) in order to make that lower octave audible. So when we add a second VCO at +7 semitones we are doing the same thing musicians have been doing since hundreds of years 🙂
@@OscarUnderdog Oscar, for you to produce this effect you need to detune up by the 2 cents (or 1,955 if more precision is available) Roland mentioned the oscillator of the 5th from a equally-tempered perfect 5th into a natural perfect 5th.
This is because keyboard instruments such as the piano normally use an equal-tempered version of the perfect fifth, enabling the instrument to play in all keys. In 12-tone equal temperament, the frequencies of the equally-tempered perfect 5th are in the ratio* (12th squareroot of 2)^7, or approximately 1,498307. So you need to detune it up a little bit from the equally-tempered to reach the natural 1,5. Hope it helps =)
* 12th squareroot of 2 because you're dividing the perfect octave (the "2", two times the frequency) in 12 parts (hence the "equal temperament", equal distance between the semitones), then powering it up to 7 because it's 7 semitones up (or multiplying by 12th squareroot of 2 seven times; you would double the frequency if you multiply by 12th squareroot of 2 twelve times, because that eliminates the 12th squareroot over the 2).
@@RafaelAAMerlo Exactly 👍 I wanted to leave out the math, but thanks for adding it!
To add a little bit more about tonal systems: The unit "cent" is defined as 1/100 semitone in a twelve-tone equally temperament system, so as any musical interval it is a logarithmic unit and describes a frequency ratio and not a frequency difference. However, as a perfect fifth in equal temperament is by definition 700 cents we can calculate the number of cents of a perfect fifth in natural/pure tuning. One cent is the 1200th root of 2, so the frequency ratio is about 1.0005777895/1. Now to calculate the natural fifth we need to calculate how many intervals we need to get to the frequency ratio of the natural fifth: 1200(√2)^x=3/2 ...math blabla... x=701.955. The difference of 1.955 cents 1/12 pythagorean comma (the difference between 12 just perfect fifths and 7 octaves).
Oscar, how could you skip this crucial bit of information?!?!?! 😄
About the organ stops: As organs are usually also tuned in twelve tone equal temperament you would not have perfect fifths with the 10 2/3' stop in relation to the 16' stop. However as the 10 2/3' stop is not intended to be used on itself it can be tuned to a pure fifth above the corresponding 16' note. So despite the fact that the instrument uses equal temparement the stop to generate the combination tone still can use pure tuning - the traditional equivalent of detuning a second VCO by 701.955 cents. And yes, if you play a chord you will have both versions of perfect fifths at the same time.
thanks!
Try inverted power chords - 5th on bottom- a la Jon Lord (Deep Purple) - sounds very heavy, especially with some grit/distortion!
Oscar, you are an amazing teacher! All your videos are gold, thanks for all the inspiration and good vibes :)
I wish you a great 2022 amigo!!
Thanks Tadeo 😁✌
amazing
So when Johny Sins takes the form of music producer he actually learns music too huh? So determined.
Круто! А про золотое сечение есть видео? Мало ещё посмотрел..
Hello thanks for your videos, could u do a vidéo on house chords ? Specially from jazz house ?
I'm probably not skilled enough to tackle jazz chords, except to point you towards the land of 7th chords :) and maybe trying diminished chords, and if it's really jazzy try a ii-V-I progression, but that's where my jazz skills end. Am studying more piano at the moment, in the hopes of having more valuable things to share :) can you give an example of Jazz House btw?
Your cool man, u got a new subscriber!
Now there's two of us who are cool
Oscar, you are awesome.
I have a chord memory function on my mc-909 that allows for programming all of these chords... They have quite a list of them already preprogrammed...
Do check out my chord planning video as well then :)
@@OscarUnderdog I watch all your videos Oscar they are a wealth of information!
Whenever i add the third it feels like the chord is changing it sounds alot different then the bass notes
Hello, I see you're in a competition with Hainbach on who has the best sweaters
Hmmm I wasn't informed, but I'll rise to the challenge 😎
Awesome video, I love it!!!! thanks for always sharing great info. Happy Holidays and be well!
"It's not about notes, it's about feeling" - Albert Alyer 🎷
pls lets talk about ambient music and ambient techno
Alternative title: how to make punk rock without owning a guitar (nice tutorials btw)
You and I, my friend ... we use the two exact same headphone sets.
Wooooof!
7 semitones and you're free
When Johnny Sins teaches you music at school 😂✌️
Awesome always Mate!!!! Noticed you have both a pair of DT770 and DT990 studio headphones. I have the 770's but was thinking about getting the open back 990 for mixing / mastering... would you recommend them for that or perhaps the 880's with semi closed back which I've been reading heaps of good reviews for mixing /mastering :))))
Hmmm, I actually prefer my 770s for mixing! I use the 990s more for long-term comfort but for some reason I never fully trust the low end on these open-backed ones... that's not to say they can't be used for that, it's just how I've been using them. 990s make everything always sound lovely, so that's fun for creative work, but for mixing I prefer the 770s.
Underdog Electronic Music School Really appreciate getting back to me!! Cheers Chief, your content is very much and enjoyed !!!!
👍👍❤️
nice sweater man
Thanks 😌🤘
fijne feestdagen!
wow. he is alsso a music producer.
So 7 semitones up gets you to 150% of base frequency and another 5 semitones to 200%. That's one twisted system.
If you're interested: It appears twisted because of the coincidental relationship between our favoring frequencies that have simple ratios (3 to 2 in your example) and the logarithmic frequency steps of the western equal temperament (equal-sounding steps) tuning system. Our auditory system experiences frequencies approximately logarithmically -- that is, we experience the interval between notes as the same when their frequency ratios are the same. The octave is a doubling of frequency, and feels similar whether the notes are 100 and 200 Hz, or 500 and 1000 Hz. And similar with other ratios, like 3 to 2, as in your 150%.
But what about semitones? There are 12 semitone steps in the western equal-temperament tuning system, and ratio of their frequencies is 1.05946..., so that when you multiply that together 12 times you arrive at 2 (the octave). By choosing this 12-equal-sounding-steps system (instead of say 10, or 14), we get the lucky coincidence that several of the intermediate multiplications come out very close to exact simple ratios, such as 3:2 (1.05946 ^ 7) or 4:3 and so on, while at the same time getting a bunch of starting points for those ratios. Ie: you can create a 3:2 or 4:3 ratio starting at any of the 12 steps.
Returning to your observation that there's 7 steps to get to 150%, but only 5 more steps to get to 200% -- that's because the ratio of 200:150 is only 4/3, or 1.33, so it's covered in less steps than the first 1.5. (And maybe obviously, 1.33 x 1.5 = 2.).
The topic of _why_ we like those simple ratios is also pretty interesting and has to do with the phenomenon that two notes played simultaneously produce new tones at the sum and difference frequencies, which contribute pleasantly or unpleasantly. So here is an interplay between ratios (multiplication), logarithmic perception, and sum/differences (an additive or linear characteristic).
GRAHAM this is an amazing response. I wouldn't have known what to respond to Edgar :D You explain it so damn well!!! Thank you!
@@OscarUnderdog Thanks! I'm not sure Edgar was really asking for so much 'splainin', but I just think the interplay between the compounded semitone intervals, and the fact that they manage to hit several simple integer ratios is just quirkily fortuitous. And the reason why we like to hear the simple ratios, while attributed to the difference frequencies, is not entirely settled, I think.
I need that hoodie!
It's not about the topic but please tell me
It's from a second hand store 😂
Is there any “Newbie” way for learn Pentatonic?!?!? (Major/Minor) and theyr application?!?!? Thank You!!!!!
do you offer coaching?
No time, sadly!
@@OscarUnderdog fair enough. Thanks for responding :)
LOL I thought u were johnny sins lol
I would argue that it's not as simple as you say. The basic triad is just a white key gap between three notes. The power chord you demonstrate requires knowing where a 5th is and increasing the gap between notes. A power is certainly simpler on a guitar because it only requires 2 fingers to play rather than 3 for a triad, but this doesn't translate to the piano
Uhm... yeah it does. It's still always 7 semitones above and is still played with only 2 fingers.
3:33 So... do harmonies actually exist outside of our heads? Or are they just our brain's way of telling us that these frequencies are mathematically related?
That's two ways of saying the same thing I think... we are pattern seeking machines, and we like noticing these ratios, that's what we perceive as harmony. Its kindof magic.
@@OscarUnderdog Great answer! It's funny to think we have this incredible capacity to detect subtle mathematics in air vibrations, and all we seem to use it for is this strange phenomenon called "music".
Redish/Pink nails ... WTF 😳