Even I considarating my self a musician in a intermediary level, your way to teach is helping me a lot to study composition by myself and improve my harmony knowledge. Your channel is a kind of public utility content. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Honestly Rick : thank you. Thanky you for sharing all this knowledge. its both incredibly generous and admirable, mainly because imparting this quantity of your knowledge for free is almost unexistent today, and music is a discipline that has become really competitive, mainly because of the mercantilization of it. Thanks
Yeah, thats him. Honestly, i liked the Akroasis album mainly because of Fountainhead. In the songwriting subject, i prefer Omnivium. That applies to those songs. the intro to Ten Sepiroth
This is all over Lord Of The Rings music too. It's everywhere. I can't believe I've never learned the name for this concept until today. 8 years into diving into piano and I keep finding gems and ways to keep ideas fresh from this channel haha.
Wow im 33 now, if I had your tricks and lessons years ago I would be so much better! This generation has a real powerfull weapon on their hands: your knowledge and the internet!!! Thank you so much to share with us this preciousness!
All of these relationships have become such staples of contemporary harmonic vocabulary in jazz and film scoring. Thanks to Schubert, Wolff, Brahms and others for reaching into these key areas and finding ways to link more distantly related key areas in a seamless and inspired way. Unfortunately, the film-score examples you cite aren't really modulations but examples of modal interchange (mode mixture/borrowed chord harmony are other terms for this) within a key area. They are great sounds indeed. Some nod to functionality (Riemann) might be of value and assistance here.
Hey everyone, it was confusing to me too when I was learning about Chromatic mediants, but the main thing to do is make sure the chord you move two has the following characteristics: 1) It has only one common tone from the starting chord, and 2) it is a 3rd away from the starting chord. You can put this in to action by using a “home” chord to start and come back to. I use this in my own composing with chromatic mediants, and it works really well. Start off by using the “home” chord, then move a 3rd from this “home” starting chord, and eventually circle back around to the home chord. * For example, start on an F# minor chord. Then, simply move to any chord a 3rd away, as long as it’s not a diatonic chord. So, you can move to A minor. Then, go BACK to F# minor. Now you are back “home” in this process. Now, move to D minor, which follows the rule of moving a 3rd away from F# minor. (D minor is chromatic to F# minor, so you are still good to go.) Now, move to Bb Major. This is a 3rd away from D minor (and chromatic to D minor). From here, you can cheat a bit and go right back home to F# minor, or go back through D minor to F# minor. Once you put it to practice, it’s actually pretty easy, and a lot of fun to use. It can really open up your creativity, and can get you out of the boxed-in thinking of having to stay in one key for too long. Also, since the Chromatic mediants share a common tone, and are a 3rd away from each other (which is a strong note-note relationship) the chord movements sound really modern and good!
Three years have passed since this comment. Have you made any progress in understanding? At what point are you confused? Do you know major and minor chords? Can you look at any triad and identify root, third and fifth? If not, review those basics, and it will all make sense.
@@chazmichael7967 Good question, I have a guess, it's a bit complicated, but let me know what you think about it! I think it has to do something with the harmonic series (each and every note you play, a lot of other (phisically relative) notes "will also appear", in a certain order (some of them has stronger presence, while the others has weaker) Basically the harmonics that has the strongest presence, are the octaves, the perfect fifths and the major thirds (like a major chord, even thogh you play only one note. So when you play a "C", then at the same time "E" and "G" will also appear, And if you play an Eb note, the G and Bb (A#) will also appear, even though we play D# (Eb) - F# (Gb) - A# (Bb). There we have the "G", and this way I can understand, why Ebmin and Cmaj are related.
Parsifal (Wagner 1882) in the Klinsor's Garden (Act II): The opening overture Bm (common tone D) to Gm (c.t. D) - then Gm (c.t. Bb) to Ebm (c.t. B)...The minor chords are built on the Augmented triad B-G-Eb....Another interesting study is the Dominant 7th chords... there are 4 related to the diminished 7th C-Eb7-F#7-A7.... chromatic alteration of two notes in the 7th chord, produces 1 of these 4 variations. Isn't harmony great...a lifetime of study...infinite, yet bounded...
Man, I'm so absolutely excited right now. I've been a casual listener to film scores for many many years but didn't have the music theory knowledge to know why it all worked. I feel like a whole new world has opened up to me on progressions and chord relationships I would have _never_ thought of before in my own works. I'm absolutely subscribed for life :D. Thanks a bunch Rick! Incredibly killer video! (I've been on a binge this whole evening watching a bunch of your videos; will need to let my brain digest and come back and study in more detail :P).
Excellent video (once again!). Without getting into any arguments about 'jazz' vs. 'classical' vs. 'it's been done before', etc. etc. the great thing about common tones creating movement and having them lead to 'different' chord progressions (compared to traditional jazz or classical theory) is that it's all about opening up room for new discoveries. It's like giving permission to ourselves to be like wide-eyed children again... which is great, because after all, music has the power to shed light on emotions, show new 'colors', and tell a story through sound. (....if it's been done before, there are plenty of good reasons for this.) All of which goes to show the power of the simple triad!
Man, don’t you wish you knew all this stuff at age 8 like Mozart and Beethoven seemed to know. Anyway, you’ve taught music at a deeply fundamental level for decades. By now you’ve known a lot of theory as long as the great composers knew it. Maybe there’s a connection between perfect pitch and being a great composer: one must learn and do these things early in life. I’m 60 and still studying piano a little bit. I can do small things which help me appreciate the seemingly boundless talent of others. Singing helps. Singing while playing piano helps even more. I respect and admire your ability to analyze music and play by ear. You played the chords to Adele’s new song like you wrote it. Your channel offers much much value. Thank you
In case anyone is wondering about the two chord changes that appear to move by 4th/5th (and not by third)...it is just a matter of chord spelling. When Rick writes, "E-minor to Ab minor" (at 11:09), the Ab is really a G# chord, thus a mediant to E. When he writes "Bb-sus2 -F# Lyd" (at 11:27), the F# is a "really" a Gb chord, and thus a submediant to Bb. Depending on context, a musician will often re-spell the same chord with different note names.
Might explain why I, currently in my beginning years of self-taught music education, associate the sound of this modulation with a "magical new world, adventure" sound? :$
This is one of those videos that completely opens my brain up. If only Rick knew how many times I have paused the video and referenced all of his combination chords. This is an impressive video for sure, because I don't really know a ton of music theory, but this is one of those vids that lets you hear it to understand it first. All this time I have been hearing these sounds and not knowing what they are. Goonies soundtrack is my reference point. It's our time down here, and BOOM Chromatic Mediant swells in the background. Long enough, Mikey. Long Enough. BOOM!
Thank you very much, mr Beato. You've revealed the secret to just about every film score of the past decade and the secret to how my own modulations can suck less! Much appreciated. I love what you're doing with this channel.
Thanks for the lesson Rick! I'm in my last year of music college and needed more explanation for chromatic mediants for a composition project in my last Theory class.
I must've missed that video, fortunately came across some different channel explaining this topic and found my way back to Rick. One should never lose his way to Rick.
Cmaj to Emaj - especially when you play E maj with the d natural (E dominant 7th) is simply the tonic chord going to V7/vi. Sounds great even if vi doesn't follow (often followed with a IV). Elton uses this one a lot.
In the last week of diving into your videos properly I have discovered so many cool new (to me!) composing tools, I now have so many things to get lost within! I feel inspired and excited about the workings of music once again, its been a while! Thanks so much Rick for what you do and opening my mind again.
Everytime i sit down to watch your theory videos i end up learning the proper termonology for things ive been doing by ear for years and something just clicks in my brain finally after years of fumbling around in the dark having such difficulties with how things like modes worked and now i have somewhat of a grasp on how they relate to each other.
... and the most confusing is that here in Bulgaria we use the word "паралелни" ('paralelni') for keys like C major&A minor, while we use the word "едноименни"('ednoimenni', or 'same-name') for C major&C minor ;)
Same here in Germany. a-Minor is the parallel key to C-Major (Mollparallele) and the other way around for example G-Major is the parallel key to e-minor (Durparallele). In English those are called relative keys, e.g. major and minor scales that have the same key signature. In Geman c-minor is called a "Variante" of C-Major (Mollvariante)
Although you can find examples of chromatic mediant modulations throughout western music history (pre Bach & Handel) - for me, the absolute (& obsessive) master was Franz Schubert (on the cusp between the "classical" and "romantic" periods in the 1820s) - who used chromatic mediant modulations heavily in his 600+ songs, his piano sonatas, piano trios, string quartets & symphonies. The first movement of his final String Quintet is literally an ode to the chromatic mediant modulation. It is hauntingly beautiful - and he influenced composers (directly and indirectly) such as Liszt, Chopin, Brahms, Wagner, Dvorak, Debussy, Sullivan, Britten, Holst, Copland, Korngold and (of course) 20th & 21st century movie composers.
Hi Rick. Love these videos - well done. The two chords at 9:15 seem a little different than you label them here. There is a G in the first chord - the violins are outlining a C major triad. So it's just a C/Db. The second chord continues the C major triad in the violins and outlines an A major triad in the low strings - making it C/A or A7#9. The mediant relationship is still there from Db to A. Very cool progression and voiced brilliantly. Keep the vids coming!
I think that "Time Has Told Me" by Nick Drake is a good (and very interesting) non-orchestral example of chromatic mediant modulation. In this case it is used to go from the A section to the B section and back again to A. One of the things that make it interesting is that neither of these changes involves the tonic chord. The song is in C major and at the end of the A section it goes from G to E (E7 maybe), which then goes to Eb, Ab, and then D (D7 maybe), which goes to F, the first chord of the A section. So, the contrast of the A section with the B section consists of the B section being made of chords borrowed from the parallel minor (Eb and Ab) and connected through chromatic mediants (G to E, D to F). The E also functions as a tritone substitution (E to Eb) and there's also something like a tritone substitution from Ab to D. Please correct me if I got something wrong or if these can't be considered chromatic mediant modulations. I think they are because those two chords (D and E) could be secondary dominants but don't function like that in this case. BTW, big "thank you" to Rick for sharing his knowledge.
I didn't realize I did this in my own compositions until I watched this video. Thanks! Its basically keeping common tones between chords. Its nice to have a chart to look at now when composing!
Immensely useful video. I loved hearing all the permutation examples of it in action. I may not understand it on paper fully, but my ears immediately light up with ideas just hearing two chords. I have definitely been hearing these all my life. It's very cool to start to hammer home what they actually are... The joys of being self taught :(
When the string patch first sounded, and the first progression was played - my immediate thought was: Oh, chromatic mediant modulation is what you use for those suspense moments in movies. I didn't hear that right away in 12tones examples using a regular piano or piano vst.
I guess that here 11:06 you ment Fb minor and not E minor. I was confused because It would not be a Third movement anymore. These 2 chords have the same sound but the E minor and Ab minor are a diminished 4th away from each other. (It's 4 semitones either way, I'm just pointing out the naming convention as I know it) Ps.: E minor and G# minor it's good too
0:25: Rick, how about; "two triads whose root is a major or minor third apart (relative to the base note) AND who share maximum one note"? This definition perfectly matches what you put on the whiteboard.
This is great! I remember you (and some others) talking about how much (or how little) the Beatles were actually aware of some of the complex theory contained in some of their music. I've done some limited work in film score composition and used this technique without being aware of exactly what I was doing. I am a firm believer however, that it's better to be good than lucky so - THANKS AGAIN RICK!
This lesson in particular just filled in some major holes in my understandings of modulating keys. I've always thought key changes were cool, but I've never understood how to incorporate them without them sounding forced (i.e. pop music cliche of increasing key by a whole step for the last chorus)
The same here, I love chords dissonances but I found out the ones that works well just by chance. Now I've got a system, and I feel the same as when 24 years ago I found out the rules about tonality.
If I have this right, an example of chromatic mediant modulations is in Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" on the words "before God" when he goes from an A major to F major, and again on the words "all mankind" going from G major to E minor and then E major. I'm not 100% sure about this, but it seems to be what Rick is describing. They are also two places that provide an emotional climax to the symphony, so if that what those changes are, it is an effective and powerful device.
I wish I could comprehend everything as quickly as you explain it Rick, but just hearing you speak expands my brain. Your videos are like a gold mine with so many nuggets lying about I don't know what to pick up first! Thank you! Where do you get the energy to make so many fantastic videos? You are amazing!
Wow. This is amazing stuff. As is often the case with music theory I've bumped into some of these modulations just fooling around but didn't have the theoretical underpinning to give it a name and the ability to explicitly and purposefully use them instead of just bumping into it. thanks!
What a great video again, Rick. Everything presented in a clear way, and finally demonstrated with real examples. Really high quality intruction vids here!
Please do a video on the composition techniques of early Genesis. There's so much going on and I'd love to have someone educated explain to me just why their stuff sounds so smooth and beautiful
Amazing ! I have run into these Modulations but to give them graph and reference placement makes them reliable tools instead of "happy accidents .Thanks Rick !
What a great content! So useful for my improvisations. Thank you so much for sharing, explaining and showcasing those chromatic modulations in an easy to understand format/scheme. Really wonderful! Tnx
Just discovered your channel, this is great! Loads of new videos to watch. These are often known as "borrow" chords, certainly the ones which relate to the parallel minor or major. Describing chords as lydian rather than #11 is interesting, I guess it works just as well.
I've used this stuff for years but thought about it a bit differently, I use common tones a lot C, A7, D7sus4, to G for example all with a common G note but this is an interesting way to rethink things
This lesson could also be called "Emotion in Music" As a young child these changes did something to my brain. Beautiful and mysterious.
Beautiful
You are very articulate for being a young child, congratulations
@@Alejandrakoxxx Haha. In his defense, he did use past-tense "did" there. :)
I've been making beats for a while now but it's time to step up my game.
I'll start producing beato's from now on.
You're a hero, dude...
Thank you
Even I considarating my self a musician in a intermediary level, your way to teach is helping me a lot to study composition by myself and improve my harmony knowledge. Your channel is a kind of public utility content. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Honestly Rick : thank you. Thanky you for sharing all this knowledge. its both incredibly generous and admirable, mainly because imparting this quantity of your knowledge for free is almost unexistent today, and music is a discipline that has become really competitive, mainly because of the mercantilization of it.
Thanks
Genaro Guerrero Hey thats fuckin Steffy boi rite dere in ur pic
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF WELTSEELE AND PERPETUAL INFINITY AND TEN SEPIROTH? ;3; *_*
Yeah, thats him. Honestly, i liked the Akroasis album mainly because of Fountainhead. In the songwriting subject, i prefer Omnivium. That applies to those songs. the intro to Ten Sepiroth
AGREED 100% MY DUDE -James
This is all over Lord Of The Rings music too. It's everywhere. I can't believe I've never learned the name for this concept until today. 8 years into diving into piano and I keep finding gems and ways to keep ideas fresh from this channel haha.
Wow im 33 now, if I had your tricks and lessons years ago I would be so much better! This generation has a real powerfull weapon on their hands: your knowledge and the internet!!! Thank you so much to share with us this preciousness!
Holy crap... this is one of the COOLEST music lessons I've ever seen. I have to try this stuff out!
All of these relationships have become such staples of contemporary harmonic vocabulary in jazz and film scoring. Thanks to Schubert, Wolff, Brahms and others for reaching into these key areas and finding ways to link more distantly related key areas in a seamless and inspired way. Unfortunately, the film-score examples you cite aren't really modulations but examples of modal interchange (mode mixture/borrowed chord harmony are other terms for this) within a key area. They are great sounds indeed. Some nod to functionality (Riemann) might be of value and assistance here.
This explains so much of my compositional technique. I never had the name for those modulations I use so often.
If you can hear a whooshing sound, it's the sound of all of this information going over my head.
I hear you, the dots have not connected on this one in my head either.
Mine too. I’m seriously going to try to get my head around this... not sure how, but I’ll give it a good go.
Hey everyone, it was confusing to me too when I was learning about Chromatic mediants, but the main thing to do is make sure the chord you move two has the following characteristics:
1) It has only one common tone from the starting chord, and
2) it is a 3rd away from the starting chord.
You can put this in to action by using a “home” chord to start and come back to. I use this in my own composing with chromatic mediants, and it works really well.
Start off by using the “home” chord, then move a 3rd from this “home” starting chord, and eventually circle back around to the home chord.
* For example, start on an F# minor chord. Then, simply move to any chord a 3rd away, as long as it’s not a diatonic chord. So, you can move to A minor. Then, go BACK to F# minor. Now you are back “home” in this process. Now, move to D minor, which follows the rule of moving a 3rd away from F# minor. (D minor is chromatic to F# minor, so you are still good to go.) Now, move to Bb Major. This is a 3rd away from D minor (and chromatic to D minor). From here, you can cheat a bit and go right back home to F# minor, or go back through D minor to F# minor.
Once you put it to practice, it’s actually pretty easy, and a lot of fun to use. It can really open up your creativity, and can get you out of the boxed-in thinking of having to stay in one key for too long. Also, since the Chromatic mediants share a common tone, and are a 3rd away from each other (which is a strong note-note relationship) the chord movements sound really modern and good!
Three years have passed since this comment. Have you made any progress in understanding? At what point are you confused? Do you know major and minor chords? Can you look at any triad and identify root, third and fifth? If not, review those basics, and it will all make sense.
It gets better with time
An easy way of thinking of this is. If a chord shares one or more notes with another. You can mix them up.
Bruce Gilsenan THIS
@@jamespeterson4275 Isn't is even for sharps though? I see he modulates C with a C#?
@@chazmichael7967 Good question, I have a guess, it's a bit complicated, but let me know what you think about it! I think it has to do something with the harmonic series (each and every note you play, a lot of other (phisically relative) notes "will also appear", in a certain order (some of them has stronger presence, while the others has weaker) Basically the harmonics that has the strongest presence, are the octaves, the perfect fifths and the major thirds (like a major chord, even thogh you play only one note. So when you play a "C", then at the same time "E" and "G" will also appear, And if you play an Eb note, the G and Bb (A#) will also appear, even though we play D# (Eb) - F# (Gb) - A# (Bb). There we have the "G", and this way I can understand, why Ebmin and Cmaj are related.
@Bruce Gilsenan, you are correct, but I think it also needs to be a M/minor 3rd away from each other
It’s really amazing how each one has a unique emotion.
I can't believe how easy this was to understand once I watched it a second time! Thank you so much!!
Parsifal (Wagner 1882) in the Klinsor's Garden (Act II): The opening overture Bm (common tone D) to Gm (c.t. D) - then Gm (c.t. Bb) to Ebm (c.t. B)...The minor chords are built on the Augmented triad B-G-Eb....Another interesting study is the Dominant 7th chords... there are 4 related to the diminished 7th C-Eb7-F#7-A7.... chromatic alteration of two notes in the 7th chord, produces 1 of these 4 variations. Isn't harmony great...a lifetime of study...infinite, yet bounded...
Man, I'm so absolutely excited right now. I've been a casual listener to film scores for many many years but didn't have the music theory knowledge to know why it all worked. I feel like a whole new world has opened up to me on progressions and chord relationships I would have _never_ thought of before in my own works. I'm absolutely subscribed for life :D. Thanks a bunch Rick! Incredibly killer video! (I've been on a binge this whole evening watching a bunch of your videos; will need to let my brain digest and come back and study in more detail :P).
Excellent video (once again!). Without getting into any arguments about 'jazz' vs. 'classical' vs. 'it's been done before', etc. etc. the great thing about common tones creating movement and having them lead to 'different' chord progressions (compared to traditional jazz or classical theory) is that it's all about opening up room for new discoveries. It's like giving permission to ourselves to be like wide-eyed children again... which is great, because after all, music has the power to shed light on emotions, show new 'colors', and tell a story through sound. (....if it's been done before, there are plenty of good reasons for this.) All of which goes to show the power of the simple triad!
Well put together. It's all clear and I appreciate it.
12:55 Rick! You disappeared, neat trick.
Boredom Ensues I thought it was funny :)
lol nice moves
I actually LOLed (and if you knew me, that's not easy), so I would have to agree.
Boredom Ensues parallel disappearance. Common tones: everything in studio, but the dude.
Rick Beato musical magician disappearing act?
Man, don’t you wish you knew all this stuff at age 8 like Mozart and Beethoven seemed to know. Anyway, you’ve taught music at a deeply fundamental level for decades. By now you’ve known a lot of theory as long as the great composers knew it. Maybe there’s a connection between perfect pitch and being a great composer: one must learn and do these things early in life. I’m 60 and still studying piano a little bit. I can do small things which help me appreciate the seemingly boundless talent of others. Singing helps. Singing while playing piano helps even more. I respect and admire your ability to analyze music and play by ear. You played the chords to Adele’s new song like you wrote it. Your channel offers much much value. Thank you
Every Sci-Fi movie, series and most video game wouldn't be aa captavating without these progressions💪🔥😏
Great video as usual!
In case anyone is wondering about the two chord changes that appear to move by 4th/5th (and not by third)...it is just a matter of chord spelling. When Rick writes, "E-minor to Ab minor" (at 11:09), the Ab is really a G# chord, thus a mediant to E.
When he writes "Bb-sus2 -F# Lyd" (at 11:27), the F# is a "really" a Gb chord, and thus a submediant to Bb. Depending on context, a musician will often re-spell the same chord with different note names.
Lord of the rings theme uses this heavily as well.
John Huldt Your right!! Didn't catch that until now lol. Howard Shore (I think that's who) was very good at this technique.
especially the stuff after Rick disappears!
And the Brinstar theme in the first Metroid game.
Might explain why I, currently in my beginning years of self-taught music education, associate the sound of this modulation with a "magical new world, adventure" sound? :$
listen to the modulation at 5:11 I think thats used in a lortr main theme
It’s so nice to finally have a term for these other than “minor major accidental modulations” which I’ve been using for what... 10 years. Cheers.
This is one of those videos that completely opens my brain up. If only Rick knew how many times I have paused the video and referenced all of his combination chords. This is an impressive video for sure, because I don't really know a ton of music theory, but this is one of those vids that lets you hear it to understand it first.
All this time I have been hearing these sounds and not knowing what they are. Goonies soundtrack is my reference point. It's our time down here, and BOOM Chromatic Mediant swells in the background. Long enough, Mikey. Long Enough. BOOM!
Thank you very much, mr Beato. You've revealed the secret to just about every film score of the past decade and the secret to how my own modulations can suck less! Much appreciated. I love what you're doing with this channel.
Thanks for the lesson Rick! I'm in my last year of music college and needed more explanation for chromatic mediants for a composition project in my last Theory class.
I must've missed that video, fortunately came across some different channel explaining this topic and found my way back to Rick. One should never lose his way to Rick.
Thanks, Rick - I’ve been hearing these for years and now I know what they are. Awesome. Time for some study.
Brilliant! Always wondered why Cmaj to Emaj sounds so good! You filled a big theory hole for me. Thanks a lot, Rick!
Cmaj to Emaj - especially when you play E maj with the d natural (E dominant 7th) is simply the tonic chord going to V7/vi. Sounds great even if vi doesn't follow (often followed with a IV). Elton uses this one a lot.
You do hear them in the Classical era! Check Haydn's Sonata in E flat Major Hob 52 for example!
I have heard these common tone modulations in many scores. I believe Jerry Goldsmith also uses it prominently in the Basic Instinct theme.
In the last week of diving into your videos properly I have discovered so many cool new (to me!) composing tools, I now have so many things to get lost within! I feel inspired and excited about the workings of music once again, its been a while! Thanks so much Rick for what you do and opening my mind again.
Everytime i sit down to watch your theory videos i end up learning the proper termonology for things ive been doing by ear for years and something just clicks in my brain finally after years of fumbling around in the dark having such difficulties with how things like modes worked and now i have somewhat of a grasp on how they relate to each other.
... and the most confusing is that here in Bulgaria we use the word "паралелни" ('paralelni') for keys like C major&A minor, while we use the word "едноименни"('ednoimenni', or 'same-name') for C major&C minor ;)
Same here in Germany. a-Minor is the parallel key to C-Major (Mollparallele) and the other way around for example G-Major is the parallel key to e-minor (Durparallele). In English those are called relative keys, e.g. major and minor scales that have the same key signature. In Geman c-minor is called a "Variante" of C-Major (Mollvariante)
Vasil Belezhkov yes, I guess the Slavic countries follow the German nomenclature.
Right, I can tell the same about all post- Soviet area.
Yes, that German-style terminology is due to Hugo Riemann, an extremely influential 19th-early 20th century music theorist.
Same in Russia, and, I guess, everywhere where german-style theory is used
Great way to hype my exploration motivation, I got bored with diatonic harmony a while ago and I feel like there's a new toy to play with now.
Mozart uses chromatic mediant modulation in Fantasie in C Minor K475. The D major section right after the intro
"Pivot Tone Modulations" are exactly how I use them in Film Scoring and Orchestration and Voicing.
These are all of my favourite chord changes. Thanks for explaining some of the logic behind them and how there's similar ideas behind all of them.
I hated music class as a kid but this makes it fun!
Thanks for using real score recordings and then demonstrating them on keyboard
They have a very augmented type of sound and feel to them, giving them this oddly bright yet eerie happy tone to them. It's like a harp.
Such a big mood change. Gorgeous.
thank you for including examples from real music, they make the lessons feel so much more alive
Although you can find examples of chromatic mediant modulations throughout western music history (pre Bach & Handel) - for me, the absolute (& obsessive) master was Franz Schubert (on the cusp between the "classical" and "romantic" periods in the 1820s) - who used chromatic mediant modulations heavily in his 600+ songs, his piano sonatas, piano trios, string quartets & symphonies. The first movement of his final String Quintet is literally an ode to the chromatic mediant modulation. It is hauntingly beautiful - and he influenced composers (directly and indirectly) such as Liszt, Chopin, Brahms, Wagner, Dvorak, Debussy, Sullivan, Britten, Holst, Copland, Korngold and (of course) 20th & 21st century movie composers.
I've had a massive light bulb moment from this video! I made a chart of chords I can modulate to and from in my writing. They all work! Thank you!
Hi Rick. Love these videos - well done. The two chords at 9:15 seem a little different than you label them here. There is a G in the first chord - the violins are outlining a C major triad. So it's just a C/Db. The second chord continues the C major triad in the violins and outlines an A major triad in the low strings - making it C/A or A7#9. The mediant relationship is still there from Db to A. Very cool progression and voiced brilliantly. Keep the vids coming!
In case it's of any use, I come back to this one a lot. It's really handy 👍
I don't know if I told you before, but I have the same exact midi keyboard and it is so great.
I've come across your videos just recently. Since Ive started watching them I keep getting those "Ah ha"and "Ohhh" moments. Great stuff.
Best music theory teacher on UA-cam. Great teaching!
I think that "Time Has Told Me" by Nick Drake is a good (and very interesting) non-orchestral example of chromatic mediant modulation. In this case it is used to go from the A section to the B section and back again to A. One of the things that make it interesting is that neither of these changes involves the tonic chord. The song is in C major and at the end of the A section it goes from G to E (E7 maybe), which then goes to Eb, Ab, and then D (D7 maybe), which goes to F, the first chord of the A section. So, the contrast of the A section with the B section consists of the B section being made of chords borrowed from the parallel minor (Eb and Ab) and connected through chromatic mediants (G to E, D to F). The E also functions as a tritone substitution (E to Eb) and there's also something like a tritone substitution from Ab to D. Please correct me if I got something wrong or if these can't be considered chromatic mediant modulations. I think they are because those two chords (D and E) could be secondary dominants but don't function like that in this case.
BTW, big "thank you" to Rick for sharing his knowledge.
killer video. love the options of sus chords and lydian chords!
thanks Rick!
I was hitting a wall on where to go with this song I was writing and this inspired me to go in a whole new direction - you're The Man!!!
I didn't realize I did this in my own compositions until I watched this video. Thanks! Its basically keeping common tones between chords. Its nice to have a chart to look at now when composing!
Fantastic lesson. So many unexpected options held together with common tones. Keep up the exceptional content. With gratitude from London.
Owen Wilson To think this one simple but masterful debut album by the band Obsidian Gate is what got me fascinated with all this stuff.... haha
Fantastic video Rick, lots to take in here. The examples at the end were brilliant. Will be trying these out on my own compositions. thanks
Immensely useful video. I loved hearing all the permutation examples of it in action. I may not understand it on paper fully, but my ears immediately light up with ideas just hearing two chords. I have definitely been hearing these all my life. It's very cool to start to hammer home what they actually are... The joys of being self taught :(
the king kong one is one of the most beautiful progression
Thank you rick. My playing has improved because of your teaching. 🙂
Music Love lifted me I-Mediantly! Bravo Maestro!
You have the best theory videos that I've run into yet! Loving the content!
When the string patch first sounded, and the first progression was played - my immediate thought was: Oh, chromatic mediant modulation is what you use for those suspense moments in movies. I didn't hear that right away in 12tones examples using a regular piano or piano vst.
I guess that here 11:06 you ment Fb minor and not E minor. I was confused because It would not be a Third movement anymore. These 2 chords have the same sound but the E minor and Ab minor are a diminished 4th away from each other. (It's 4 semitones either way, I'm just pointing out the naming convention as I know it)
Ps.: E minor and G# minor it's good too
Loving this scoring playlist Rick.
I picture a strong connection between these changes and 50s and 60s drama scores, toward a sad or mysterious ending. Like Bernard Herrmann.
Excellent... Thank you sir!!!
Just wanted to say... this is my third time through. I'm gonna DIGEST this stuff! Thank ya, Mr. Beato.
0:25: Rick, how about; "two triads whose root is a major or minor third apart (relative to the base note) AND who share maximum one note"? This definition perfectly matches what you put on the whiteboard.
Or 6th (basically inverted 3rd)you know what I mean it not the best way to phrase it but include that those changes work backwards too.
This is great! I remember you (and some others) talking about how much (or how little) the Beatles were actually aware of some of the complex theory contained in some of their music. I've done some limited work in film score composition and used this technique without being aware of exactly what I was doing. I am a firm believer however, that it's better to be good than lucky so - THANKS AGAIN RICK!
Thank you for a video about chromatic mediant modulations. This subject is super interesting for composers.
this is incredible. I've always wondered about the theory behind these progressions. excellent video
This video changed my life.
This lesson in particular just filled in some major holes in my understandings of modulating keys. I've always thought key changes were cool, but I've never understood how to incorporate them without them sounding forced (i.e. pop music cliche of increasing key by a whole step for the last chorus)
The same here, I love chords dissonances but I found out the ones that works well just by chance. Now I've got a system, and I feel the same as when 24 years ago I found out the rules about tonality.
If I have this right, an example of chromatic mediant modulations is in Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" on the words "before God" when he goes from an A major to F major, and again on the words "all mankind" going from G major to E minor and then E major. I'm not 100% sure about this, but it seems to be what Rick is describing. They are also two places that provide an emotional climax to the symphony, so if that what those changes are, it is an effective and powerful device.
I wish I could comprehend everything as quickly as you explain it Rick, but just hearing you speak expands my brain. Your videos are like a gold mine with so many nuggets lying about I don't know what to pick up first! Thank you! Where do you get the energy to make so many fantastic videos? You are amazing!
One of your best video !!
Wow. This is amazing stuff. As is often the case with music theory I've bumped into some of these modulations just fooling around but didn't have the theoretical underpinning to give it a name and the ability to explicitly and purposefully use them instead of just bumping into it.
thanks!
Top-class instruction again Rick.Thanks.
What a great video again, Rick. Everything presented in a clear way, and finally demonstrated with real examples. Really high quality intruction vids here!
Great show! You have a new subscriber.
Thank you for championing the beauty and majesty of music Rick!
Great stuff rick, really intuitive the way you put that together.
Awesome video man, very interesting stuff!
Awesome video Rick! And I loved the disappearing trick!
This is brilliant! Thanks Rick!
Great simple analysis thank you!
great stuff Rick Beato!!
This was great. Makes you think how you can incorporate new chords that seem "out" into one's playing.
Please do a video on the composition techniques of early Genesis. There's so much going on and I'd love to have someone educated explain to me just why their stuff sounds so smooth and beautiful
Just plain awesome. Great vid !
Amazing ! I have run into these Modulations but to give them graph and reference placement makes them reliable tools instead of "happy accidents .Thanks Rick !
What a great content! So useful for my improvisations. Thank you so much for sharing, explaining and showcasing those chromatic modulations in an easy to understand format/scheme. Really wonderful! Tnx
Thank you for the examples! Will take time but will be fun to practice!
Rick you're awsome!... I sometimes I used this sore of modulation but without knowing exactly why sound good to me. You explained perfectly.
Thank you for your time man. Feel privileged to be able to learn this stuff!
Just discovered your channel, this is great! Loads of new videos to watch. These are often known as "borrow" chords, certainly the ones which relate to the parallel minor or major. Describing chords as lydian rather than #11 is interesting, I guess it works just as well.
I've used this stuff for years but thought about it a bit differently, I use common tones a lot C, A7, D7sus4, to G for example all with a common G note but this is an interesting way to rethink things
Really helpful video. Thanks, RIck!
this is gold, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge Rick!
I just spent a full hour (and counting) playing on these chords!