+Rick Jordon In my interpretation, the information provided by Aimee and others helps plant the seed of exploration, which breeds new information. The two go hand-in-hand, but you'll have a more meaningful experience if you base your musical development in exploring based on the information you have gathered to gain more information and interpret it in your own unique way. Personally, Aimee Nolte Music has really widened my horizons on jazz (THANK YOU AIMEE :D), but my ultimate goal is to take the information received, tinker with it and develop it more on my own, then still be able to apply it even if it is forgotten, if that makes any sense at all >.< Also, to everyone watching, take Jacob Collier's advice with a grain of salt. The things he says works for him largely because he is an absolute genius who can grasp musical concepts intuitively to such an unfair degree. Take his philosophy and apply it as best as you can, but in your own way.
Trying to explain with words something that is felt, is not always easy! He did a GREAT job of it I thought. I understand what he means about emotional importance rather than merely amassing knowledge and being "scaled" by some educational value system that misses a lot of the point - in my opinion also… I also totally get his emphasis on creative importance. I am a performing musician who has had absolutely no training/theory - I do everything by ear and feel, so I didn't understand any of his theory talk, but so got what he is on about :)
For anyone as confused as I was with the explanations, here's a jargon buster: The Key of C Negative Major is: I: Abmaj7, ii: G min7, iii: F min7, IV Eb Maj7, v :Dmin7b5, vi :Cmin7, VII: B7 - or in other words - Ab Lydian in reverse! So basically, to find the Negative version of any key, the IMaj7 chord inverts to it's b6 Major7 :D Hope this helps!
Why would Ab Lydian be the "negative" version of C Major? I would expect the "negative" version to start on C and go down in the same order of intervals, so whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. That produces C-Bb-Ab-G-F-Eb-Db-C - in other words, C Phrygian. But I guess it really doesn't matter what anything is labeled. If it helps you, use the label. I don't think I will, but practicing going up in Ionian and down in Phygian and vice versa is kind of interesting and I'll play with that.
@@michaelladerman2564 If you're thinking of it in that way then you'd technically be right in your own technique! But the way Jacob arrives at his 'Negative Harmony' is by flipping the notes around the axis of the 5th (G) - not just reversing the interval spellings of the original scale. I'm going to apologize in advance for how convoluted this all sounds: So if you get a Circle of Fifths & draw a line separating C & G, then look at which notes C, E, G & B (C Major 7 chord) are mirrored with on the 'Negative' side. C mirrors G, E mirrors Eb, G mirrors C and B mirrors Ab: Those notes make Ab, C, Eb, G - An Ab Major 7 chord - it's all mirrored, that's why I spelled them in the opposite order to how they were found from the C maj 7 chord. This would be the Negative harmony version of C Major. C Maj 7 is the I chord in the Key of C Maj. But now flipped into it's Negative version - Ab Maj7 is the I chord of C 'Negative Major' - I'm cringing at myself already haha. If you find the Negative Harmony version of all of the other chords in the C Major key, you'll realize that they really invert to the key of C Minor - but here's the crucial part - Ab Maj7 is the new I chord on the negative side - In the Key of C Natural Minor (Aeolian) the relative mode built from Ab is Lydian. So when you flip C Major over the axis, you drop yourself right into the Lydian flavor of the new Key. Because of the mirror nature of what you're doing, each negative chord you've found lined up would be this: Abmaj7, Gmin7, Fmin7, Eb Maj7, D half diminished (which Jacob would think of as Fmin6), Cmin7, B7 - This is basically starting from the Ab lydian tonal centre and moving the chord scale in reverse - Hence Ab Lydian in Reverse - I'm talking about the overall key - since the concept largely focuses on Chord substitution/Gravity. But if you look at the scale too: The negative version of the C Major scale would be: G F Eb D C Bb Ab Ab Lydian, in reverse. It's completely confusing, but it checks out! Apologies for the essay haha.
“Play a chord that's your mother, play a chord that's your sister, play a chord that's like what you feel.”- Jacob Collier “Play the world you wanna see” -Wayne Shorter “A chimpanzee could learn to do what I do physically. But it goes way beyond that. When you play, you play life.” -Jaco Pastorius
DUDE I have literally considered the same thing but I thought it was just a dumb idea I had and no one would ever like something i tried to make using the concept. Now I know it’s a legitimate concept and I should try out random ideas more often rather than shutting them down if I want to create something I love and enjoy like he does
I don't think that is too uncommon. His vocal range is practically identical to mine, so perhaps that's why I believe that. If anything, he said in his masterclass that he can comfortably hit a low D (I can _"uncomfortably"_ reach a low B) which I think is uncommon for most people (he actually says that he strives for getting colds, because his voice drops so that he can record samples of himself), however his high tones aren't actually from his diaphragm, but head voice. Most, if not all people, can sing falsetto, but it needs to be trained. It isn't ideal though, because it doesn't retain the rich character of your chest voice (you can clearly hear that his high notes sound damped), nor is it always comfortable and may actually be detrimental to your singing if done wrong. I haven't checked, but I assume his goes to a high G or something. That's a little over three octaves, which is nice. It is true that this kind of vocal arrangement is easier for guys, because our vocal ranges more often encompass bass frequencies. A choir is quite empty without its foundation rooted in the bass section. However, there are still ways to overcome this, such as vocal detuners. TC-Halicon makes some nice vocal pedals for this. The D1 for instance, does this well. Put on a pair of closed headphones so you can hear yourself and you won't even notice that you're singing an octave up.
This was the best concert i'd ever been to in my life and In the Real Early Morning made me damn near cry. And this interview was so entertaining to listen to!
twistedparadoxELITE me too. He really changed my way of thinking when it comes to learning music. I also have to actually sit down with this video and decode it.
See this comment for my explanation of why the fifth is used, why the point of reflection is halfway between F and F#, etc.: ua-cam.com/video/e2nUoq3AqjA/v-deo.html&lc=z13zxduaeligv3vhw04cibszkoe4vv1i320
Ethan Plante of course. Why do you think the triad is so strong? It’s what fucking sounds when you smack any object, the next after the 5th is the major 3rd.
The biggest point in this conversation is that he says that there is a philosophy behind his style . So anyone could play anything as long as he has some intention behind it (that actually works ) and it has to be felt
A good beginning point is to stay just with the Ionian mode and find the "negatives" to that, as it turns out it's the parallel scale. So: C Major C minor, with a twist, Ionian becomes Phrygian. C Ionian G Phrygian. Once you get the hang of that it becomes easier to find the negatives for the chromatic notes to the original scale. I find Jacob's explanations a bit convoluted actually.
but shouldn't you be taking the root at C both times? So C natural minor rather than G phrygian. When you "negative" a C major triad you get a C minor triad not a Gsus4#5 ; similarly when you take a whole C major scale, the you're still "in" C at the end. You don't really reflect the function of the root up; C going to D doesn't mean G is now the root any more than the D going to F now makes F the second degree of the scale.
Granted, you are still in C, actually C major. This is actually very close to good old Modal Mixture. -"When you "negative" C major you get C minor" yes, but how? C becomes G, E becomes Eb and G becomes C, wich (if you know inversions) is C minor.
I understand how it works. I was just trying to point out you're missing the point by analysing your result with the wrong tonal centre. G lydian makes as much sense as here as D locrian would, or Eb Major for that matter. Also for this exercise, you'd do well to lose the idea of "C minor" or "C major". I'm to lazy to give a proper explanation why, but it's like, you'll still be in "C" at the end, but to the extent that minor or major as a key identity works for your source material, it won't be preserved in the inverted result. For some fun reflect whatever your favourite scales are and see what comes out. C major goes to C minor, which is fun, but do you feel like reflecting a melodic minor, harmonic minor, double harmonic, lydian etc. etc. gives you what you feel is their opposite? There's not really a right answer to that, but the guy who came up with the theory would say "yeah, it is" of course. At the end of the day, either way, it's a fun way of thinking about it and a useful tool in the toolbox.
There is a really nice quote by Frank Zappa which (I think) pretty much explains what Jacob is talking about in the end: "Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is THE BEST.” This is how I understand this quote: INFORMATION is meaningless to us until we learn it, at which point it becomes KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge is meaningless until we find our reasons and make our decisions based on it, leading us to (hopefully) WISDOM...this of course includes mistakes or "wrong" decisions as well. However, not everyone will agree with your wisdom, so is it the truth? It is not. Finally, when we create/listen to music what do we appreciate and love in it, if not its Beauty? (whichever form this beauty takes for you) So to paraphrase the most important message of this interview (imho): Create music for the sake of its beauty, not for the sake of the beauty that someone may or may not find in it (aka results). There will always be someone who loves it and someone who hates it, but it will not change the beauty of its own creation... So to sum things up, it seems that Mr. Collier is truly an "old soul" :)
For those struggling with the explanation, I may have a better way of explaining it. So it's basically using the chords from the minor parallel. But instead of resolving them in the usual way (descendent fifths or ascendent parallels), you resolve through ascendent fifths or descendent fourths. Basically, the idea is that you can use Eb Major Scale as a way of getting to C Major. This is old. But the real twist is the inversion of the usual "resolving tendency" from a fifth descend to a fifth ascend. So the old iii - vi - ii - V - I becomes IIIb - VIIb7 - iv - I.
Wow thats an amazing explanation I get what he means about the cycling and as you go a certain direction the chord functions a certain way and the harmony can darken or lighten in its direction with what mode is emphasized within the cycling. A very amazing lesson!
SHORT: Reflect Gdom7 across E-half-flat and you get Fmin6. B maps to Ab and F maps to D. The B resolves to C by half-step and Ab resolves to G by half-step. The F resolves to E/Eb by half/whole-step and D resolves to E/Eb by whole/half-step. So Fmin6 has the same gravity to C as Gdom7. LONG: G dominant 7 strongly wants to resolve to C. This is because the B wants to resolve up to the C by half step and the F wants to resolve down to the E/Eb by half/whole step. How much the B wants to resolve to C and F to E/Eb is what Jacob Collier is calling "gravity" here. A factor of a note's "gravity" toward another note is how close they are to each other [1], and a chord's gravity to another chord is all the gravity of each of the notes added together. The most important notes in C are C and G, so we put our axis right in the middle of C and G, which is E and a half flat. Reflect each note in Gdom7 across this axis and you get F minor 6 [2]. The B which resolved UP to C by half-step before now maps to Ab which wants to resolve DOWN to G by half-step. The F which resolved DOWN to E/Eb by half/whole-step before maps to D which wants to resolve UP to E/Eb by whole/half-step. The gravity of B->C is the same as Ab->G and the gravity of F->E/Eb is the same as D->Eb/E -- they just come from opposite directions. So we might say that Fmin6 (iv add6) has the same gravity to C (I) as Gdom7 (V7) does [3]. This is significant because it illustrates how voice-leading (or "arrival") is paramount in common-practice music. Functional harmony often takes a backseat to good voice-leading, and most if not all functional harmony can be described in terms of voice-leading, as I did in this post describe the gravity of Gdom7 to C. [1] For example, you don't feel very compelled to resolve C to an F multiple octaves away because of how far they are from each other. [2] I think we call it F minor 6 instead of D half diminished 7 because Gmaj maps to Fmin and not a D chord. Adding the 7th to Gdom7 results in adding the 6th to the Fmin chord. [3] This is somewhat verified by the existence and high usage of minor plagal cadences, especially in mainstream music since the 20th century.
I found a really insightful link about it, basically you pick an axis : let's say C and you "reflect" the notes on it. So D becomes Bb because D is a second apart from C and so is Bb (but in the other direction). That's the basic concept, i've seen also "hybrid" axis but i didn't understand it
Got it, very interesting, if the bass is playing E in the end becomes a Fm maj7/E, it would be interesting to find a voicing where that works even if the piano still plays Em7, I'd rather take every minor chord as either Dorian or Aeolian .
It's really interesting to see how this relates of Don Freund's spectrum of fifths (there are videos about it on UA-cam). Basically, adding notes to a scale from the "flat" side of the circle makes things darker and adding notes from the "brighter" side makes the music brighter, and we can use these tools to control the emotional content of our music.
This is the root/dominant/subdominant style of theory also taught by Hans Keollreuter here in Brazil. Brilliant that other people are catching on to it.
In order to deeply absorb the concept of negative harmony (which has been around for quite a while), I strongly recommend reading William Allaudin Mathieu's ''Harmonic Experience''.
What was it that zapped this guys brain from somewhere in the universe ,that’s given him a microtonal brain ,genius is a word used a lot but this cat is special
I think his mom had a lot to do with it. She's a music teacher and has perfect pitch. She taught him how to understand and FEEL music on a level that very few people do.
yo..... At 7:30 i just lost my mind... his thought process on the actual feeling of each note in the chord. like WHAATTT???? that's insanely BEAUTIFULLLL!!!!
2:12 Makes me really happy that he's bringing attention to George Russell, a very underrated jazz musician. I listened to "Ezz-thetics" and could immediately tell he and Eric Dolphy were cooking up some of the greatest jazz harmonies ever.
Here's why the axis of reflection is halfway between F and F#, if you're in D: What Jacob is talking about is a way of transforming any chord, any melody, any progression, even entire songs, into something new. You simply flip all the pitches upside down, so that ascending is descending and vice versa. OK, let's try that with a D major chord. For D major, you go from D up a M3 to F#, then up a m3 to A. To find upside-down D major, we start at D, and go down to Bb, then down to G. D major becomes G minor. We've done two things, changed major to minor, and changed the chord root (and key, too, if it's a one-chord song) from D to G. But this 2nd change is sort of trivial. People transpose songs all the time, and it's still the same song. The interesting thing is the change from major to minor. So we change the key from G back to D, so that it doesn't distract us from the interesting change. So D major becomes D minor. We reflected everything around D, then moved everything up a fifth. That's the same as taking whatever you did up from D, and doing it down from A instead. A, not D, because it's a fifth higher, and we have to move everything up a fifth anyway, might as well do it right away. Thus D "maps" to A and vice versa, E maps to G, and F maps to F#. So we're reflecting around the point half-way between D and A, or equivalently halfway between F and F#. You can check this by building the chord not up from D, but down from A: Down a M3 gets us to F, and down a m3 gets us to D, and again, D major becomes D minor. Reflecting again just undoes the change, so D minor reflects to D major. D Dm Dsus4 Dsus2 D7 Dm6 Dm7 D6 DM7 Dm add m6 = BbM7 D9 Dm6 add 11 Dm9 D6 add 11 Altered-5th chords get a new root: Daug Dbaug Ddim D#dim Dm7b5 D#dim add m6 = B7 We can do this with scales too: D major is WWhWWWh. Going down from A, we get A G F E D C Bb A, which is D E F G A Bb C D, which is a D minor scale. For melodies, I find it easier to go down from the fifth, rather than reflecting around F half-sharp. Do re mi fa so so la mi-flat re do. For chord progressions, to find the new roots, you don't go down from the fifth, but down from the tonic. If you're reflecting, reflect around D, not F-half-sharp. This ensures that the root of the tonic chord stays the same, so that the key doesn't change. Once you've found the root, use the list of chords above to find the new chord quality. D A Bm G Dm Gm F Am To get from the 3rd chord to the 4th chord, you still only move one note by one semitone. That's what's so cool about all this. Everything's different, but there are still certain similarities. V7 I IVm6 Im Note that there's still a dim5 interval contracting to a M3, which is the essence of this cadence. IIm7 V7 IM7 bVII6 IVm6 Im-add-m6 = bVIM7 You get a sort of a false cadence, because it doesn't feel like a return to the I chord. Now let's turn Wimoweh upside down: Key: C major Chords: C F C G Melody: C D E D E / F E D C D / E D C E / D Reflect around the point between E and Eb (or between A and Bb, same thing): New key: C minor New chords: Cm Gm Cm Fm New melody: G F Eb F Eb / D Eb F G F / Eb F G Eb / F The C major scale becomes a C minor scale. For fun, we can transpose New Wimoweh down to Am, so that we end up using the same 7 notes. Then we can play Normal Wimoweh in C, followed by New Wimoweh in Am, and the change is less abrupt. Hey Jacob, you beautiful joyous genius you, if you're reading this, contact me for a complimentary copy of my microtonal software, very performer-oriented, lets you retune mid-song as you play: www.TallKite.com/alt-tuner.html
if you are confused about Negative Harmony, just paint the keyboard and take the distance in semitones from one note to G, as a mirror in relation to C.
I actually tried to make a table with chords, is there anyway you can check them and we can comment it? I'm studying this for using this as a tool for my next album drive.google.com/open?id=0BwyeCTk_6fjjSHk4cXg4cTl5WVU
Hey! the chords in your scheme don't appear to be transposed correctly. Check the idea here drive.google.com/file/d/0B4I9Il61tHY6dEhHa0tBT2tLTnc/view?usp=sharing
Whoa, this is from the Seattle show! I was there; fantastic concert. I ended up taking off since I figured the Jacob swarm would be too crazy, but I wanted to ask him about this. Thanks for the video :D
Damn, I've been sitting here converting all chordal functions to their negative and it can really spice progressions up! At last the musical rabbit hole has a new tunnel, let's see where it goes....
love you Jacob.. on the 5th thing.. it's priamry becuase it is.. and that's somehtign we've both found and feel in many ways.. the relationship between a note and it's fifth is fundamentally different to that of a note and it major 7th for example.. both on a musical and emotional level but alos on a maths and physics level and in some forms ona visual level.. it primary harmonics.. it's partials and overtones.. it's shapes and fractals and comfortably fitting wavelengths
When he finished the show, he just said "I'll be in the lobby in a few minutes if you want to say hello. He took a picture and chatted with every single person until his manager said they needed to leave the venue.
I understand the negative harmony and how it works. The way he explains it is actually quite simple. The thing that confuses me is the super mega meta lydian stuff.
I think since the emphasis on negative harmony, we've had a lot of videos surface saying... "Oh wow, what is it?" And we've gotten a lot of information on the like. In this video even, we begin to hear a question regarding the functionality of negative harmony. I think we should start asking "okay, what does it look like to start practically applying/experimenting with this?"
I got some interesting results rotating the notes not all around C, but each one around the respective interval in the triad. For example in the key of C the triads for the progression 3,6,2,5 using this method would be AbDbEb EbAbBb BbEbF F. It sounds weird to then resolve to C but it is interesting using these chords and then exchanging with the regular ones.
I understood what he was saying. And yeah fuctionaly negative harmony is weird but like he said it's just more tools to explore with. I really like how he thinks about music. Just learn more tools to play with. I personally wouldn't use negative harmony in any of my playing or composition because I have a much more simplistic approach and I don't like the way it sounds. It has to fit the music you play I guess.
All I wonder is what scale it creates. My brain screams it can be simplified as modal interchange! If you do what he was saying, it has to create some type of scale and then you compare that to the C major scale and voila, you've got bright and dark chords to choose from. Not only though. You can turn positive harmony into negative harmony!
Here is a simple cipher to use negative harmony so you don’t make errors like this kid does at 4:29 (he should say D maj triad not D7) 1234567 is major notes, but derive your negative harmony from these equivalent note pairs: [1-5, 2-4, 3-b3, 4-2, 5-1, 6-b7, 7-b6] ... that’s your main set. then keep on the side the chromatic ones you might need [b2-#4, b3-3, #4-b2, b6-7, b7-6] When making chords, don’t think like jazz guys each root is 1. Always use 1-7, for example the iii chord is actually 3-5-7 notes, so your negative sub will be b3-1-b6. Use the cipher to replace chords with extensions and such if you want. Don’t try to swap Roman numerals for minor key equivalents, that’s not the point.
The main talking point of "negative harmony" is that the iv7 chord has has the tension towards the tonic as the V7 chord. The problem is... it doesn't.
I really love everything here, I just disagree with the 5th being the negative point of the axis. Everything else in this negative idea is a naturalistic mirror around a pivot point EXCEPT this negative root. It's applying functional harmony to the ruleset in only one case for this idea of negative harmony. I understand the point he's making, with the 5th being a stable and related point, but it's still being decided in a different way than the rest of these ideas, like how a major chord being flipped to minor is based purely on symmetry and not function. There should be a way to do this while having a natural and symmetrical pivot despite functional harmony. If we say that the negative root can start on the tritone, then there's a few things that make this stronger in my opinion. For one, it's literally symmetrical in nature, being a frequency negative. Also, it is the mirror of the starting point on any circle of fifths. If you build a circle of 5ths from C, the opposite of that circle is Gb/F#. This seems to make more sense to me than just choosing the dominant when everything else is about symmetry and axis.
Trevor Smith you are thinking about a note being an axis... in the negative harmony concept they are imposing an axis BETWEEN two notes. That axis happens to be equidistant from the root and it’s 5th of whatever key you chose. Between the major and minor third in other words.
but I think he made a mistake, the opposite of Dm7 (as in IIm7 of C) is Eb... Continuing the progression, according to the proposition, the opposite of G7 (V7 of C) is Bbm, and the target note HAS NO OPPOSITE* *because if both ends don't converge towards each other, you won't give final "proof" of negative harmony (or melody, or whatever you want to call this movement of opposites)... that's how I understood this...
Felipe Scolfaro he proposed a hypothetical D7 (secondary dominant) in key of C, not Dm7. However he did make an error that the negative chord should be Gm7b5... what he calls Bbm would be negative of a D maj triad only. Earlier he states “dominant 7 becomes minor 6” which is more correct but interns of function m6 is used as inverted m7b5 IMO.
positive is major and negative minor, so? the sensation to reach de tonic is obviously different, we already knew that.... I wonder if some people gets excited with this, I can't imagine the level of excitement of people listening and studying the harmony of Scriabin, for example
10 pm: One more video
3 am: Negative harmony
MEEE
damn
it's 12:42am rn. can reach 2 ⅓ more hours tho
So damn relatable
I love Jacob's body language. It shows that for him music theory isn't clinical it's emotionally affirming.
+Peter Day I wish I felt music the way he does
great observation. music is his DNA.
He moves like a crack head. Wtf you talkin about?
Johnny Luna heh d and a
@@hottamales4986 as a musician should
It's like listening to Neo explain what the matrix is.
I'm not that eloquent
@@neomaredi5922 lmfao
He's the one!
Hahahah YES
This is a 100% parenting win.
+Bebopopotamus definitely.
Apparently his mum is quite a well-respected violin teacher for young ones so it makes sense! I know a few people who had lessons by her.
Hold onto the EXPLORATION instead of the INFORMATION. Beautiful.
+Aimee Nolte Music that's something I'll be passing on to my students
Words to live by, truly...
Aimee Nolte Music I dig your videos!
i watch your videos, i don't play piano, and i'm far from being a jazz player, but the info helps a lot. Gives me tools to develop myself.
+Rick Jordon In my interpretation, the information provided by Aimee and others helps plant the seed of exploration, which breeds new information. The two go hand-in-hand, but you'll have a more meaningful experience if you base your musical development in exploring based on the information you have gathered to gain more information and interpret it in your own unique way.
Personally, Aimee Nolte Music has really widened my horizons on jazz (THANK YOU AIMEE :D), but my ultimate goal is to take the information received, tinker with it and develop it more on my own, then still be able to apply it even if it is forgotten, if that makes any sense at all >.<
Also, to everyone watching, take Jacob Collier's advice with a grain of salt. The things he says works for him largely because he is an absolute genius who can grasp musical concepts intuitively to such an unfair degree. Take his philosophy and apply it as best as you can, but in your own way.
I understood all those words separately
We need a series of this for the sake of all that is good
The onslaught of jacob collier "negative harmony" videos is too many, I agree we need a series!
I wonder if he gets tired of literally no one understanding a thing he says
Trying to explain with words something that is felt, is not always easy! He did a GREAT job of it I thought. I understand what he means about emotional importance rather than merely amassing knowledge and being "scaled" by some educational value system that misses a lot of the point - in my opinion also… I also totally get his emphasis on creative importance. I am a performing musician who has had absolutely no training/theory - I do everything by ear and feel, so I didn't understand any of his theory talk, but so got what he is on about :)
😂
I guess he says "Look at these beautiful blue tulips in that japanese garden over there" and people go " yeah there is a green blob somewhere"
i understand lol
Blame the user, not the tool.
"Ok, theory doot-doot-doot-doot; all the stuff you can note, that's fantanstic. And that's like.. not the whole point" ~Jacob Collier (2017)
Mozart would have been SO popular on social media, you can really visualise that by watching this
The Music Nerd Messiah.
There is a good reason why Jesus Christ a Jacob Collier have the same initials ;)
dresses like him too...
If you write Jesus Christ in negative writing, i.e. mirror all the letters around it’s lexicological axis, you actually end up with Jacob Collier.
JC FOR GLOBAL WORLD DICTATOR
For anyone as confused as I was with the explanations, here's a jargon buster: The Key of C Negative Major is: I: Abmaj7, ii: G min7, iii: F min7, IV Eb Maj7, v :Dmin7b5, vi :Cmin7, VII: B7 - or in other words - Ab Lydian in reverse!
So basically, to find the Negative version of any key, the IMaj7 chord inverts to it's b6 Major7 :D
Hope this helps!
Why would Ab Lydian be the "negative" version of C Major? I would expect the "negative" version to start on C and go down in the same order of intervals, so whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. That produces C-Bb-Ab-G-F-Eb-Db-C - in other words, C Phrygian. But I guess it really doesn't matter what anything is labeled. If it helps you, use the label. I don't think I will, but practicing going up in Ionian and down in Phygian and vice versa is kind of interesting and I'll play with that.
@@michaelladerman2564 If you're thinking of it in that way then you'd technically be right in your own technique! But the way Jacob arrives at his 'Negative Harmony' is by flipping the notes around the axis of the 5th (G) - not just reversing the interval spellings of the original scale.
I'm going to apologize in advance for how convoluted this all sounds:
So if you get a Circle of Fifths & draw a line separating C & G, then look at which notes C, E, G & B (C Major 7 chord) are mirrored with on the 'Negative' side. C mirrors G, E mirrors Eb, G mirrors C and B mirrors Ab: Those notes make Ab, C, Eb, G - An Ab Major 7 chord - it's all mirrored, that's why I spelled them in the opposite order to how they were found from the C maj 7 chord. This would be the Negative harmony version of C Major. C Maj 7 is the I chord in the Key of C Maj. But now flipped into it's Negative version - Ab Maj7 is the I chord of C 'Negative Major' - I'm cringing at myself already haha.
If you find the Negative Harmony version of all of the other chords in the C Major key, you'll realize that they really invert to the key of C Minor - but here's the crucial part - Ab Maj7 is the new I chord on the negative side - In the Key of C Natural Minor (Aeolian) the relative mode built from Ab is Lydian. So when you flip C Major over the axis, you drop yourself right into the Lydian flavor of the new Key. Because of the mirror nature of what you're doing, each negative chord you've found lined up would be this:
Abmaj7, Gmin7, Fmin7, Eb Maj7, D half diminished (which Jacob would think of as Fmin6), Cmin7, B7 - This is basically starting from the Ab lydian tonal centre and moving the chord scale in reverse - Hence Ab Lydian in Reverse - I'm talking about the overall key - since the concept largely focuses on Chord substitution/Gravity. But if you look at the scale too:
The negative version of the C Major scale would be: G F Eb D C Bb Ab
Ab Lydian, in reverse.
It's completely confusing, but it checks out! Apologies for the essay haha.
Also a side note - I'm doing this with 7th chords - but if you do it with triads you actually get C Natural Minor key in reverse - so strange!
Dope af
“Play a chord that's your mother, play a chord that's your sister, play a chord that's like what you feel.”- Jacob Collier
“Play the world you wanna see” -Wayne Shorter
“A chimpanzee could learn to do what I do physically. But it goes way beyond that. When you play, you play life.” -Jaco Pastorius
+Juan This interaction with Jacob really changed how I learn music. I really started focusing on the feel instead of the information.
I want to pin this on my wall when i get home, lol
It may sound like gibberish at first but this kid looks at music the way it should be looked at.
Create just to create. Not judgment as to the end result. Brilliant. Thank you.
+Victoria Theodore there are so many gems in this little clip. I stayed the whole time he was talking to people because was full of great stuff.
DUDE I have literally considered the same thing but I thought it was just a dumb idea I had and no one would ever like something i tried to make using the concept. Now I know it’s a legitimate concept and I should try out random ideas more often rather than shutting them down if I want to create something I love and enjoy like he does
His voice range is actually scary, though
And that he can't stop moving.
I don't think that is too uncommon. His vocal range is practically identical to mine, so perhaps that's why I believe that. If anything, he said in his masterclass that he can comfortably hit a low D (I can _"uncomfortably"_ reach a low B) which I think is uncommon for most people (he actually says that he strives for getting colds, because his voice drops so that he can record samples of himself), however his high tones aren't actually from his diaphragm, but head voice.
Most, if not all people, can sing falsetto, but it needs to be trained. It isn't ideal though, because it doesn't retain the rich character of your chest voice (you can clearly hear that his high notes sound damped), nor is it always comfortable and may actually be detrimental to your singing if done wrong. I haven't checked, but I assume his goes to a high G or something. That's a little over three octaves, which is nice.
It is true that this kind of vocal arrangement is easier for guys, because our vocal ranges more often encompass bass frequencies. A choir is quite empty without its foundation rooted in the bass section. However, there are still ways to overcome this, such as vocal detuners. TC-Halicon makes some nice vocal pedals for this. The D1 for instance, does this well. Put on a pair of closed headphones so you can hear yourself and you won't even notice that you're singing an octave up.
Bruno Romagnoli he acts like happy lil kid but has mr. Hancock's knowledges
ever heard of falsetto? Of course it's wide if he sings with his falsetto mostly
seems like he is talking about tritone substitution but with a different way of saying it
I love this guy,because he's not jealous of his knowledge,always see him explaining things with the same love that he does his music..true genius..
This guy fucking gets it. Goddaaaaaamn
This was the best concert i'd ever been to in my life and In the Real Early Morning made me damn near cry. And this interview was so entertaining to listen to!
Garrett Tageant I was absolutely blown away too. In my hideaway was my favorite.
It was more of an audio/visual experience than just a concert to be honest
Gosh I love this guy
Damn son I have to up my game
twistedparadoxELITE me too. He really changed my way of thinking when it comes to learning music. I also have to actually sit down with this video and decode it.
If I could weigh in - the 5th is the most stable because it's the first note in the harmonic series that appears after the octave!
Drew Zaremba hey Drew!!
See this comment for my explanation of why the fifth is used, why the point of reflection is halfway between F and F#, etc.: ua-cam.com/video/e2nUoq3AqjA/v-deo.html&lc=z13zxduaeligv3vhw04cibszkoe4vv1i320
I never considered that!! That's so cool!!
Ethan Plante of course. Why do you think the triad is so strong? It’s what fucking sounds when you smack any object, the next after the 5th is the major 3rd.
Love Jacob, super inspiring how he moves from music theory to life advice
Also a big life lesson from such a young guy... Bravo!
+Ivan franasović he's incredibly intelligent.
I love Jacob's explanation of music theory! It actually makes sense.
Jacob is Genious...He didnt explain only harmony ...He explained more than that... how do we see people ,upon their results....he is so talented
Wow! Jacob explains things in a way that shows real meaning. What a super aware lovely human. Blessings!
The biggest point in this conversation is that he says that there is a philosophy behind his style . So anyone could play anything as long as he has some intention behind it (that actually works ) and it has to be felt
Kid's a genius.
Stating the obvious.
A good beginning point is to stay just with the Ionian mode and find the "negatives" to that, as it turns out it's the parallel scale. So: C Major C minor, with a twist, Ionian becomes Phrygian. C Ionian G Phrygian. Once you get the hang of that it becomes easier to find the negatives for the chromatic notes to the original scale. I find Jacob's explanations a bit convoluted actually.
Leonardo Requejo I haven't really dig into this idea but I'll try that. Thanks
but shouldn't you be taking the root at C both times? So C natural minor rather than G phrygian.
When you "negative" a C major triad you get a C minor triad not a Gsus4#5 ; similarly when you take a whole C major scale, the you're still "in" C at the end.
You don't really reflect the function of the root up; C going to D doesn't mean G is now the root any more than the D going to F now makes F the second degree of the scale.
Granted, you are still in C, actually C major. This is actually very close to good old Modal Mixture.
-"When you "negative" C major you get C minor"
yes, but how? C becomes G, E becomes Eb and G becomes C, wich (if you know inversions) is C minor.
I understand how it works. I was just trying to point out you're missing the point by analysing your result with the wrong tonal centre. G lydian makes as much sense as here as D locrian would, or Eb Major for that matter.
Also for this exercise, you'd do well to lose the idea of "C minor" or "C major". I'm to lazy to give a proper explanation why, but it's like, you'll still be in "C" at the end, but to the extent that minor or major as a key identity works for your source material, it won't be preserved in the inverted result.
For some fun reflect whatever your favourite scales are and see what comes out. C major goes to C minor, which is fun, but do you feel like reflecting a melodic minor, harmonic minor, double harmonic, lydian etc. etc. gives you what you feel is their opposite? There's not really a right answer to that, but the guy who came up with the theory would say "yeah, it is" of course. At the end of the day, either way, it's a fun way of thinking about it and a useful tool in the toolbox.
Derp I just looked at this after I posted that other comment replying to your other comment. Good work
There is a really nice quote by Frank Zappa which (I think) pretty much explains what Jacob is talking about in the end:
"Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is THE BEST.”
This is how I understand this quote: INFORMATION is meaningless to us until we learn it, at which point it becomes KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge is meaningless until we find our reasons and make our decisions based on it, leading us to (hopefully) WISDOM...this of course includes mistakes or "wrong" decisions as well. However, not everyone will agree with your wisdom, so is it the truth? It is not. Finally, when we create/listen to music what do we appreciate and love in it, if not its Beauty? (whichever form this beauty takes for you) So to paraphrase the most important message of this interview (imho):
Create music for the sake of its beauty, not for the sake of the beauty that someone may or may not find in it (aka results). There will always be someone who loves it and someone who hates it, but it will not change the beauty of its own creation...
So to sum things up, it seems that Mr. Collier is truly an "old soul" :)
For those struggling with the explanation, I may have a better way of explaining it.
So it's basically using the chords from the minor parallel. But instead of resolving them in the usual way (descendent fifths or ascendent parallels), you resolve through ascendent fifths or descendent fourths. Basically, the idea is that you can use Eb Major Scale as a way of getting to C Major. This is old. But the real twist is the inversion of the usual "resolving tendency" from a fifth descend to a fifth ascend.
So the old iii - vi - ii - V - I becomes IIIb - VIIb7 - iv - I.
Wow thats an amazing explanation I get what he means about the cycling and as you go a certain direction the chord functions a certain way and the harmony can darken or lighten in its direction with what mode is emphasized within the cycling. A very amazing lesson!
Thank you Jacob! You are an inspiration to me! Thanks man! May god bless you a happy life here&after :)
I love how he's the only one talking at the end. Everyone stops to listen
5:30 - point of realization. Amen.
Could you explain it ? I couldn't get it :(
SHORT: Reflect Gdom7 across E-half-flat and you get Fmin6. B maps to Ab and F maps to D. The B resolves to C by half-step and Ab resolves to G by half-step. The F resolves to E/Eb by half/whole-step and D resolves to E/Eb by whole/half-step. So Fmin6 has the same gravity to C as Gdom7.
LONG: G dominant 7 strongly wants to resolve to C. This is because the B wants to resolve up to the C by half step and the F wants to resolve down to the E/Eb by half/whole step. How much the B wants to resolve to C and F to E/Eb is what Jacob Collier is calling "gravity" here. A factor of a note's "gravity" toward another note is how close they are to each other [1], and a chord's gravity to another chord is all the gravity of each of the notes added together.
The most important notes in C are C and G, so we put our axis right in the middle of C and G, which is E and a half flat. Reflect each note in Gdom7 across this axis and you get F minor 6 [2]. The B which resolved UP to C by half-step before now maps to Ab which wants to resolve DOWN to G by half-step. The F which resolved DOWN to E/Eb by half/whole-step before maps to D which wants to resolve UP to E/Eb by whole/half-step. The gravity of B->C is the same as Ab->G and the gravity of F->E/Eb is the same as D->Eb/E -- they just come from opposite directions. So we might say that Fmin6 (iv add6) has the same gravity to C (I) as Gdom7 (V7) does [3].
This is significant because it illustrates how voice-leading (or "arrival") is paramount in common-practice music. Functional harmony often takes a backseat to good voice-leading, and most if not all functional harmony can be described in terms of voice-leading, as I did in this post describe the gravity of Gdom7 to C.
[1] For example, you don't feel very compelled to resolve C to an F multiple octaves away because of how far they are from each other.
[2] I think we call it F minor 6 instead of D half diminished 7 because Gmaj maps to Fmin and not a D chord. Adding the 7th to Gdom7 results in adding the 6th to the Fmin chord.
[3] This is somewhat verified by the existence and high usage of minor plagal cadences, especially in mainstream music since the 20th century.
I found a really insightful link about it, basically you pick an axis : let's say C and you "reflect" the notes on it. So D becomes Bb because D is a second apart from C and so is Bb (but in the other direction). That's the basic concept, i've seen also "hybrid" axis but i didn't understand it
In the key of C major Em7 would become Fm7. E becomes Eb, G becomes C, B becomes Ab and D becomes F. F-Ab-C-Eb= Fm7. See my post above. Cheers!
Got it, very interesting, if the bass is playing E in the end becomes a Fm maj7/E, it would be interesting to find a voicing where that works even if the piano still plays Em7, I'd rather take every minor chord as either Dorian or Aeolian .
he just can not stop
Jacob sounds like he has.."perfect pitch"...very rare.
A fan.
+Phil Granito yeah he definitely has perfect pitch. I'm so jealous
no shit aha
@JellyGamer no one born with perfect pitch
@@Danilo8208SS Perfect 22 TET pitch
It's really interesting to see how this relates of Don Freund's spectrum of fifths (there are videos about it on UA-cam). Basically, adding notes to a scale from the "flat" side of the circle makes things darker and adding notes from the "brighter" side makes the music brighter, and we can use these tools to control the emotional content of our music.
I have looked for an explanation for so long on why a minor 4 chord to major 1 resolves so well, and now I've finally found it. Thank you so much!!!
+Edison Cummings I hadn't thought of that . What's the connection to negative harmony?
Danilo8208SS In C, the negative harmony to G7 is Fm6. So they both make a strong resolution, but sound like "opposites"
Another way of thinking of it perhaps: Fm could be thought of as a rootless voicing of V7sus4(b9). Essentially a spicy V -> I.
Totally agree that the 5th is the most stable interval that defines the key or sonority. Paul Hindemith would too
very simple, yet intelligent approach, that's a clear definition of "genius"... thanks for sharing this!
Jacob is such a sweet guy!
This is the root/dominant/subdominant style of theory also taught by Hans Keollreuter here in Brazil. Brilliant that other people are catching on to it.
Andres Etchenique swiss composer Ernst Levy came up with the idea about 150 years ago
such a joy to watch him get into it
WOW he has perfect pitch. When he says the tone names it corresponds to the acutal notes...
+I have an awesome name haha I had to check his singing against my piano. He's no joke.
Yes but he describes the incorrect chord in his example of subbing D7. It should be Gm7b5
In order to deeply absorb the concept of negative harmony (which has been around for quite a while), I strongly recommend reading William Allaudin Mathieu's ''Harmonic Experience''.
Thank you! I asked Jacob if he would recommend any harmony books and he said no because he's never read any.
He actually said this to you?
just want to say none of these comments show any understanding of the level jacob collier is on and how amazing a person he is
Amazing ear, voice, musical mind.
What was it that zapped this guys brain from somewhere in the universe ,that’s given him a microtonal brain ,genius is a word used a lot but this cat is special
I think his mom had a lot to do with it. She's a music teacher and has perfect pitch. She taught him how to understand and FEEL music on a level that very few people do.
yo..... At 7:30 i just lost my mind... his thought process on the actual feeling of each note in the chord. like WHAATTT???? that's insanely BEAUTIFULLLL!!!!
2:12 Makes me really happy that he's bringing attention to George Russell, a very underrated jazz musician. I listened to "Ezz-thetics" and could immediately tell he and Eric Dolphy were cooking up some of the greatest jazz harmonies ever.
Here's why the axis of reflection is halfway between F and F#, if you're in D:
What Jacob is talking about is a way of transforming any chord, any melody, any progression, even entire songs, into something new. You simply flip all the pitches upside down, so that ascending is descending and vice versa. OK, let's try that with a D major chord. For D major, you go from D up a M3 to F#, then up a m3 to A. To find upside-down D major, we start at D, and go down to Bb, then down to G. D major becomes G minor.
We've done two things, changed major to minor, and changed the chord root (and key, too, if it's a one-chord song) from D to G. But this 2nd change is sort of trivial. People transpose songs all the time, and it's still the same song. The interesting thing is the change from major to minor. So we change the key from G back to D, so that it doesn't distract us from the interesting change. So D major becomes D minor.
We reflected everything around D, then moved everything up a fifth. That's the same as taking whatever you did up from D, and doing it down from A instead. A, not D, because it's a fifth higher, and we have to move everything up a fifth anyway, might as well do it right away. Thus D "maps" to A and vice versa, E maps to G, and F maps to F#. So we're reflecting around the point half-way between D and A, or equivalently halfway between F and F#. You can check this by building the chord not up from D, but down from A: Down a M3 gets us to F, and down a m3 gets us to D, and again, D major becomes D minor.
Reflecting again just undoes the change, so D minor reflects to D major.
D Dm
Dsus4 Dsus2
D7 Dm6
Dm7 D6
DM7 Dm add m6 = BbM7
D9 Dm6 add 11
Dm9 D6 add 11
Altered-5th chords get a new root:
Daug Dbaug
Ddim D#dim
Dm7b5 D#dim add m6 = B7
We can do this with scales too: D major is WWhWWWh. Going down from A, we get A G F E D C Bb A, which is D E F G A Bb C D, which is a D minor scale.
For melodies, I find it easier to go down from the fifth, rather than reflecting around F half-sharp. Do re mi fa so so la mi-flat re do.
For chord progressions, to find the new roots, you don't go down from the fifth, but down from the tonic. If you're reflecting, reflect around D, not F-half-sharp. This ensures that the root of the tonic chord stays the same, so that the key doesn't change. Once you've found the root, use the list of chords above to find the new chord quality.
D A Bm G Dm Gm F Am
To get from the 3rd chord to the 4th chord, you still only move one note by one semitone. That's what's so cool about all this. Everything's different, but there are still certain similarities.
V7 I IVm6 Im
Note that there's still a dim5 interval contracting to a M3, which is the essence of this cadence.
IIm7 V7 IM7 bVII6 IVm6 Im-add-m6 = bVIM7
You get a sort of a false cadence, because it doesn't feel like a return to the I chord.
Now let's turn Wimoweh upside down:
Key: C major
Chords: C F C G
Melody: C D E D E / F E D C D / E D C E / D
Reflect around the point between E and Eb (or between A and Bb, same thing):
New key: C minor
New chords: Cm Gm Cm Fm
New melody: G F Eb F Eb / D Eb F G F / Eb F G Eb / F
The C major scale becomes a C minor scale. For fun, we can transpose New Wimoweh down to Am, so that we end up using the same 7 notes. Then we can play Normal Wimoweh in C, followed by New Wimoweh in Am, and the change is less abrupt.
Hey Jacob, you beautiful joyous genius you, if you're reading this, contact me for a complimentary copy of my microtonal software, very performer-oriented, lets you retune mid-song as you play: www.TallKite.com/alt-tuner.html
Kite Giedraitis holyfuckingshit - thank you!!
Amazing genes and talents on this guy, plus the hard work ofc!
if you are confused about Negative Harmony, just paint the keyboard and take the distance in semitones from one note to G, as a mirror in relation to C.
I actually tried to make a table with chords, is there anyway you can check them and we can comment it? I'm studying this for using this as a tool for my next album drive.google.com/open?id=0BwyeCTk_6fjjSHk4cXg4cTl5WVU
Hey! the chords in your scheme don't appear to be transposed correctly. Check the idea here drive.google.com/file/d/0B4I9Il61tHY6dEhHa0tBT2tLTnc/view?usp=sharing
I see I did the Axis as a middle point between G and C. I did it all wrong!
Whoa, this is from the Seattle show! I was there; fantastic concert. I ended up taking off since I figured the Jacob swarm would be too crazy, but I wanted to ask him about this. Thanks for the video :D
theeggman85 it wasn't too bad. Everyone was civil. I figured there would be a lot more people. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Damn, I've been sitting here converting all chordal functions to their negative and it can really spice progressions up! At last the musical rabbit hole has a new tunnel, let's see where it goes....
+DogTheWateringCan there's always a new tunnel.
thank you so much for sharing this
曾忠凱 you're very welcome
love you Jacob..
on the 5th thing..
it's priamry becuase it is..
and that's somehtign we've both found and feel in many ways..
the relationship between a note and it's fifth is fundamentally different to that of a note and it major 7th for example.. both on a musical and emotional level
but alos on a maths and physics level and in some forms ona visual level..
it primary harmonics.. it's partials and overtones..
it's shapes and fractals and comfortably fitting wavelengths
In contrast to all the sad political nonsense coming from Britain lately it is pure joy to hear this chap.
I loved this. Jacob it's just so didactic teaching good principles about music 😊
his singing is pure
gracias por compartir!! ahora me qedo clara la armonia negativa
Amazing thought process.....
He's genius :D Thanks for the video
you're welcome. Thanks for watching.
This wasn't even a scheduled interview? Cool dude.
When he finished the show, he just said "I'll be in the lobby in a few minutes if you want to say hello. He took a picture and chatted with every single person until his manager said they needed to leave the venue.
I love Jacob Collier
Very interesting! MORE please
+Garry Nichols I only have one more video from these talks with Jacob. I'll share it soon. I'm not sure how interesting it really is though.
jeezzzz this guy is incredible
I understand the negative harmony and how it works. The way he explains it is actually quite simple. The thing that confuses me is the super mega meta lydian stuff.
I think since the emphasis on negative harmony, we've had a lot of videos surface saying... "Oh wow, what is it?" And we've gotten a lot of information on the like. In this video even, we begin to hear a question regarding the functionality of negative harmony. I think we should start asking "okay, what does it look like to start practically applying/experimenting with this?"
I got some interesting results rotating the notes not all around C, but each one around the respective interval in the triad. For example in the key of C the triads for the progression 3,6,2,5 using this method would be AbDbEb EbAbBb BbEbF F. It sounds weird to then resolve to C but it is interesting using these chords and then exchanging with the regular ones.
words i actually understood:
none
Pity...
I didn't understand anything but he sounds like a really cool guy
gracias por compartirlo!
I understood what he was saying. And yeah fuctionaly negative harmony is weird but like he said it's just more tools to explore with. I really like how he thinks about music. Just learn more tools to play with. I personally wouldn't use negative harmony in any of my playing or composition because I have a much more simplistic approach and I don't like the way it sounds. It has to fit the music you play I guess.
Love this guy.
This is so cool
damn. the last 2 minutes.
6:46 is what you need :D, the whole video however will be also very nice to watch ;3
daaammn! the kids got perfect pitch. i just checked every note he sang
+Jetz pro haha I did the same thing.
Yes! But can he play 'Smoke On The Water'?
thanks for sharing!
+iris muddy you're very welcome
All I wonder is what scale it creates. My brain screams it can be simplified as modal interchange! If you do what he was saying, it has to create some type of scale and then you compare that to the C major scale and voila, you've got bright and dark chords to choose from. Not only though. You can turn positive harmony into negative harmony!
the chat starts to get interesting when people stop to interrupt jacob explanations.
+ManelFogo exactly. Some of the guys were trying too hard to show they understood the theory but as Jacob said, that's not the whole point of it all.
He's pitch perfect too. That's why he can make all these damn Iharmu videos at the beach. cotdaaamn
Yeah he's a beast.
I just went through and had to like every comment
You did not like yours, so I'm liking it for you 💪
Brilliant!
Here is a simple cipher to use negative harmony so you don’t make errors like this kid does at 4:29 (he should say D maj triad not D7)
1234567 is major notes, but derive your negative harmony from these equivalent note pairs:
[1-5, 2-4, 3-b3, 4-2, 5-1, 6-b7, 7-b6] ... that’s your main set.
then keep on the side the chromatic ones you might need
[b2-#4, b3-3, #4-b2, b6-7, b7-6]
When making chords, don’t think like jazz guys each root is 1. Always use 1-7, for example the iii chord is actually 3-5-7 notes, so your negative sub will be b3-1-b6. Use the cipher to replace chords with extensions and such if you want. Don’t try to swap Roman numerals for minor key equivalents, that’s not the point.
Jedi Master of music
Amazing!!!
I always think of Bb minor to C as the Indiana Jones cadence haha
The main talking point of "negative harmony" is that the iv7 chord has has the tension towards the tonic as the V7 chord. The problem is... it doesn't.
5:10 This girl surely know what he is talking about.
OMD! 2:46 - was it just me or did he actually hum that note correctly in the key of C without checking!?? Jeezz! #pitchperfect?
MrToshtoshtosh yeah, I'm pretty sure he has perfect pitch
+TechnoGuider he does have perfect pitch. I had to check the notes and he's was spot on. It's just hard to believe that it's so easy to him.
I really love everything here, I just disagree with the 5th being the negative point of the axis. Everything else in this negative idea is a naturalistic mirror around a pivot point EXCEPT this negative root. It's applying functional harmony to the ruleset in only one case for this idea of negative harmony. I understand the point he's making, with the 5th being a stable and related point, but it's still being decided in a different way than the rest of these ideas, like how a major chord being flipped to minor is based purely on symmetry and not function. There should be a way to do this while having a natural and symmetrical pivot despite functional harmony.
If we say that the negative root can start on the tritone, then there's a few things that make this stronger in my opinion. For one, it's literally symmetrical in nature, being a frequency negative. Also, it is the mirror of the starting point on any circle of fifths. If you build a circle of 5ths from C, the opposite of that circle is Gb/F#. This seems to make more sense to me than just choosing the dominant when everything else is about symmetry and axis.
Trevor Smith you are thinking about a note being an axis... in the negative harmony concept they are imposing an axis BETWEEN two notes. That axis happens to be equidistant from the root and it’s 5th of whatever key you chose. Between the major and minor third in other words.
but I think he made a mistake, the opposite of Dm7 (as in IIm7 of C) is Eb... Continuing the progression, according to the proposition, the opposite of G7 (V7 of C) is Bbm, and the target note HAS NO OPPOSITE*
*because if both ends don't converge towards each other, you won't give
final "proof" of negative harmony (or melody, or whatever you want to
call this movement of opposites)...
that's how I understood this...
Felipe Scolfaro he proposed a hypothetical D7 (secondary dominant) in key of C, not Dm7. However he did make an error that the negative chord should be Gm7b5... what he calls Bbm would be negative of a D maj triad only. Earlier he states “dominant 7 becomes minor 6” which is more correct but interns of function m6 is used as inverted m7b5 IMO.
Every time people speak about something and go deep into the concept, the word ‘language’ appears.
positive is major and negative minor, so? the sensation to reach de tonic is obviously different, we already knew that.... I wonder if some people gets excited with this, I can't imagine the level of excitement of people listening and studying the harmony of Scriabin, for example