The Wii Shop Theme can teach you Jazz Songwriting
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- Опубліковано 13 чер 2024
- The Wii Shop Theme is, surprisingly, a perfect example of the fundamentals of jazz harmony. It's also just a total banger.
0:00 - "Elevator Music" / the Bossa Nova style
3:28 - Wii Shop Theme
4:01 - Beautiful Upper Extensions / the 7-6 move
5:19 - ii V I voice leading
8:20 - 3+7 voice leading in the Wii Shop Theme
12:38 - How Jazz Melodies Work
14:44 - The Rootless ii V I
16:18 - Outro
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#wii #gamemusic #8bitMusicTheory - Ігри
It gifts us with excellent themes for musical theory. Pacing, gentle chord progression, comfortable clashes, and because each bit of the melody takes regular breaks it is so easy to loop without making it feel like it is looping
I can tell I'm getting better at music theory because each of these videos is starting to make more sense to me
Hey, me too! I'm mostly self-taught using videos like this to help me learn more
@@Eltrotraw How long have you've been self-teaching?
@@Sol-Amar as of typing this message, almost two years
so true
Slowly but surely lol
Fun fact: The real title of this piece is "Wanderley", after the Bossa Nova legend Walter Wanderley. That's according to the sequence data for the piece.
Amazing as always! 2:19 one note here is that elevator music was intended to keep early elevator passengers calm as they risked their lives riding often-failing lifts.
That comments you may near the end about how a jazz teacher will be reluctant to admit how well this song is written made me remember my issues when I was in school from music education and stuff. The way that they talked about alternative forms of music and music comp and being so rigid about it really turned me off and I ended up not doing music for a long time after that. I really wish that communication on this kind of stuff was more common; you do a pretty good job at it. 💚
I like music too. I don't like the rigidity, elitism, and competitive behavior that comes with it either. Perhaps you could be one of the many people here that will change that.
“Guitar is not a musical instrument" - my high school music teacher 😢
I’m a professional electronic and metal musician. I have been a musician, music producer, sound engineer, and composer for over 10 years now. you wouldn’t believe how often I used to hear people tell me that I’m not a musician, or that electronic music is not real music. It’s so frustrating because I’m classically trained and can play the drum set and piano as well. But people are so rigid and close minded. I appreciate your comment because there too many people out there who don’t educate themselves on things before dissing it
Bad theory teachers have ruined theory for entirely too many students. Always forgetting things like
- Theory is descriptive, not prescriptive
- Much of it is specific to (extended?) Common Practice Period
- Students need to know that doing exercises with rigid rules is about building foundational skills and pattern recognition, like compositional and theoretical scales and arpeggios, not about "correctness" or creative prescription
- shut up about parallel fifths unless you're doing CPP counterpoint. Just shut up.
- like literary analysis, the goal is not and has never been to infer what the composer's "iNtEnTiOn" was, only to describe the relationships and structures in use
- western classical theory _can_ be applied to music deriving from other traditions to gain *insight*, but it can *never* tell you anything about how _good_ a piece of music is. Descriptive not prescriptive.
And more.
If anyone reading is in a theory class which feels like it's actively trying to creatively stifle you, read the above truths a few times and realise it's got nothing to do with limiting your creative possibilities. If your teacher is using it to say your creative interests in general are somehow forbidden by theory, they're wrong, but if you try to spice up a 4-part Bach chorale with some crunch and are surprised your exercise is marked poorly then it is you who has missed the point. Theory is not a limiter, it is a descriptor of a certain kind of music which has been extended to the upper limits of flexibility. Exercises that help you internalise the structures of classical theory are not prescriptive
i think anything can be music
even know a few songs with dogs barking as the lead
6:14 bro thought we wouldnt notice him sneaking giant steps in there 💀
I was thinking this
That's the power of the 2-5-1 👌
As a Brazilian, I just wanna say thanks for making the effort to try to pronounce "Antônio Carlos Jobim" at 2:39, it was actually pretty decent!
And I mean, in a good way! Like, of course if you spend a bunch of time trying to pronounce a specific word in a different language, you probably won't get near perfect. And that's absolutely normal. No one is entitled to require that someone that doesn't natively speak your language is able to magically learn new phonemes and rules than the ones you spent your whole life using.
But still, I think it usually shows when the person at least made some effort vs someone who just pronounces it as they see it. And I appreciate that you cared enough to think about trying to make that effort. :)
This and the Mii Channel theme will live on for decades.
There are two things I love about this video: 1, you’ve been consistently doing more totaka content and that guy is seriously one of the most interesting and talented composers ever to work in the game world, and 2, I just enjoyed listening to you talk about the history of bossa nova and how the style came to be. Jazz history is fascinating and wonderful and you sound like you’re really in your element when you talk about it.
Gonna use this as a basis to study jazz. Totally didn't think of the Wii shop music as jazz but now it takes a while new level of appreciation
Learning jazz bass at SNHU. This is such a great video. I was learning how those upper extensions came from Romantic composer Claude Debussy and are also called French Impressionist Extensions. Still this is a 21st century bossa nova standard
Wii Shop Wednesday will forever be a goated sketch, such a banger
I cannot hear the Wii Shop theme without singing the song from that sketch. It's so damn funny.
@@RikiazGaming”okay we get it; you memorized a-“
I rike it. I rike it.
I can't believe how much your channel has grown! Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be trying to get the Wii Shop theme out of my head for the rest of the day
the section on voice leading with chord extensions was actually really useful, thank you! i normally do it myself but it's useful to know why
I thought I was the only one who loved this back in the 00ties.
Fantastic analysis.
Thank you
Haven’t finish listening but just want to mention the exact title of the video was my first thought upon listen to the song after my degree in jazz music haha
It really does make you want to buy these things and bask in the wonders of jazz harmony.
Another classic video in the books!
Nice analysis!! I am one of those jazz teachers (community college) and I just forwarded your video to our band chat.
Great job! and Thanks! (because it's reinforcing exactly what we are studying right now - modulations!)
And I sent them the link while I was still at the 10-minute mark. (And yeah, I cracked up at the jazz teacher comment at the end, because you are absolutely right. A lot of cats in higher ed tend to not give credit where it really is due.)
This is very informative, thank you! Your video on the Dolphin Shoals solo from years ago was super useful for my own composition, and I've been referring back to your channel often!
I have been waiting on this specific video to drop for like 2 years now.... I love that so many streamers bring this back to use because of the nostalgia of it, and I unironically love the theme to the point where I even do work with it on in the background sometimes. It's just so good, and I feel like I can get stuff done to the the theme because it doesn't demand my attention. I can never get work done to something like a SMG playlist
I just want to say this was a phenomenally concise and well explained video! It's so brilliant how you took a seemingly simple track so many of us were familiar with and used it to explain so many concepts it builds upon. I definitely have even more respect for the music after watching and will take these points into consideration when writing music myself.
Fantastic video, as always! Love your choice of piece to analyze!
Fantastic analysis as always.
I cant hear this song without thinking of the Siivagunner rip where it becomes Fly Me to the Moon lol
Adam Neely: Laufey isn't jazz
8-bit Music Theory: The Wii Shop Theme is jazz
get out of my feed, charles
Adam Neely already covered the huge NY jazz scene around videogame music, including this theme
fr. jazz is whatever we want it to be, you stinky elitist :P
Love the Knower shots, especially that wtf shot of Sam the bassist
Have you ever heard Casiopea's "Take Me"? I can't help but wonder if it was the original inspiration for the Wii Shop theme! Casiopea is a Japanese jazz fusion group from the 1970's/1980's with some seriously awesome music. Definitely worth checking them out if you haven't already.
very good explanation on voice leading and how the melody on the top kind of paves the way for strange chords to become coherent within a musical context, they are legitimized because the melody steers your ear toward them
that's how jazz reharmonization works too, the melody kind of dictates what chords can be used, you can basically use any chord that has that melody note up top a nd resolves the movement up there
now the voice leading isn't the entire equation, you still need proper tension and release, resolving to a consonant on the chord sides to make them work smoothly
Hey 8-bit! The Wii Shop Theme is clearly undeniable and heavily inspired by the tune "Surfboard" by Jobim! I've always thought that the theme was just a cooldown version of Surfboard 😅
Damn you weren't kidding. You can also hear the Wii Shop melody pop up for a second towards the end of Aspettando Giorgio from the great Nino Rota's soundtrack for Nights of Cabiria. I always thought that was the inspiration but your theory seems much likelier.
I was going to say the exact same thing! I always felt like the only one who ever realized that...
Huh, I figured they were mimicking 60s/70s retail store muzak
Nice! I always thought Walter Wanderley's "Surfboard" to be the origin, but Jobim is actually 3 years earlier
3:09 LOUIS COLE
Excellent analysis! It's really nice to know how much inspiration this theme takes from various musical ideas. My favorite part about this theme is that the chords that the parallel melody forms don’t feel like afterthoughts or random improvisations, they seem to have a purposeful and "driving" feel to them.
shouts out to the KNOWER clip :)
You beat me to it!
KNOWER RULZ!
man, I'm dying for someone to suggest splatoon's Ink Theory or Yoko and the Gold Bazookas for you to dissect. I love your videos so much. They're so accessible and entertaining, thank you.
The wii shop theme is just... Girl from Ipañema. It sounds so similar, yet distances itself so much. The main melody is heavily influenced by it when you pay attention.
A lot of bossa nova will sound similar, but it does sound a lot like Jobim (who wrote Girl from Ipanema) and especially like this song of his ua-cam.com/video/ua5shVeyOK4/v-deo.html
I feel like I'm listening to the Giant Bombcast and Jeff, Ryan and Vinny are just about to tell me about the hot new downloadable titles this week!
Good video but I wish you had taken a second to recognize the composer Kazumi Totaka.
I don't understand all the musical explanations at all but the videos are really fun to listen too.
The Wii was my childhood, and this will stick with me forever...
It gives it a great breakdown... The analysis once a notice converted to midi is more in depth as far as comprehending it
I love how you put clips of Louis Cole live sesh in there
this is a really accessible breakdown of a lot of the core concepts of jazz harmony. the suggestion that the melody is playing a subversively supporting role is so obvious, but its honestly never even occurred to me in this kind of context. good shit all around
You just explained a lot of things i struggled with in this excellent video. Thanks.
Once again, a great video. Nice work!
8:23 😂😂😂 Trombone Champ!!!
antônio carlos jobim a legend a goat i swear
Totaka is the man.
That was amazing, I learnt so much, thanks!
Oh hey im early.
I absolutely love your videos, every one is informational and investigates in depth music I've never even considered before. Amazing job ❤
🎶 I found the truth at Seventeen, / this song's a slowed-down Wii shop theme / with melody in slow descent / and two-five-one accompaniment.
Nice Gmod Idiot Box clip, hadn't thought about that series in ages
amazing video, thank you!
some golden knowledge in here
Wow, you said the thing i noticed, but didn't quite understand outloud and it all clicked. Thanks for that!
I feel like i understand chord transitions so much better now
LOVE the quick KNOWER clip you put in there
It would’ve been cool if you linked all the covers you used footage from in the description so that I can go watch them! (And credit to other YT creators is always good)
I think the whole muzak/ elevator music thing has lost a lot of its original meaning/ associations with gen Z. Now you just hear regular top 40 pop music everywhere, so there's a novelty to music designed specifically to be non-intrusive. Not to mention the fact that the jazz/bossa nova influence that used to be so prevalent in pop music in the 60s and 70s has slowly been replaced by other sounds, so basically everything about the wii shop channel song sounded fresh and new in 2006
I don’t think I’ve heard elevator music since the late 90s. It got phased out and they just started playing pop radio essentially
If you ever get chance please cover the reharmonisation of Zelda’s lullaby from the end of TotK, it’s really well done, considering how traditional the tune is normally portrayed across the games.
Here's how I got back into playing music in a formal ensemble again (after 10+ yrs): listen to Wii nostalgia music during grad school > forget to close a tab when I leave for a meeting > Wii Shop Bling comes on, dies > insaneintherain's cover comes on next > I quickly consumed all of his covers that were out at the time > I found this channel > I eventually got into wind ensemble where I work.
I genuinely owe my current music involvement to the vgm jazz community on UA-cam ❤
The bossa nova group in 2:48 is Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. I'd HIIIIIGHLY suggest looking at their performances. They are a fantastic jazz youth band!
I would love if you covered pikmin 4’s soundtrack! I love your pikmin video and would love a sequel.
I love Jazz, but the Wii Shop Theme never really stood out to me. Glad to connect some more with it over this video.
6:00 Warn me before you hit me with the Watery Graves.
The sound of the major 9th, 7th and 6th (or 13th) upon a major chord is a key to get the Bossa Nova sound.
Common melodic movements with extensions would be the major 9th going to the perfect 8ve or the major 7th to the major 6th.
The rythm of the first motif is so effective against a 4/4 beat because it repeats an uneven rythm (1 semiquaver rest, two semiquavers) onto the even pulse, until they synchronise again, which takes one and an half measure.
Smooth voice leading in a ii - V - I :
-3rd of ii becomes 7th of V which resolves to 3rd of I
-7th of ii descends to leading tone of V which becomes 7th of I
-9th of ii becomes the 13th of the V (or descends chromatically to the minor 13th of the V) and then descends on the 9th of the I
-5th of ii becomes the major 9th of the V (or descends chromatically to the minor 9th of the V) and then descends to the fifth of the I
One can play several ii-V-I in different keys in a row and ensure easily good voice leading, taking care of the voice leading between the ii-V-Is
These are guidelines, and they are many other ways to ensure smooth voice leading than these listed above, such as the 6/9 triton substitution chord (instead of the classic dominant seventh chord mentioned at 11:25 , which allows a chromatic ascending line)
Finally, such harmonic complexity is often paired with melodic simplicity, wether the degrees in the melody are root 3rd and 5th mainly (as discussed in other 8-bit videos on mario's music) or extensions like in this Wii Shop Theme.
Few motifs, repetitions, transpositions with alterations modifications to fit the harmony... Many compositional decisions that almost make the melody support the harmony, flipping the classical approach of melody's supremacy on simpler harmony.
I absolutely love muzak!
this and the Mii Channel are both modern classics lol
a couple notes. In terms of analysis, it's cumbersome to consider all these 2-5s "traveling to different keys then quickly back." It's much easier to look at them from the perspective of secondary dominants, because secondary dominants still point to the original key and keep things organized. Also, it makes clear distinctions between secondary dominants and actual key changes, which keeps the analysis clean, organized, and easy to understand.
The first one actually isn't either a keychange nor a secondary dominant, but a "backdoor 2-5." When the Cmaj9 goes to a Cm7-F7 2-5, that's the "backdoor cadence" leading back to 1 from b7. A backdoor cadence is a 2-5 whose 5 is a b7 of the original 1. So in this case, it's easier to understand the leap from the F7 to the Bm7. The F7 is the "backdoor 5" approaching G, but then it skips and simply goes to 3, setting up a variation of a 3-6--2-5, which is standard jazz vocabulary.
The Bm7 is 3, the Bbdim is a substitute for the 5 of B(F#7-9), then the Am is 2, then the G#dim is basically an E7-9, the 5 of 2, then back to 2, then b2(tritone sub of 5), then G. So really, this went from your claimed several key changes to zero. It's just G major with a backdoor 2-5 into a 3-6-2-5 with secondary dominants inbetween.
Then the change to E major, the first actual keychange, is prepared by more secondary dominants. F#m to B7 is a basic 2 of 6, 5 of 6, then if it went to Eminor instead of E major, we still wouldn't have a keychange. But it uses these secondary dominants to prepare 6 as normal, then turn 6 into major, hence our first keychange.
Also, your claim about, "this is driven by chords rather than melody and that's the opposite of today's music" is a spurious and in my opinion baseless claim. This song uses many standard melodic practices, and has a really well-composed melody driven by motif and contour. The punctuated static notes vs the "dooo da doooooo", then the climb, "do dododododoooo da" are all motifs that are developed into a true "tune." If anything most music today is barely melodic. it's usually a chord loop with someone singing a bunch of unrelated spam over it.
Anyway, just my two cents. I just think this is a more efficient and more useful way to look at the piece because I think it'll better help composers use the principles. Don't be so quick to call something a "key change." A key change is when you establish a new tonal center. merely stretching the confines of a key with secondary dominants and other devices isn't a key change.
Love seeing Insaneintherain featured
Fantastic lesson
Now you obviously have to give the Mii Channel theme the same great treatment!
7:47 almost 20 years of making music including a degree and I never knew this
“you used to call me on my cellphone…”
finally you are teaching us jazz!
GREAT VIDEOOOOOOO
I can't believe that it took the breakdown of the Wii Shop Theme for me to recognize that the death music in Mario games is also Jazz.
Brilliant!
Hey, I saw some insaneintherain going hard!
Recreating this in the Notion app was long and adjusting the notes was tedious, but definitely worth having my own personal MIDI and absolutely worth the journey.
Great timing with this one. Adam Neely just put out a video about whether or not laufey is jazz and one of his arguments seemed to imply that bossa nova isn't jazz. This video makes me feel a little less stupid for disagreeing.
Take the Samba and slow it
W
A
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D
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ty for the video
I really appreciate the Sam Wilkes mugshot to illustrate 'impenetrable style' line.
I love that groovin…. What is that, a bossa nova beat?
super mario rpg
sonic the hedgehog
donkey kong 3
Man, I really miss this song sooooooooooo much!
Maj7 chord in a bossanova context is the most ferry cruiseish sound of elevator muzak.
I saw you Giant Stepping in there, don't think you can hide from me :P
4:20 'Dawn Chorus' by Thom Yorke uses this chord change
That first chord progression you introduced and asked “Couldn’t you just listen to this forever?” Well, you can listen to a song that has this as the main chord progression! Dawn Chorus by Thom Yorke ❤️
I think i should go back to school to study jazz, this shit is so cool, love the video
This piece was always my standout favourite, even above the mii channel.
Now in terms of recommendations, I feel Poshley Heights from Paper Mario TTYD would make such a cool breakdown
Insaneintherainmusic shoutout!!!!!
Love your videos man! Was wondering if you could cover some of the 'Risk of Rain 2' soundtrack if you haven't already?
I second this, and also add Risk of Rain 1 and Deadbolt as well!
God yeah. Chris Christodolou's work on those games is phenomenal.
After many years I finally feel like I have a good grasp of theory to the extent that I understand what 8 Bit Music Theory is saying❤
It is a pastiche of Jobim's Surfboard song. If you want to listen to the real thing, try Jobim's Antonio Brasileiro album version
Wii Shop Bling mentioned 🥹🥹🥹
My god
Gmod Idiot Box AND Brentalfloss in the same video?
What in the absolute fuck?
"If you like it you should have put a ring on it"
I used to leave the shop open just to vibe to it's theme
Great video, I just wanted to add that I think the intro is a big part of why it blew up so much, specifically because of none Wii owners like myself. The intro comes on suddenly, strong, grabs your attention and it's easy to remember and I think the intro is what elevates the theme from being just a meme for Wii owners to a full gaming community meme.
Welp I guess I'm composing a bossa nova style piece now.
What would you call the form ii-♭ii°-i that’s in there multiple times? It looks kind of like a tritone sub (ii-♭II-I) but it’s targeting a minor chord so the third and seveth of the V7 are flatted, making it a dim7.
Examples from the Wii shop theme are bar 5:
(Bm7 - B♭°7 - Am7),
and bars 13-14 see it twice in a row
(D♯ø - Dm6) - (C♯m7 - C°7 - Bm7).
The thirds and sevenths of ♭ii°-i make the same movement as V-I, but they are both one semitone flatter than in ii-V-I (relative to the ii), and since the third and seventh are so strong, the target i chord doesn’t feel like a resolution, it almost feels more like a I with a raised root (of a key one semitone flatter). The Wii shop theme doesn’t treat it like a resolution but reframes the i as the start of another ii-V-I (or another ii-♭ii°-i ) every time.
What do you call this?