You can also go read up on Tonnetz (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonnetz). Tonnetz is a tonal space visualization originally conceived by Euler. It is very much like a visualization tool for the chordal theory that stems from the Neo-Riemannian world. It blew my mind when I first came across it. To grow on the rules stated in the video, taking out the parallel major/minor, you can essentially go from any chord to another chord (major or minor) that is a minor/major third above or below the current chord root. So you could go from C major to Eb major to Gb major. These kinds of movements are found a LOT in modern movie soundtracks (like Hans Zimmer and others). So much of this works because of great voice leading that happens from one chord to the next. So each individual "voice" within a chord almost has it's own sense of melody in its own movements. It's really cool stuff!
I came here to say that everyone has at least two holes in them, but then I remembered that from a topological standpoint people are more like flesh tubes. Either way, condolences on losing that medical 'license'.
L2112Lifz a tube ? nose has two holes too, I would also count ears and eventually what your mama gave you. topologicaly we're a flesh thing with holes.
Thank you very much! I am not entirely sure I understand your question, but you can substitute the minor chords in this technique with min7 chords and although it creates a different effect, it is still a cool sound.
@CitizenApathy I remade this because I made 5 new lessons in HD and wanted to make all my videos HD. In other words I redid the old ones to match the new ones :)
What are the rules on playing out of a key? Going from a minor to a parallel major or vice versa, I thought you weren't supposed to do that? I'm in intro theory I know very very little
That's a good question. Theory is supposed to show you stuff that has sounded good at some point in the past. Once you find something that sounds good, you can use theory to categorize it and understand it in the context of all of music history. Theory starts out by showing you the simplest way to sound good, which is to stay in a key. But then, there are a lot of things that go beyond keys that sound good too. They just require that you know about keys before you can understand them in a theory context. This video is showing a cool theory on how to put chords together that don't necessarily fit in the same key.
I know it's not the point of this video but I think it's worth mentioning this is over-simplifying Radiohead's harmony and they're worth looking into if you're interested in seeing more complicated harmonic ideas that can still be enjoyed by people used to basic progressions, despite the contrasts
Great video Ben, I really enjoy your content and also the way you explain things, I think you are a very good teacher. Anyway, I used this method (tweaked it a little) to create a track, I'll leave a link if anybody wants to listen. soundcloud.com/er-muffa/moksa
"I hope to see you next time ... but hopefully not in court" XD Well, i always enjoy modal mixing & playing with the listener's expectations, so an approach like this is really appreciated. So, no, i won't see you in court lol. Thanks for the knowledge Ben!
Can you use these chords as pivot chords? Or is it more to harmonize the melody note? If you were writing vocals over that progression would the voice follow the min to maj notes?
I actually had figured out the major -> minor sounding similar to Radiohead when playing Creep (last 2 chords being C maj then C min) and started playing around these chord progressions. Thanks for the other patterns, very nice!
Hi Ben, I know it is Quote an old Video but how would you write a Melodie over this chord progression? I always have troubles with writing melodies over non diatonic chords. Thanks!
I think you can go a lot farther with this. Radiohead uses much more complex chords than just these standard majors and minors. I've noticed that chords in the shape of *xx**x, like 3xx33x and 2xx22x sound especially Radiohead-y. There are others too.
That's just a b7sus2 voicing. It's not really complex. In this video he wasn't talking about chord voicings, he was talking about chord movement or harmonic movement rather.
Whoa, what a powerful idea. Basically, you come up with a set of rules for whatever facet in music and then apply it. For instance, you could define such parameters before writing a song, which would streamline the process and focus your efforts. Thank you for this gem and all the others, Ben.
other chord progressions that I particularly love are major chords to major up a minor third (or by replacing the root minor chord with a major e.g. D major to F major) or by using the Dorian mode to do something like B minor to E major or E minor to A major.
I had a look at your pdf here:benlevinmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/RadioheadGenerator.pdfand have a couple of questions...1. under rule 1 it states 'start with a major of minor triad' is this a typo and it should say 'start with a major or minor triad'? and 2. In your example for chord progressions based on these rules the first one goes :C-am-G#-am where does the G# fit into this?thanks for any help.
Professor, what scale is the i(minor) - VII(major) triad built from? Tonic Diminished? I'm confused :( , looks like the VII major triad has a b5 and a 7, which I can find only on the tonic diminished scale.
Hi, nice vid, but you could explain the origin of those chords with the "intercambio modal", srry dont know the word for this, and explain how to make them, so people can experiment with a larger amount of chords. Just saying. Great work btw.
This is so simple and amazing, really opens up my ability to improvise around these chords. I would absolutely love it if you made more videos like this show how to break away from typical chord progressions that follow the diatonic building on a scale stuff. Can you recommend any other videos in your library that will help someone like me who has been playing for years but have a hard time switching keys or transposing, or substituting chords... etc. I dunno me no talk good.
cool video and interesting simple way of thinking about progressions. i like how you aren't even thinking in terms of diatonic harmony, but just adhering to a couple simple rules about about shared chord tones. i love this dr. character too. sweet channel im subbing
Hey man, try out Sail To The Moon, Optimistic, Knives Out, Pyramid Song, Just. There's more of them, but I guess they're great in order to get used to these kinds of chord changes. But keep in mind that there are actually a lot of chord changes happening, some of them not being exactly linked to the technique the doctor talks about here. But hey, that's one of the reasons this band is fantastic, and it could make you want to know more about theory! Hope I could help, enjoy!
Bjørn Brynemo also morning bell is a perfect example of the parallel minor and major chord movement, the whole premise of the chord progression is based on that
Doesn't this kinda disregard whatever key you'd be playing in though? Like I get that there is theory applied to this I just kind of feel like it's a simplistic way of looking at chord progressions that are actually built a lot more complexly.
Well, yeah. But it is kind of a simple thing. You are disregarding the key, just like any time you use modal interchange (which is what switching to the parallel minor is). I am a blues guitarist and I use major thirds in minor keys all the time. It doesn't necessarily mean I am suddenly switching to major for half a second.
there is lots of examples of harmonically complex music that came to be through someone rambling a guitar or piano, not really minding what he was doing. He just liked the sound of it, even if he did not understand.
As a die hard, long long time Radiohead follower, and also a musician of 44 years old, I can tell you, they don’t adhere to any rule. It’s what sounds good to them.
Jolly Voqar staying on the same root and changing from minor to major or the other way just sounds bad to me. Relative minors and majors sound cool though
Christian Castellanos I think it depends on the progression as a whole (not a big fan of the use of paralels in this video). Take Exit Music (For A Film), the song has this kind of paralel chords in the verses and it sounds pretty cool to me.
Good lesson, thanks. Can anyone describe whats happening with the chord movements in relation to the implied key? e.g. do they sound spacey because some chords are borrowed from the relative minor key ?
good question. I guess one of the answers would be that your internal sense of home key is puzzled by a chord change that's close enough to suggest diatonic harmony, but has an element of surprise (minor instead of major, etc). Also the surprising one for me was C to C#minor. I guess my ear got magnetized by that E that's the major third of C; the note remained "highlighted" in my mind and when he switched to the second chord it just sounded, well, not wrong enough, if I'm explaining myself. Psychoacoustics at its finest
Le Sploosh It's a mediant modulation. It's basically modulating over thirds, not fifths. When you go from C major to C# minor, that's equal to modulating from C major to its major third major mediant's (E major) relative minor (C# minor). Dr. Levin, you feel the E highlighted because the modulation is done over a common tone, the third of the original chord. In a mediant modulation where the destiny key is the third of the main tonality chord, this type of modulation is extra effective as you have a good common ground between the chords.
For people who want to research further, this seems to be based mostly off of neo-riemannian chord theory.
That's cool, thank you for the tip!
Thank you Joseph!
You can also go read up on Tonnetz (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonnetz). Tonnetz is a tonal space visualization originally conceived by Euler. It is very much like a visualization tool for the chordal theory that stems from the Neo-Riemannian world. It blew my mind when I first came across it.
To grow on the rules stated in the video, taking out the parallel major/minor, you can essentially go from any chord to another chord (major or minor) that is a minor/major third above or below the current chord root. So you could go from C major to Eb major to Gb major. These kinds of movements are found a LOT in modern movie soundtracks (like Hans Zimmer and others).
So much of this works because of great voice leading that happens from one chord to the next. So each individual "voice" within a chord almost has it's own sense of melody in its own movements. It's really cool stuff!
Dude, I've been one hour making chord progressions and thinking about how fucking awesome they are. Thank you so much for showing me this!
@@user-th6rh8zp3t Be nice. Ben's a cool dude.
My lawyers will be in touch with you very soon.
Don't be so dramatic, you didn't even have a hole in you..
I came here to say that everyone has at least two holes in them, but then I remembered that from a topological standpoint people are more like flesh tubes.
Either way, condolences on losing that medical 'license'.
L2112Lifz a tube ? nose has two holes too, I would also count ears and eventually what your mama gave you. topologicaly we're a flesh thing with holes.
@@atrasstoumay pores
Topological spider pants. VSauce graced us with this knowledge
go watch vsauce's video on the topic, we actually have 7 holes. its so cool
Vsauce tells us that humans have 8 main holes. So yeah, fun fact.
I bet those jars are for growing mushrooms.
The Dr. Ben Levin "certified" PF Tek
great comment
This inspired me to break out my guitar after almost 2 years of strictly bass. Love the lesson! (and radiohead)
As a hardcore radiohead fan and musician, I have to say, this was right on the money. btw muse used progressions like this also.
Thank you very much! I am not entirely sure I understand your question, but you can substitute the minor chords in this technique with min7 chords and although it creates a different effect, it is still a cool sound.
This is awesome, it's like a 3-path fork crossroad at every turn.
0:22 - Is that a Yu Gi Oh! card?
lol yeah i think so
I suspect it's the jacket from Amnesiac but i can't really remember.
Dr ben levin sounds like a very chill cool weird guy , that intro puts a smile on one's face instantly , amazing lesson indeed.
This was a really cool lesson! I m glad you chose to share it
Greg Mesler Thank you, Greg, I'm glad it reached you!
wait were you cutting down the amnesiac booklet as per instructed?
When you played Cm followed by B maj I immediately heard the progression from Jack Conte's "Make The Grade"
@CitizenApathy I remade this because I made 5 new lessons in HD and wanted to make all my videos HD. In other words I redid the old ones to match the new ones :)
1:33 that sounds like exactly what I want, like the next section of something I was working on, A7 Asus2 D7 and then that
"That Radiohead sound" may just be the broadest phrase I've ever heard but you nailed what u was looking for😂😂😂. Loved the video tho keep it up!!!
very nice channel! i play 5 years and still aim still 0 at theory chords improvisation etc .
thx for the help!
What are the rules on playing out of a key? Going from a minor to a parallel major or vice versa, I thought you weren't supposed to do that? I'm in intro theory I know very very little
That's a good question. Theory is supposed to show you stuff that has sounded good at some point in the past. Once you find something that sounds good, you can use theory to categorize it and understand it in the context of all of music history.
Theory starts out by showing you the simplest way to sound good, which is to stay in a key. But then, there are a lot of things that go beyond keys that sound good too. They just require that you know about keys before you can understand them in a theory context.
This video is showing a cool theory on how to put chords together that don't necessarily fit in the same key.
Why didn't I find this channel earlier!
Your content is amazing
I know it's not the point of this video but I think it's worth mentioning this is over-simplifying Radiohead's harmony and they're worth looking into if you're interested in seeing more complicated harmonic ideas that can still be enjoyed by people used to basic progressions, despite the contrasts
dope! could I borrow a few mason jars pls I'm all out?
Learning how to make Radiohead chord progressions from a reincarnated Frank Zappa?!?! Yeah I'm definitely subscribing
Great video Ben, I really enjoy your content and also the way you explain things, I think you are a very good teacher. Anyway, I used this method (tweaked it a little) to create a track, I'll leave a link if anybody wants to listen.
soundcloud.com/er-muffa/moksa
@shadowray I agree! It's definitely just a tool and Radiohead is amazing.
"I hope to see you next time ... but hopefully not in court" XD
Well, i always enjoy modal mixing & playing with the listener's expectations, so an approach like this is really appreciated. So, no, i won't see you in court lol. Thanks for the knowledge Ben!
Can you use these chords as pivot chords? Or is it more to harmonize the melody note? If you were writing vocals over that progression would the voice follow the min to maj notes?
I actually had figured out the major -> minor sounding similar to Radiohead when playing Creep (last 2 chords being C maj then C min) and started playing around these chord progressions. Thanks for the other patterns, very nice!
You can also hear the 1/2 step min-maj (e.g. Cm -> B) in 'Just'
I didn't knew those sounds are exeptable
Now playing around with guitar have a deeper meaning
My favorite teacher! Ive been playing over 30 years..
Hi Ben,
I know it is Quote an old Video but how would you write a Melodie over this chord progression?
I always have troubles with writing melodies over non diatonic chords.
Thanks!
Andreas Cordier take chord tones...
I think you can go a lot farther with this. Radiohead uses much more complex chords than just these standard majors and minors. I've noticed that chords in the shape of *xx**x, like 3xx33x and 2xx22x sound especially Radiohead-y. There are others too.
Mark C like knives out
That's just a b7sus2 voicing. It's not really complex. In this video he wasn't talking about chord voicings, he was talking about chord movement or harmonic movement rather.
Blank YD b7sus2? Seems like straight minor chords to me. Wouldn't 3xx33x be Gm?
Jordan Pieters He meant the x2x22x. The. 3xx33x would be a C7sus2, not a G minor because it doesn’t have it’s third
Yeah sure, but more like xx33 C xyz2
Whoa, what a powerful idea. Basically, you come up with a set of rules for whatever facet in music and then apply it. For instance, you could define such parameters before writing a song, which would streamline the process and focus your efforts. Thank you for this gem and all the others, Ben.
other chord progressions that I particularly love are major chords to major up a minor third (or by replacing the root minor chord with a major e.g. D major to F major) or by using the Dorian mode to do something like B minor to E major or E minor to A major.
thanks man real informative
I had a look at your pdf here:benlevinmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/RadioheadGenerator.pdfand have a couple of questions...1. under rule 1 it states 'start with a major of minor triad' is this a typo and it should say 'start with a major or minor triad'? and 2. In your example for chord progressions based on these rules the first one goes :C-am-G#-am where does the G# fit into this?thanks for any help.
Every time I see Ben, I can't help, but to think about the Dude Love dance and hairy, stinky farts.
Professor, what scale is the i(minor) - VII(major) triad built from? Tonic Diminished? I'm confused :( , looks like the VII major triad has a b5 and a 7, which I can find only on the tonic diminished scale.
Hi, nice vid, but you could explain the origin of those chords with the "intercambio modal", srry dont know the word for this, and explain how to make them, so people can experiment with a larger amount of chords. Just saying. Great work btw.
This is so simple and amazing, really opens up my ability to improvise around these chords. I would absolutely love it if you made more videos like this show how to break away from typical chord progressions that follow the diatonic building on a scale stuff. Can you recommend any other videos in your library that will help someone like me who has been playing for years but have a hard time switching keys or transposing, or substituting chords... etc. I dunno me no talk good.
Sounds like Radiohead chords to me 👌🏻
Mmmmmm 8 years cured.
cool video and interesting simple way of thinking about progressions. i like how you aren't even thinking in terms of diatonic harmony, but just adhering to a couple simple rules about about shared chord tones. i love this dr. character too. sweet channel im subbing
This is like the L-P-R system used in Neo-Riemannian theory. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Riemannian_theory
what are some good example of radioheadsongs that use the technique the doctor talks about here?
Hey man, try out Sail To The Moon, Optimistic, Knives Out, Pyramid Song, Just. There's more of them, but I guess they're great in order to get used to these kinds of chord changes. But keep in mind that there are actually a lot of chord changes happening, some of them not being exactly linked to the technique the doctor talks about here. But hey, that's one of the reasons this band is fantastic, and it could make you want to know more about theory! Hope I could help, enjoy!
Bjørn Brynemo also morning bell is a perfect example of the parallel minor and major chord movement, the whole premise of the chord progression is based on that
“Just” came to mind almost immediately while I was watching this video
that guitar is beautiful oh it has a tone like mashed potatoes
Also Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode works like that.
your character reminds of Dr.Worm . I love it. thanks for sharing
How do you roll your fingers like that when you finger the chords?
sounds like someone perpetually playing the wrong chord but rolling with it lol
that may be true, but bare in mind I meant from a traditional western music perspective. this is a great video
Really cool, a lot of brainwork needed to solo over this and sound good, or perhaps I'm over thinking it! Oh well!
thx!
Thanks for sharing! I love your lab coat btw! ;)
dude make weezer 90s era generator bro!
Looks like guitar scientist lol 😆
i see this in "battle creek", fcking awesome
Sorry but I don't understand the name of the guitarist at 0:48!! help me please !
I believe it was Krisparello
You can play a maj7 chord a halfstep lower. In that case, the third and the seventh remains in the same place and only the prime and the fifth moves.
Great ideas. Sub. Thanks!
Doesn't this kinda disregard whatever key you'd be playing in though? Like I get that there is theory applied to this I just kind of feel like it's a simplistic way of looking at chord progressions that are actually built a lot more complexly.
Well, yeah. But it is kind of a simple thing. You are disregarding the key, just like any time you use modal interchange (which is what switching to the parallel minor is). I am a blues guitarist and I use major thirds in minor keys all the time. It doesn't necessarily mean I am suddenly switching to major for half a second.
Yeah, but who cares. It's awesome.
there is lots of examples of harmonically complex music that came to be through someone rambling a guitar or piano, not really minding what he was doing. He just liked the sound of it, even if he did not understand.
Cool! Now do Idioteque..
check out atomic mind by Nick Johnston
Sounds like The Moor from Opeth
Pwooahh I feel so lucky I get to watch this!
This is precisely the kind of chord progression video I was looking for. Thank you!
sounds a lot like steven wilson
how do u suggest treating min7 chords in an analog fashion??
this is honestly awesome
You are the coolest doctor ever.
Great ideas and teaching method
Does Radiohead use this?
hey levin, mama called - she said to clean yalls room.
omg the jokes :D instant sub
Melancholy! My favorite kind of rock
Any relation to Tony?
Hey man this video rules (- the stale intro jokes 😘). Thank you so much
I like to think the extremely awkward delivery of those is actually part of the joke.
Ctrl-Alt-Del-U obviously
This is fun!
Excellent lesson!
Love the hair dude.
Ew
That music intro is great
Do you know where it is from?
nah man radiohead is all jonny melody
then thom adds poppy cooly chords
Thom makes most of those melodies.. Thom writes almost everything.
As a die hard, long long time Radiohead follower, and also a musician of 44 years old, I can tell you, they don’t adhere to any rule. It’s what sounds good to them.
Nothing new really, old Jazz standards were using those "tricks" already!
Jeez! People are seriously sueing you?! I can’t believe it. Why?
You kinda remind me of Tiny Tim. Lol. Cool lesson, thx!
They use Lydian a bit. They also wine and feel sorry for themselves a lot in there lyrics.
Their* - no wonder you don't "get" Radiohead.
Hey ever thought of changing your first name to the letter “E” . Just joking :) really cool video man !
Interesting I guess, but , didn't sound that good to me, and no wonder I don't like Radiohead that much. :P
+Jolly Voqar You just haven't listened to them enough.
Jolly Voqar staying on the same root and changing from minor to major or the other way just sounds bad to me. Relative minors and majors sound cool though
I felt it might sound lots better as a film score tbh
Christian Castellanos I think it depends on the progression as a whole (not a big fan of the use of paralels in this video). Take Exit Music (For A Film), the song has this kind of paralel chords in the verses and it sounds pretty cool to me.
I bet you this guy does not have one fucking song that sounds anywhere near as good as a Radiohead song.
He's...... Ok.......
Allahu ackbar my friends.
Funny! Useful! Two thumbs up!
Good lesson, thanks. Can anyone describe whats happening with the chord movements in relation to the implied key? e.g. do they sound spacey because some chords are borrowed from the relative minor key ?
good question. I guess one of the answers would be that your internal sense of home key is puzzled by a chord change that's close enough to suggest diatonic harmony, but has an element of surprise (minor instead of major, etc). Also the surprising one for me was C to C#minor. I guess my ear got magnetized by that E that's the major third of C; the note remained "highlighted" in my mind and when he switched to the second chord it just sounded, well, not wrong enough, if I'm explaining myself.
Psychoacoustics at its finest
Le Sploosh It's a mediant modulation. It's basically modulating over thirds, not fifths. When you go from C major to C# minor, that's equal to modulating from C major to its major third major mediant's (E major) relative minor (C# minor). Dr. Levin, you feel the E highlighted because the modulation is done over a common tone, the third of the original chord. In a mediant modulation where the destiny key is the third of the main tonality chord, this type of modulation is extra effective as you have a good common ground between the chords.
I was looking for the explanation of this part of the video, since it's not from Neo-Riemannian theory. Thank you very much for the breakdown.