Sorry if anyone here has already said this, but your claim at 1:31, that those twelve notes are the foundation of almost all melodic music on earth... well, you wouldn't think the following musical traditions comprise enough of an exception to make "almost all" fairly wrong: * arabic, iranian, turkish, central asian, north african music ('maqam'-like systems) * some mongol and central asian music (overtone scales) * northern indian music (raga systems) * traditional music from thailand and neighbouring countries: piphat, pinpeat (seven tone equal temperament, or close enough) * traditional music from indonesia (close to five tones to the octave and nine tones to the octave in some ways, but they're far enough from being "exactly" any of those to cause some issues) * some traditional music from georgia (four tones to the perfect fifth) * a large renaissance repertoire in something fairly close to thirty one notes per octave (with some pieces also in close to nineteen per octave), the system being called "meantone" * traditional subsaharan african music (often close to five tone equal temperament, but exceptions exist there as well) * Sami music (which seems to move in rather small intervals, but often keeps "modulating" by a really small microtone at repetitions) * traditional scandinavian and eastern European musics that often contain a variety of non-twelve-tone intervals * a significant number of Blues melodies. Tho' I guess these are just a small enough subset that "almost all" might still be justified?
Thanks for the comment and the educational list -- and see the video description for a mea culpa on this. I'm embarrassed that I phrased it as I did, especially as a person who has traveled and who loves (and sometimes plays) music from different parts of the world. A few caveats: I was talking about 12 notes to the octave, not 12T equal temperament. E.g. I play a little sitar and studied a little classical Hindustani music -- one could say that there are 12 tones to the octave in much of that music (see e.g. the 12 frets to the octave on a sitar, less one fret which is 'missing' for technique reasons) -- some raags (and other Indian traditions) certainly do not use a 12 tone scale, and I understand that just because there are 12 fret positions doesn't mean a raag is based on a 12 tone scale; my point is that the basic 12 tone shape is more common than some people realize. I was also (without being clear, quite unfortunately) speaking of contemporary music. If you go to many of the countries you listed and turn on the radio, you're pretty likely to hear music in a 12 tone scale coming out, for better or worse. E.g. folks can try this on radio.garden. Also, I'm counting music that bends intervals as still being 12 tone (e.g. the blues, which certainly bases off of a 12 tone tradition). Again, I shouldn't have said it the way I did, but I would maintain that if an alien musician came to earth and wanted to learn one scale system to be maximally prepared for contemporary music-making, the 12 tone scale is probably the wise choice. At any rate, I certainly shouldn't have said "almost all melodic music on earth", I should have said "a lot of the contemporary melodic music made on earth." My motivation was to impress upon the student how important the 12 tone scale was, not to belittle or ignore the many other significant and beautiful traditions.
c'mon ass-hole, you know and i understand that you very well understand what's he trying to say, can you give me names of songs associated with your claim that those eastern and other musical genre is as common as the western pop music? at least a couple of list included in the top 100 of the mtv billboards. Don't be a dick please. That's one hell of a good illustration and one bitter guy like you just try to negatively criticized it.
Casey, I started my music education when I was 6. I'm 56 now and in half a century (!) I've seen a lot of teachers, myself included, students and colleagues talk & discuss music theory. What I've never seen is such a solid, fast-paced and even fun approach to basic & not so basic elements of music theory. You are a natural born communicator and your video is so cleverly done it deserves to be used anywhere. Congrats and thank you !
Sadly. Eurocentric teaching of music theory is very damaging to music as a whole. The quality and emotional power of music could be so much better without the twelve tone system. Also the word OCTAVE? 8 notes in a scale? Lots of scales don’t have 8 notes! The word octave should be changed to represent the ratio between pitches and not the theoretical number of notes chosen in typical scales
@@PatricksBreastplatehmmmm... I wonder if these being the most popular are also a reflection of the same Eurocentrism that they were talking about 🤔 Not to mention you're just... wrong in general.
wow, i absolutely love the production on this-- minimalistic, straight to the point, in fullscreen it almost temporarily transports you away from reality into some kind of informative void as if you're receiving a rapid-fire briefing of everything you need to know before being thrust into some otherworldly mission great video
@@yxngkev.s1137 I was just repeating what the OP said in the video info. But doesn't look good when it looks like I said it, does it? Hehe I will be kinder than the OP and soften it ;)
I know, right? And I feel bad for the "THIS IS NOT MATH" warning, now that 3blue1brown was kind enough to recommend the video. :-) For the record: I love math. I just know that lots of musicians are allergic to the term.
After a lot of music theory reading - This explanation with the visual is so awesome. Very condensed and makes sense of all the fragmented theory I have read out of books. Thanks.
I can’t even play chop sticks....but I’ve been a working clinical audiologist since 1981 and this makes sense to me. Just subscribed. The ear creates its own harmonics when two pure tones are presented at the same time, it can actually be measured in the ear canal. Thank you.
You are an absolute gem. Thank you! You seemed to have magically addressed the anxiety and helplessness in my head when I try to grasp what theory really is. I've always understood the information and context - bluntly put: notes form a scale, certain notes of said scale creates melody, a combination creates a chord, etc. etc. But I never understood how everything connects, and why* they work the way they do. There was always a mental block and I think a lot of that was because I lacked a visual and succinct explanation of these concepts. You really managed to perfectly map the concept of sound & music, something invisible to the eye, in a video. I no longer feel as though I'm wading through a blank space in my head with all these bits and pieces of "theory" I knew (names of scales, intervals, modes, etc.,) without the ability to actually conceptualize the *reason* why they all fit together. In other words, I actually didn't "learn" anything new from this video in terms of vocabulary. Matter of fact, I didn't learn a new concept either. I just started seeing what I knew in a way that feels graspable, as if I found the first corner piece of the puzzle to start building and this whole damn time I was unable to find any piece to begin in the first place. Hope what I said made sense. I hope you keep doing what you're doing.
Man. I was reading 20 books bout producing, seen 123566 hours youtube shit, spend 1 mio hours in practice. 10 seconds after watching this video i know: youre a compressor of knowledge and time. Awesome work ! Thanks for your energy, you killed it !
This is amazing, I'm a self-taught beginner, and this video allowed me to summarize all the knowledge I've got so far into an interconnected system. Thank you!
this is one of the best explanation of the music theory I have ever heard . You nailed it buddy, please continue with other lessons. People like myself will thank you for it!!!
Omg, you sir just performed a miracle. I have watched a dozen vids on youtube that try to explain basic music theory and I never, ever, understood one of them. You are the exception. This was extremely clear. Great job!
I don't know how the compression of the knowledge works out for beginners, but for intermediates who are looking to flesh out their current understanding holistically, it is actually really amazing. Thanks a lot.
Yeah I think I may have sold out the beginners just a little bit for the sake of the intermediates. :-) It was a tough call, but hopefully the beginners can just re-watch as needed. Or watch at half speed, as someone suggested. :-)
I can't believe this video has barely been recommended to me now. The hardest aspect I have had getting across while teaching friends music basics is the visualization of the spaces between notes and how scales line up which I've always describe as a number line. This video melds all these concepts together perfectly. Definitely sharing this around, can't wait to see more!
My Bassist friend started learning music theory so he could better understand his instrument and play in a band. He went straight to you, thanks for your knowledge dude!
Finally I found a easy explanation for the whole numbers thing. I always heard people refering to to 2 or flat 3 on the scale, without having a clue what it meant.
My mind is absolutely blown... Ive been playing guitar for 8 years. Never learned a name of a single note or chord. I created "shapes" and would mostly improvise or play a small portion of 3 songs at any time and I'd forget the things I played. Unrelated to this I spent a good few months studying logic as a phelosophy (1+1=2. If A = B and B = C, then A must = C. that type of junk). After being recommended to learn theory for the 352nd time I found this video. I watched 5 minutes, hit pause and immediately was able to play the scale on my guitar as it was just counting and pattern recognition. I then played the first nursery rhyme that came to mind. 3 tries and I had it down. I got excited and hit play again. For each pattern and scale this video presented i would pause it and play the scale. then I would improvise a riff based around it. I imediatly took to the F Natural Major scale and wrote a portion of a song ill never play again. I could continue to ramble but point is I have never understood anything so suddenly. This was so easy to follow along to as I simply ignored the idea of complexity and just went step by step. I should have looked into this sooner. I'm sure ill have several scales committed to memory within weeks.
@@CaseyConnor Thanks. I think so too! I joked to myself thinking the video could have been titled "learn how to play every mode and scale in 10 minutes." Lol. My friend lent me "the guitar grimoire" which has nearly every guitar scale and mode in it but the initial scale is presented with a diagram of a piano. Thanks to this video I'm able to translate 211 pages into a single notebook page by writing the base scales in binary. (Major Scale: 1010110101011)
@@danielwagner1825 while I have to admit that this video does incredibly good explaining where modes come from (and in general is such a good video), It doesn't make you being able to understand them as much as you think, modes are just a bunch of notes themselves, but is crucial to understand that they have armonic pilars (not sure if it's the correct term on english) or armonic functions behind them which isn't explained on this video, you should see this video as a little help to understand those 211 pages. in music is important to realize that there is usually no shortcut, you can't learn one year of music theory in just 10 mins, of course some people explains better and some worse, but now that you know where the modes come from, the question you should be asking yourself is ¿how do I use them properly?, and have in mind that modes aren't the only thing in music, you got a lot of other cool stuff that can improve your sound and composition to the next level, adding a lot of colour and interesting symetrical patterns (you got the diminished scale and the whole tone scale which are made of trying to divide the 12 notes scale [chromatic scale] into eight notes in the case of the diminished, and into 6 notes in the case of the whole tone scale, this scales by the way are polytonal, which means one scale can be used in more than one tonality) and as there is that, there are many other interesting things you could learn from that book, or other books, so my advice is that you should definitely read it anyways, at the end I think the intention of this video is not to replace music theory books, but instead to help understand them more easily. cheers!
You’re amazing thank you for that. I’ve been trying to get into learning about music and everywhere I turn nobody dumbs it down to “what u need” they use words I don’t know expecting me to understand what they talk about but I get caught up on that instead of what I need to be thinking about. Thank you so much!!
Knew most of what you were talking about before hand but just going through all those things I took for granted so quickly brought in a decent amount of fresh insight.
Within the first 10 sec, everything became crystal clear... Who is this man? I don't know. How did I find him after so long?? Fell asleep with headphones on and woke-up to his voice like God giving me a hit from the movie, Limitless. Within 25 seconds, I feel like I have new superhero powers and can play anything and any instrument I touch. By the end of the week, I will be a world famous musician and you will know my name. My first thanks will be to Casey Connor, the man who re-wired my brain at 1:00am and forever changed my destiny.
I watched hundreds of music theory video's from big channels here on UA-cam, and I still didn't understand it. I watch 3 video's on this relatively small channel and suddenly my brain just, figures it out? Amazing work man, I'll be sharing these video's all over because you deserve a lot more than 7k subscribers!!
Finally a video that explains this in such easy way, I was tired of those videos where the guy is sitting there with an instrument and you barely get the idea of what he's talking about
I’ve learned a bit of music theory when i was a kid, 20 years later i decided i wanted to play the guitar. Ive been struggling with the concept of scales and modes since then. This video cleared up so much, this graphical visualization is powerful. Thank you for sharing.
The "old" system of Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do has an advantage - you can easily learn and remember wich notes don't have a "between note" between them. The notes names that end with i, don't have a sharp following them. So, Mi doesn't has a Mi sharp (nothing in between in front of Mi), wich means there's no flat Fa either Ti doesn't has a Ti sharp (nothing in between in front of Ti), wich means there's no flat Do either Remember: If your note name ends with the letter "i", it means your note doesn't has a sharp (#). It goes directly to the next one.
This video taught me more about music than I learned in a year of music class in elementary (literally all I remember from that is how to play Merrily We Roll Along), a year of music class in high school (literally all I remember from that is that my teacher was better at Rockband than he was at helping me understand how to actually make music), lord knows how long of trying to Google for the answers (literally all I learned is how to read sheet music, and even then, I forgot it shortly after. Everything else said "just experiment and you'll figure it out"), and an attempt at tutoring (I was talking to people who know how to make really amazing music and I mentioned that I had no idea how. One chaotic call later, and literally all I remember is that discord is when you play two adjacent white notes, harmony is obviously the opposite of that) combined. Thank you for making this. And thank you, UA-cam recommendations, for not screwing up for once.
1:25 Me: Why 12? Casey Connor: Fascinating question, no time to explain... My OCD: *Pauses video* The duck there is time. *And a quick google search later* Google: By dividing each octave into 12 intervals, you maximize the number of pleasingly sounding pairs of notes. That is because the number 12 is divisible by more small numbers than any other number less than 60
no. the real reason is the notes of 12 equal division approximates the good(or simple) pitches pretty well. a simple pitch is like 3/2 times the root frequency or 5/4 times or other simplistic ratios. So for instance 19 and 31 equal divisions contain those nice pitches too even though they are prime numbers. the hard question is why equal divisions? I don't know if there any exact answer to this question cause there are many unequal yet musical divisions out there.(ok one can always think such a division as some selection of tones out of an equal divison but maybe some hundred tones per octave is needed) I think it greatly simplifies the complex compositions. You can build the exact same major scale starting from any note or in other words the same note on the keyboard can serve as root and second and third and fourth and so forth.
I don't know why this video took almost a year to appear on my recommended, but very well done! It's done in a 'trying not to leave too much out' but simple and easy to understand way. That's how a quality youtube video is done!
this is the first time i watch a tutorial without playing back all the time. i understood it by watching it once! very very well explained. i will donate a dollar for every video I watch.
Yo, this is an incredible video. I've tried studying this "first chapter" of theory in so many formats, but this is by far the best visualization I've seen. I think I can FINALLY proceed. Thank you!
Casey, I think this must be the best explanation of the fundamentals of music I've ever seen. Very quick and very clear. I particularly like the visuals. Most people use a piano keyboard to show the notes; your way is better. You are a natural teacher. Well done, sir!
I saw this video probably 2 months ago and the way you pictured the scales versus the notes at 5:48 really has stuck with me and I think you have described it better than anybody I've seen so far, Good job man and thank you.
Of all the music theory videos I watched, this series is by far the most helpful one in terms of getting me to understand what I'm listening to! (In more ways than one)
i really hope you continue this as an actual series. i see you have 2 parts, id love to learn more. im a percussionist, so ive never really followed when an instructor explains due to it not involving me, but ive come to realize that if i have a decent understanding of it, it would improve my own musical capability. this is the cleanest tutorial ive seen, you do a great job of simply breaking it down without overcomplicating it or making it overwhelming.
Thanks Syn! -- I'm not sure if I'll post more along these lines -- I have some ideas of other music related subjects I might post about, though! Also, note that there is a third in this series about rhythm (though it might not contain new info for you if you are already a percussionist -- it's pretty basic.)
Thank you very much, I have never seen a clearer music theory explanation; you deserve a donation for you work! I look forward to watching more video lessons from you.
Wow. I've been trying to learn music theory through a couple of books and YouTubube videos for quite awhile now. The pieces are slowly coming together, but I wish I had started here. This is the best summary I've heard in awhile and helps me put the pieces together. Thank you and great job.
@@Saagemusic im pretty sure simpler is a word and i even googled it to double check but whatever. Language and grammar are only useful insofar as they help us communicate. Hope you enjoyed the video about music theory
I love how they put lines and grids to further explain the subject matter. This will surely help most people by having a more comprehensive perspective.
This video is sensational. There's so much information, none of it was off topic, and it was brilliantly animated and explained throughout. I actually feel like I know how to start thinking about music before I just jump in and try to learn an instrument now. All I have to do now is buy an instrument..
Wow! I've been browsing music theory videos on youtube for the past hour and I feel like I hit the jack pot. As someone who is EXTREMELY logical in my thinking I thank you for even being able to deconstruct this for us. Bravo! Excellent job sir. Ten thousands thumbs up.
Really well explained ...I'm a self taught musician and have been playing piano/keyboard for over 30 years and have never really known the terminology for what I'm doing I just play by ear..but your explanation is really easy to understand, so now I know most of my songs are in the minor scales. Minor = sad/emotional Major = jovial/ happy
just a tip tho, don’t depend on the sad/happy definition. to truly grow as a musician, you shouldn’t be suppressed by the limits of this definition. minor songs can have more depth than sadness
Finally, a video that could make it clear to me the simple theories. Out of curiosity just started watching the music theories though I have zero understanding of music (theory), never made or tried to make any. Watched a couple of videos but still couldn't get a clear idea. This made everything clear. Thanks.
Best and most compact music theoretical summary I have ever seen! ! ! Very interesting and HELPFUL to tie the loose ends together. Thank you very much for the visualization and explanation! Best regards. (Looking forward to more videos ...)
Casey, thank you. This is the first approach that I've seen that explains music more from a technical aspect than a theoretical one. I have an engineering brain that also sees abstracts as opposed to the artsy fluid type, so this works for me. I especially appreciate the cues to "ignore for now" and "just a label". -donated.
This was so damn interesting w/ the way he explained it. I was thinking the other day of how I could give a summary of music theory to someone who’s never looked into it before and make it easy for them to understand it and this video right here is just that, haha!! Good stuff dude, can’t wait for the next one! 🤙
Wow! Absolutely brilliant. Quite a fast pace but then you had a lot to cover. I loved the way you used a ‘sig gen’ of sorts (my guess it was pc based) to just play a single frequency - it showed just how basic this whole thing about scale really is. If I could have had one extra it would have been right at the end when you suggested listening to music to find its scale. A few examples would have helped me personally since this is something I struggle with like crazy. However, wonderful graphics coupled with an easy to listen to voice and incredibly clear instructions make this the best intro I’ve seen. (And no cheesy jokes or flippant ad libs which get boring and tedious after the first 100). Well done!
Sorry if anyone here has already said this, but your claim at 1:31, that those twelve notes are the foundation of almost all melodic music on earth... well, you wouldn't think the following musical traditions comprise enough of an exception to make "almost all" fairly wrong:
* arabic, iranian, turkish, central asian, north african music ('maqam'-like systems)
* some mongol and central asian music (overtone scales)
* northern indian music (raga systems)
* traditional music from thailand and neighbouring countries: piphat, pinpeat (seven tone equal temperament, or close enough)
* traditional music from indonesia (close to five tones to the octave and nine tones to the octave in some ways, but they're far enough from being "exactly" any of those to cause some issues)
* some traditional music from georgia (four tones to the perfect fifth)
* a large renaissance repertoire in something fairly close to thirty one notes per octave (with some pieces also in close to nineteen per octave), the system being called "meantone"
* traditional subsaharan african music (often close to five tone equal temperament, but exceptions exist there as well)
* Sami music (which seems to move in rather small intervals, but often keeps "modulating" by a really small microtone at repetitions)
* traditional scandinavian and eastern European musics that often contain a variety of non-twelve-tone intervals
* a significant number of Blues melodies.
Tho' I guess these are just a small enough subset that "almost all" might still be justified?
Thanks for the comment and the educational list -- and see the video description for a mea culpa on this. I'm embarrassed that I phrased it as I did, especially as a person who has traveled and who loves (and sometimes plays) music from different parts of the world. A few caveats: I was talking about 12 notes to the octave, not 12T equal temperament. E.g. I play a little sitar and studied a little classical Hindustani music -- one could say that there are 12 tones to the octave in much of that music (see e.g. the 12 frets to the octave on a sitar, less one fret which is 'missing' for technique reasons) -- some raags (and other Indian traditions) certainly do not use a 12 tone scale, and I understand that just because there are 12 fret positions doesn't mean a raag is based on a 12 tone scale; my point is that the basic 12 tone shape is more common than some people realize. I was also (without being clear, quite unfortunately) speaking of contemporary music. If you go to many of the countries you listed and turn on the radio, you're pretty likely to hear music in a 12 tone scale coming out, for better or worse. E.g. folks can try this on radio.garden. Also, I'm counting music that bends intervals as still being 12 tone (e.g. the blues, which certainly bases off of a 12 tone tradition). Again, I shouldn't have said it the way I did, but I would maintain that if an alien musician came to earth and wanted to learn one scale system to be maximally prepared for contemporary music-making, the 12 tone scale is probably the wise choice. At any rate, I certainly shouldn't have said "almost all melodic music on earth", I should have said "a lot of the contemporary melodic music made on earth." My motivation was to impress upon the student how important the 12 tone scale was, not to belittle or ignore the many other significant and beautiful traditions.
Chill out you know what he means lol
c'mon ass-hole, you know and i understand that you very well understand what's he trying to say, can you give me names of songs associated with your claim that those eastern and other musical genre is as common as the western pop music? at least a couple of list included in the top 100 of the mtv billboards. Don't be a dick please.
That's one hell of a good illustration and one bitter guy like you just try to negatively criticized it.
yeah because almost everyone wants to learn arab, indian, Turkish and African music, cmon man don´t be a smartass
calm down
Casey, I started my music education when I was 6. I'm 56 now and in half a century (!) I've seen a lot of teachers, myself included, students and colleagues talk & discuss music theory.
What I've never seen is such a solid, fast-paced and even fun approach to basic & not so basic elements of music theory. You are a natural born communicator and your video is so cleverly done it deserves to be used anywhere. Congrats and thank you !
Thank you so much!
Half of the people watching this already know a good bit about music and just wanted to see what this guy had to say for the beginners
Yup
Yea
Yeah haha
I am shit and came here to learn. What other videos, books do you suggest for learning music theory and implementing it on instrument?
@@keremkaya6915 Check out 8 bit music theory, Adam Neely, Rick Beato, Signals Music Studio channels
"Why 12? Fascinating question; no time to explain."
Incidentally: ua-cam.com/video/CFbG-8eYKJU/v-deo.html
Sadly. Eurocentric teaching of music theory is very damaging to music as a whole. The quality and emotional power of music could be so much better without the twelve tone system. Also the word OCTAVE? 8 notes in a scale? Lots of scales don’t have 8 notes! The word octave should be changed to represent the ratio between pitches and not the theoretical number of notes chosen in typical scales
@@jonasheimbecker2025 And yet the finest music was created in Europe. From Mozart to the Beatles. It's a puzzler!
@@PatricksBreastplatethis is a certified being wrong moment
@@PatricksBreastplatehmmmm... I wonder if these being the most popular are also a reflection of the same Eurocentrism that they were talking about 🤔
Not to mention you're just... wrong in general.
I feel like Neo when he said "I know Kung fu".
That's hilarious, because I often described my goal for these videos to friends as a Matrix-style download. :-)
@@CaseyConnor Your goal was accomplished my friend. Great video.
when did he say that ?
@@abishekraju8787 Just before fighting Morpheus in the dojo. Morpheus says "show me".
@@Jewpacca oh lol. I thought He meant he felt like Neo when the guy in the video said "I know Kung fu". My bad.
The most short and precise explanation on music theory I've ever seen. This might be the best tutorial on UA-cam.
It’s funny that he’s constantly trying to calm you down after every new concept. He knows that you constantly want to have an anxiety attack
wow, i absolutely love the production on this-- minimalistic, straight to the point, in fullscreen it almost temporarily transports you away from reality into some kind of informative void
as if you're receiving a rapid-fire briefing of everything you need to know before being thrust into some otherworldly mission
great video
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Toque em um clipe para colá-lo na caixa de texto.
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This is what the internet needed!
The internet didn't have this before!
Thanks for making this.
So glad to hear that. That's just how I felt. :-)
You just explained 3-4 months of music theory class in about 10 minutes. We need more educators like you Casey, keep it up.
The most concise and comprehensible music theory I've ever seen.
Very well explained! one of the best "music theory" videos I have ever seen
0:00 -- basics: pitch, notes, octaves
1:56 -- scales
2:36 -- scale labeling, sharps/flats/naturals
4:00 -- steps/half-steps
4:11 -- relative vs. absolute pitches, absolute pitch names
5:33 -- spelling a scale in absolute pitch names
7:04 -- natural minor, major/minor scales, other scales
7:48 -- key, minor pentatonic scale
8:20 -- modes
9:42 -- concluding thoughts
10:22 -- asking for support
zd250r my dude said begging for money💀💀💀💀
@@yxngkev.s1137 I was just repeating what the OP said in the video info. But doesn't look good when it looks like I said it, does it? Hehe I will be kinder than the OP and soften it ;)
Awesome. I came from 3blue1brown's tweet. The intersection of math enthusiasts and music enthusiasts is larger than many realize!
I know, right? And I feel bad for the "THIS IS NOT MATH" warning, now that 3blue1brown was kind enough to recommend the video. :-) For the record: I love math. I just know that lots of musicians are allergic to the term.
"Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting."
After a lot of music theory reading - This explanation with the visual is so awesome. Very condensed and makes sense of all the fragmented theory I have read out of books. Thanks.
The best way to teach someone is concisely and with visual cues. Honestly this series is perfect.
I can’t even play chop sticks....but I’ve been a working clinical audiologist since 1981 and this makes sense to me. Just subscribed. The ear creates its own harmonics when two pure tones are presented at the same time, it can actually be measured in the ear canal. Thank you.
You taught what my music teacher couldn’t teach me in less then 10 minutes
This is one of the clearest descriptions of basic music theory I've ever seen.
You are an absolute gem. Thank you! You seemed to have magically addressed the anxiety and helplessness in my head when I try to grasp what theory really is. I've always understood the information and context - bluntly put: notes form a scale, certain notes of said scale creates melody, a combination creates a chord, etc. etc.
But I never understood how everything connects, and why* they work the way they do. There was always a mental block and I think a lot of that was because I lacked a visual and succinct explanation of these concepts. You really managed to perfectly map the concept of sound & music, something invisible to the eye, in a video. I no longer feel as though I'm wading through a blank space in my head with all these bits and pieces of "theory" I knew (names of scales, intervals, modes, etc.,) without the ability to actually conceptualize the *reason* why they all fit together.
In other words, I actually didn't "learn" anything new from this video in terms of vocabulary. Matter of fact, I didn't learn a new concept either.
I just started seeing what I knew in a way that feels graspable, as if I found the first corner piece of the puzzle to start building and this whole damn time I was unable to find any piece to begin in the first place.
Hope what I said made sense. I hope you keep doing what you're doing.
Man.
I was reading 20 books bout producing, seen 123566 hours youtube shit, spend 1 mio hours in practice.
10 seconds after watching this video i know: youre a compressor of knowledge and time.
Awesome work ! Thanks for your energy, you killed it !
This is amazing, I'm a self-taught beginner, and this video allowed me to summarize all the knowledge I've got so far into an interconnected system. Thank you!
this is one of the best explanation of the music theory I have ever heard . You nailed it buddy, please continue with other lessons. People like myself will thank you for it!!!
Omg, you sir just performed a miracle. I have watched a dozen vids on youtube that try to explain basic music theory and I never, ever, understood one of them. You are the exception. This was extremely clear. Great job!
You just explained in 10 minutes what countless hours of study and 15 years of playing music couldn't do. Thanks!
I don't know how the compression of the knowledge works out for beginners, but for intermediates who are looking to flesh out their current understanding holistically, it is actually really amazing. Thanks a lot.
Yeah I think I may have sold out the beginners just a little bit for the sake of the intermediates. :-) It was a tough call, but hopefully the beginners can just re-watch as needed. Or watch at half speed, as someone suggested. :-)
I can't believe this video has barely been recommended to me now. The hardest aspect I have had getting across while teaching friends music basics is the visualization of the spaces between notes and how scales line up which I've always describe as a number line. This video melds all these concepts together perfectly. Definitely sharing this around, can't wait to see more!
My Bassist friend started learning music theory so he could better understand his instrument and play in a band. He went straight to you, thanks for your knowledge dude!
Holy shit you're good. The dense amount of information coupled with your voice inflections and sprinkled with humor makes this very easily consumed!
"Fascinating question, no time to explain " love it, just tell me what i need to know.
Excellent - Subscribed !
This is probably the best and most easy to understand beginners music theory video I've ever seen.
You are a God among men.
This is hands down the best no bs explanation of this topic i've ever seen
Finally I found a easy explanation for the whole numbers thing. I always heard people refering to to 2 or flat 3 on the scale, without having a clue what it meant.
Flat 3 means GROOOOVE
My mind is absolutely blown... Ive been playing guitar for 8 years. Never learned a name of a single note or chord. I created "shapes" and would mostly improvise or play a small portion of 3 songs at any time and I'd forget the things I played. Unrelated to this I spent a good few months studying logic as a phelosophy (1+1=2. If A = B and B = C, then A must = C. that type of junk). After being recommended to learn theory for the 352nd time I found this video. I watched 5 minutes, hit pause and immediately was able to play the scale on my guitar as it was just counting and pattern recognition. I then played the first nursery rhyme that came to mind. 3 tries and I had it down. I got excited and hit play again. For each pattern and scale this video presented i would pause it and play the scale. then I would improvise a riff based around it. I imediatly took to the F Natural Major scale and wrote a portion of a song ill never play again. I could continue to ramble but point is I have never understood anything so suddenly. This was so easy to follow along to as I simply ignored the idea of complexity and just went step by step. I should have looked into this sooner. I'm sure ill have several scales committed to memory within weeks.
Daniel Wagner Hah, awesome. Sounds like you and this video were made for each other. Glad you liked it!
@@CaseyConnor Thanks. I think so too! I joked to myself thinking the video could have been titled "learn how to play every mode and scale in 10 minutes." Lol. My friend lent me "the guitar grimoire" which has nearly every guitar scale and mode in it but the initial scale is presented with a diagram of a piano. Thanks to this video I'm able to translate 211 pages into a single notebook page by writing the base scales in binary. (Major Scale: 1010110101011)
@@lizardking2054 it's strange for me tha 10 used for tone and 11 used for semitome, becouse 11>10, but tone>semitine.
@@danielwagner1825 while I have to admit that this video does incredibly good explaining where modes come from (and in general is such a good video), It doesn't make you being able to understand them as much as you think, modes are just a bunch of notes themselves, but is crucial to understand that they have armonic pilars (not sure if it's the correct term on english) or armonic functions behind them which isn't explained on this video, you should see this video as a little help to understand those 211 pages. in music is important to realize that there is usually no shortcut, you can't learn one year of music theory in just 10 mins, of course some people explains better and some worse, but now that you know where the modes come from, the question you should be asking yourself is ¿how do I use them properly?, and have in mind that modes aren't the only thing in music, you got a lot of other cool stuff that can improve your sound and composition to the next level, adding a lot of colour and interesting symetrical patterns (you got the diminished scale and the whole tone scale which are made of trying to divide the 12 notes scale [chromatic scale] into eight notes in the case of the diminished, and into 6 notes in the case of the whole tone scale, this scales by the way are polytonal, which means one scale can be used in more than one tonality) and as there is that, there are many other interesting things you could learn from that book, or other books, so my advice is that you should definitely read it anyways, at the end I think the intention of this video is not to replace music theory books, but instead to help understand them more easily.
cheers!
@@danielwagner1825 Must be great ... More than enough experience to improvise melodies and understand them instantly and now it all came together
You’re amazing thank you for that. I’ve been trying to get into learning about music and everywhere I turn nobody dumbs it down to “what u need” they use words I don’t know expecting me to understand what they talk about but I get caught up on that instead of what I need to be thinking about. Thank you so much!!
This is the best introduction to music theory on the internet.
Knew most of what you were talking about before hand but just going through all those things I took for granted so quickly brought in a decent amount of fresh insight.
Within the first 10 sec, everything became crystal clear... Who is this man? I don't know. How did I find him after so long?? Fell asleep with headphones on and woke-up to his voice like God giving me a hit from the movie, Limitless. Within 25 seconds, I feel like I have new superhero powers and can play anything and any instrument I touch. By the end of the week, I will be a world famous musician and you will know my name. My first thanks will be to Casey Connor, the man who re-wired my brain at 1:00am and forever changed my destiny.
huge thank you for the " this is not math" warning lol. really helps me not get in my head and make it harder than it should be!
I watched hundreds of music theory video's from big channels here on UA-cam, and I still didn't understand it. I watch 3 video's on this relatively small channel and suddenly my brain just, figures it out?
Amazing work man, I'll be sharing these video's all over because you deserve a lot more than 7k subscribers!!
Finally a video that explains this in such easy way, I was tired of those videos where the guy is sitting there with an instrument and you barely get the idea of what he's talking about
I already knew this theory, but geez this is the most short but very well explained video I’ve ever seen.
I’ve learned a bit of music theory when i was a kid, 20 years later i decided i wanted to play the guitar. Ive been struggling with the concept of scales and modes since then. This video cleared up so much, this graphical visualization is powerful. Thank you for sharing.
The "old" system of Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do has an advantage - you can easily learn and remember wich notes don't have a "between note" between them.
The notes names that end with i, don't have a sharp following them.
So,
Mi doesn't has a Mi sharp (nothing in between in front of Mi), wich means there's no flat Fa either
Ti doesn't has a Ti sharp (nothing in between in front of Ti), wich means there's no flat Do either
Remember: If your note name ends with the letter "i", it means your note doesn't has a sharp (#). It goes directly to the next one.
Yep Do-Re-Mi is the other way of interpreting the major scale
Nice -- I never noticed that before!
This helps...
This was honestly one of the best explanations of anything I’ve ever seen. Kudos, you have a gift for teaching.
This video taught me more about music than I learned in a year of music class in elementary (literally all I remember from that is how to play Merrily We Roll Along), a year of music class in high school (literally all I remember from that is that my teacher was better at Rockband than he was at helping me understand how to actually make music), lord knows how long of trying to Google for the answers (literally all I learned is how to read sheet music, and even then, I forgot it shortly after. Everything else said "just experiment and you'll figure it out"), and an attempt at tutoring (I was talking to people who know how to make really amazing music and I mentioned that I had no idea how. One chaotic call later, and literally all I remember is that discord is when you play two adjacent white notes, harmony is obviously the opposite of that) combined. Thank you for making this. And thank you, UA-cam recommendations, for not screwing up for once.
1:25
Me: Why 12?
Casey Connor: Fascinating question, no time to explain...
My OCD: *Pauses video* The duck there is time.
*And a quick google search later*
Google: By dividing each octave into 12 intervals, you maximize the number of pleasingly sounding pairs of notes. That is because the number 12 is divisible by more small numbers than any other number less than 60
no. the real reason is the notes of 12 equal division approximates the good(or simple) pitches pretty well. a simple pitch is like 3/2 times the root frequency or 5/4 times or other simplistic ratios. So for instance 19 and 31 equal divisions contain those nice pitches too even though they are prime numbers. the hard question is why equal divisions? I don't know if there any exact answer to this question cause there are many unequal yet musical divisions out there.(ok one can always think such a division as some selection of tones out of an equal divison but maybe some hundred tones per octave is needed) I think it greatly simplifies the complex compositions. You can build the exact same major scale starting from any note or in other words the same note on the keyboard can serve as root and second and third and fourth and so forth.
I did make a video on this subject, BTW: ua-cam.com/video/CFbG-8eYKJU/v-deo.html
refreshing to see a music theory lesson that doesn't begin with showing the viewers the middle C on a keyboard
Thank you for noticing. :-)
This guy summarized all chapters in a music theory book in a video.
i know tvis but i watched it all and its probably the best explanation of music theory ive ever seen anywhere
Finally, the 3blue1brown of music
This is amazing.
That's what I thought about as well! Agreed!
Agreed!
Casey this is one of the best explanation I have ever seen. Thanks for sharing this on UA-cam!
This is far way better than everything I learned about music on my school. You're genius, man. I love you
"fascinating question, no time to explain"
*liked*
'fascinating question， no time to explain' I like your style!
This is by far the best music theory tutorial video in the youtube thank u man thank uuuu!
I don't know why this video took almost a year to appear on my recommended, but very well done! It's done in a 'trying not to leave too much out' but simple and easy to understand way. That's how a quality youtube video is done!
Easily the best music theory I've watched
Best series about music theory on UA-cam seriously
He's a monster. A fucking genius one
this is the first time i watch a tutorial without playing back all the time. i understood it by watching it once! very very well explained.
i will donate a dollar for every video I watch.
This is the channel I found by accident, got subscribed to, and looking forward to help it grow as much as I can.
This is a beautiful, concise, instructive, pedagogical masterpiece. Well done! Subbed.
this is by far the best intro to music theory video i've seen on youtube
WHAAAAT? This is so good! I've taught professionally for six years, but this schooled me on how to teach!
This video has taught me what my highschool teachers couldnt convey within years.
him: "don't worry about the name, it's just a label"
me: *begins to worry about it"
Yo, this is an incredible video. I've tried studying this "first chapter" of theory in so many formats, but this is by far the best visualization I've seen. I think I can FINALLY proceed. Thank you!
I knew all of this, but the way you are explaining it is fascinating, you really did a good job
Casey, I think this must be the best explanation of the fundamentals of music I've ever seen. Very quick and very clear. I particularly like the visuals. Most people use a piano keyboard to show the notes; your way is better. You are a natural teacher. Well done, sir!
I saw this video probably 2 months ago and the way you pictured the scales versus the notes at 5:48 really has stuck with me and I think you have described it better than anybody I've seen so far, Good job man and thank you.
Of all the music theory videos I watched, this series is by far the most helpful one in terms of getting me to understand what I'm listening to! (In more ways than one)
the explanation in this video is absolutely amazing...
The way you explain, it's genius, easy to understand. Thank You.
Please make more.
That's the best explanation of modes I have ever heard.
This was the best explanation i've ever seen about scales
i really hope you continue this as an actual series. i see you have 2 parts, id love to learn more. im a percussionist, so ive never really followed when an instructor explains due to it not involving me, but ive come to realize that if i have a decent understanding of it, it would improve my own musical capability. this is the cleanest tutorial ive seen, you do a great job of simply breaking it down without overcomplicating it or making it overwhelming.
Thanks Syn! -- I'm not sure if I'll post more along these lines -- I have some ideas of other music related subjects I might post about, though! Also, note that there is a third in this series about rhythm (though it might not contain new info for you if you are already a percussionist -- it's pretty basic.)
Thank you very much, I have never seen a clearer music theory explanation; you deserve a donation for you work! I look forward to watching more video lessons from you.
Hands down best graphic and learning video i have seen in years. Thanks a tons hands down!
As someone who doesn't understand music theory, this honestly feels like magic.
"Commit it to memory. Dont worry about"
Great lesson when learning most things
Were you also suggested this by youtube? xD Haha
Didn't learn much here but I still very much enjoyed that. Great video!
mind blown. this is the first time music theory has made sense to me, what is this magic?
Wow. I've been trying to learn music theory through a couple of books and YouTubube videos for quite awhile now. The pieces are slowly coming together, but I wish I had started here. This is the best summary I've heard in awhile and helps me put the pieces together. Thank you and great job.
Pretty nice simplification for those interested in music.
If you didn't understand this video, don't worry, it gets much much simpler over time
Snoop Cheesus simpler isn’t a word
@@Saagemusic cool
@@Saagemusic im pretty sure simpler is a word and i even googled it to double check but whatever. Language and grammar are only useful insofar as they help us communicate. Hope you enjoyed the video about music theory
I love how they put lines and grids to further explain the subject matter. This will surely help most people by having a more comprehensive perspective.
You didn't use the piano keyboard to explain music theory ! It's so much more pure and essential this way
I’m 30 seconds in and in love, thanks for condensing this is a really good reference, I see this is also a series, amazing.
probably the best theory crash course i've ever seen my friend! very impressed! I will be watching all of them cuz i definitely need to brush up!
I wish I saw this video 20 years ago. Thank you.
This video is sensational. There's so much information, none of it was off topic, and it was brilliantly animated and explained throughout. I actually feel like I know how to start thinking about music before I just jump in and try to learn an instrument now. All I have to do now is buy an instrument..
Mayonnaise?
@@antmydude236 I'm already level purple on mayo
The succinctness is what makes this so brilliant. Job well done sir.
Finally, a music theory video that dosen't give me a headache from pretentious spouting-off of Italian (Or French, nix spricen ze not-English).
Wow! I've been browsing music theory videos on youtube for the past hour and I feel like I hit the jack pot. As someone who is EXTREMELY logical in my thinking I thank you for even being able to deconstruct this for us. Bravo! Excellent job sir. Ten thousands thumbs up.
Really well explained ...I'm a self taught musician and have been playing piano/keyboard for over 30 years and have never really known the terminology for what I'm doing I just play by ear..but your explanation is really easy to understand, so now I know most of my songs are in the minor scales.
Minor = sad/emotional
Major = jovial/ happy
just a tip tho, don’t depend on the sad/happy definition. to truly grow as a musician, you shouldn’t be suppressed by the limits of this definition. minor songs can have more depth than sadness
@@solunastra9497 oh..I do delve into the major scale from time to time :)
Finally, a video that could make it clear to me the simple theories. Out of curiosity just started watching the music theories though I have zero understanding of music (theory), never made or tried to make any. Watched a couple of videos but still couldn't get a clear idea. This made everything clear. Thanks.
Best and most compact music theoretical summary I have ever seen! ! !
Very interesting and HELPFUL to tie the loose ends together.
Thank you very much for the visualization and explanation!
Best regards.
(Looking forward to more videos ...)
Casey, thank you. This is the first approach that I've seen that explains music more from a technical aspect than a theoretical one. I have an engineering brain that also sees abstracts as opposed to the artsy fluid type, so this works for me. I especially appreciate the cues to "ignore for now" and "just a label". -donated.
This is the best video I've ever seen on UA-cam about music theory! Liked and subbed
This was so damn interesting w/ the way he explained it. I was thinking the other day of how I could give a summary of music theory to someone who’s never looked into it before and make it easy for them to understand it and this video right here is just that, haha!! Good stuff dude, can’t wait for the next one! 🤙
Oh shit,did I just find the perfect music theory lesson?I understood literally anything in ease and I am a complete beginner!
I already know all of this. But, I still watched the whole video because the delivery was great!
Perfect delivery.
Wow! Absolutely brilliant. Quite a fast pace but then you had a lot to cover. I loved the way you used a ‘sig gen’ of sorts (my guess it was pc based) to just play a single frequency - it showed just how basic this whole thing about scale really is. If I could have had one extra it would have been right at the end when you suggested listening to music to find its scale. A few examples would have helped me personally since this is something I struggle with like crazy. However, wonderful graphics coupled with an easy to listen to voice and incredibly clear instructions make this the best intro I’ve seen. (And no cheesy jokes or flippant ad libs which get boring and tedious after the first 100). Well done!
Thanks! Stay tuned for the next couple videos -- there will be some coverage of how to determine the scale in use!