I must add my admiration to the litany of praise comments here, Jake. You’re an inspiring creative genius and master teacher. Your easygoing manner keeps it light, even when slicing and dicing murky music theory up to make it palatable for the uninitiated masses.
As usual your video is an absolute marvel of education and emjoyment. When you steal a musical element from someone you are taking the opportunity to praise it by using it differently. keep up the excellent work.
I love doing this kind of stuff, it's so satisfying to start with a borrowed idea and see how different it turns out in the end. Creating music is a magical thing
I just rediscovered My Curse like 3 days ago. Checked my last(fm), it was 15 years ago that I was addicted to that album. I tell you that made me feel old. But My Curse still hits where it hurts, I love that song.
Great tutorials on both tracks. Beautiful tones, too. I love the honesty in lifting ideas but morphing them into your own. Your second progression 11:06 reminds me of Sugarloaf's "Green Eyed Lady"
Both those pieces are completely different, yet sound really great! Your phrasing on the guitar solo is amazing! Love the tension those half steps give. Thanks a bunch! ✌️❤️
Nicely explained. When I flesh out further, I may leave space to bring in random riffs which may only appear as the original idea grows. Nothing is set until I have a progression I like and then I may work arrangements, again, leaving random slots to throw in unexpected things. I like to mix it up. Great vid.
Wow great tune and this is always great to have your thought process to understand how the piece was composed... Love the way you present your approach.
Always a good day when he posts! One of my favorite subscriptions. BTW I hear genomic traces of Duncan Sheik and The Engineers in the 2nd song…very nice!
Hey Jake! Not sure if this will get buried in a sea of comments, but I've been a huge fan of your channel for years and you've honestly helped me break a lot of habits I've had, and now I can proficiently write music. I was curious if you ever considered doing a series for lead guitar. I understand the scale aspect, but I think something for speed, two-handed, and knowing how to navigate the fretboard and develop interesting patterns would be helpful! If not, I'm definitely open to any resources you could suggest. Thanks again for all your help over the years! :)
5:18 if you change that B minor cord to a diminished cord, it will fit nicely with that half step whole step scale. Or, the half step whole step scale. since you are starting on a B diminished cord.
The B octatonic scale (also known as the diminished scale) includes B minor, B major, and B diminished. That’s the beauty of this scale-it offers a wealth of non-diatonic chord combinations, allowing for endless creative possibilities. The notes of the B octatonic scale are: B, C, D, E♭, F, F♯, G♯, A. • B major: B, E♭, F♯ • B minor: B, D, F♯ • B diminished: B, D, F
I think I probably use this technique subconsciously whenever I create music. I mean if I like an idea in my head it's probably because it's similar to some piece of music that I like. Most of the time I can definitely name the songs that impacted that song the most. This is a great way to get out of a rut.
I like to write that rhythm as 4 quadruplet over the space of 3 beats. Kind of the opposite of a triplet. It’s more complex to figure out, I know, but I enjoy the clean look on the page.
Cool breakdown. Inspiration can come from the simplest things. You made a statement about coming up with something new being nearly impossible. As a lifelong musician/composer, I would have been inclined to agree....until I heard Cardiacs.
@SignalsMusicStudio Hey Jake first song is really similar to the Nil by Mouth by Haken :D. Also there is a couple of great songs from Astonishing but most concept albums fall into the trap of having a lot of forgettable songs. Definitely my least explored Dream Theater album :D. Keep up the best music content on UA-cam!
I played this for a student before this video release, and he pointed out that haken similarity. I was astonished at how alike they are. it's a good example of stealing when you don't even realizing you're doing it lol, I've listened to haken but I didn't know that song
I’d love to see you breakdown some tesseract. Especially something off their new album. If you haven’t heard them, I suspect you’d thoroughly enjoy them.
Great video Jake! There's a 9 note scale called the Ionian add b3 and b6. BTW, I do similar things to get the spark of inspiration ignited. Keep up the good work brother!
Very cool. The 2nd track reminded me of some of Pete Townsend's compositions once he got that ARP. Eminent Front, Baba O Reily_ that sort of thing. Also, I know you get a lot of comments but I commented on your last video about double tracking bass with the wrong song name. The Faces tune I was reaching for that opens with doubled bass is 3 button hand me down. Not that it really matters but I figured I'd mention it.
2:12 It's Half whole diminished scale that has one mode or variation: Whole Half diminished. The last DT song "Night Terror" uses it in guitar solo section. Another example is Haken's "Visions" also in keyboard and guitar solo section.
Hey Jake, It's been a while! That metal track is magnificent! Any chance you could break down how you went about writing the solo too in more detail? It's so freaking awesome & going off the fact you're specifically just using minor pentatonic & chromatic scales, there's obviously a method to your madness that can make some of us mere mortals sound better than we actually are!
Thank you so much. This is way too powerful in the hands of music producers and musicians because so many people make the same music but listen to different stuff. I'm personally a big fan of jazz, anything progressive as well as technical death metal. Time to make my jazz ep with polymeters and weird meshuggah skips.
Even though you started from other bands for the first bit, you ended up at a very Dream Theater-y riff. Actually that's probably how DT ended up being itself as well, makes sense.
2:17 the E dominant diminished scale has all those notes. e f g g# a# b c# d. It’s a symmetrical octatonic scale built from 2 diminished 7th chords a half step apart.
Oh thank you for replying so quickly. I have tried some demos from them, I currently use Scuffham S-Gear. Thank you. I enjoy all your content, I am a theory nerd. 🤓
With just the guitar the second track sounded like a theme that could be used for Inspector Gadget, the full version sans vocals sounded more like Miami Vice. 😂
Baby im on my wayyyy Waitijg for you to sing with me Im pretending awayyy That i can sing. while i can not. Who can stop me. Now i will rock. yeahhhhh This is the hook that came to my mind after that verse. Same chords but 4 4. Just screaming away the hook After the hook comes solo Oof 🔥
For A part of first song additional 4 beats on second repetition would be just great. Like 132-123-123-123-1234 123-123-123-123-1234-1234 But pretty shure this was also already used in some other song
how is it that i just finished playing a game of age of mythology and you make a reference about poseidon p.s.: amazing lesson and demos as always, jake
Music is a lifestyle for me and not a profession, but I have a deep "I stole it" syndrome (even in really vague cases) when it comes to music and... that helps/
On its own it is kinda hard to classify the second track as anything other than just "alt rock" or something similarly unhelpful. Personally I'm getting strong prog vibes from it though, if it were a section in a longer song or just flanked by proggier songs on an album that would obviously make it easier but even on its own it just... sounds proggy. Honestly you could just staple both of these tracks together and basically end up with the foundations of a Porcupine Tree song.
![The Awesome Power of the Andalusian Cadence - Making Music in 5 Styles [SONGWRITING + ARRANGEMENT]](/img/n.gif)
Best teacher on the internet when it comes to writing music
Agreed I have taken a lot from this guy
This channel took me from bedroom guitarist to producer by giving me knowledge. So grateful. Insane this content is free. You are the GOAT Jake
This channel was my kickstart to understand music theory.
Yeah mine too,i learnt so much from him.
He is one of the best on youtube
Literally same
Same same
I must add my admiration to the litany of praise comments here, Jake. You’re an inspiring creative genius and master teacher.
Your easygoing manner keeps it light, even when slicing and dicing murky music theory up to make it palatable for the uninitiated masses.
As usual your video is an absolute marvel of education and emjoyment. When you steal a musical element from someone you are taking the opportunity to praise it by using it differently. keep up the excellent work.
I love doing this kind of stuff, it's so satisfying to start with a borrowed idea and see how different it turns out in the end. Creating music is a magical thing
I never cease to be blown away by Jake's effortless brilliance!
Signals is the best channel on youtube
Entertaining, instructional and so well produced. 🤘
I just rediscovered My Curse like 3 days ago. Checked my last(fm), it was 15 years ago that I was addicted to that album. I tell you that made me feel old. But My Curse still hits where it hurts, I love that song.
Great tutorials on both tracks. Beautiful tones, too. I love the honesty in lifting ideas but morphing them into your own. Your second progression 11:06 reminds me of Sugarloaf's "Green Eyed Lady"
Both those pieces are completely different, yet sound really great!
Your phrasing on the guitar solo is amazing! Love the tension those half steps give.
Thanks a bunch! ✌️❤️
Nicely explained. When I flesh out further, I may leave space to bring in random riffs which may only appear as the original idea grows. Nothing is set until I have a progression I like and then I may work arrangements, again, leaving random slots to throw in unexpected things. I like to mix it up. Great vid.
I really enjoyed both of these. Very interesting on how you created them
I really liked the second song. It reminded me of Porcupine Tree and what they do for their ambient parts
Sounds like if Frost* wrote Scarred
Porcupine Tree totally would do the first riff, too. :)
Man I definitely owe you like 90% of my music knowledge! Thank you so much. I'd love a video about quartal harmony from you someday!
There's a vibe of nil by mouth in the first piece. Awesome job! Love your lessons!
You’re so good in what you do❤
Hearing all these layers together gave me chills, this is fantastic stuff!
Dude I always find youre videos informative and entertaining ! One of the very best music theory channels on the planet !
thank you 🙏
At 8:00 did you give up on the bass line? 🤣
Awesome video like always!! 🤘🏼
Awesome lesson as ever, your channel is a gift for humanity.
Please do more of these full composition videos. This was really interesting and fun.
Your videos always make me want to make music. 🥰
A blast to behold! Thanks for sharing your process! Great to see ya!!!
Wow great tune and this is always great to have your thought process to understand how the piece was composed... Love the way you present your approach.
Always a good day when he posts! One of my favorite subscriptions. BTW I hear genomic traces of Duncan Sheik and The Engineers in the 2nd song…very nice!
Hey Jake! Not sure if this will get buried in a sea of comments, but I've been a huge fan of your channel for years and you've honestly helped me break a lot of habits I've had, and now I can proficiently write music. I was curious if you ever considered doing a series for lead guitar. I understand the scale aspect, but I think something for speed, two-handed, and knowing how to navigate the fretboard and develop interesting patterns would be helpful! If not, I'm definitely open to any resources you could suggest. Thanks again for all your help over the years! :)
Fantastic lesson and really cool songs you came up with.
You're an inspiration, Jake! Thanks!
5:18 if you change that B minor cord to a diminished cord, it will fit nicely with that half step whole step scale. Or, the half step whole step scale. since you are starting on a B diminished cord.
The B octatonic scale (also known as the diminished scale) includes B minor, B major, and B diminished. That’s the beauty of this scale-it offers a wealth of non-diatonic chord combinations, allowing for endless creative possibilities.
The notes of the B octatonic scale are: B, C, D, E♭, F, F♯, G♯, A.
• B major: B, E♭, F♯
• B minor: B, D, F♯
• B diminished: B, D, F
It’s actually the Em and C# chords that make it not fit into the B octatonic scale
the second song give me old oasis vibes, nice video! hi from brazil
good to see you again!
Professor Lizzio casually killing it as usual! :D
I think I probably use this technique subconsciously whenever I create music. I mean if I like an idea in my head it's probably because it's similar to some piece of music that I like. Most of the time I can definitely name the songs that impacted that song the most. This is a great way to get out of a rut.
Good teachers teach, but really good teachers add entertainment to be even more effective. Loved seeing Jean Luc during the Picardy thirds....
The heavy track is almost like thall. Thall lite. Very cool.
Greatest teacher on UA-cam.
Hey, love this video! Superhelpful! Hope You make more like this one!
That second track sounds very Steven Wilsony
100% Porcupine Tree vibes
“Takin my dream” by Lenny Stewart. Nothing is original anymore
That 2nd song was very reminiscent of the downtempo music of Air or Zero 7. I dig it.
I like to write that rhythm as 4 quadruplet over the space of 3 beats. Kind of the opposite of a triplet. It’s more complex to figure out, I know, but I enjoy the clean look on the page.
Cool breakdown. Inspiration can come from the simplest things. You made a statement about coming up with something new being nearly impossible. As a lifelong musician/composer, I would have been inclined to agree....until I heard Cardiacs.
Great video Jake.
@SignalsMusicStudio Hey Jake first song is really similar to the Nil by Mouth by Haken :D. Also there is a couple of great songs from Astonishing but most concept albums fall into the trap of having a lot of forgettable songs. Definitely my least explored Dream Theater album :D. Keep up the best music content on UA-cam!
I played this for a student before this video release, and he pointed out that haken similarity. I was astonished at how alike they are. it's a good example of stealing when you don't even realizing you're doing it lol, I've listened to haken but I didn't know that song
The second song reminds me of some old "Alan Parsons" type stuff !! Very cool !! 👍🏻
Nice singing and catchy melody!!!
I’d love to see you breakdown some tesseract. Especially something off their new album. If you haven’t heard them, I suspect you’d thoroughly enjoy them.
Great video Jake! There's a 9 note scale called the Ionian add b3 and b6. BTW, I do similar things to get the spark of inspiration ignited. Keep up the good work brother!
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
Very cool! The second tune has a bit of a Genesis vibe.
Great stuff as usual
I just did a song with this today. ❤
And then this shows up! 😎
Long time no see. Welcome back
Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal
Thanks for the content :D
I never took you for a death metal guy. Sounds great
Very cool. The 2nd track reminded me of some of Pete Townsend's compositions once he got that ARP. Eminent Front, Baba O Reily_ that sort of thing. Also, I know you get a lot of comments but I commented on your last video about double tracking bass with the wrong song name. The Faces tune I was reaching for that opens with doubled bass is 3 button hand me down. Not that it really matters but I figured I'd mention it.
That Dm progression ending on a Picardy third --- reminds me of "Refugee" by Kansas
Really great stuff 🏆
Best channel on youtube.
2:12 It's Half whole diminished scale that has one mode or variation: Whole Half diminished.
The last DT song "Night Terror" uses it in guitar solo section. Another example is Haken's "Visions" also in keyboard and guitar solo section.
Also check "Septic Flesh - Prototype"
Jake casually making 🔥 music for an educational video
Hey Jake, It's been a while!
That metal track is magnificent! Any chance you could break down how you went about writing the solo too in more detail? It's so freaking awesome & going off the fact you're specifically just using minor pentatonic & chromatic scales, there's obviously a method to your madness that can make some of us mere mortals sound better than we actually are!
Happily! I'll probably post that on my Jake Lizzio channel
Thank you so much. This is way too powerful in the hands of music producers and musicians because so many people make the same music but listen to different stuff.
I'm personally a big fan of jazz, anything progressive as well as technical death metal. Time to make my jazz ep with polymeters and weird meshuggah skips.
Amazing! Sounds a lot like dream theater
This is so magical, it's worthy of a lycan chair!
E F G G# (Ab) are basicaly the firt four notes of the half-whole diminished scale
That first song reminded me of Dream Theater, the second one I'd label as synthwave or something like that.
I kept hearing Steve Miller band for some reason!
Thanks!
thank you!
it's B diminished (half-whole) scale, you're perfectly in one key
Even though you started from other bands for the first bit, you ended up at a very Dream Theater-y riff. Actually that's probably how DT ended up being itself as well, makes sense.
2:17 the E dominant diminished scale has all those notes. e f g g# a# b c# d. It’s a symmetrical octatonic scale built from 2 diminished 7th chords a half step apart.
Good stuff. The metal track sounds a lot like something Dream Theater would do
before the lyrics, the second one was basically a track you might find in a Metroid Prime game
That second song jams
Lol, I'm not a musician but as soon as I hard that second section I knew it was Fatal Tragedy xD
Excellent
Second song is definitely very Porcupine Tree-y.
Good stuf,very good stuff
Phrygian Flat 4. It's the third mode of Harmonic Major. It's just called a flat 4 instead of a Major 3rd
This is great , thank you. I can’t seem to find what your guitar sound comes from ? Do you use amp software or a particular modeler ? Thank you.
Right now I'm mainly using amp sims from Neural DSP. I bet they'll go on sale soon!
Oh thank you for replying so quickly. I have tried some demos from them, I currently use Scuffham S-Gear. Thank you. I enjoy all your content, I am a theory nerd. 🤓
BOTH Of these sound super Dream Theater-y.
With just the guitar the second track sounded like a theme that could be used for Inspector Gadget, the full version sans vocals sounded more like Miami Vice. 😂
Baby im on my wayyyy
Waitijg for you to sing with me
Im pretending awayyy
That i can sing. while i can not. Who can stop me. Now i will rock. yeahhhhh
This is the hook that came to my mind after that verse. Same chords but 4 4. Just screaming away the hook
After the hook comes solo
Oof 🔥
For the second track Pure Reason Revolution comes to mind
All Jake's can play Wonderwall. Our entire species. Change my mind.
12:36 Alright, guys. Here's the plan on how we get that statue back. That's the first thing that came to mind!
Great video! The last song reminds me of the risk of rain 2 soundtrack
Whats the poster behind you on the left called and where can I get it?
That's the Ultimate Modal Poster! I designed it and sell it on my site and thru tee spring.
I made a dark gothy metal song by inverting the riff from Sunshine of Your Love
For A part of first song additional 4 beats on second repetition would be just great. Like
132-123-123-123-1234
123-123-123-123-1234-1234
But pretty shure this was also already used in some other song
How is he looks younger and younger in every new video? o_O
He posts them in reverse order. The most recent ones were filmed ages ago, while the older vids are yet to be made.😂
Jake (Benjamin Button) Lizzio!!??🤔😹
how is it that i just finished playing a game of age of mythology and you make a reference about poseidon
p.s.: amazing lesson and demos as always, jake
The second one reminds me a lot of Porcupine Tree and it sounds great
Music is a lifestyle for me and not a profession, but I have a deep "I stole it" syndrome (even in really vague cases) when it comes to music and... that helps/
Would you release a full version of 2nd song it sounds amazing
If possible, please make a video on how to write celtic/medieval music
The first riff is absolutely bitchin
2:13 the seventh mode of melodic minor has that combination of notes. I think they call it superlocrian or ultralocrian or something crazy like that
Michael Knowles taking a break from the DailyWire!
Both songs if combined remind me of Between the Buried and Me.
On its own it is kinda hard to classify the second track as anything other than just "alt rock" or something similarly unhelpful. Personally I'm getting strong prog vibes from it though, if it were a section in a longer song or just flanked by proggier songs on an album that would obviously make it easier but even on its own it just... sounds proggy. Honestly you could just staple both of these tracks together and basically end up with the foundations of a Porcupine Tree song.