I just feel like Djazzpacito is litteraly just a troll that has mashed random chords over the melody and wanted to see what you could possibly think about that
@@Jamie_kemp Eh, not really. That's like, the extreme. Jazz usually has a clear definition to it, at the very least. The chords are usually unconventional, but they DO actually follow the melody like any other chords would. Experimental jazz is a subgenre, not the entire genre. Jazz isn't just entirely composed of the crazy songs with the random chords and notes and weird pacing and time signatures and stuff. I definitely think that with the Djazzpacito meme thing, this guy pretty much just took the root notes of the lead on every beat you'd expect a chord change, and then just formed a bunch of "stereotypically jazz" type chords with weird, ultra specific modifiers over it for a meme. There's no way F/Cmaj7(#9) would sound good over a melody in D major.
@@RodneySagorScreams Dear god please no, anything but that... Personally I hate that video. He invents his own terms and theories because the "normal" way to analyse Africa just "isn't how i hear it, man". I think his... "alternative" analysis of Africa is complete bogus. The whole video sounds like the fever dreams of a theory major. "iT's iN A LyDiAn, gUyS!! i sWeAr!!!"
I feel like everybody who reharmonizes songs for jazz always overdo it. They always make the chords too far out, and to me they aren't really very listenable
Agree. Didn't feel much jazz in that reharm. Jazz isn't just random harmony. It's a precise style with traditions, including orchestration and rhythmic expectations. Here we have quasirandom harmony, which is fine (if you want to go in that direction, some jazz works this way), but nothing is done to make it rhythmically interesting/jazzy, to make interesting instrumentation choices, or to write proper voice leading. With that being said, many jazz reharms are very cool. Improvised ones are my favourite in general, because they are ear-driven and voice leading is very natural for improvisators.
@@Moinsdeuxcat You're so right about that. I think those people need to listen to more jazz and try to understand exactly what it is that makes jazz "jazzy"
@@Moinsdeuxcat I would agree with that, and I also feel like they take every little bit of jazz theory they now and apply as much of it as they can, which is really not how jazz works. All I heard was chromatic bass through the entire thing and some forced tritone subs. Very overdone. Glad I'm not the only one that feels this way.
The Djazzpacito submission sounded like it was only half finished, as though he was just lazy and mentally gave up, or sent an earlier version of the file on accident. The most impressive thing about it was how he managed to achieve both a lack of variation and a total lack consistency throughout. Towards the end it begins to seem more like a parody or troll than simply being amateurish.
@wcr4 It came from the original name. Despacito starts with D. Not gonna lie though, was expecting Djent + Jazz as well, was primed by like Rob Scallon, lol.
That's similar to I feel about most popular rhythm tracks of the last 20 years, like hip hop, EDM, etc. It's the same lazy, cringey shit I've tapped out a thousand times on a desk when I'm bored and only halfway paying attention, except it would never have crossed my mind to enshrine it into a recording and sour the world with it. Or how I feel about modern metal. More, faster notes does not equal taste. Neither does slower and slower notes. Neither does lower and lower notes to the point that your "melodies" have all turned into bass lines and/or one- to three- note simplicities. And neither does screamierness. All those elements were neat deviations from their precedent influences once upon a time, but have all been widely intensified ad nauseum rather than kept within tasteful bounds, IMO.
For me the Djazzpacito reharmonisation might be a good example why music lessons can be extremely beneficial. Of course Adam and Rick can offer some criticism and correct details in this format, but a good teacher in a one-on-one lesson will really go into detail, find ways to incorporate all those things said in the video into comprehensive exercises (meaning giving opportunities to study single aspects in small exercises without having to worry about the bigger picture at first) and offer alternate solutions on the spot. Also the student will have to perform his reharmonisation himself, thus really hearing how it would sound on an actual instrument and maybe get inspired by the hands-on appproach he/she has on the instrument, while the teacher listens and gives direct feedback. I also used to write a lot on Sibelius, which definitely wasn't bad for me or my musical approach. But the most intricate arrangement is worth nothing if it can't be performed, so nowadays I will figure stuff out on my instrument, scribble it down on paper or make a quick demo recording and only if I'm happy I will put it down the chart in Sibelius and maybe work out minor details.
@@absofjelly An accordion's response is determined almost entirely by the player, it responds as quickly or slowly as the player moves the bellows unless something is severely wrong with the insides
That jazz reharmonisation was just someone coming up with chord progressions with chromatic movement (not a bad thing in itself) and making them as stereotypically "jazzy" as possible, while adding lots of non-functional crunchy bits (particularly the minor 2nd clash with such chords as G/A#) whose sole purpose was to make the piece sound more crunchy. What I'm getting at is that the harmony (mostly) had no real purpose. If jazz was a cake, it's like this person tried to recreate that cake but just used the icing because that's the most blatant flavour and the most visually striking element of the cake, therefore all icing = more blatantly, obviously jazz = more jazzy. A pile of icing is not a cake, it's a pile of icing. Like a pile of icing, another problem with this aimless, unconsidered style of harmonisation is that it lacks structure. Slapping a series of self-contained chord progressions in a row does not create a sense of structural movement from a starting point to a developmental point, and therefore does not facilitate a return from development to any kind of cadence. Music does not need structure necessarily, but this piece in this context does. For example: the reason the pedal section sounded good was because, in contrast with the rest of the piece, the strong foundation of the pedal contextualised the harmony above and gave each chord in the sequence a sense of progression from and movement towards other chords in the progression; each successive chord shared the same frame of auditory reference (the pedal), and so each seemed more related and thereby the whole sequence acquired the appearance of being structured. As well as this, the chords in the pedal sequence involved some repeated chromatic/harmonic movements (repetition being extremely important in music for the creation of a sense of structure), giving a strong sense of tension and release just for a moment within this short sequence. The rest of the piece lacked all of the above so there was no significant variety in tension or mood, little sense of structure, and therefore no strong sense of musicality. **TL;DR** CONTRAST. It is extremely important in music. STRUCTURE is too (most of the time). An iced cake needs cake and icing, otherwise it is a) dry sponge, or b) pure sugar. Music is exactly the same: if your piece is nothing but unstructured, wandering "jazz" chords, then your piece doesn't really make any musical or emotional impact. You need to *contrast* the wandering, crunchy, jazzy bits (icing) with simpler sequences and more recognisable movements (sponge) because the listener can then compare the former to the latter and now suddenly the crunchy bits are interesting because they contrast to previous material. Or, if you don't want any regularity in your music (this is fine), at least provide some structure and a sense of trajectory to your crunchy harmony. The same applies to all aspects of music, for example rhythm: the reharmonisation in the video was suddenly better when there was some line movement, because it was a breath of fresh air *in contrast* to the plodding harmonic rhythm of the entire piece before then.
@Josh Burns I have an issue with jazz - I don't get it. But I got the same vibe from the reharmonisation as you did - it sounded edgy for the sake of being edgy and without any regard nor respect for the source material - which I find is an absolute necessity if you're trying to HARMONIZE to a preexisting piece. It basically sounded like a far more lazy and distasteful version of the "jared yee's solo on clarity" joke from Adam's other channel. I am no expert and not getting jazz puts me in a weaker position still, so thank you for putting it in words.
Too many words I fear, haha. I have a habit of writing essays on things which probably don't need essays written about them, but thank you for the affirmation :) I suppose you are less able to criticise jazz if you don't get/are not familiar with jazz, yes, however you can still validly comment on the general musical aspects of jazz if you have general theoretical knowledge of music, so your perspective is still worthwhile.
Whoo, thanks for featuring my arrangement guys! That section is in fact somewhat of a shout chorus right after the solo section, so maybe the blockiness/homophony is appropriate, but I'll keep some of your ideas in mind!
Two of my favourite musictubers in one place, I am now a happy man. Thank guys, the both of you are ALWAYS awesome, seeing the two of you together is stupendous.
I think with jazz reharmonization, its important to keep in mind the initial theme and play the chords around that. With this arrangement of despacito, it felt like the melody was almost completely disregarded and a bunch of jazzy block chords were just played on it.
I am musically illiterate so I have no idea what they're talking about but I love listening to how two passionate knowledgeable people discuss their craft.
musical ideas must be introduced simply and then expanded upon through repetition and variation. This djazzpacito is too dense, it never establishes the melody or the functional harmony the melody is built off of (and implies).
hey adam, i've got a question for your next Q&A: How do you come up with a b-section for the start of a song that you wrote? Thanks for the advice and your continuosly good content! Cheers!
The thing here is that the piano is the only percussion they're using, and the piano cords are all spice. The piece sorely needs some rice and beans for all that spice. One good conga player could have played the arroz y frijoles it would take to make it a meal. Then the piano could be as spicy as it wants.
Oo that last composition, some unwanted dissonance every now and then with certain chord choices on the held notes in the brass. But structurally, melodically, rhythmically super creative, great composition
what I find always in these verdict reviews is that they are part of the teacher student idiom. when you consider bands, and musicians people who never watch these video's and never get much music theory, yet sound amazing fresh and exciting. Mental health is one thing, for instance brilliant musicians who can't read music due to dyslexia or perhaps because it appears too alien. Tab is a guitarists method of choice, with musical examples, it works much better than scoring, but of course music scoring is universal. I studied it a long time ago, so I can read music, however Julliard pianist Nahre Sol's method helps me immensely because she uses colour bracketing when she is learning a piece. Ironically one of my Mental health symptoms is loving rhythmic studying, so when I look at music in PDF, I group it, and ironically it's more like a storyboard technique suddenly I know what the groups mean rather than the individual notes, which I see are being represented in notation, but are compartmentalised so I get a sense of transit. I then understand music much more easily.
My 2nd year theory teacher always said a particular phrase, and it definitely applies to this "jazzpacito" arrangement that you guys analyzed, and it goes like this: "Don't do more HARM than REHARM!". Those sections where there are 4 chords per bar just sound bad (sorry, person who composed it). It doesn't matter if it "theoretically" works. Your ear is the guide, not your theory knowledge. If it sounds bad (and this does), then take a step back and decide if you "really" need to reharmonize ALL of the tune. Some of it sounds fantastic! But every time you harmonize a different chord for each beat, you're no longer really "saying" anything with the arrangement.
If we set aside their theoretical knowledge, do you guys think it's possible for anyone to get such a great musical ear like these two, with enough work? I'm only at the beginning of my journey but I feel like I could never hear subtleties in layers of music like them even with a thousand years of training lol (like that C# in the bass clashing with the guitar's D in the last arrangement for instance)
Lucas13100 just have to listen to music man. Analyze it, see what you like about it, just really hear it, then go back and analyze it with theory knowledge. Listen
Well, considering these two attained their great ears through hard work, I’d say it’s definitely possible! There are plenty of ear training games and apps that you can get started with.
That first one, djesphaszitho; the composition doesn't have much creativity in its reharmonization. The chords and rhythms don't really have any function. They are just random chords. You could put any of them pretty much anywhere and it would serve the same purpose. The melody and rhythm don't carry any intrinsic meaning/emotionality and it really should. The climactic ascension was the first example of an impactful piece of functionality. The "release" was very lack luster. That is where you would want the whole notes, or half quarter quarter. That's where you want to hold relief. You also need better chord choices, the current chord choices don't relate to each other you need to make them relate. They at the moment can only objectively sit there; arguably, at best.
13:20 absolutely not a minor quibble. You can’t spell ya damn chord F# Bb C#. Also not a minor quibble because it’s a Picardy third. It’s a major quibble.
So, G-flat Major is right out? :-) Given that it's in the key of A. I can't remember if I ever saw flats in a "sharp" key signature or sharps in a "flat" key signature back in band in jr/sr high??? Please forgive the writer's accidental accidental.
Leif Burman yeah I thought of the various minor scales after I wrote that. This was a weirdly placed chord like you said - not a leading tone but the root of an entire chord (mostly) outside the key
Roboprogs if you can pull it off and it’s contextually necessary, then sure, a Gb major chord in the key of A or any other key is fine. But in this case, it’s not like we’re talking about some weird m7b5 or Augb9. It’s a major triad spelled 1 b4 5. In a sharps key no less. That’s at least a felony misdemeanor lol If I had to guess why they did that (if it was in fact intentional), I would guess they’re a clarinetist (given it’s a clarinet lead) and they know A# is how you short circuit a clarinetist’s brain lol. They’re like “.....do you mean Bb?”
You are a obviously a heavy user of Sibelius. But how do like the original guy, Jean Sibelius? I'm from Finland, and to us finns FInlandia by Sibelius is like our second national anthem. Especially the choir version is cool af.
Aw, man… YOU NEED TO RESUME THIS SERIES!! I mean, hearing unvarnished feedback may upset some onlookers - although in truth you‘re always diplomatic, and you explain clearly what‘s behind your opinions - but obviously some of your viewers sought out your advice, and I believe it also helped those of us “auditing” your lessons. If you gave the ordinary thumbs up/thumbs down “A UA-camr” (ugh) “Reacts to X” presentation, then of course that’d suck. But instead you‘re thorough and, as I already wrote, you support your feedback very clearly, explaining concepts as you offer constructive critique. Whether or not to take your advice is always up to us viewers, but now with a clearer understanding of the kind of “decision tree” a conservatory-trained musician employs, thanks to your lucid and complete explanations. SO YEAH, PLEASE BRING THIS BACK!! And ignore the whiners. 🙂🎶❤️
The midi voice for the melody was gravel in my ears. And yes, I realize it was a demo. Collabs like this are super fun though. Huge fan of both you guys. :D Cheers, Chris.
As a high school music teacher.... this video pretty much is my life marking students cruddy arrangement/composition projects that lack cohesion and direction in the basic elements of music (form, rhythm, melodic ideas, harmony, etc).
I liked the "spiciness" of the other submissions, but Nejc Klun's entry was, as they, harmonically simple, yet beautiful. Sweet like syrup. I couldn't find a copy of the sheet music though
I know I'm super late to the party, but I have a comment on the brass arrangement of Come Down. A lot of the part is in a somewhat low range for the trombone and trumpet. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't think the range used matches the desired timbre. The "exciting" range (in my opinion) for trombone is F on the staff to F above the staff, and for trumpet it's G on the staff to G at the top of the staff. Below that range has a darker tone, and is harder to play the "exciting" articulation and tone. Above that range is a thinner tone. As an anecdote, I used to play in a brass quintet, and we had a Dallas Brass song (I don't remember which one) that had a sort of a rock vibe to it. The original key that it was in was too low, and it was hard to play it with the excitement and tone to match that rock vibe. We transposed it up a fourth, so that most of the song was in the range I mentioned, and it fixed the excitement issue. Same group of musicians, same song, just transposed up.I am by no means an expert on saxophone, but I have played a little alto sax. I find the "exciting range" of alto (and it probably translates to tenor) to be "above the break", so D on the staff up to like C above the staff. That is why the end of your song sounds more "exciting" than the beginning of the song for the saxophone parts.Another comment on the trombone part, don't throw in glissandos just to have glissandos. It's pretty cheesy unless you're building a song around it (check out Lassus Trombone), and even then it's still a little cheesy. Plus, you can't really play the accent as intended that's marked on the second note of the gliss since you aren't articulating the note.My last comment is that this is a terrible key for brass instruments (and probably saxophones). On brass instruments, especially instruments with valves, concert B is hard to play in tune, and the low C# is hard to play in tune on trombone (5th position can be hard to find accurately because there's no physical reference on the instrument). The key is less of a concern if you're writing for professional or really good brass players, but if you're writing for average amateur players, it's something to keep in mind.
Djazzpacito just sounds like old JRPGs. Synth Flute + Reverb Piano + Jazz Chords = Instant Nostalgia. EDIT: Oops, nevermind. It's actually just my old love of Sibelius and MIDI sounds coming back, which Adam clearly points out in the last 5 seconds of the video. That's what I get for impatiently commenting before the video's finished, lol.
I just feel like Djazzpacito is litteraly just a troll that has mashed random chords over the melody and wanted to see what you could possibly think about that
exactly my thoughts. tbh though jazz is just a load of not really chords and a melody over the top.
ok maybe that went a little too far
@@Jamie_kemp jazz isn't even my thing but that doesn't make any goddamn sense lmao
@@Jamie_kemp Eh, not really. That's like, the extreme. Jazz usually has a clear definition to it, at the very least. The chords are usually unconventional, but they DO actually follow the melody like any other chords would. Experimental jazz is a subgenre, not the entire genre. Jazz isn't just entirely composed of the crazy songs with the random chords and notes and weird pacing and time signatures and stuff. I definitely think that with the Djazzpacito meme thing, this guy pretty much just took the root notes of the lead on every beat you'd expect a chord change, and then just formed a bunch of "stereotypically jazz" type chords with weird, ultra specific modifiers over it for a meme. There's no way F/Cmaj7(#9) would sound good over a melody in D major.
@@HyenaFox yeah you're right, I was exaggerating and I agree with what you said there
un infiltré
I loved listening to what they were saying. I just couldn't stand listening to Djazzpacito.
It was a little drawn out.
Yeah, there was way too much time spent on that.
Eh. Better than the original if you ask me :P
The original is rhythmically more interesting.
It's impossible that this was a serious piece.
I could listen to you two tell people how not to suck at music for hours.
I could listen to the three of you tell people how not to suck at music for days!
The three of you need to do more stuff together!
I could listen to you three all day. .
As a complete amateur, this is like listening to two wizards talking, and still it's incredibly compelling.
May i suggest the channel 12tone and it's "Building blocks" videos?
They're a great start!
@@MarcoPellegrino1978 just watched the Toto - Africa video by 12tone..man..it's awesome, but things were going way too fast..
@@RodneySagorScreams Dear god please no, anything but that... Personally I hate that video. He invents his own terms and theories because the "normal" way to analyse Africa just "isn't how i hear it, man". I think his... "alternative" analysis of Africa is complete bogus. The whole video sounds like the fever dreams of a theory major.
"iT's iN A LyDiAn, gUyS!! i sWeAr!!!"
With ancient magic they compel you.
Marvel: Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover in history.
Adam Neely: Djazzpacito.
I was disappointed by the lack of djent, although that would require significantly better rhythmic understanding
Mitch it’s djazz, not djent
The collab, the thumbnail, the music. Instantly clicked. This might be the best crossover ever... Guys, good times are coming.
Infinity War is DEFINITELY not the most ambitious crossover event in history.
Good times never came tho
Not yet :/
If you only knew😂😂😂
2020 might get better, it just needs time.
I feel like everybody who reharmonizes songs for jazz always overdo it. They always make the chords too far out, and to me they aren't really very listenable
Agree. Didn't feel much jazz in that reharm. Jazz isn't just random harmony. It's a precise style with traditions, including orchestration and rhythmic expectations. Here we have quasirandom harmony, which is fine (if you want to go in that direction, some jazz works this way), but nothing is done to make it rhythmically interesting/jazzy, to make interesting instrumentation choices, or to write proper voice leading.
With that being said, many jazz reharms are very cool. Improvised ones are my favourite in general, because they are ear-driven and voice leading is very natural for improvisators.
@@Moinsdeuxcat You're so right about that. I think those people need to listen to more jazz and try to understand exactly what it is that makes jazz "jazzy"
@@Moinsdeuxcat I would agree with that, and I also feel like they take every little bit of jazz theory they now and apply as much of it as they can, which is really not how jazz works. All I heard was chromatic bass through the entire thing and some forced tritone subs. Very overdone. Glad I'm not the only one that feels this way.
A surprisingly large number of young musicians want to do 'jazz' without actually listening to jazz.
Since it was just the piano reharmonzing over the melody he probably overdid on purpose. With more arrangements the movement becomes more tasteful.
So happy to see a father and son discuss the music theory behind Despacito 2.0 👏🏻
This comment holy shit
This is so sad, Alexa play Djazzpacito
But is _djazz_ a genre?🤔
@@sebastianzaczek yes it is
Show Alexa the door immediately
Who the hell is Alexa?
@@proximityclockworkx1572 I mean really who the hell are we??? 🤔🤔🤔
Oooof! That major at 13:17 is absolutely beautiful sounding - even Rick thinks so but no one ever mentioned it.
Adam: So Rick, do you have any feedback for this one?
Rick: My son has perfect pitch
Lonely Kid hahahaha !!!
LMAO
Precisely what rick’s channel is about.
Lonely Kid lmfao
..so he can throw a great curve ball?,..a slider?..
Hilarious editing and quality critiquing!! Loved it !!
Soundcloud rappers analysis
There usually isn't much to analyze. It's all pretty by the numbers.
@@JUNK_ZONE congratulations you got the joke! 👏👏👏👏
@@JUNK_ZONE r/woooosh
Most of it is better than the things that get radio play, but other than that, nothing too special
@Hannu Listen, we're on YT. There are people dumb enough to ask for that.
I’m waiting for them to reveal that a computer algorithm was responsible for the reharmonisation 😂
Me too lmao
It all makes sense now...
The Djazzpacito submission sounded like it was only half finished, as though he was just lazy and mentally gave up, or sent an earlier version of the file on accident. The most impressive thing about it was how he managed to achieve both a lack of variation and a total lack consistency throughout. Towards the end it begins to seem more like a parody or troll than simply being amateurish.
meme "Djazzpacito is not a parody". Said no one. Ever.
Why don’t you say it to his face?
Nah, I think he wasn't trying to make proper accompaniment, but just to put some chords to show the actual chords he wanted to use in the reharm
Yeah, it felt more like a proof of concept than a draft in progress, at least that first part.
The fuck is that sans cirno pfp 😂
Was expecting djent+jazz despacito. Dissapointed
@wcr4 It came from the original name. Despacito starts with D. Not gonna lie though, was expecting Djent + Jazz as well, was primed by like Rob Scallon, lol.
Seriously
The D always comes from nowhere...
The only time Neely has disappointed.
Djisapointed
How to Not Suck at Music (w/ Rick Beato) is my favourite anime.
Sounds like a light novel adaptation.
Top 10 Anime Crossovers
Muhngkee This is k-on with more math
@@raytsh it is
It's written by yukiya Murasaki
Oh wait I thought we were talking about how not to summon a demon lord
"My son has perfect pitch" is my fav episode
That Despacito reharm reminds me of the cringey shit I do. Complexity does not equal taste.
But you still do it?
Nope. I barely play music anymore and I haven’t composed anything for ages
This @Jacob Collier
Jacob Collier is tasteful though (to me at least)
That's similar to I feel about most popular rhythm tracks of the last 20 years, like hip hop, EDM, etc. It's the same lazy, cringey shit I've tapped out a thousand times on a desk when I'm bored and only halfway paying attention, except it would never have crossed my mind to enshrine it into a recording and sour the world with it.
Or how I feel about modern metal. More, faster notes does not equal taste. Neither does slower and slower notes. Neither does lower and lower notes to the point that your "melodies" have all turned into bass lines and/or one- to three- note simplicities. And neither does screamierness. All those elements were neat deviations from their precedent influences once upon a time, but have all been widely intensified ad nauseum rather than kept within tasteful bounds, IMO.
I have absolutely no idea what any of that meant...but it was fun to watch...
JAZZ.
What a useless comment.
richard trumpet like minds attract
Ya like _djazz?_
Rob?
no
no, it’s patrick!
@DerSibbe i LiKe YeEtInG dJaZzy BaNaNaS
Should this series be renamed "Play the right notes, mate"?
TheDarkMessiah Please
Adam has to see this
To the top, you go!
awh dang I remember still someone else sayign a protip about everything and harmony being in the same key lmao
For me the Djazzpacito reharmonisation might be a good example why music lessons can be extremely beneficial. Of course Adam and Rick can offer some criticism and correct details in this format, but a good teacher in a one-on-one lesson will really go into detail, find ways to incorporate all those things said in the video into comprehensive exercises (meaning giving opportunities to study single aspects in small exercises without having to worry about the bigger picture at first) and offer alternate solutions on the spot. Also the student will have to perform his reharmonisation himself, thus really hearing how it would sound on an actual instrument and maybe get inspired by the hands-on appproach he/she has on the instrument, while the teacher listens and gives direct feedback.
I also used to write a lot on Sibelius, which definitely wasn't bad for me or my musical approach. But the most intricate arrangement is worth nothing if it can't be performed, so nowadays I will figure stuff out on my instrument, scribble it down on paper or make a quick demo recording and only if I'm happy I will put it down the chart in Sibelius and maybe work out minor details.
Petition to have Adam's "the licc" in Rick's "What makes this song great?" XD
My biggest criticism of the third piece:
My accordion won't actually play half those bass notes
Wait for it to go through puberty?
Plug it into an Octaver?
I was wondering about the kind of syncopated parts near the end. Accordian isn't really known for sharp response. AFAIK.
@@absofjelly you must know a lot about it when you can't even spell it...
@@absofjelly
An accordion's response is determined almost entirely by the player, it responds as quickly or slowly as the player moves the bellows unless something is severely wrong with the insides
Nice Jared Dines cosplay you got there, Adam!
jazzed dines
Dino giney
Awesome!
..the t shirt has actual notation on it tho,..like, instead of tab.
Thank you for the review! I really appreciate it. We will probably record it with my band in some time. I'll post the link here when it will be done.
Just leaving a message so I can get a notification
Awesome work man
Please! Would love to hear it
+1
...
The last one is totally a soundtrack for the first village in a JRPG.
That jazz reharmonisation was just someone coming up with chord progressions with chromatic movement (not a bad thing in itself) and making them as stereotypically "jazzy" as possible, while adding lots of non-functional crunchy bits (particularly the minor 2nd clash with such chords as G/A#) whose sole purpose was to make the piece sound more crunchy. What I'm getting at is that the harmony (mostly) had no real purpose. If jazz was a cake, it's like this person tried to recreate that cake but just used the icing because that's the most blatant flavour and the most visually striking element of the cake, therefore all icing = more blatantly, obviously jazz = more jazzy. A pile of icing is not a cake, it's a pile of icing.
Like a pile of icing, another problem with this aimless, unconsidered style of harmonisation is that it lacks structure. Slapping a series of self-contained chord progressions in a row does not create a sense of structural movement from a starting point to a developmental point, and therefore does not facilitate a return from development to any kind of cadence. Music does not need structure necessarily, but this piece in this context does. For example: the reason the pedal section sounded good was because, in contrast with the rest of the piece, the strong foundation of the pedal contextualised the harmony above and gave each chord in the sequence a sense of progression from and movement towards other chords in the progression; each successive chord shared the same frame of auditory reference (the pedal), and so each seemed more related and thereby the whole sequence acquired the appearance of being structured. As well as this, the chords in the pedal sequence involved some repeated chromatic/harmonic movements (repetition being extremely important in music for the creation of a sense of structure), giving a strong sense of tension and release just for a moment within this short sequence.
The rest of the piece lacked all of the above so there was no significant variety in tension or mood, little sense of structure, and therefore no strong sense of musicality.
**TL;DR**
CONTRAST. It is extremely important in music. STRUCTURE is too (most of the time). An iced cake needs cake and icing, otherwise it is a) dry sponge, or b) pure sugar. Music is exactly the same: if your piece is nothing but unstructured, wandering "jazz" chords, then your piece doesn't really make any musical or emotional impact. You need to *contrast* the wandering, crunchy, jazzy bits (icing) with simpler sequences and more recognisable movements (sponge) because the listener can then compare the former to the latter and now suddenly the crunchy bits are interesting because they contrast to previous material. Or, if you don't want any regularity in your music (this is fine), at least provide some structure and a sense of trajectory to your crunchy harmony. The same applies to all aspects of music, for example rhythm: the reharmonisation in the video was suddenly better when there was some line movement, because it was a breath of fresh air *in contrast* to the plodding harmonic rhythm of the entire piece before then.
Josh Burns I did'nt read any of it, but I agree
@Josh Burns
I have an issue with jazz - I don't get it. But I got the same vibe from the reharmonisation as you did - it sounded edgy for the sake of being edgy and without any regard nor respect for the source material - which I find is an absolute necessity if you're trying to HARMONIZE to a preexisting piece. It basically sounded like a far more lazy and distasteful version of the "jared yee's solo on clarity" joke from Adam's other channel. I am no expert and not getting jazz puts me in a weaker position still, so thank you for putting it in words.
Too many words I fear, haha. I have a habit of writing essays on things which probably don't need essays written about them, but thank you for the affirmation :) I suppose you are less able to criticise jazz if you don't get/are not familiar with jazz, yes, however you can still validly comment on the general musical aspects of jazz if you have general theoretical knowledge of music, so your perspective is still worthwhile.
You need a TL;DR for your TL;DR.
TL;DR is too long wtf
Whoo, thanks for featuring my arrangement guys! That section is in fact somewhat of a shout chorus right after the solo section, so maybe the blockiness/homophony is appropriate, but I'll keep some of your ideas in mind!
You don't want to "Berklee" up the composition too much.
Don't worry, I'll keep the alto sax part really easy.
You're awesome, man!
The best possible collab
One Beautiful soul has taken it upon themselves to re harmonize the wonderful despacito. Truly angels live among us. Despacito II confirmed.
Two of my favourite musictubers in one place, I am now a happy man.
Thank guys, the both of you are ALWAYS awesome, seeing the two of you together is stupendous.
Am I the only one who thinks that this Despacito arrangement sounds like trash ?
Caved Johnson If you read the rest of the comments, no.
Absolutely not. You fall well within the bell-curve
‘twas not good
No you are not.
Even Rick and Adam thought so...
Shouldn't Djazzpacito also contain djent?
I love seeing my two favorite music theory youtubers working together! Would love to see it more often!
I think with jazz reharmonization, its important to keep in mind the initial theme and play the chords around that. With this arrangement of despacito, it felt like the melody was almost completely disregarded and a bunch of jazzy block chords were just played on it.
The last piece was beautiful. Very well done.
nobody realizes that rick beato hits the lick on 12:03
most people talk about how the first one (djazzpacito) is mere chord smashing, but I just want to say that the third composition is so beautiful
Why is this private all of a sudden, you can't just bait me in like that, oh nevermind we good
OMG, WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE INTERNET?! THIS IS AMAZING. THIS IS WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS MORE OF RIGHT NOW. WORKING TOGETHER!
Top ten characters who could easily defeat Thanos ( even with the infinity gauntlet)
Putin
I am musically illiterate so I have no idea what they're talking about but I love listening to how two passionate knowledgeable people discuss their craft.
Best Rick & Morty episode ever
Having a conversation really heightens this series. Please consider doing it more!
I still suck, but thanks anyway!
[[Insert Name]] same ☹️😂
Which was yours if you don't mind me asking?
?
@@rhandhom1 Nor of them
Wow! Cool to see basically the only two people who's videos I regularly watch together. You are saving me a lot of time!!
Rick: this sounds weird and stiff
Adam: I should probably analyze the inversions of the piano chords to fix that
I just love the videos where both yo and RIck are in them. Great content Adam, and most informative. THank you and bless you both.
NEJC KLUN, if you read this, please send me the sheet to your piece, I'd like to try and play it!
You guys are the most charismatic and knowledgeable music guys on youtube I've ever seen. Cheers!
The morale of the story is play with others live in person, as much as possible.
I wasn't expecting you to make anymore of these videos. Keep doing them fuck the haters bro.
The last piece sounded very much like 16-bit video game music.
Most things in Sibelius do.
Never seen beato in such crisp high definition. He looks like a new man
musical ideas must be introduced simply and then expanded upon through repetition and variation. This djazzpacito is too dense, it never establishes the melody or the functional harmony the melody is built off of (and implies).
What!!!! Can't say I didn't expect this collaboration, but it still feels unexpected.
Thanks. Am still watching the video
The Nejc Klun piece was super cool! Is it released anywhere or is it an unreleased work-in-progress?
I liked the dominant chord BTW haha.
I can't find it on youtube, I really hope it does come out somewhere! Sounds like Mitsuda to me, which is high praise!
Agreed. That chord was my favourite bit!
Literally the two most important teachers of music today. Thanks guys for all your hard work.
Truly a colab for the ages
As a fellow musician and an enormous fan of Jason Robert Brown, I so appreciate the shoutout to him on that sweet sweet chord.
hey adam,
i've got a question for your next Q&A:
How do you come up with a b-section for the start of a song that you wrote?
Thanks for the advice and your continuosly good content!
Cheers!
The thing here is that the piano is the only percussion they're using, and the piano cords are all spice. The piece sorely needs some rice and beans for all that spice. One good conga player could have played the arroz y frijoles it would take to make it a meal. Then the piano could be as spicy as it wants.
Looking fit my man 👍
Man I love their chemistry. Bring this series back!
Oo that last composition, some unwanted dissonance every now and then with certain chord choices on the held notes in the brass. But structurally, melodically, rhythmically super creative, great composition
what I find always in these verdict reviews is that they are part of the teacher student idiom. when you consider bands, and musicians people who never watch these video's and never get much music theory, yet sound amazing fresh and exciting.
Mental health is one thing, for instance brilliant musicians who can't read music due to dyslexia or perhaps because it appears too alien. Tab is a guitarists method of choice, with musical examples, it works much better than scoring, but of course music scoring is universal.
I studied it a long time ago, so I can read music, however Julliard pianist Nahre Sol's method helps me immensely because she uses colour bracketing when she is learning a piece.
Ironically one of my Mental health symptoms is loving rhythmic studying, so when I look at music in PDF, I group it, and ironically it's more like a storyboard technique suddenly I know what the groups mean rather than the individual notes, which I see are being represented in notation, but are compartmentalised so I get a sense of transit. I then understand music much more easily.
Marvel:
"Avengers: Infinity war will be the greatest crossover in history"
Me:
this video
hilarious and original
@Robert Grant No, i think he means Adam Neely + Rick Beato
My 2nd year theory teacher always said a particular phrase, and it definitely applies to this "jazzpacito" arrangement that you guys analyzed, and it goes like this: "Don't do more HARM than REHARM!". Those sections where there are 4 chords per bar just sound bad (sorry, person who composed it). It doesn't matter if it "theoretically" works. Your ear is the guide, not your theory knowledge. If it sounds bad (and this does), then take a step back and decide if you "really" need to reharmonize ALL of the tune. Some of it sounds fantastic! But every time you harmonize a different chord for each beat, you're no longer really "saying" anything with the arrangement.
CHORD. CHORD. CHORD.
Me: Wow, I question every one of these chords!
Adam: I didn't question any one of those chords.
Holy shit, they are together
How to not suck at music is one of my favourite things on your channel and this one was great! I really hope there's a part 2!
If we set aside their theoretical knowledge, do you guys think it's possible for anyone to get such a great musical ear like these two, with enough work?
I'm only at the beginning of my journey but I feel like I could never hear subtleties in layers of music like them even with a thousand years of training lol (like that C# in the bass clashing with the guitar's D in the last arrangement for instance)
Lucas13100 just have to listen to music man. Analyze it, see what you like about it, just really hear it, then go back and analyze it with theory knowledge. Listen
Yes you can, study hard.
Well, considering these two attained their great ears through hard work, I’d say it’s definitely possible! There are plenty of ear training games and apps that you can get started with.
yes just give it time and enjoy yourself along the way. if you’re watching adam neely and rick beato videos you’re on a good path.
Yes you can already hear and feel the difference you just don’t have the internal reference built up to distinguish it.
The last song by Nejc Klun was so beautiful! Nejc if you are out there please link your soundcloud or youtube I want to hear more!!
Last song sounds awesome! Where could I found it?
Imagine being Nejc Klun and having these two praise your piece of music. I think I'd die of pride and joy.
A couple of heroes of the new and changing music industry
I wish you'd focus more on analyzing performances again instead of almost purely arrangements in Sibelius/notation software. :/
We love Rick!! thank you for bringing together my two favourite music youtubers!
That first one, djesphaszitho; the composition doesn't have much creativity in its reharmonization. The chords and rhythms don't really have any function. They are just random chords. You could put any of them pretty much anywhere and it would serve the same purpose. The melody and rhythm don't carry any intrinsic meaning/emotionality and it really should. The climactic ascension was the first example of an impactful piece of functionality. The "release" was very lack luster. That is where you would want the whole notes, or half quarter quarter. That's where you want to hold relief. You also need better chord choices, the current chord choices don't relate to each other you need to make them relate. They at the moment can only objectively sit there; arguably, at best.
YES!! That was a loong week waiting for a new video!! :P thank you so much! helps me SO much everytime!
13:20 absolutely not a minor quibble. You can’t spell ya damn chord F# Bb C#.
Also not a minor quibble because it’s a Picardy third. It’s a major quibble.
So, G-flat Major is right out? :-)
Given that it's in the key of A.
I can't remember if I ever saw flats in a "sharp" key signature or sharps in a "flat" key signature back in band in jr/sr high???
Please forgive the writer's accidental accidental.
Leif Burman yeah I thought of the various minor scales after I wrote that. This was a weirdly placed chord like you said - not a leading tone but the root of an entire chord (mostly) outside the key
Roboprogs if you can pull it off and it’s contextually necessary, then sure, a Gb major chord in the key of A or any other key is fine. But in this case, it’s not like we’re talking about some weird m7b5 or Augb9. It’s a major triad spelled 1 b4 5. In a sharps key no less. That’s at least a felony misdemeanor lol
If I had to guess why they did that (if it was in fact intentional), I would guess they’re a clarinetist (given it’s a clarinet lead) and they know A# is how you short circuit a clarinetist’s brain lol. They’re like “.....do you mean Bb?”
This is a perfect example on when being good at something counters you being good at it.
Rick Beato™
This is so sad Alexa play Despacito
Wait a minute! Is this reddit?
*Djazzpacito
THIS PANNING IN THE MICS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY keep it up
You are a obviously a heavy user of Sibelius. But how do like the original guy, Jean Sibelius? I'm from Finland, and to us finns FInlandia by Sibelius is like our second national anthem. Especially the choir version is cool af.
I love Sibelius!
David Bruce recently introduced me to his Symphony 5 in one of his videos which is amazing.
Aw, man… YOU NEED TO RESUME THIS SERIES!! I mean, hearing unvarnished feedback may upset some onlookers - although in truth you‘re always diplomatic, and you explain clearly what‘s behind your opinions - but obviously some of your viewers sought out your advice, and I believe it also helped those of us “auditing” your lessons. If you gave the ordinary thumbs up/thumbs down “A UA-camr” (ugh) “Reacts to X” presentation, then of course that’d suck. But instead you‘re thorough and, as I already wrote, you support your feedback very clearly, explaining concepts as you offer constructive critique. Whether or not to take your advice is always up to us viewers, but now with a clearer understanding of the kind of “decision tree” a conservatory-trained musician employs, thanks to your lucid and complete explanations. SO YEAH, PLEASE BRING THIS BACK!! And ignore the whiners. 🙂🎶❤️
the last piece was the best out of three... also, it sounds so anime to me haha
God I wish this video was twice as long! Do another one of these with rick!!
9:47 nice use of the Jacob Mann diagram
The midi voice for the melody was gravel in my ears. And yes, I realize it was a demo. Collabs like this are super fun though. Huge fan of both you guys. :D Cheers, Chris.
Just a question I have. Are all your future 'How to not suck at music' videos only going to cover compositions? No more performance stuff?
The second track at 8:30 is performed.
The more you play , the more you get better at playing
But you dont get better for writing the same thing 100 times
As a high school music teacher.... this video pretty much is my life marking students cruddy arrangement/composition projects that lack cohesion and direction in the basic elements of music (form, rhythm, melodic ideas, harmony, etc).
I assume they cut out at least 2 hours of merciless critique/awkwardness.
I liked the "spiciness" of the other submissions, but Nejc Klun's entry was, as they, harmonically simple, yet beautiful. Sweet like syrup. I couldn't find a copy of the sheet music though
His shirt is “the lick”!!! Awesome!
I know I'm super late to the party, but I have a comment on the brass arrangement of Come Down. A lot of the part is in a somewhat low range for the trombone and trumpet. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't think the range used matches the desired timbre. The "exciting" range (in my opinion) for trombone is F on the staff to F above the staff, and for trumpet it's G on the staff to G at the top of the staff. Below that range has a darker tone, and is harder to play the "exciting" articulation and tone. Above that range is a thinner tone. As an anecdote, I used to play in a brass quintet, and we had a Dallas Brass song (I don't remember which one) that had a sort of a rock vibe to it. The original key that it was in was too low, and it was hard to play it with the excitement and tone to match that rock vibe. We transposed it up a fourth, so that most of the song was in the range I mentioned, and it fixed the excitement issue. Same group of musicians, same song, just transposed up.I am by no means an expert on saxophone, but I have played a little alto sax. I find the "exciting range" of alto (and it probably translates to tenor) to be "above the break", so D on the staff up to like C above the staff. That is why the end of your song sounds more "exciting" than the beginning of the song for the saxophone parts.Another comment on the trombone part, don't throw in glissandos just to have glissandos. It's pretty cheesy unless you're building a song around it (check out Lassus Trombone), and even then it's still a little cheesy. Plus, you can't really play the accent as intended that's marked on the second note of the gliss since you aren't articulating the note.My last comment is that this is a terrible key for brass instruments (and probably saxophones). On brass instruments, especially instruments with valves, concert B is hard to play in tune, and the low C# is hard to play in tune on trombone (5th position can be hard to find accurately because there's no physical reference on the instrument). The key is less of a concern if you're writing for professional or really good brass players, but if you're writing for average amateur players, it's something to keep in mind.
I think you read it wrong.
Duh-djazzpacito
Djazzpacito just sounds like old JRPGs. Synth Flute + Reverb Piano + Jazz Chords = Instant Nostalgia.
EDIT: Oops, nevermind. It's actually just my old love of Sibelius and MIDI sounds coming back, which Adam clearly points out in the last 5 seconds of the video. That's what I get for impatiently commenting before the video's finished, lol.