Music Student here, This is by far the most helpful lesson I've gotten on Functional Harmony, and my Professor is really talented. But after hearing this everything clicked and it became so simple.
It’s 12:30 at night and I feel enlightened. I wish more tutorials were as concise, informative, demonstrative, and frank as this. You’re just awesome man, thank you.
This video was of great help, even thou I wasn't even looking for chord progression; I was trying to find out why a song I was trying to play had a note that was outside of the scale, then I stumbled upon dominant chords (which I didn't know were a thing) and now I can go back to the video that might have the answer to why I have to play a F# on the A# scale (A#; C; D; D#; F; G; A; A#)
@@davidtorazzi7650 there are many reasons why that could be. I highly suggest looking up “secondary dominants” and “borrowed chords”. These are methods of using chords from outside the scale and that means using notes that are from outside as well. Sometimes it’s not even that complex, they are just simply breaking the rules whether it be as a passing note (between chords) or an extension of a diatonic chord.
Surely chord vi is ambiguous. It can function as a tonic chord since in contains the two most stable tones. (Hence the deceptive cadence). I would say that vi has stronger tonic function than chord iii....you seldom hear V - iii as any form of cadence. But, in some contexts vi can function as a pre dominant since it also shares 2 tones with chord IV.
true. which is why even in contexts where the song is in the minor key (where the tonic is [i]) in the back of my head I still treat it as a vi and the IV looks & feels to me as II and the entire song has [III] as my tonic[I] and the root scale is lydian.
The iii chord can be thought as both part of the tonic and dominant chord groups because it also contains two notes from the tonic (I) chord. When played with consideration to the V chord, the iii is called the minor relative Dominant (Dp). When played (less commonly mind you) with consideration to the I chord, the iii is called the minor counter-relative of the Tonic (Tg). Another way to make sense of this is looking at the Mediant (iii) and Sub Mediant (vi). The sub mediant is called sub mediant and not super mediant because it is equally spaced going backwards from the tonic- i.e. I, vii, vi versus I ii iii. I basically agree that the vi feels more like the tonic than the iii- but in a sense every time we play Imaj7 we also play a iii so it is kind of hard not want to relate it to the I in some sense.
This is THE most helpful video I've watched for writing chord progressions, and I've watched dozens of them. Understanding the function of each chord and the philosophy of building a flow in a chord progression really clicks. And you presented it in such a concise and nice way, thank you!
this needs be shared to every musicians. very clear and useful information and i appreciate the comment at end that says these rules are only guidelines because this is the progressive music philosophy.
i really appreciate the little details in the editing, namely the music in the background always being on and changing depending on the topic. It helps me concentrate and puts me in the mood of the chords that you are actively talking about.
I've watched many theory with Roman numbers and tonic sub dominants etc.,but this is simply the best. Now can actually start writing my own progressions with confidence ! Thank you very much! J.R.
Thank you so much. I've owned a guitar for the last 13 years and learned how to play good enough to where my friends who aren't guitar players think i'm decent. Though i'm not and my playing hasn't really gotten anywhere. Well, I finally decided to try to understand theory and even though this is a small part of it, the way you explained everything was so clear and concise! I'm here experimenting with different chord progressions already since I know the chord shapes and i'm actually having fun with my guitar again....thank you!
@@sophiafakevirus-ro8cc thanks for replying to my year old comment. I've been playing sporadically since then. Bouncing back from work and other hobbies not having much motivation to play but I've focused on learning the 12 bar blues structure and practicing soloing using the pentatonics and experimenting with different rhythms using the chords. I been wanting to learn the major scale next but I feel like I'd rather become fairly proficient in the pentatonic/blues scale
I've been struggling with understanding chord borrowing and modes, but the final table made something click in my mind even if this wasn;t necessarily related. thank you so so much.
Those are families but 6th is the submediant, 4th is the subdominant I: Tonic ii: Supertonic iii: Mediant IV: Subdominant V: Dominant vi: Submediant vii°: Leading Tone Update: Oh, I see what you're saying now
@whatabouttheearth yeah, I iii and vi are tonic chords, ii IV subdominant, V and vii⁰ are dominant (the vii⁰ is a rootless V7). I don't like the term mediant and submediant, supertonic,subtonic,etc. 7 is too many terms, when you can boil it down to 3: tonic subdominant, dominant
Very very very well explained, clear, efficient, simple, easy to understand. Thank you! Please making more videos and like your style: straight to the point, no time to waste in long winded talk.
Great video showing whats useful. I dont get why so many people just explain how they named "Supertonic" when that literally explains nothing useful. Its a subdominant and has a subdominant function, thats what is important to know because that tells us it sounds tense and can be used for contrast between a tonic and a dominant.
Dude this is incredible. I've been playing guitar since I was a teen and whenever I asked people or teachers about writing chord progressions, I always got bs answers and terrible tutorials. I never felt like I fully had a grasp on writing chord progressions until I learned about harmonic function and found this video
Until I bought a piano after my retirement I laughed and said I had two left ears when it comes to music. In college I liked a band "Doug and the Slugs" and played it for a friend that sang in a choir. And she said they went to the wrong chord. But I liked the song.
Thanks for posting, I've playing guitar most of my life and I've found music theory helps make sense of things whether you've learned by ear or whatever.🙏😷🎵🎶❗👀
I've just joined this morning and the reasons are; freedom and flexibility. Understanding anything in this world today is difficult, with signs that say don't walk The sign now says, Walk. Thanks!
Depends on context I believe. In a deceptive cadence you can use it as a tonic. In a plagal cadence you can use it as a sub dominant. important to remember that these are all just frameworks, not rules of law, context can change the meaning of chords - depends on the story you're telling
FWIW, I have the degrees grouped as such: TONIC (I), (vi), (iii) / SUBD (IV), (ii), (vi) / DOM (V), (vii), (iii) I-tonic vi-relative key iii-shares 2 tones with the tonic IV-subdominant ii-contains the 4th degree, root is the V/V vi-shares 2 tones with the subdominant V-dominant vii-contains the leading-tone that pulls to tonic root iii-shares 2 tones with the dominant
Such a great voice and explanation....It felt like someone is sitting near amd explaning things....Very helpfull and really liked tje last part of the vd that feel free to play what u sounds great to you
I am spanking myself for just seeing this. This is simply the very best explanation I have seen and heard. I just subscribed and hit the notification bell. Thanks for this.
Dude. Huge thanks for the Video. Didn't only help me a lot in a breakthrough regarding music in General, it also inspired and impressed me a lot, Videomaking wise. And entertaining it is, too! Amazing.
Sub is Latin for below. So when you think of it in that context it is not weird to use the Plagal Cadence. As it is a 5th away from the Tonic descending.
Functional harmony is a little bit broader than you suggest here ultimately, so most popular songs are made with functional harmony and slight variations in mind, so very, very useful theory to have a handle on when learning.
I like this lesson it keeps it simple. I don’t care about any other complications others have complained about in here. I’ll use this & if it sounds good I’ll stick with it & just play. Thanks dude 🙃
Not a bad explanation but glosses over the fact that you have to use the harmonic minor scale for the minor to resolve properly from the V to the I. Also, the VI degree can function either as tonic or subdominant depending on context.
A friend of mine just brought up the idea of doing some writing, so I found this video. Holy crap. Do you understand the amount literature this simple language you explained just unlocked for me? I've been looking at I ii iii ..... for decades and never bothered to learn what it meant. Not to mention being able to really understand specifically why I like progression X over Y or really getting a feel for what's going on under the hood in Beethoven's fake endings.....just mind blown.
Dood the amount of work you must have put in to make the 8min, continuous song line up sonically with 8 minutes of technical information... You're a hero. Thanks.
I’ve never heard the seven described as a dominant degree before. I’ve only heard it called the leading tone. Also, what happened to the mediant and sub-mediant?
Those are families. The 6th is the submediant, 4th is the subdominant. In families they are grouped into the three groupings of similarity because they share notes, so the V is the most dominant and so called the dominant, but others are in the dominant family. I: Tonic ii: Supertonic iii: Mediant IV: Subdominant V: Dominant vi: Submediant vii°: Leading Tone
true. I adhere to this. I believe they're called "relative minor" (vi is the relative minor of I--and is thus tonic; iii is the relative minor of the V--ergo dominant; ii is the relative minor of IV--which makes it feel subdominant). To my ears at least the relative minor chords are like milder flavors of their respective major diatonic counterparts.
@@leif1075 a tonic chord is any chord that dose not contain the 4th scale degree... A sub dominant chord is any chord that contains the only the 4 scale degree.. A dominant chord is a chord that contains the 5th scale degree and also the 7th scale degree... These r all 7th chords Ur 1 chord has 1 3 5 7.. 6 chord 6 1 3 5. And the 3 chord has the 3 5 7 2.. No 4 scale degree so they r all tonic.. 2 chord has 2 4 6 1.. 4 chord 4 6 1 3.. Only have the 4th and not the 5th or 7th degree so they are pre domainat..the 4th scale degree wants to lead u to the 5th of the domaniant chord 5 chord has 5 7 2 4..7 chord 7 2 4 6.. They have the 5th and 7scale degree.. And also the 4th when in adding 7ths..so the both r domaint.. The leading tone (7) pulls u back to the 1 chord
@@EclecticSceptic and since both C and E are relative to the tonic C in Cmajor, making Am a tonic, then why does he claim the Am as a Subdominant? does it simply mean that the 6th is both TOnic and Subdominant?
@@christopherestrada2474 Am = A-C-E, a minor triad in general has 1-b3-5. I mentioned this above just to point out that Am (vi chord) shares two notes with C (I chord). Similarly, the iii chord Em = E-G-B shares two notes with C = C-E-G. This is not the beginning and end of chord function, of course, but it's worth noting. The other chords share either 1 or 0 notes with the tonic C major. Functional harmony in general is just an opinion. It is one way of interpreting music. It is not objectively true or false. So ultimately, we cannot say 'well vi IS a tonic chord'. However, we can say what is the most common application of the functional harmony framework, or give our personal slant on it. From what I have seen, with the proviso that all my theory is self-taught, it is more common to consider vi a tonic type chord. However, it is also my perception that this is sometimes disputed (also for the iii). What I remember is that iii and vi have tonic function, but perhaps sub-dominant function also/instead.
Great info. Thanks a lot. But remember, you can't have a Dominant 5th if you're just talking about triads....only with 7th chords. And vi belongs to the tonic harmonies with I and III. Sub-dominant are II and IV and Dominant, 5 and 7.
