I Broke Music Theory 

A quick note on the phrase "I broke music theory" and other corrections, but first! If you liked this video, please consider supporting my work on Patreon! www.patreon.com/LeviMcClain A little while ago, I made a video where the thumbnail said something like "I broke music theory". The video was on some basic principles of harmony in 31 EDO. Mainly Supermajor, Subminor and Neutral qualities of different chords. That video is one of the best performing on this channel and has been a real conduit to reach a larger audience with some of these really cool, left field ideas. The chief critique on that video, one that I (probably fairly) got roasted alive for was that I failed to pay homage to all those who came before me with a lot of these ideas. After all, I did not invent the idea of the subminor chord. I also did not intend to make it seem like I was claiming this, because... like obviously I did not invent the Subminor chord. That said, I'd like to properly acknowledge the giants of old in 31 EDO theory that make all of what we build on today possible: Nicola Vicentino, Christiaan Huygens, & Adriaan Fokker. A video about each and their contributions to this robust system of music is on the horizon. Also would like to acknowledge Gene Ward Smith who I understand first coined the concept of Orwell. Music theory is the words and language that we use to talk about music. It's descriptive, not prescriptive, so I'm not exactly sure what it means to "break it". When I say "I Broke Music Theory" I mean something like: I would like to show you the way I approach and understand music, which is likely a little different from how you most likely approach and understand music. The grandioseness of this claim is meant to express how insanely cool I think all of this stuff is, and helps to stand out in a world entrenched in 12. The click bait-y nature of the title is unfortunate, but this is what works in an algorithm controlled world. I think the trade off is worth while in good faith. Corrections: Edostep 14 (542c) should be labeled as G half sharp, not G sesquisharp.

All of a sudden that "music theory is witchcraft" video lookin a lot more literal.

Came for the brain breaking theory, stayed for classical bass

Literally 1984

Wow, great video. Honestly it definitely sounds better than just being out of tune. I think there is definitely a type of musician that gravitates towards this stuff solely to be "weird" but I feel you're exploring it more genuinely in search of a broader sense of real music that is beautiful beyond just being different.

Your Orwell (4) song is so hauntingly beautiful, and surprisingly kind of folky!

I just can't express how deeply astonished I was, hearing the hauntingly alluring the tune in orwell[9]. Awestriking, eye-opening, no words can epitomise the profound beauty of microtonal music; it's not the first time I've heard xenharmonic piece, but the way you harmonized the tones seems to me, a non-musician - just an avid listener, as a great accomplishment on your part, and although I do not understand the theory, the majestic and charming motif of your composition had deeply altered my understanding of this music category.

This is the first microtunal music that made sense to my ears. It's super cool!

So ridiculously talented, I struggle to comprehend it, fuck. Well done.

I love the feeling of discovering a channel right before it blows up. keep up the good work!

It’s also worth mentioning for anyone who’s getting into microtonality for the first time; that you could just start listening to more Middle Eastern music, since they have a ton of modes full of notes that do not fit within our 12 note system. Microtonality isn’t some entirely new creation. It’s just no longer within the European musical cannon.

Bro, I finally understand 31 TET much better. The sub sets and selected intervals just made it click in my mind so much. And before it always seemed to me like the song was in tune with out of tune notes, but the way you did this created tones I've never heard before. You are truly a blessing to nerds like me, thank you!

I don't how you showed up in my feed, but I am so pleased. I took Electronic Music at Brown University in the late 70s. Your music is sonically beautiful and intellectually fascinating. I have the lyrics to a country song that would employ this structure to full effect. It's a about a drunk whose life I saved in a McDonald's parking lot. He emerged from some bush and staggered and fell under the rear wheel of a car driven by an elderly man about to exit the premises. The harmonies could have fun with this lyric. I "subscibed" all.

That has a quality of familiarity from the deep in me. Haunting yet comforting.

that acoustic bass sounds fucking amazing

Just got into theory and you make me feel so slow, in the best way. It’s nice to see people still question and push boundaries. I’m gonna come back to this video again and again till I can understand all the concepts amazing work friend.

Hey Nerds, that was fun. I like your perspective. Thanks.

Microtonalist here too, love how you bring this to more people, it seems to be very successful! Is the female voice on those songs Zheanna Erose?!

With how much you "shrunk your niche" I'm surprised this ended up in my feed so soon. And you found a big fan this is awesome!

I'm assuming this is a new channel because there are a little over 10K subscribers but this guy will blow up for sure. This is incredible.

I love this! I was deep into atonal, electronic, music myself about 25 years ago, I’ve written quite a few pieces and have built several interactive music installations, but ended up in a different career altogether. So this, your creativity and enthusiasm, is in some ways reminding me of that almost lost piece of myself.

Thanks, dear gods of the Algorithm, for bestowing upon me this gift of a channel. And thank you for the video! Everything is right up my alley, your production is great and I love your songwriting, too!

Got dayum how am I just finding you now? You sir, are an amazing person, musician and nerd. Thank you for all that you do.

That was a great educational video but your compositions were above and beyond my expectations. Excellent productions, Levi!

your composotion style is so perfect with microtonality

This sounds awesome! I would describe microtonal music as "Avant Garde" - (new and unusual or experimental ideas, especially in the arts). The Orwell 9 tuning sounds very useful for Psychedelic Rock, Psy-Trance, New Age, Psychic, Paranormal, Spiritual, Ethereal Music, Fantasy Theatrical Score depicting elves, dragons, wizards, angels, demons, ghosts, spirits, magic, and Sci-Fi Cinematic Theatrical Score depicting time travel, interstellar travel, aliens, UFO's, alternate realities, and entities from other dimensions of existence. I could imagine this used in movies and TV series similar to "The Twilight Zone", "Outer Limits", "The X-Files", etc. 🔥

I recently learned about oreintal music and how it's much more complex then what we think thanks to mircotoning etc... This video solidified the idea that there is a large world of unexplored music and untapped potential. Seeing what you've done, I'm very optimistic about the future of music!

I wasn't ready for how amazing this video is

I just watched this 3 times, and I'm still tripping on it. Wow. I thought I knew what music was.

1984 is a perfect description. I can see a form of this being used as a scene right out of Orwell's book.

I can't wait for you to release an album. This is amazing music and I want to listen to it all day

very high quality video production and sick keyboard also holy shit amazing voice the orwell 4 example was really beautiful and haunting

I'm impressed by your ear. Singing in microtones must be difficult.

This idea makes a lot of sense and will become popular. We have probably already wrote most of the breathtaking stuff from 12TET, Just Intonation, Octonic etc. The last 900 years amazing composers have composed. Music has become stagnant and popular music is ridiculous and abysmal. I have 2 musical ideas I will manifest in 12TET. Then I plan on doing stuff like this.

omg this video is so well built.

The subject is fascinating and the visual production is stunning... but the two musical compositions, they really hit it out of the park. They are both quite simple at their heart, but you embrace each one for what it is and are not scared to be both playful and try to see how far you can get with it. That shows a lot. Of course everything can always be better -the script is good, but not quite at the same level as everything else-, but there's such a broad display of incredible talents in this video that it would be criminal to ask for more from a single human. Keep it up, you definitely deserve every bit of success that comes your way.

Dude... when you started playing music in this temperament, I started having endless chills in my body and tears in my eyes. Hearing this changed something profoundly.

How do I trick RU-vid into treating my videos this way? 😅 Great music again my guy, the visuals and singing are especially nice with this one!!!

The moment you said septimal seventh, I was sold on this tuning... its my favorite interval

Great video - and song/jam examples. Very pretty. Still partway through, but just noticing the table of notes for Orwell[9] has a tiny error, that fourth should probably be G‡ (at 14\=542c as it says), and not G‡# (which would be 16\=619c). I really like the orwell[4] example, but it really sounds like the tonic is at 21\, so maybe you could have rotated the diagram to show us a better picture of what we hear (a sort of major sixth chord with a sub fifth and supermajor sixth, and actually a lot like a shrunken version of 4:5:6:7 or a dominant seven) - 0\=0c - 10\ = 387c - 17\ = 658c - 24\ = 929c Holy hell that keyboard with modular keys is super cool, I wish more keyboards out there could do that!

Loved the demonstration of 9-orwell, thank you so much for delivering material in such simple, visally appealing way. Microtonality is a rabbit hole yet it broadens the musical horizons insanely, your videos made me very interested in this topic, so thanks again!

This is one of those channel that will blow up years later

This is the greatest invention for occult rock. I can't even imagine, what sound will fit it better.

its at 31 likes and i wanna like it but i don't want to change it......

Wow, this video is fantastic. Inspiring on so many levels. I love what you are doing here!

the vocal stuff is particularly haunting. wonderful video!

6:30 strong warframe vibes holy shit... this is beautiful, i feel like i'm blind to so much music out there and i like to think i listen to all kinds of music, but i just see myself staring out into the colorful void of stars and galaxies of all kinds of music

this channel deserves so much more than 10k subs! great work!

Eerie. Ethereal. Now I have a new thing to explore. Thanks. tavi.

Sir, I thank you for your level of understanding and for also being able to translate it well to layperson and expert alike. This was an amazing introduction to world's I'd never have known about otherwise. [SUB]

The production on this is really excellent- MoS scales finally clicked for me so thank you

We should never lose sight of the fact that music is entertainment. Create in light of that initial spark that compelled you to spend your life doing this stuff in the first place. If it gets you the results of bringing you joy, it is the way. Stay blessed, earth movers, bass weavers, and sacred ear hole exciters. Huh?

I'm no musician. I didn't understand most of what you said, but dang, the music was otherworldly. it was amazing.

Thank you for communicating the connection that the brain makes to the textures of tuning. I break peoples brains tuning from 440 to 432, or 444... "it just doesnt sound right," actually means people were programmed to dissonance so much that when overtone locking occurs in proper tuning, they can not "see" it. Thank You for breaking down 19/84 and sharing this project. This is not easy material to cover. 🙏🚂🎼🌹🎶🎵⚕️~C< 3)>>-Z->}

it's amazing how well Orwell [9] sounds like it belongs in 1984, at least in it's primary mode

Man, the piano arpeggios in the build hit so f*****g hard! 6:07

Thanks for this beatifully explained and made video

So, confirmed again: music is indeed applied mathematic. Incredibly beautiful, the way you combine!

I didn't understand most of what was said, but o boy how sounds super cool to me. Feels like navigation through the unconscious sea.

holy moly this is really really really really really good

this instantly revived my musical knowledge after proceeding to stop learning piano. now i cant stop learning it!

This music genre should have a significant position in music world

I couldn't distinguish you from Charles Cornell for a long time, so I thought that this is his secret second channel. It seems that I'm bad at recognising faces.

it all sounds so good, very musical.

THIS SOUNDS SO COOL WHAT you, sir, are a genius- new fascination unlocked

Man, you just blew my fractal mind.

intro was absolutely fire, reminds me of the 1.07 DayZ music

btw guys noteflight can use quarter tones under the 1/4 bend under the "tabs" section in the palettes dropdpwn. It cant do this, but it can allow access to 24 tet

Spicy! This sure is noise that i've never heard of before and I love it!

What a fabulous presentation and explanation of microtonality. I've always been fascinated by scales other than "ours" and the musical textures and intervals they can provide. Thank you for your work.

Aw shit, 'is it interesting?' brought a tear to my eye. Legit, I'm a Cancer rising. I only watch these type of videos because something I'm leaning towards called 'voicing', is what gives me a floating feeling, if I'm standing I must sit or risk falling over. Happens randomly so I haven't pinpointed the phenomena exactly.

The fact that you manage to create so beautiful pieces of music out of those exotic scales impressed me a lot! Fantastic job!

i literally don't understand ANYTHING in this video, i just love the vibe and music, and damn it makes me wish i could see music and understand it, it feels and sound like absolute magic, carrying me in another reality

It sounds so creepy yet calming at the same time

The night. Let's go and watch and hear some madness.

Love this, dude. Hope this channel blows up.

This was genuinely incredibly interesting and fun to watch!!! Keep it up, dude! I'm willing to bet that you'll blow up sometime soon! :D

Your so about to blow up on RU-vid. Just take what you have hear and try to apply to do more mainstream ideas, and you’ll be on everyone’s recommended

9:07 The RU-vidr told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

I tried to figure out how I could implement this into my own music using Ableton, but then I soon realized I would have to pay for a microtuner and stuff and that really demotivated me. But I will keep looking! Microtonal music seems like an extremely deep topic to get into, which would be great for my music journey, so thank you for introducing it to me. I love your music!

I appreciate your sense of humor and tonality. I'd love to collaborate with you on a music theory program that I've been writing - to make it more complete.

I'm bringing back MIND=BLOWN for this.

Just discovering You, Thank You!!! Merci, Love! 🙏☯✨

I myself enjoy working with 16-tone equal temperament, which includes neutral seconds at 150 cents, and neutral sevenths at 1050 cents. I have absolute pitch in base-12, and I am training my ears to have absolute pitch in base-16. I can identify G half sharp and G quarter flat, as well as D quarter sharp and F quarter sharp. I'm puzzled by 31-EDO, not because I'm not interested in the idea, I just feel like prime-numbered temperaments scare me. You are a very talented man! Respect to you.

wow, that could actually be the future sound we've all been looking for imagine that, start a song in standard 12-tone, then just mask the "out of tune" moment with some transition and sound design, give the listener a little time to adapt, then like start a new section of the song in orwell tuning

Have you heard of the Belgian quarter-tone pianist Seppe Gebruers? I recently came across his videos. He improvises with two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart, and plays very unconventional versions of jazz standards like 'In a Sentimental Mood' and 'You and the Night and the Music.' I had never heard anything like it in that context-so surreal. That’s how I ended up here looking for more information. Thanks for the video. the best J.

This is interesting but also totally arbitrary. You're not breaking anything ; you're merely presenting a different palette. Some will like it. Most won't.

Orwell[9]is truly a great temperament. I first heart it in Sevish's "Droplet" Now I have 2 favorite songs to that name

Absolutely brilliant! Dont know what else to say. I just completely taken by this system.

you can tell this channel is underrated af within the very first 5 minutes. you have great taste and passion.

Great Video, thank you for introducing this to me

Wow, loved how it sounded!

I loveeeeeeee your videos about microtonality

This is like a sonic mandala that scales up and down. With resonant frequencies and tones that can be found on the smallest and largest scale (ex. The atomic structure of a particle and its model compared to a model of the solar system.) it’s the same model on a different scale.

This is awesome. Technical systems and vocabulary aside, the musical examples are artistic and utilize aesthetics that are not only demonstrative but also emotive in ways not possible with 12TET.

I need a full version that was awesome

bruh.... these are exactly the harmonics that tickle my brain. THANK YOU!

5:28 My heart.. I am trembling. Thank you. please watch the whole video. This man did god's work today. This video was a beacon for my work thank you. 💙

Hi, Levi. I just wanted to say that your video is really amazing, and I love all of the concepts explored in it. /gen The little compositions that you made for this were hauntingly beautiful - which leads me to ask a question, as politely as I possibly can, if that's okay. Could we possibly have an extended version of the piece at 0:38 that you showed us? It sent chills down my spine, and it felt like something I'd have heard in the 90s. It would be wonderful to hear it as a full song. Please don't ever feel pressured by one random commenter on RU-vid - and I hope that you're having a good day.

I have no idea what you said but you got me listening