Misteramazing Doesn't Understand Music Theory 

Patricia, this really was a fantastic video and I’d like to thank you for making it. (Not that you need my approval or anything like that, of course). I particularly like your overarching point concerning linguistic precision. Playing fast and loose with technical terms is something I do a lot in my videos (the ambiguity in my use of “counter-melody” and “wetness,” for instance), as is creating confusion via highly ambiguous terms like “use,” which obscure the the subtleties of musical intention (whether X intended to use tonality reminiscent of metal vs. his merely happening to have to done so, as well as whether X / his producer created a piece of music vs. whether it was sampled). Further ambiguities concerning my relation to X as an individual / his actions (which, indeed, I don’t endorse), as well as to hip hop as a whole, are extremely regrettable for me, especially as concerns your “one of the good ones” comment. Again, my own intentions as evident in the video are ambiguous and I do see this as a rhetorical failure on my part, as well as a social one. Casually mentioning such brutality (and homophobic bigotry) without clear disapproval can easily be interpreted as one’s being supportive of that brutality/bigotry, and is thus something I should’ve taken into account when the video was made. Concerning this and all the music theory that is blatantly incorrect, please know that addenda will be added to the descriptions of my videos soon. Such addenda will cross-reference this video. Finally, I find your interpretation of other ambiguities evident in my method of analysis interesting as well! My goal is always improvement, so I’d really like to discuss some of these issues more in depth if you have the chance. I’ll be following you on twitter shortly after I post this comment, so feel free to dm me there or shoot me an email if you prefer.

This was an awesome way to start off the new year for my career. Thanks again for having me, Patty. :^)

Mmm yes, this music appears to be made out of music

this thought process of "person says a lot of stuff I don't understand very confidently, so they must be correct" needs to be deconstrued and prevented

am i the only one who was crying laughing at “wetness” and “rate”???? like this dude really looked at two of the knob labels on garageband and was like yes these are effects

the first time he's heard rap with "coherent lyrics with intention behind them" is in an xxxtentacion song??? has this dude never actually listened to rap before???

Wow, his smooth talking and clean editing really made me believe every word... I mean I'm very ignorant in terms of music theory or composition, but it just struck me how gullible I can be with some nice presentation.

"you just kinda have to vibrate higher to understand it" im gonna start saying that to professors when they ask me to explain shit

loving the angry music teacher vibes you eminate

"I read the lyrics and found out it was practically a poem" lmao rap is poetry

misteramazing pulled a "you're so well-spoken" on rap

i released this on my 20th birthday

This is an incredibly cathartic video. When I first tried to watch his video on Resonance, I was excited to see a serious analysis of a song I really enjoy, but was horrified at the seamingly random assortment of music theory buzzwords compiled in that video. Thank you for this.

Him saying "..and sat down with an actual musician" kinda seems like an admission that he is completely out of his depth in all his other music analysis videos.

“There’s no such thing as effects like wetness and rate” that’s because he used some VST or soft synth that had parameters labeled “wetness” and “rate” and didn’t think that they might be non-standard, or just like names that the designers gave to settings in their product. It’s like if I used an Arturia MiniBrute (a monosynth made by Arturia) and turned up the dial labeled “Brute Factor” (which modulates a bunch of different settings to make the sound “crunchier” and more “aggressive” and only exists on that line of -Brute synths), and then went into a music store expecting to find “Brute Factor” settings on everything. Or went into a music class and treated Brute Factor like a foundational effect. “...You’re gonna want a compressor, a distortion, an overdrive, and definitely brute factor. Brute factor is very important if you want an aggressive sound. I like to put my brute factor pedal after my wetness pedal, but before the rate pedal...”

*Me, a person who also doesn’t understand music theory:* get his ass.

"It was practically a poem [...] this wasn't rap as I knew it" ...what the hell does he think rap is?

Honestly aside from the music theory fuckups, I think MA’s surprise and ignorance of hip hop, of even the same exact region and sub genre for an artist he made an entire video for. Like what... x came out of an entire collection of artists who are as good if not better. Like he literally thinks South Florida rap was just smoke purp and lil pump.

This is like watching the difference between the B- kid that makes his assignments look all nice and the A+ student who actually knows what he’s talking about.

Haha nice video! I'm astonished at how convoluted Misteramazing's analysis is, it's almost like he just tried to be as complex as possible and missed all the obvious points. One thing that stuck out to me in your video though, At 02:30, I hear a Csus4 not a C minor?

No, officer, it wasn't murder. It was artistic self-expression.

So he's kinda the CinemaSins of music.

Look at Me samples Mala - Changes, a 2006 dubstep tune, a genre that has its roots in jamaican soundsystem culture being brought to london, and absolutely nothing to do with metal lol.

You know misteramazing just went on Genius and read the annotations for the Death Grips songs and didn't attempt to analyze those songs himself.

"You kind of have to "vibrate higher" to understand it." God, this is one of those Rick and Morty high IQ memes in reality.

His cadence is also directly ripped from Nerdwriter. It’s like 1950 newscasters all speaking the same. Why can’t RU-vid channels have their own voice.

Me, knowing nothing about music: Ah, so it's like that huh? I understand everything now! (Doesn't get it at all)

"I didn't respect rap because it's dumb animal music until I heard of this one rapper who assaulted a gay man and then suddenly I just felt a connection." Is one hell of a fucking argument to put forth in a video.

The more I watch this, the more I realize he's just using a lot of big words, really fast, so that my tiny brain can't comprehend it fast enough.

“Effects like Wetness and Rate” hit me where it hurt

the "STFU" edit at the end is too iconic. it's too good. if we look at the frequency at which you're yelling, it translates to a note that harmonizes w

“Slick editing can distract from a lack of real content” is PragerU’s tactic as well.

the fake deep is strong with this one..................

i just wanna point out that this guy used to do "ew feminism sucks" hot take videos back in 2015-2016, so if you're wondering why he sounds so confident about this stuff despite not knowing anything. that's probably why :l

if patricia doesn't use wetness and rate on her newest album i'm unsubbing

Thanks taxxon. We need more video essays. My brain is so large and wrinkled. Deliver more content.

I think Misteramazing's editing is absolutely fantastic, but that shouldn't get in the way of a good ol' fact check or two

how can he be so confident

The channel icon jumping around, rolling by for a quick comment, looking down on her piano and hitting other channel icons like a bumper car is hillarious! Good job on the editing!

all the music stuff aside, the running gag of misteramazing's outro being shouted at by your voice angrily screaming "SHUT THE FUCK UP" made me giggle every time it happened good vibeo, much recommend :-D

"Sit back while I tell you about the one rapper whose songs have music theory and coherent lyrics."

I think if you're calling yourself Misteramazing your ego's writing cheques your body can't cash

This reminds me of someone who fell asleep in music theory class and had to bs their thesis

For those of you who're confused about "contour": Contour is what the synthesizer company, Moog, used to call envelope generators. Misteramazing is using the term incorrectly, though.

He actually used to make cringe compilations, guess he belongs in one too lmao

Misteramazing saying XXXDEADWOMANBEATER is different from other rappers "despite the ghetto production" is such a tell. He might as well said, "Smart music?! Made by a bbbbbbBLACK PERSON!????!!"

24:45 that made me irrationally upset, the Takyon-Guillotine mistake. Not only because it's there, but also because he hearted a comment saying "what if it's intended to throw us off, similar to Death Grips", like, uhhhhhhhh what

Wait, "The song doesn't utilize something really complex like classical music?" I'm sorry, what music theory class did he take? What classical music did he play? Because in the classes I was in, we were playing in Bach's toolbox for all of Theory 1 and most of Theory 2. And Bach composed a lot of great stuff, but theoretically, it's mostly not complex. The chord progressions are extremely predictable, everything is in simple, neat triads, and it's extremely rare to have any nice crunchy dissonance that doesn't immediately resolve. Sure, there's some classical music that is much less accessible (from a theoretical analysis perspective), but the average person when you talk about "Classical" is going to think of Bach and Mozart and Beethoven, not Schoenberg and Bartok. Sure, arpeggiation happens in Despacito and Mario, but you know where else you'll find arpeggiation? ALL OVER THE PLACE IN CLASSICAL. Sorry, I have strong feelings about people who make classical music sound harder than it is. It's not just for fancy people who can afford to spend time and money getting private lessons. Classical music, like all music, Is For Everyone.

I know this was uploaded 3 years ago, but I find myself constantly coming back to this video because of how smoothly you dismantle the blatant nonsense about resonance and also touch on some more of the guy's unhinged takes, this paired with the snazzy editing makes for a brilliant video. Love it and I'd love to see more.

i remember when i first watched mr amazing's resonance video; everyone in the comments was confused (including the people who know music theory). I felt something was off and I'm glad you clarified; thanks. Also Biodegradable did a STELLAR job.

I can't believe how Mister Amazing tried to "justify" the beating of a gay man as angsty. It's like if I kill a dog and use the blood to make an impressionist painting and have people say that it's full of emotion.

How could MisterAmazing not know that JocelynFlores was sampled? X has most of his instrumentals sampled like how does he NOT KNOW THIS AAAA

Another bizarre thing I noticed in the first video you dig into is that he frames at least one apparent 6/9 chord as a 13 despite context making it obvious what it is. But then again, this man also ignores the F in the bass of the transcription he's discussing, so I probably can't expect him to name tensions correctly. That said, the rambling exegesis about Crowley was what really threw me. Like, the thing about Death Grips is, they make a lot of weird asides in songs which are clearly more broadly about something else as part of their embrace of the stream of consciousness, and while pointing out that there is a line in a song about police brutality apparently referencing Crowley's Book of the Law is interesting and adds further nuance to an already intriguing song, hyperfocusing on individual lines when the song as a whole is saying something a lot clearer is missing the forest for the trees. (Also, "abracadabra" is a corruption of an Aramaic paper charm inscription for exorcising demons which literally translates to "disappear like this word." The Abraxas connection is ultimately specious even if it is relevant when discussing Crowleyian occultism.)

a minor key makes it sad I KNOW MUSIC THEORY

This is the first video I have seen from you, and having watched through your other video essays, I have to say I like this more "formal", clean structure and slick editing a lot better. I'd like to see more like this, with you working with an editor like Biodegradable. Your script, use of synth patches as auditory examples, combined with the editing makes for a very enjoyable experience.

I would say that to convince people of anything is slick editing, a tight script and to talk with conviction like you know what it is you are saying. If you do it in smooth voice and don't seem aggresive then it's a instant win. People like aggresive attitudes only if the thing/person you are aggresive to is "bad", extra points if the person being aggresive is a man. Also Happy Birthday!

its like someone saw the vox christmas chord thing and just made a whole youtube channel out of that sort of analysis

The way misteramazing says "a homosexual" makes my skin crawl

The fact that misteramazing links this in his description of the video makes me really respect him. There's nothing wrong with being wrong, there's only something wrong with not admitting when you're wrong.

Thanks for this. I watched that Home - Resonance video on my recommended and was so impressed by how smart he seemed that I binged all of his other videos. He seemed so knowledgeable because he used terms alien to me (somebody who knows jack about music) that sounded complex, and I never tried to investigate if what he was actually saying held any water. Thanks for breaking me out of that, I knew there was something off about that Xxx video, but apart from that I was eating it all up greedily.

when mr amazing said "ghetto" like that... and said that xoxotentacruel was ~so unlike other rap~ for having MUSIC THEORY and REAL EMOTIONS... i was like f i n i s h h i m

It’s like video essay parody except he’s being entirely sincere

Oh wow. This misteramazing person is really. making a mountain of a molehill. the basics of music theory are not what they're describing. oof. this hurts. if you just make something slick, people will watch anything.

misteramazing’s video utterly bamboozled me into thinking music theory wasn’t something i could even begin to understand, despite my musical background. it goes to show how much presentation alone can give the impression of competence. thanks for correcting this.

This was in my recommended and I watched the whole thing. Truly a great video - I always knew something was up with his HOME video and this perfectly explains it. You have my sub.

virgin mrdisappointing vs stacy patricia

occultist here, nobody would ever refer to aleister crowley as "eddie"

I don't know anything about music but doesn't it just sound nostalgic because all synth sounds nostalgic?

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand misteramazing. The references are extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical quantum somethingorother most of the references will go over a typical viewer's head

Misteramazing says in the beginning of Black Quarterback by Deathgrips that "He's not a Black Quarterback, he's writing *angry, paranoid poetry*" in a *pretty demeaning tone* for the musicians way of denouncing police brutality in his song, yet praises xxxtentacion for his *genuine anger* that comes out when he *beat a gay man for supposedly looking at him funny.* ... *That's weird, man.*

"seventh chords are actually two keys played in tandem" is certainly a new one o.O

you and bio did a great job on this, fantastic work patty!!

"synths make synth songs sound like synth songs"

as a musicologist, i love everything about this video :D i dont really get this fetishism and at the same time lack of understanding of harmony analysis and music theory. music theory often comes after the fact of a style of music emerging. it establishes the "rules" of the music, after it has already been made. PS: I would consider the flat second to be the typical most dissonate intervall that can be played in "western" music. that beat did even use the tritone as a passing tone smh....

MisterAmazing sounds like n edgy "i'm not like the other boys" teenager on 2008 4chan

I don't know why I find the video so fascinating, maybe it is the inherent draw of analysis, maybe it is the drama potential, maybe it is Patricia's charisma, maybe it is my boring nature being easily aroused from its stupor by anything even mildly intelectual and thus being driven to the upper heavens by this small sampling of Taxxon's wisdom. What is surely true is that I was thoroughly fascinated by it. Or maybe I'm just writing an overly long youtube comment to escape from more pressing tasks if for a single instant. We'll never know.

Why did he steal Nerd Writer’s cadence

I've been slacking on continuing learning music theory but this video made me wanna come back to it, thanks man!

This was so insightful and I really appreciate it! KEEP UP THE AMAZING WORK!!!

Would people really do that? Just go on the internet and tell lies?

Thanks for making this. This video to me says "here is a person who doesn't know what he's talking about. You should feel confused, not because you're ignorant, but because it is confusing. This is how to recognize a feeling you should have when listening to someone who is full of shit." I play and perform music, but I have very little technical understanding of music theory. My understanding of music, including aesthetic, is intuitive. When I listened to Misteramazing describe the chords in Resonance, I was confused, not because my music theory is non-existent, but because he didn't explain anything. A good explanation makes you feel less confused, not more.

Patricia is one of the only RU-vidrs who video essays I genuinely want to see consistently

After what you said about his Resonance video I seriously decided to learn more music theory because he completely fooled me

lol i remember watching that HOME analysis long time ago and now im surprised i haven't caught on all the plain bs (im not a music expert by any stretch but his chords were so obviously wrong now that you pointed it out lol) however i think u missed major lul milking potential on the xxxtentacion part when mr amazing went in depth in comparing 'look at me!' to a completely unrelated metal song to trace it's influence, since the instrumental track is actaully a super obvious edit of 'changes' by mala (which is UK dubstep). (as a super minor and a bit nosey nitpick regarding 15:20, FM synthesis in simple operator configurations like 1:1 and 1:2 does actually produce saw and square waves, so even if mr amazing had no idea what he's talking about he wasn't technically super wrong :P).

Saw that video advertised around youtubes relateds, but hadnt heard of resonance, so ignored it. But patricias great so heres a view and a comment for the algorithm:)

I've been waiting for this video ever since that one came out. It was so aggravating to listen to as someone who knows a lot of music theory.

I'm too uneducated to understand any of this music talk, but I'm still watching... Shows you how good Patricia's content is.

It throws me off any time someone starts talking about how a particular song "feels" with this assumption that it "feels" exactly that same way for everyone. Just a very, very brief effort at actually understanding music as a human phenomenon should reveal enough differences in interpretation to make it apparent that we're dealing with something that requires a more nuanced approach. Instead of trying to further explain what I mean, I'm just going to say "Nickelback".

Alright, ya got me. This was both funny and necessary. Music theory is vast enough without misinformation. Nicely done you pair.

"Depending on the part of Wikipedia you look at" RESEARCH EVERYONE

yo i didn't understand most of it but go off girl

his chords argument reminds me of that godawful Vox "Christmas Chords" video from a couple years ago Also he mispronounced Moog lol

In this video Patricia Taxxon highlights the pernicious pompousness of RU-vid essayism, the words "SHUT THE FUCK UP" repeated throughout the video to create a primal, cathartic effect, both warning the audience to pay more attention to what they are watching and, on the contrary, urging them to not, in fact, shut up, to not let RU-vid experts speak out for them. You notice a contrapuntal backwards cadence in the style of Scarlatti filtered through wet noise rate accentuation subtly playing in the background to create tension and a claustrophobic antagonistic atmosphere.

You would think the words " this doesn't sound like home" should've cause some alarm bells to go off in Mister Amazing head.

Keep this editor, makes the video so nice to watch. This video was great.

Anyone remember when MisterAmazing exclusively made cringe compilations ?

Yeah bro, my favorite chord is Ab6/F... That's so stupid. My favorite chord is Gdim/Eb Also, to call the harmonic minor scale as "the metal scale" is such surface level understanding of music. What about metal bands who like phrygian modes, dorian modes, or just play general chaos?

Don't know why but hearing "We're Finally Landing" at the end of the video just made me so happy :) awesome video P

Okay, I discovered this channel about 10 minutes ago and you've already talked about both Anita Sarkesian and music theory. Plus you've made a Stravinsky reference (I love Petrushka). Subbed!

First of all, as much as I agree with you on these points you brought up for X, in terms of the sampling and that he did some shitty things he did or how violent he was. But, that doesn't mean there wasn't a reason for every one of them. But the thing I disagree with is the fact that the whole context of the clip of him "Beating up" the gay guy in prison was that the guy kept staring at him when he was naked whilst taking a shower. AFTER being warned not to, EVEN going so far to warn the cops, if he did some bullshit to him "he'd beat his ass" was what he told the cops, to which they agreed to and allowed him to stay in that cell with him, whilst no one else in the prison or ward wanted him to be in their cell. The guy regardless of being gay, straight or whatever he'd consider himself to be on the spectrum was clearly dangerous like he'd done shit to where no one wanted him in their cell. So giving this bs nonsense about "OH HE BEAT UP A GAY GUY" like who cares? he's in prison for a fucking reason, it doesn't matter what he did, what if he was a murderer? what then? are you still gonna defend him and be like "Oh but he was an LGBT member!" That's such a shitty way to just write shit off as "Oh he's crazy" or "he was abusive/a Monster". either you say your point about what Misteramazing did wrong in terms of analyzing his music and move on or you don't go on fucking side comments about people that you don't give 2 shits about and never will but saying it regardless, cause you know you'll get brownie points by pandering to that side. As an FYI hip hop has never been a happy go lucky place. Most of their music/lyrics come from a bad place or a place of hurt. X isn't the first one to do the things he has and or has not done, Nor will he be the last. Just look back in the 1990s of Hip Hop, where people would beat others up because they were repping either the east side or west side. You can also fucking point out all the shitty things R&B people have done too, Look at R. Kelly. Look at artists like Prince or Elvis who were fucked up on drugs half the time and being idolized by teens, you celebrate these "Great People/Artists" but you neglect to bring the point up that they did shitty things as well. Point is, Don't talk about people you know little to nothing about. Don't matter who it is. Especially when you bring a really shitty argument to the table. I prefer you just sat there and explained to me why Misteramazing was wrong rather than listening to your 2 cents on why this artist was a piece of shit. There is no way for me to say this without sounding like I'm Dick riding the guy but whatever, dismiss all my points if you want and chalk it up to "Haters".