Jumped straight down to the comment section after I heard the lick. Don't know how I feel about you answering my question before I even got the chance to ask. Feels like one of your "anti-clickbaits" only not in the thumbnail haha
3:00 Actually... More or less every gig I have played at has required me to talk Norwegian. It's pretty common here in Norway. I didn't know it was different in the US, but maybe you're right. You should still practice more Norwegian though.
Please never stop using these informative thumbnails. This is such a strong middlefinger to all these clickbaity thumbnails dogdey RU-vidrs like to use all the time. Great episode as always!
@@KnzoVortex That's true, some channels may deserve a lot of attention (very subjective), but I just like that Adam Neely does not try to maximise his view numbers and at the same time sacrifice a good looking and informative thumbnail. If RU-vidrs choose to use overly-attention-grabbing thumbnails, that's completely up to them, but I personally am scared away by these, since this is often used to compensate for poor quality. Good point though!
Yeah about 2-5 weeks I literally sometimes go to my lesson only practiced a bit because I was busy with school and played my piece perfectly I am a beginner too but my teacher taught me sheet music a lot and every piece I learn he tells me to say the notes then play the first 2 bars
Professional classical and jazz flutist here. Absolutely indispensable to me, not only for classical music but because I play a lot of other people's new jazz tunes and compose my own.
3:06 "Now this hasn't always been the case, because it used to be that speaking Norwegian was the only way of communicating ideas from one musician to another."
14:20 This is actually something I was told in filmmaking classes as well-- that no matter what the image looks like, if the sound is clean and clear, the audience will accept anything visually, and that if the sound is muddy, nothing can save it. No reason was given per se, but I always thought of it as that your eyes can fill in the gaps in something more "abstracted" better than your ears can. A fuzzy low-res face looks more like a face than a fuzzy low-bitrate conversation sounds like a conversation.
I think this is at least partially because for most people vision is our primary sense. our brains are built to handle and prioritize visual processing and abstraction, so listening is more taxing than seeing (your brain had to know if that fuzzy shape in the trees was a tiger)
Adam, as a professional video editor, I can tell you unequivocally that quality sound is more important than visuals. Being unable to hear something clearly is extremely fatiguing to the viewer and they will eventually lose interest.
The way he made that point in this video was super slick. Like, I agreed with it in concept but actually switching to cheap audio+good video, then cheap video+good audio, was incredibly drastic.
I really love this vid in particular because he's absolutely right about Bach's music. During my band days, playing non-piano keyboard percussion instruments, I'd practice and perform Bach at solo and ensemble events. There were tricky runs in there but once it came together, it was a delight to play. I've always loved Bach's music especially and performing it only enhanced that love.
Yeah, you are absolutely correct, audio matters more than video in filming. This was a lesson I learned in my first semester of journalism school, was blown away and never forgot. Glad to see you picked it up spontaneously :)
One doesn't _Need_ to be able to read sheet music, but it is insanely helpful in visualizing the way music flows. Even when improvising I think in sheet music
As a piano player, I know other players with *very* different relations to sheet music. Some people can barely play *without* reading while some others *only* use the sheet to memorize the piece. I stand firmly in the second group, though I frankly wouldn't play a really long piece without at least following it on sheet in case I get lost. The piano in its classical use is probably one of few instruments where the music that one person plays is complex enough to warrant reading it rather than figuring it out from a memorized sound. Then again, some people will rather memorize the sheet rather than the sound or the moves, and that I can't really understand.
Agreed, especially for rhythm! Before I knew how to read music I was frustrated that my timing and sense of rhythm were really shoddy on their own. Learning to read music really helped me understand how rhythm works because I learned about subdivisions of the beat, anticipations, and how different beats of a measure relate to each other. So even if you don't plan on being a good sight-reader or anything like that, learning to read can still benefit you.
Hi Bert, yes! Apologies for not crediting initially, the credit didn't make it into the description. I've since added a card directing people to your channel. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the recording has a Creative Commons license, yes?
@@AdamNeely No apologies needed. It's indeed CC. I enjoy your videos a lot and it was quite a surprise (shock) to suddenly hear myself playing in one of them. Videos like yours really helped me to get better (or less bad) at composing and arranging. Keep up the good work. Thanks.
I actually started learning to read sheet music last year because of Bach. It really feels like learning a new language. Slowly reading individual notes before understanding the phrase can be really frustrating, but it's so rewarding!
Thanks Adam, Once again your vids are interesting, informative, and extremely useful. I am a 63 year old professional keyboardist/pianist, educator, and producer/arranger for over 22 years. I instruct private students in piano and voice, and am about to launch a youtube channel soon. Gathering as much useful information as I can before I start though. One of my young Piano and Voice students will be attending Berkley in the Fall as a Freshman. He has been a private student of mine since about 4th grade. I was so pleased to hear what you said about what the "true" advantage of attending a Music School is. We live in a small community here in North Florida, and my student is sort of a big fish in a little pond. I shared with him almost word for word what you said about attending music school, particularly there at Berkley. It's one thing for an older guy like me to tell him something, but it carries more weight coming from someone closer to his age like you. I am certainly going to forward this vid to him as well as show it to him in class when I see him tonight. Thanks again.
Hi Adam! I learned very basic music theory as a kid some 20 years ago and I could kinda sorta read sheet music but only very slowly so I gave up on it. Fast forward to a few days ago, I stumbled upon a short piece of sheet music and I found out and I could suddenly read, as well as audiate the whole thing in my head. I've been following your channel for a year and learned about modes and keys and chords and scales and I've memorised how the major and natural minor scales sound like in my head for my own entertainment, but I didn't realise they would actually help me read sheet music better. So thanks!
Adam, you would be a fantastic music professor at a liberal arts institution. The interdisciplinary focus of your Q&A's feels like a good seminar class. Keep up the good work!
As a beginning pianist, (2 years almost) I can tell everyone that even though you don't need to learn sheet music, it does help. Even some pieces may be relatively easy, it's even easier with a reference point to guide your playing.
I agree Adam. Quality Audio makes a tremendous difference in videos. Most producers don’t do as good of a job as you and I sincerely appreciate your attention to detail in that area. Your Videos are very clear and natural sounding even when you are walking outside. Your lower and slower voice helps. You have a gift for communicating. Keep up the good work!
I love what I get out of your videos. Always something better than the click bait like titles promise. no matter how witty a title, it's just a starting point with your videos. I fucking love these videos, dude!
for your next Q&A : I recently learned music theory but before that I played guitar for a while. I saw how it was easy to dodge basic music concepts while learning guitar with tablature and chord symbols (instead of thinking A-C-E, you just learn the finger position of "Am" without knowing the individual notes and their position on your fret). This make the guitar a popular and accessible instruments with all the available ressources, but tends to make a LOT of "I know a few open chords" guitarists without any musical knowledge. Thoughts on the subject ? Love your channel, it replaced my heroin addiction.
Something I learned as a student studying sound and taking film classes is that you can always forgive a bad shot, but bad audio can never be forgiven.
i don't think i've ever quite noticed that sound quality is more important for presentation than video quality. I've had this problem with a lot of youtube channels with terrible audio but couldn't quite put my finger on where the priority lies. thanks for pointing that out
Another great video! Interesting that you talked about Berklee online courses. I'm a Berklee grad from way back, and I've considered continuing my education through their courses. However, with the cost of them such as they are, and the massive volume of free quality information (like yours) that's readily available, it seems like there's no need to do that. Keep up the great work. Incidentally, you're spot on about how important making connections in music school is. One of the best parts of it.
Syncopation is amazing; it got me into college! I also recommend Understanding Rhythm and Jim Chapin's Advanced Techniques for The Modern Drummer. Two great books also meant for drummers but that can help any kind of musician.
@@MK-xm2nh As Adam explains, I would start by picking one note and playing some of the exercises in the book. Then you can move to scales or melodies you compose yourself using the rhythms provided in the examples.Syncopation has a lot of exercises where you can use the top line to improve your rhythm reading skills and interpretation.
I've been drumming 22 years and have only just started sight reading a year ago. It was essential for joining a 18 piece big band. A great way to learn is just to learn it as you learn the songs and eventually you start becoming more and more fluent with more and more phrases and how they look compared to how they sound. This skill opened up a bunch of doors for me in concert band / orchestral playing as well as theater production. Ever since I started reading my musical life transformed. It also makes it very easy because you no longer have to remember song structures, and that not only saves time, but removes uncertainty in a performance.
@@LegsON Any educated musician can read the same sheet music indicating that C2 and play it correctly. A guitar tab as read by a mandolin or sax player will make no sense. Tabs are instrument specific, and the fact that the piano has only one key that produces a C2 is simply an aspect of its design.
@@LegsON First off - piano is primarily a percussion instrument, so unless you're actually using your fingers on the strings, you'd use "play", "strike", or "hit" to refer to the motion used to push on a key so that a frequency sounds, not "pluck". Second, like the other comment says, it's really not just about playing the note. There are so many ways to ornament and express even one note, and it's arguably easier to make an interpretation of the music, note-by-note, based on sheet music (which can more clearly signify contours, dynamics, and playing style) without the complications of reading numbers for fast runs and arpeggios, as well as sheet music being more transferable between instruments than tab.
Once you're okay with sight-reading Bach though, move on to 20th century music. The phrasing and musical ideas from Bach's era until ca 1920 are easy to understand and sight-read since the harmony etc. follows similar principles. Bartok and any twelve-tone composer, for example, wrote some music that sight reading skills learnt from Bach do not necessarily apply to - the "direction" of the music and the context of certain notes is much more difficult to parse out in my experience
I'd love to learn how to compose unique and interesting bass lines... As a guitarist I just end up riffing w/ the pentatonic like I'm playing guitar...
What ist there to start with? Assuming there is a chord structure a drum beat and some melodic line (either vocals or some type of lead) a useful way to approach this is: 1) Put down a grd, which shows when the drums are playing and when they are emphasiszed. I tend to break things down into either 16th notes or 8th note triplets (sometimes a combination of both) and go for 4 levels: Strong beats, weak beats, positions where there's neither, but the drummer still hits something and positions where the drummer doesn't hit anything. 2) Make indicators where the melody also does something and note wheter it is rising or falling. 3) Start to work out a basic rhythm to work with, loop the drum part and just clap. Mark these positions on your grid. Then work on note lengths, just start the at the position you put your claps and firgure out spots for rests. 4) Work out notes. On strong beats you want to mostly play the root, sometimes the 5th. On weak beats you want to play chord tones. On the positions where the drummer hits something you want to stick to scale notes. And for the other ones, anything goes. You can occassionally go for something more adventurous to introduce tension and on weak beats before chord changes you can throw in a lot of different notes that help you to work towards the 1. Keep in mind that you could also play a dead note. 5) Refine to work with the melody. If you look at the melody line you can see its contours, i.e. when it goes up or down. This is the point where you shift notes soe that you either follow the same contour or go the opposite way for at least some stretch of time. Remember (because that's something everybody forgets sometimes) that you have more than one octave to your disposal - 5th to 3rd can go down, but it can also go up. 6) As long as the drum groove stays constant you also want to keep the same rhythmic figure (we all know what repetition does). For fills you can start with your step 3 as a starting point, then add or subtract notes and work out the remaining steps. 7) Work out articulations, slaps, pops, Hs and Ps, slides etc.
you don't need to compose bass lines to create more complexed harmonic progressions. You just need to learn about harmony. And its a long way but its possible ifyou want it.
You don't need a lot of knowledge, bass is based on the *feel.* Just learn a ton of basslines in the style you want to compose in, and you'll internalize the techniques. After a while it will click altogether and you'll be able to make great basslines on the go.
Hi, i just want to say that i really, really enjoy your Channel. I'm an autodidact bassplayer from germany, i'm 32yo and don't think that i have a good knowledge level in musictheorie. Your Videos really inspire me to work on that. Wish i was a better musican in my age. Your videos are so densely filled with info yet understandebel. Please keep going. Hope that i can bring some ftiends and bandmembers to a higher level by handing over this inspirational feeling. And have them learn together with me. Thx a lot for having this Channel man.
As a classical guitarist, I am very used to reading sheet music (you can learn classical music with tab, but its not very useful for the more advanced pieces). As with everything, the more you practice it, the better you will get. I find that jazz musicians are usually not very good sight-readers, but definitely know more about music theory than a classical musician. If you want to get better at sight reading, I would recommend starting with easy melodies in as many tonalities you can find. After you can manage that, try reading multiple notes at the same time. I wouldn't start with Bach, because its difficult music to read and perform for a beginner.
You know what I like about your titles and thumbnails? It's like reading an abstract- You get the question in hand and the conclusion right up front, with details to follow in the video
Syncopation is a really good book, but another really good percussion book is Technical Timing by Casey Cangelosi. It basically phase shifts the metronome for every exercise. It’s a really cool book, and people who aren’t percussionist can’t just omit the some of the drummer stuff that is in there.
I listened to your video without actually watching it, and being a native Norwegian speaker, i literally could not understand a single word! I found it hilarious when i went back to see what you actually tried to read! Good point!
You come for the information on music and you end up with knowledge about life and audio quality for videos. Really the best Chanel on RU-vid. Much love from Brazil Adam.
Hi Adam, I have a question for the next Q&A: do you have any tips for classically trained (not professionals though) musicians that want to go into jazz? I don't know about other instruments, but with violin you sometimes can say if someone has classical background because it sounds more awkward than jazzy and that's frustrating in a way
I'm no violinist, but I'd say check out Stephane Grappelli. French gypsy jazz violinist and helped pioneer that genre. It's likely not the style of jazz that you're going for, but he's the person the brought the violin into jazz as a solo instrument.
Same question for classical pianists. I've been that since ever, and when I spoke to my esteemed professor about the transfer of classical to jazz in terms of stylistic learning, and he said it would probably only take me about 20 more years, and that the left hand alone would take 5 years.
Also, Anna, I so relate to trying to play jazz as someone with a classical background sounding awkward. I recall trying to demonstrate "improvisation" on the insistence of a curious, boisterous and very creatively talented student who was interested in what I would come up with, and I recall him laughing and asking why I was more or less composing "video game music" (which may or may not have been a compliment).
@@thedeejaeebee5babee I think 20 years is a bit of an exaggeration, but it did take me at least 3-5 years or so to get to a pretty professional level (as in, people call me for jazz gigs and such). The LH is actually one of the easier parts if you're playing in a trio setting. The top level complexity of people like Brad Mehldau is way above the more basic stuff that someone like Red Garland would play. The trickiest part I found in learning jazz was getting the rhythmic sense right. That's what you mean probably when you say that classical musicians can sound awkward. David Bruce had a video touching on this recently called "The Cuttin Edge of Jazz Swing Theory." Basically, the length of the first of two eighth notes changes based on the tempo. Eighths are almost completely straight around 300 bpm, but close to dotted eighth-sixteenths at 100, and the length of the notes changes based on the tempo and the individual's tastes. This kind of thing takes a while to absorb. I used to just practice singing jazz solos or tapping my hands exactly in time with the ride cymbal beat to try and get that feeling down.
I'm Canadian, I went to Selkirk College in Nelson British Columbia, it's basically a sister program for Berklee . It goes through the same first two year basics that all Berklee students go through. We use their books and everything. Awesome program and a lot of former Berklee grads/ teachers run the program. Gives good opportunities to students who eventually want to transfer to Berklee with scholarships for the school and such.
Johnny Ciardullo Great info - Thanks. I went to Grant MacEwan back in the 80s which at the time had a great program modelled after Berklee and run by the great Tommy Banks. I’m looking at options to go back to school and love the interior of B.C.!
Years ago I had the opportunity to take a few lessons from a great bass player, Steve Swallow. One thing he gave me to work on was the Prelude of the Suite #1, of the Six Suites for Violoncello Solo. I believe it was transcribed for bass, and I played it on bass guitar. It was a great learning and practice tool, containing a lot of scale runs, arpeggios, and other intervals. About reading sheet music, over the years I've had a number of musical experiences that involved reading music. At an early age I learned to play the fife and play in a fife and drum corp. We all learned the music from sheet music. Later, I was involved in various vocal groups in high school, such as Glee Club, Madrigal Chorus, and others which all used sheet music. As a bass player, I performed in a couple of musical theater shows on a non-professional level, and again, used sheet music. I also played in some jazz groups, playing off of typical jazz charts like in the Real Book. Most of my professional bass playing, though, has been playing rock, pop, and country covers where learning the songs by ear was most common.
Adam: "classical musicians have bad rhythm." Also Adam: "to develop good rhythm, use this book WHICH IS STANDARD MATERIAL FOR BEGINNING CLASSICAL PERCUSSIONISTS."
3 года назад
Tbf, I think he was referring to classical musicians like, cello and violin players.
Really enjoy these Q+A videos. I've been learning piano with music sheets for 6 months and what seemed impossible a few months ago is now doable, I can't play immediately but you keep seeing patterns everywhere being chords, intervals,... and it all starts to click, I really encourage anyone interested in starting now. I try to put in front of me a new partiture every single day (a real one, from imslp) and I try to play at least some bars, don't stop and you'll see amazing results very soon.
I would also say one of the reasons for preferring good audio to video is that sometimes people listen to RU-vid videos while doing something else. So, in that case, all the work you did on the visual aspect goes unnoticed.
It's amazing how many unexpected things I learn from your videos every time. Like how audio quality is more important than video quality for example. Thank you.
Samuel It’s so strange, for some reason I see these two having the same energy, except Adam is reasonable and isn’t a douche. Also clearly more intelligent
Disagree. Both are very smart (albeit likely in different ways) and Shapiro is actually a very talented violin player, so his opinions on music are not actually as worthless as it seems Adam suggested.
Due to this lockdown I've started the grind , and boy it's slow, but tabs just dont cut it when you want to learn something properly, I play bass, for fun and even I have realised that I need to know this stuff! Keep up the Good work matey!
Adam, Pythagoras was by no means the first guy to notice that frequencies related by rational numbers (fractions of small numbers) sounded good together. In ancient Greece, long before Pythagoras, there were gazillions of musical scales, ALL of them based on rational numbers. 7 of those scales had official status, and they were called Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Hypodorian, Hypolydian, Hypophrigian and Mixolydian. The Dorian scale (ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the so-called "modes" of today), the Dorian scale was based on the number 11 and fractions involving the number 11. It had two modes: Harmonic and Modal. The harmonic ratios were obtained by incrementing the numerator, namely 11/11 (root), 12/11, 13/11, 14/11, 16/11, 18/11, 20/11, and 22/11 (octave). The modal ratios were obtained by decrementing the denominator, namely 11//11 (root), 11/10, 11/9, 11/8, 11/7, 11/6.5, 11/6, and 11/5.5 (octave). The Phrygian scale was a similar contraption built around the number 12. Lydian on 13; Hypodorian on 14, Hypophrygian on 16, Hypolydian on 18 and Mixolydian on 20. The knowledge of these scales was recovered by studies of archeological remains, and was presented primarily in a book called The Greek Aulos, I forget the name of the author now. Harry Partch's book Genesis of a Music deals with this topic as well. What Pythagoras did was to insist that all those scales were "bad", and that only the numbers 2 and 3, and powers of 2 and 3, should be used in music. So, the Pythagorean scale was born, and its major third came to be obtained by the ratio 81/64, or, (3^4) / (2^6), which is slightly sharper than the major third in our modern (atempered) scale. Nobody really liked the Pythagorean scale much, except the fans of Pythagoras. A thousand years later or so, the nascent Christian church based in Rome decided to adopt the Pythagorean scale as the true scale for Christians (I bet Jesus had never heard it, himself, but who cares, right?). So church music was strictly Pythagorean from then on. Then we move (forward?) to the dark Middle Ages, where the Roman church, and its extremist Dominicans, decided to stamp out any musical scales except the Pythagorean, so they persecuted all "pagan" scales and instruments, including the Celtic Harp. But even after their military successes, musicians everywhere pretended to have a "bad ear", and played the pagan major third, instead of the ecclesiastic major third. The pagan major third is 5/4, the ecclesiastic one was 81/64, as I mentioned earlier; and it was extremely difficult to police musicians playing anywhere in the streets for coins; and their audiences preferred 5/4 over 81/64, as well. 5/4 is slightly flatter than our current (atempered) major third. And finally we had the invention of the modern, atempered scale, based on powers of the 12th root of two. The semitone ratio is 2^(1/12). Adding semitones to an interval is like raising this number to a power. Thus, a 5th is 7 semitones, so the ratio is (2^(1/12))^7, which simplifies to 2^(7/12), which is equal to 1.4983070768766814987992807320298. That's pretty close to the Pythagorean perfect fifth, or 1.5. Something interesting happens with the major third: Pagan major third: 5/4 = 1.25 Atempered M-third: 2^(1/3) = 1.2599210498948731647672106072782 Pythagorean M 3rd: 81/64 = 1.265625 So the brand-spanking new atempered scale's major third happen to fall somewhere between the Pagan and Pythagorean, but closer to the Pythagorean than to the Pagan; so the powers that be at the Roman Church decided to throw their support behind it, and that's how today we have an irrational scale, based on irrational numbers (roots and fractional powers of natural numbers are irrational numbers), which produces cacophony instead of music. Our present scale stands in opposition to what every civilization discovered sounded musical, perfect ratios. Now we have an entire scale of deliberately imperfect ratios. It is the musical equivalent to McDonnald's restaurants driving all other restaurants in the world bankrupt, and having no other choice for what to eat. One "good thing" about the atempered scale is that the music can easily be transposed from one key to another without retuning the instrument. The other "good thing" about the atempered scale is that a lot of its notes are so far from rational ratios that your ear can hear any number of ratios depending on harmonic context. Bach noticed that and exploited it to the max, modulating and modulating and modulating, suggesting that the harmony was going one way, then surprising you going another way. It was like stage magic, or illusionism, created on top of the scale's ambiguities.
Hi Addam. I just wanna say that I haven't been able to access RU-vid for 3 months (I moved to the countryside) and as soon as I was able to connect to WiFi (now) I started getting updated with your videos. What you do is amazing, both as a teacher and as a philosopher, I love your work and I love how you always emphasize that what you say is just your subjective opinion and not some kind of absolute objective knowledge; it makes me wanna meet you in person!. Thank you for the time your spend gathering information for us, your subscribers, you rock!!! (Actually no, you jazz, which in my opinion is even better). Keep this juicy knowledge coming!! Thank you.
Also I'm obsessed with Sungazer. It's funny how I moved to the middle of nature and birds singing but I listen to electronic-videogame-meme-dubstep music lol
Hey Adam! I'm curious about your take on modes. Specifically diatonic modes. I've been playing guitar for 27 years and have been a full time musician for over 10. In this time I've never had what I consider a good understanding of how/when to apply specific modes. Over the years I've added Dorian and Mixolydian to my understanding of Ionian and Aeolian but the others tend to escape me. I guess it could be I've never had a situation pop up where I've necessarily needed them and relied strictly on playing melodically/relying on my ear and using a scale I'm comfortable with. As I want to continue getting better at outlining the chord changes in all styles I'm thinking gaining a better understanding of the application of modes would help. Oddly enough when I began studying the melodic minor modes my ear more naturally heard where I might apply them. Thoughts? Thanks so much! Love the channel and all the great info!
You would need some kind of a modal progression to really find use for the diatonic modes. A good example would be "Oye Como Va" by Santana. The whole tune is based on a Dorian Im7-IV7 progression. Basically, a minor tonic chord but a major IV chord instead of a minor one that you would typically see in a minor key. The major IV chord is the most common "Dorian" chord. You can also hear this chord in "Mad World" and "Earth Song" and also in the main progression of "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder. The solo sections of "Light My Fire" and "Riders on the Storm" by The Doors also have a strong Dorian sound. Mixolydian is another pretty commonly used diatonic mode. You can hear it in "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC and in "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson. The chord that "defines" this mode is the bVII chord in a major key chord progression, and sometimes the V minor chord (for example in "Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters). Lydian is IMO a pretty cool mode, probably my favorite. Not very commonly used, but Joe Satriani and Steve Vai do use it in some of their songs (for example check out "The Riddle" by Steve Vai - it starts with a strong Lydian vibe, the first note of the song is actually the #4 that's the characteristic note in Lydian). Lydian sound is usually defined by the major II chord in a major key progression (though if this chord resolves to the V chord, it's simply a secondary dominant - but a common Lydian progression would be something like C-D/C). Phrygian is probably even less common than the ones mentioned above, though you do find some Phrygian vibes from metal. Phrygian is defined by the b2 scale degree (and the bII major chord), which makes it sound dark. Check this video out, it's probably the clearest explanations of modes I have seen. /watch?v=bwaeBUYcO5o
One advantage of being able to read a score that may not be obvious to those who don’t read music routinely, is that _it’s in front of you “all at once_ .” For a typical, several-minute song, it takes less than a minute to see what the main melodies and textures are, the meter, the key, the phrase structure, its overarching form, and just generally “get the gist of what the music is about.” You can go over it faster than real-time, and jump around at will, comparing sections, and so forth.
Question for next Q+A, I was messing around with a keyboard at my school when I noticed that e and e flat sound worse together than b and c. I know they are both a half step apart but why does this happen?
My answer could be nonsense since I don't know much, but maybe your ears had already established a tonic center from whatever you heard/played before, and the Eb - E clashed more because of this.
I'm guessing it's an electronic instrument. My electric piano can be set up in different tunning systems (Pythagorean, perfect tunning, well temperate, etc) and if the one in your school has that feature too, it may be whats causing what you hear. Sorry for the poor English, I'm from Argentina.
Hey Adam! I just wanted to say that your videos are incredibly useful both in teaching music theory and spessiffic apects of musicianship, but also of healthy, helpful attitudes in the musical enviournment. Oh and I want you to know you've convinced me of buying a bass (and yes, I'm a guitarist, sue me) and learning to play it, so I want to thank for that as well. Keep them coming, you make the internet a richer place!
Professionaly, if you're a wind player, it's pretty essential. Most saxophonists can also play clarinet and flute at the very least, if not more. However, it shouldn't affect your ability to get into music school a lot. It's definitely seen as a plus, and any piano skill you have will be helpful as well, because most schools require some piano classes.
I think you'll have a better chance if you're really good at one instrument rather than average at two. That being said, doubling could be useful if your main instrument is really popular (and therefore competitive). There will probably be more people auditioning for a jazz band on guitar than bass or drums (probably more sax than brass too), more flutes and violins trying to get into orchestras than low brass and double reeds, more women getting into choirs than men, etc, so if you can play something they really need, you have better chances of getting the spot.
The way speaking two languages is a good way to get into business, meaning that if you don't speak English you'd better learn English, and if you don't play piano you better learn piano. If your native language is English, or your primary instrument is piano, that's good enough.
In Europe, at least, the convention is to have a main instrument, at which you are really good and that you will study potentially as a soloist, but it is often required you know at least some piano or another common accompanying instrument, which you take basic courses in.
That’s really interesting. I was taught sheet music from day one as part of learning saxophone at 6 years old (which was mostly classical but a few jazz and contemporary tunes too, all instruments got the same tunes in the course so students could play together). Haven’t done it for over a decade since I started playing mostly alone. But a few weeks ago I was looking up an ancient Latin Christmas hymn, found millennium-old sheet music, and found I could play it instantly on the keyboard even though I’d never used sheet music for piano before. So that was pretty neat. I didn’t have that slow process you outlined at all, it went right back into a flow-state of “feeling” the contours of the music as outlined once I knew what key it was written in. So much so that I had to stop a few times because I was worried I’d done it wrong, then did it slower, and was surprised I’d done it right! I guess that’s exactly why the course for very young kids was designed like that. Even though I was out of practice (and probably would’ve struggled with something more complex) it just came back to me. I suspect if I’d learned it as an adult, after a few years of disuse it would’ve been gone forever.
Everyone should be able to read and I'm going to give you my top 2 reasons. 1: it frees up your brain for more complex thinking about the music you're making. When you don't have to devote a portion of your memory and though processing ability just to carrying the music in your head you want to be able to play, you are liberated to be able to apply all of your mental resources to all kinds of musical purposes. 2: communication across space and time. Got an idea for a piece of music? Write it down. You can then make it available for anyone to play anywhere in the world or at any time long after you're dead. Or you can access it in the future when you've long since forgotten it. You don't need to make a recording to show people how something sounds. It's all there right on the page, ready to be realised whenever the right opportunity emerges
I agree with Adam, but Ben does know music theory (just not a music person) look at his performances and knowledge from videos. Also I assume you above are mumbling in a corner.
@@Shinx7009 I believe his father was/is a jazz pianist, as well. So the knowledge and skill and exposure are there, at least in the areas of classical music and (some) jazz. Neither here nor there, though :) Great video, Adam!
@Shinx7009 Yeah but it's modern rap music and he pretty much bragged about not knowing anything about modern rap music before beginning his analysis (bodak yellow was a huge song). Rap music is more about production and lyrics than music theory so knowing music theory doesn't fully equip him to analyse rap, and this is especially the case when he said that he wants to analyse the lyrics.
very true what you say about audio quality being one ot the most important things if not the single most important thing in a video production. thanks. :) love your videos, btw. big fan!
Yes. Learn to sight read. As a (hack) keyboardist and vocalist, have had a good deal of reading in my day but I never embraced it because in most situations I could get by with my ear IF the material was in my wheelhouse. The video game-theme gig really hit home, watching Adam just cruise through those charts. The talent on that stage was formidable. Great stuff!
Question: Have you ever played music with no static temp ? Something that starts at 90bpm and ends at 160bpm. Can you still call it 4/4 if it always changes the tempo ? How would you write it ?
So the song would gradually accelerate? Yes, it would still be in 4/4. A good example of something like this would be Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King". You would just write "poco a poco accelerando" above the staff.
@@MaggaraMarine That's a good example. I'm also curious to know how fast tempo change makes human lose the 4/4 feel , and what if the tempo is more like controlled with the lfo with the still rising direction?
@@NaviRetlav I think as long as there is a clear beat, you will hear it as 4/4. The acceleration would have to be really fast, but then the maximum tempo would be reached so fast that it wouldn't even sound like a gradual acceleration any more. Some folk songs have pretty fast acceleration in them, like this one: /watch?v=hdb5siNzXmQ But you can still clearly feel the beat. It doesn't lose the "4/4 feel". I would say as long as you have strong beats, it will sound like it's in 4/4 time signature with acceleration. But if it's not acceleration and it's just constant tempo changes, then you would probably lose the 4/4 feel, because there would be no smooth transition between the different tempos.
Two examples of what you're talking about in action are The Bad Plus "Have You Met Miss Jones" and Wynton Marsalis "Autumn Leaves" from Standard Time Vol. 1.
The idea of tempo being static and strictly divided is a fairly new concept. Classical music is often very fluid in tempo; sometimes it's written in as accel or rit, sometimes it's because the musician/conductor feels like it. Take a listen to some recordings of the Bach flute partita Adam mentioned - the first movement is pretty much all 16th notes, but no self-respecting classical musician is going to turn on a click track and perform every note evenly (they might practice it that way!). I've heard some interpretations that make it sound like it's in groups of 5, rather than 4. In non-classical music, there's Herbie Hancock's Chameleon and Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven which both gradually speed up, but you'd notate them in 4/4 for ease of reading (except for the occasional time change in Stairway).
That chef comment is perfect. Every time you say you don't like something, a fan of that thing inevitably says "well let's see yours". I say I can't stand a certain band, fans of that band say "well they're successful, where's your band?" as if I have to have achieved equal success in order to decide I don't like something.
This is good stuff, and not just for jazz bassists. 1st question especially. Fluency in reading sheet music is dependent on skill on your instrument. For example, I can sight-read anything on clarinet/sax because I've played them for 20 years and it's second nature but I suck at guitar so to play anything worth listening to I have to read tabs or chords.
12:55 Ben .... Shapiro ....? ......? Analyzing things he has no clue, without doing any proper research beforehand. "If I haven't heard of them I presume you haven't heard either" No facts or logic, as usual.
Hey Adam, I just wanted to say that I really like hearing your general thoughts, and opinions on music and playing an Instrument. About 10 years ago a band that I was in broke up. I had invested so much of myself into playing in that band that when we broke up, I lost all motivation to continue playing or writing music. But after watching your gig videos and Q+A’s I’ve been inspired to pick up an instrument again. Thank you
When I was in marching band, I was proud I could read music (because I played the clarinet). When I began learning the guitar, I didn't bother working on the hand-eye coordination required to read-and-play for that instrument, largely because I felt (for lack of a better phrase) "trapped by sheet music." I had gotten to the point where, on the clarinet, I could've played anything you put in front of me, but if you had asked me to improvise or write something of my own... I was helpless. I didn't want that to happen when it came to my guitar playing, so I never looked back. Sure, there have been a time or two when being able to sightread for guitar would've been convenient, but in those instances I was glad I had developed another skill: playing music by ear.
Totally agree with your thoughts on Bach. I've used the 2 part inventions for years with my students. Doesn't matter how slow you go, it still sounds like music.
