If you like these lessons, definitely check out www.zombieguitar.com/ It is a one-of-a-kind site dedicated to helping guitarists to understand the fretboard and create their own music. You will love it!!
I see tons of good instructional videos. There is nobody I have seen that uses the straightforward, efficient and intelligent language to explain concepts than Brian. Thank you.
By the way, for anyone that is also watching Paul David's videos, the backing track with the ten solos he did recently contained this III chord in a major context.
Dynamite lesson! The clear visuals made a fairly complicated lesson very easy to understand. Thanks Brian, this is a game changer for my chord playing.
@@zombieguitar what if you were in the key of A minor and a III chord in a progression C minor or C7 instead of C major ? Does it work in the reverse situation ?
@@sat1241 well, in the key of C major/A minor...the III chord would be E major. In the key of Eb major/C minor...the III chord would be G major. Just use the circle of 5ths 😀
@@sat1241 you could call Cm a "borrowed chord" from the parallel key. You could call C7 a secondary dominant... however you want to label these things, if it sounds good then use it 👍
Thanks, Brian! Also one of my favorite chords. When I was first learning to play guitar and didn't understand chord function, this M3 always caught (pleasantly) my ear. The song that comes to mind is "Abilene". GREAT LESSON!
You keep blowing me away making things so understandable. I feel like you should have a million subs. You’re the best kept secret on RU-vid guitar lessons.
More great stuff, Brian! This is a brilliant lesson if you want to write a song that gets away from the plain vanilla style. All explained so well as usual. Thanks Brian!
Fantastic lesson, Brian! So logically organized and easy to follow, supplemented with historical examples. I really like this stuff and will remember it with ease. Thanks!
Never seen a video from this channel before (thanks youtube algorithm). This has to be the chillest theory lesson in the history of theory lessons! Great job! :)
@@zombieguitar sadly I think those numbers are reserved for the saps who post clickbait style videos with flashy studio setups and no truly usable content. Maybe you should get some cool glowing neon lights and do product reviews of cheap guitars.
Again. Great! I'm so glad to found your channel. I'm really benefit from the music theory you provide. you make everything pretty comprehensive. Thanks.
Thanks once again Brian! I recently have been wondering why this chord sounded better sometimes as major when it should be minor. You just helped me to realize why and now I can use it on purpose instead of the occasional accident like I have been.
I have used this chord, I use both the iii and the III, well I didn't think about it using chord function or any other theory tho... I just simply write the vocal melody, and then follow it to create a chord progression (whatever chord I heard fit with the melody), using the iii in most part, didn't plan to use the III, but there's some part that I hear the major instead, it sounds cool, so used it...
Great lesson as usual Brian. You happened to touch on some of my favorite songs I like to play. I'll try changing them up just a little like your lesson to get that extra flavor in the sound. Thank you, be well my friend. G
I was all set to say, hey! Space Oddity is like that. Glad I watched til the end. A few others in this club are Fearless (P. Floyd), Lady Stardust, Freight Train, Mississippi Half-Step and Deal. PS Excellent videos, just started watching your stuff today.
This is brilliant! I just wrote a song substituting a B7 for a Bm second time around but didn't realise this theory. I just thought it sounded Beatle like 😊🎸
I love your channel man. You have a great knack for explaining things. Super cool that you made this channel. Ive been playing for quite some time, but I wish I had your videos when I first started. I wouldve progressed so much more at an earlier time. You're definitely helping a lot of players including myself. Thank you 🎵🎵🎸🎸.. I also think you could be Steve O's cousin maybe
Good stuff. Thanks. I remember your wheel of fifths video two or three years ago, but I hadn't seen any of your other vids till now...there's so many channels on YT, it took that long to get back! 👋😁
This is awesome! So if you want to step up from C to D would you go from Em7 to D? Great video! I was thinking as you were playing that it sounds very Beatle-esque. Thank you! 👍😀
The smoothest key change will always be in the form of a dominant 7th chord to a key that is a 5th below. So if you are trying to move to D, you would want to play an A7 right beforehand 😎
Excellent. Very progressive explanation. Perfect for my level of under standing. E7 is less surprising than E to my ear. Certainly more used. I love the great demo of switching to A major Key. Very very demonstrative. Thanks a lot. One of my wow gap is Thanks to your personal sauce to solo over the whole neck based on Penta pos 1 with thé low and high extensions then the complétion to minor natural scale then the 2 Blue notes + Penta position 4. Your are the Best teacher ever had over 20 Years of guitar practising, Brian ! 😎😎
Imagine just 20 years struggling with many many teachers and methods. All of them overwhelmed me with comprehensive approach or learning every notes on fretboard. 😭😩😱 Whereas you brought the first tool letting me train progressively and succeeding from a shy narrow width to a larger then the whole neck. Plus´ I learn theory by the way and understanding scales and mode at usage. You are definitively the one teacher, and a landmark in my life of guitar player.
Great video Brian thanks a lot! :) I like the key changing part. At the moment i still get confused when this happens in songs i try to play along with. Do you have some tips for that? My example would be the song "Althea" from the Greatful Dead. Sometimes the key changes in the song and I don't really get it right. I really like the song and would be happy to understand how they thought about doing the key change so it does sound as beautiful as it does. ;)
I'll take a listen to it and maybe use it for an upcoming "breakdown" video...No guarantees about that, but I'll still check this song out and give you my thoughts about the modulations!
@@SuilujChannel I just listened to the full song (album version). I didn't hear any modulations in there. To me it sounds like the entire thing is in just one single key signature. I don't have my guitar with me at the moment, so I can't say exactly which key it is in right now. What you are hearing as "modulations" is really just the song shifting from the minor perspective of the key during the verses into the major perspective of the key during the choruses. There is one little bridge part somewhere after the 2nd chorus that *might* use a borrowed chord (again, I don't have my guitar on me at the moment so I can't say for sure 100%). However as far as I can tell, the key definitely does not change at all throughout the song 😎
@@zombieguitar ah yes i think you are right. the bridge part has a lot of the same chords as the usual chord progression. Then it is a borrowed chord and i "just have to remember it" to not get thrown off. ;)
So who has not yet drafted their own Circle of 5ths complete with triad notes colored up in felt marker to hang on the wall? S'pose you could buy the poster.
Nice feature. Could one spice up the "major III" chord progression by including the V replacement(forget the term)? For example, play the Db instead of the G/G7. I would assume the voicing would be unique as one falls from E(Maj) to Db to C(I) chord (key C). Just curious. Also, isn't it by convention that the sharp version of the chord (ex. G#) is used when the progression ascends and the flat version of the chord (ex. Ab) is used when the chord progression descends?
Hey good questions. You are talking about "tritone substitutions", and yes they can always work in place of dominant 7th chords that resolve to a chord a 5th below. To answer the other question...the big rule to follow is to avoid mixing sharps and flats together in the same key. If ever in doubt, go with the one that results in not mixing sharps and flats together 😀
European school of functional harmony calls parallel chords C and Am so Am is the minor parallel to C maj. I see you instead call parallel Cm to C maj. I think our system is better to understand the function of chords. So we use T (tonic) for C and pT (minor parallel of maj tonic) for Am. So Em is a pD (minor parallel of dominant G). E7 is a dominant of Am so (D)pT parenthesis means it's a dominant not of the tonic and so on..
I agree that functional harmony is really important so I exort you to use the name function of chords and not numbers. The names are tonic dominant and subdominant chords like VI are substitute for the I so tonic parallel.. and so on
Yes that it a topic for another lesson where I will go more into the names of each chords' function within a key. This lesson was just about this one single chord so I didn't want to overwhelm with too much information in one video 😎
English grammar has rules just as music does;" transition" is not a verb.Another good way to use that major three is to to invert it so the bass note of it is a half step below the root of the four chord..this works by substituting the inverted major three for what would be the dominant version of the one chord of the progression.I always felt music as progressing up in fourths not down in fifths-this way of hearing the cycle of fourths is , to me , more natural, and isn't endlessly confusing to a beginner. What sounds right is more important to a beginner and helps them to understand what their ear tells them they have done , after they have done it.. this approach is a better way to teach than the "theory heavy" and potentially confusing way you have expressed these harmonic movements as a teacher.Please excuse my constructive criticisms, but I was put off theory for many years by well intentioned people who taught the way you do, which , far from building the learner's subconscious musical understanding, necessitates a sudden change of mental approach while in the moment of playing. This needs the opposite side from the one normally used to play music and temporarily cuts off the natural inner ear from developing in the student.I'm aware that many people have different ways of learning, but since you are teaching(not me ) I will just make this a suggestion to help you better interface with your students.
