The Music Theory Iceberg Explained 

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Now here’s the real mind blowing thing about the whole iceberg. Once you reach the ocean floor, you look around the abyss, and suddenly you see other icebergs, then comes the realization of other cultures have their own version of music theory and their own icebergs attached

Pitch is rhythm STILL blows my mind. It’s crazy to think our bodies can make frequencies that move that fast using our voice

The most memorable thing about A = 432hz tuning for me is that my hometown warned against its intentional usage during amplified musical performances for a couple of years back in the early 2000's. IIRC, they found out that the concrete supports of our amphitheater would resonate at 108hz after someone was performing, apparently using 432hz tuning, and during a very loud sustained note (I guess A2) at the end of a song part of one of the lighting rigs supported between two of them snapped. I remember seeing a follow-up in the newspaper about how during their investigation into the cause, one of the engineers said something like, "I guess the original architects hadn't thought about the 'weird stuff' kids might be doing with music in 70 years."

The pitch=rhythm one was hilarious to me because it’s a deep dark concept for a musician, but I’m an Audio Engineer, so we work with frequencies rather than notes most of the time, so this is a fundamental concept for us😂 (I’m a musician as well)

Pitch = Rhythm is at the deepest level... but it could just as easily be taught at the top of the iceberg - if provided with the incredible demonstration you offered here. Bravo!

I love how the deeper he got, the less songs examples he had to explain the non common or weird music theory concepts, just proving how rare each level is.

40:09 I hear absolutely no differences and that scares me

I remember I basically sort of discovered the "pitch = rhythm" thing as a child when I tried to see how low I could possibly sing, and each time I tried to go lower it my vocal chords would essentially start fizzling out and sound like a quiet fast popping or tapping instead of an actual tone. However, the polyrhythm -> chords thing was absolutely mindblowing, I had no idea thats how it worked!

The greatest music theory video I’ve ever seen. You deserve awards for the effort you put into this.

That pitch = rhythm thing was MIND BOGGLING

The fact that every chord and all of harmony is just polyrhythms is crazy to me

my favorite part of music theory is being like "OH that's what that's called" when I've found something while playing that sounds wild

This is the single greatest music theory explanation I've ever seen. It's very succinct and well explained and it should be Day 1 viewing in every single Music Theory 101 class going forward.

You explained neopolitans and augmented 6’s better in 30 seconds than my professor did in an entire semester

I have been through so many teachers who like to ignore the first couple layers of the iceberg and jump right in the deep. This has helped so much!!!!!!!!

Wow, the chances of me watching a 45 minute video are nearly zero. I actually didn't realize how long the video was until someone pointed it out in the comments. Got totally hooked. Great job!

interesting note about Deutsch's scale illusion: Tchaikovsky kinda used it with two violins in the 4th movement of his 6th symphony and its so cooooooool

I have to say that when this video came up I thought, "45 minutes? I'll just watch the first few minutes and then probably bail." But as you got deeper and deeper I was totally hooked on some absolutely fascinating concepts. Clefs are designed to specify the note that passes through them? Cool! Polymeter and swing ratios? Way more interesting than I had ever considered. And pitch = rhythm?!? Get the f*ck outta here! Brilliant video and extremely well presented.

I knew about the Pitch=Rhythm before seeing this, but I never knew about the ratios applying to the rhythms as chords so my mind was blown even more than it was when I learned about this

It's funny because a lot of the deeper concepts you refer to are actually stuff I learned with music production rather than music theory (overtones, polymeters, pitch = rhythm). If you follow it all the way down it becomes… basically pure math and you're entering the audio and electrical engineering realm.

In my second college level music theory class (1976), I recorded a metronome on a reel to reel and sped it up to audible frequency for a class project. I got an 'A' and a WTF from the professor. From around the same time I heard my first shepard tone at the end of Pink Floyd's "Echoes". I did encounter several concepts in this that I have not previously seen or heard. Congratulations on a very complete explanation. It would make a great poster for music theory classes.

Dude, where have you been my whole life? This is just what the regular Joes like me need. No nonsense, no bs, straight ELI5 explanations so we can get a grasp and then go deeper into it. Thanks a lot, subscribed now.

As somebody who knows nothing about music theory I don’t understand anything 😂

All I’ve learned from this video is that I can press random piano buttons, and so long as it sounds weird and I can make up a fancy name, I can deem myself a musical genius

The pitch = rhythm part is something I had seen explained before (possibly on an Adam Neely vid) but when you demonstrated the concept by turning a polyrhythm into a major triad, that blew my mind dude. Fantastic video.

Great video as always. One note: C double flat actually a B flat, not a B natural, so a d diminished 7 chord would be written as D-F-Ab-Cb, and not an example of a situation in which you’d use a double flat (unless it’s too early in the morning and my brain isn’t working).

Ive been studying music theory for the fun of it because of me wanting to major in music, and this gave me a huge help! Eight pages and one sore hand later, I have all of the knowledge needed for my AP Music theory class next year! Thank you!!

Pitch = Rhythm never fails to amaze me on a deep level. When I hear a rhythm sped up to pitch it feels like I’m hearing something coming to life. Like how we’re all alive despite being made up of “dead” matter. It really gets me philosophical

That pitch and rhythm part blew my mind. Great video

honestly this would also be a perfect "introduction to music theroy" video in my opinion. There is just so much good stuff here! :)

Pitch = Rhythm should be taught relatively early. I think it's easy enough for anyone to understand. One of the coolest concepts in all of music.

I'm not a musician or a musician fan, but how did you make it so entertaining for me and everyone?

The pitch = rhythm part blew my mind! It was incredible listening to it speed up and transition into a chord! Amazing!!

small note: the melodic minor scale is actually #6 and #7 going up but natural 6 and 7 going down. This results in the ear being pulled to the tonic going up and to the dominant tone going down

This may be the single most creepy iceberg video I've ever seen. There is nothing more utterly surreal than listening to all these songs and tones with little context back to back. You get to the bottom of the iceberg and it stops being references and familiar cultural norms, and things get absolutely absurd. Legitimately eerie and unfamiliar pieces of sound being illustrated by this solumn, yet adamant narrator. Doesn't help some of these tones instill a sense of existential dread. These are the sounds you'd hear in like, a horror movie, or a game like Undertale. Real bone chilling pieces. Most icebergs are creepy by kind of warping your nostalgia. This iceberg opens your ears to the most unusual sounds and concepts. It is indescribable.

I love these kinds of videos. Not because I am much into music theory, but I almost always seem to find at least one song I like enough to put on my playlist

A video about obscure music theory and you went fully 33 minutes without throwing up your hands and passing the baton to Adam Neely, nice job!

I love how the relatively simple idea of "What if we play Lydian, but then just play another Lydian; and then another one?" was dubbed in a way that feels like pissing around while totally drunk. "Duuuuuuuude...That's not even Ultra-Lydian anymore...It's like.......Super-Ultra-Hyper-Mega-Meta Lydian, Man!"

45min of full immersion in music theory. Outstanding!

This is the most comprehensive explanation of negative harmony I’ve ever heard. It actually makes sense now. THANK YOU!

I remember seeing some time ago a music genre called “Extratone.” I think it uses the pitch = rhythm idea in extremely high bpm songs.

C bb = Bb, not B natural

hands down the best video on mt that i've ever watched!! i do love geeking on the topic and i learned a lot as well as having my mind blown. your explanations are amazing - so clear, yet coherent and thorough!

I knew a lot of this stuff but there were a lot of things I did not know. And it was all explained so well, with excellent graphics that showed the concepts visually, and audio samples where you could hear it. Thanks, David.

The pitch=rhythm was to me by far the coolest concept here, really ties everything together

rithm and pitch correlation has some incredible similarity to particle-wave nature of light

pitch = rhythm absolutely destroyed my mind. it was something that I knew already but how you described it just left me with a smile on my face.

My music theory professor demonstrated pitch=rhythm in my first semester theory class and it blew my mind. It’s such a cool physics/math thing that integrates with music.

It's fascinating for an experienced musician to see a video like this one and determine how extensive my knowledge is on music theory. I recognise much of this content from stuff i'm presently doing or have done in the past and yet there is some content I have never heard of or only had an implicit understanding of. You've sparked a bit of curiosity in me my friend. Good stuff.

How far “deep” is an AP Music theory class in this iceberg in your opinion? Edit: I took the class and exam, so I know the contents of AP. But since people could overestimate how much they know of an entire subject, I’m looking for answers from people that have studied all levels of the “iceberg”, not just AP Music theory.

Practically entire year of concepts stuffed into a few minutes. You were born to do this. Thank you. My favorite new, weird and wonderful concept… Pitch = Rhythm… Rhythm = Pitch.

As someone who took advanced theory I was still able to find some new stuff like negative harmony and pitch=rhythm. Great stuff

37:39 Jacob colliers face gave me a good chuckle

This is probably the best music theory video I've seen! Everything is easy to understand and it doesn't get boring

This is so great - I love the way you presented so much, clearly and quickly - as I am slowly beginning to grasp some of these concepts - the wonder of music seems like a vast ocean, or, the equally apt metaphor: an iceberg. Thanks for sharing your knowledge & love of music.

This video was extremely well presented. Every time I was like "ok, but can we see it/hear it" we got a proper demonstration and it was incredibly satisfying apart from being really educational. The quality of your videos have honestly increased a lot, David. All the best!

The brilliance of this video can’t be overstated, it both reinforced my existing understanding, corrected my misunderstanding and explained new concepts (specifically Negative Harmony!). Thank you so much David!

I am deaf, profoundly deaf, which means I can not hear any sound at all. Zero. I was raised learning about music through vibrations by physical contact like hands to the piano, drums, guitars, bass guitars, banjo, etc. I can understand the concept of various frequencies. My mom got me started in rhythm when we sang hymns at Church using a book pointing out what word to speak, sustain the tone, or stop abruptly, etc. So from there, I started to study notes from hymn books remembering the speed, rhythm, etc, and learned songs and music from there. That is how I got started into music. I eventually started playing drums, moved to guitar, and then again moved to Banjo. I started enjoying the blue grass music due to the profundity of simple and pleasing rhythms. One of my favorite music is Foggy Mountain Breakdown. So until I saw this video, I thought I knew everything, which is on the tip of the iceberg. As you led me down under the water, my mind is BLOWN. The simplicity of the explanation of each term listed here really made me more curious, for instance, hendrix chords, polyrhythm, mixed meter, shepard tone, and ESPECIALLY pitch=Rhythm! Pitch equals to Rhythm has opened up my eyes to new things that I never thought has existed! Your video has brought me into the abyss of music opening new opportunities to really enjoy and appreciate music! Thank you, and keep up doing videos like those! You rock!

i like how you say with some of the ideas that basically, most of the time people arent thinking about the concepts when theyre playing, just feeling it. Theres so much concepts in music theory and sometimes its so overwhelming that people forget you dont really need to know everything to utilize it. good video

Greatly enjoyed this, I learned things! Couple of little things: C clef is commonly used as tenor clef for cello trombone and bassoon. Just intonation is commonly used by instruments that can bend the pitch - ensembles such as string quartets will often tune the thirds of held chords.

It is interesting that different instruments allow direct (felt rather than understood) acces to different concepts - even to some of the lower tiers. Everybody ever using a synthesizer with a LFO going into audiorange will experience Pitch=Rhythm for instance, or people playing an instrument without fixed tuning will feel just intervals.

Pretty much everything I wanna to say has already been said about this video, but I have to say it anyway: wow, what a blast to have all these subjects covered altogether! Amazing job!!

Been there done that along the lines of turning an LFO into a tuned pitch. But seeing the consummate Mr. Bennett turn the concept into such a well informed video is very nice.

This made me realize how deep can get the knowledge of something and how many stuffs I need to learn about music theory Great iceberg ❤️

It's remarkable how well and easy you explain so many concepts. Really fun to watch too, good video!

"Pitch = Rhythm" also has a very famous example which is "One" by Swedish House Mafia, the kick of the beginning of the song gradually turns into one of the synths and I do think this is pretty cool! Aside from this, I loved this video so much, and I occasionally return here when I want to remember something! I am pretty glad I've found your channel some time ago!

Thank you so much for the audialization of the equal temperament, meantone as well as Pythagorean tuning next to each other! I have had listen to music in meantone temperament, but it was the first time when I heard it right after equal temperament and I was in awe of how much brighter the chord was! Also, pitch = rhythm is such a cool concept I wish I knew earlier when I was explaining overtones and temperation to my students! Thank you very much for the video! :)

All the concepts were absolutely fascinating but I was blown away by pitch = rhythm. Such a seemingly nonsensical idea that actually makes perfect sense!

Pitch = rhythm. A concept well understood by Ferrari engine designers for many years.

As weird and unrelated as this may sound, pitch = rhythm is literally the perfect explanation for why cars “vroom”. You see, a gas engine operates on mini controlled explosions, and each of these explosions has an audible “pop” sound. Well when a car can rev at 12000 rpm, that’s essentially just 200 “pop”s per second.

Thanks for this great video/lesson. As a composer I’m always keen on finding new tools to experiment with. I learned a lot from this video. 😊🎉

I love these kind of videos because it makes you realize how people in different times conceptualize things, makes theories and ultimately play with systems. It's great to see how this art evolves and gets involved with other areas of knowledge. Fun to see that there are actually a lot of concepts and we almost always see the most simple stuff in our day to day... Great video, kudos

One thing you can add in the Ocean floor, similar to the Shepard tone : While the Shepard tone affects an ever ascending pitch, the same principles can also be applied with Rhythm. It's called Risset rhythm, it's a piece that keeps getting faster and faster, apparently without end (like the Shepard tone, it's just an illusion).

the chord interval tone polyrhythm section is super well described! nice collection of ideas

The part about Pitch=Rhythm was incredible! Excellent video all round. One of your best.

33:15 I love how you can see Jacob Collier haunting you in the background!

David, thank you for such an in-depth dive into music theory! 45 minutes have passed so seamlessly!

It makes me happy that I knew most of everything on the ice berg before watching the video. Im suprised you didn't add harmonic series as its own item considering how important it is to music everywhere. Super great and informative video, and I learned a few things that I didn't know in the past. I suppose a few items that could have been added would be comma pumps and benedetis tuning puzzles, PC set theory and 12 tone matrix, and maybe shenkerian analysis? (although I don't really like that guy too much)

This was so interesting to watch. I hope I have a grasp on fraction of all the the information you started to present in there. It seemed like some of those thing were icebergs in themselves.

Amazing!! The single most useful lecture I have heard, and not only in music! This is great great service to the online/music community, a heartfelt thank you!

Legit one of the best music lessons i ever stumbled on. Thank you appreciate it!

The alto clef is a C clef centered on the middle line of the staff. When it's centered on the line above that, it is called a tenor clef and is frequently used for the upper register of low-sounding instruments, such as the cello or bassoon.

No wonder I am not a musician.

This is amazing David. So well done. Best thing about this is it gives a quick definition of concepts. I sat at the piano as you went through these and worked out examples. Then explored other videos ( often yours) on concepts I knew less about.

Hey David! First, really-excellent summary video! Regarding “Xenharmonic” vs. “Microtonal,” Ivor Darreg (my longtime mentor) originally coined the term “Xenharmonic,” in the early-1970s, IIRC. Speaking with the editor of the informal journal, Xenharmonikôn, his recollection was that Darreg had in mind the unusual-sounding tunings as “xenharmonic.” “Xenharmonic” translates literally from Greek as “strange harmony.” I’m checking with a couple folks who worked closely with Ivor at the time to ask how the interpreted Darreg’s intended meaning for “Xenharmonic.” However, I actually _really like_ your interpretation of the distinction between these two terms, if you generalize it _slightly_ to: _Microtonal = tunings that continue and build upon the historical/cultural thought process that lead us to 12TET, to provide more Musical possibilities_ . So, 19TET, 31TET, 24TET, 53TET, etc., would qualify as Microtonal. _Xenharmonic = tunings where you have no choice but to throw out the traditional rule book entirely and start over_ . So this would include tunings like 11TET, Carlos Alpha, octave-repeating harmonic-series-fragment tunings, Bohlen-Pierce, 88CET, and many others. Tunings somewhat “on the borderline” between the two include 7TET, 10TET (my first break into the field), 17TET.

"Mu chord" was actually the first concept I wasn't familiar with and after that you got me again with "xenharmonic" music.

Great and very thought provoking video! your efforts are greatly appreciated!

Quality stuff. Always informative. Thanks for uploading!

28:24 this tune reminds me of the water sprayers that shake agressively before their heads turn.

i got all the way to negative harmony before I had to rewind, because it went over my head on the first listen/watch, amazing video, awesome stuff, surprised i was familiar with some deepest depth stuff too!

Man, I'm trying to learn more about music Theory for a friend because they are really interested in the topic, thank you so much, this is extremely helpful for explaining everything

Ooh, thanks for sharing Deutsch's scale illusion! I feel like that illusion really gets at why it can be hard to transcribe harmonies, or why two people trying to transcribe the same harmony vocals for the same song might come out with two different transcriptions.

This is a very interesting video. There are so many different music theory concepts I was unaware notwithstanding what I have learned thus far. I will definitely consider using this in my compositions. Thank you so much for this video.

Man your channel is the best ... im watching EVERYTHING

Bravo, you really outdid yourself with this. I've been playing piano and singing since I turned 6 and am surprised I recognized any terms beyond overtones. I don't have all that much formal music theory education, but I have played my fair share of instruments and had many great musicians to learn from. Taking physics and being a math major has also helped in my musical journey, I wish there were more science art educational integrations out there.

This iceberg explanation deserves an award. Best I've come across. Mind blowing, well explained. Thank you for this.

This was awesome! So much fascinating new stuff, but I was also encouraged to find that apart from perhaps the very deepest level, there was at least one concept on each level which was already somewhat familiar to me.

Fun fact: If you rotate a music sheet 180 degrees, you end up with another music sheet. Only things that are looking odd are: Key signatures (If key is A minor or C major, it doesn't look odd) Quarter rests Dynamics Articulations Tuplets Meters Tempo Clefs Accidentals etc.

That was utterly superb. Thank you for doing this!