I own a piano but almost exclusively play guitar, but damn dude I've learned more from your channel in the last month than years of watching guitar theory videos. Really appreciate you. I hope you keep making great content!
Yep, I am mainly a guitar player as well and I find this channel's content approachable, actionable and for the most part instrument agnostic. Great stuff all round.
Wow! What a statement! I'm glad it's had such an impact! You should watch my video on Modal Interchange, that will blow your mind! 🤣 Thanks for the comment Oliver, I appreciate the support and glad you enjoyed it. 👍
@@michaelkeithson Its true! I am trying to learn everything about music theory and know a lot of things but my intuition lacks, this helped build that from the way you speak about these topics! I already have that modal interchange and some others of yours saved to watch later, need to take my time and watch when I feel like I can fully ingest what you are putting down. Just thanks, sorry for the long glazing session message but I think you deserve praise for this. Sending you good energies from Finland! 💪🫶
@@oliver1784 Thanks Oliver. Yes, it's a good idea to really try to get to grips with a new idea before you move on to the next. It's all a journey without a destination, I'm pleased that I'm part of your exploration! See you in the next one! 👍
Awesome I learned more n 10 minutes from u about aug cords and the way they r used then anything else I have ever watched. I will stay tuned to your channel
I love augmented chords. I've used them, plus the various exotic seventh chords that contain them, in a number of the songs I've written. Most commonly, aside from cropping up in line cliches, it comes down to using V+ (or, equivalently and quite often more precisely, bIII+) as a dominant-function chord.
The way you teach theory in incredible and i feel that you use of simple numerical dictation for chord progressions opens your audience up to thousands of MIDI and synth musicians who cant read notation. So many options in C Major i would have never considered, and there is a lifetime of possibility in those pivot chords, cant thank you enough!
I make music daily and always aim to have strong or interesting chord progressions. I don’t read notes, I just play by ear and always loved having what I’ve learned now are called “Augmented” chords in progressions. Never knew what they were I was playing but I knew the sound I wanted and knew they sounded unreal. Your descriptions of these chords match perfectly. Learned so much with this video. Thank you!
augmented chords are so nice!! I find myself using augmented chords as passing chords a lot, I think that stacked thirds sound is really ear catching, and really makes you hear how each note is pulled into its next position something this video made me realize is i never really experimented with sitting on an augmented chord long enough for all its qualities to sink in. it has such a mysterious sound haha. thank you for another great watch!!
Michael, absolutely brilliant! What you're putting out here and in your other stuff is top shelf musical knowledge and presentation. Fantastic... keep up the good work!
This is fantastic teaching, I must admit I have forgotten most of what I learned at college in my music theory class which leaves me feeling quite resentful of not practicing these day to day, but RU-vid has provided videos like this of which I can re learn and put back into my arsenal of knowledge.
Another brilliant tutorial! My primary instrument is the alto sax, but I dabble with keys, mostly as a learning and compositional tool. A couple of things I noticed is that a) the C , C+, C6 progression sounds very much like Miles Davis's It Never Entered My Mind b) I really love your chord voicings
just came across your channel this week. just wanna say keep at it. you're an excellent teacher and your vibe is just right. there's a lot of shouting on youtube and there are people like me that think being spoken to calmly is bloody wonderful.
Brilliant stuff Michael- keeping it simple. Would love to know how to seamlessly improvise through some of these changes without just using the blues or pentatonic scale all the time
Thanks for your comment. Improvising over an augmented chords you might typically use the Phrygian Dominant scale, sounds scary but it's the 5th mode of the Harmonic minor scale, so for a G7+ use C harmonic minor scale. Also, try the whole-tone scale. Improvising in general is a big subject with lots of different approaches, I'm planning on doing a video about approaches to improvising so stay tuned for that sometime in the future!
So cool. And as always, SUCH a good lesson. Your lessons are loaded with great stuff to learn but you make it so easy to understand and the lessons are interesting and with your delivery, it feels cozy and at times even entertaining. I'm so happy I found your channel and I hope to see you grow even more ❤
One fun thing about your second line cliche example, with the Fm: Using the idea of negative harmony, Fm (as the negative of G) itself acts as a dominant chord pointing back to C, just like how C7 was a secondary dominant leading to F. I just think it's neat.
Awesome! Glad it was useful. The piano such a brilliant visual instrument to teach on as it's so linear, good to hear it was nicely transferable for you. 👍
Same here, I play guitar mainly and never learnt theory previously so when I think about intervals I visualise a keyboard in my head instead of the fretboard, just seems easier! I hadn't thought of using augmented chords to change key, but I knew diminished chords have the same function. I'm guessing it works because they're both symmetrical? Anyway, this is becoming one of my favourite channels for theory stuff, keep up the good work. 👍
Sweet! For a little extra jazzy feeling try, at 7:47, a C add 9 in lieu of the plain C. I echo so many of the earlier comments about your presentation of the subject matter in such an easy to understand manner.
I appreciate the general aethetic of this video: your voice, ambience, lighting, the chords of course. Its soothing, pleasant is what I want to say I guess. Too much content is flashy and animated these days.😊
Feels like illegal to watch it for free. Always adding value. I hope you can have video about parallel minor modal mixtures. I know you have video talking about modal interchange but it's facinating the pull of parallel minor interchange in particular. Hope to see ways to use it in a chord progression as well. Thanks for these channel michael you saved us
Ah, thanks for the kind comment, I appreciate the support and really pleased you're enjoying the videos. Are you talking about modal mixture between a major key it's parallel minor specifically, ie C major and C minor or something else?
Yes, I believe that’s what he’s talking about. I also find it interesting as well, when in a major key like C for example, to modulate up a minor 3rd to E-flat major; This is essentially the same thing but changes the home base root to another major key; I love this sound.
That second line cliche c6 to c7 to F to Fm to C sounded so familiar. By the end of it I was singing lyrics. Burton Cummings' Stand Tall is even in the same key, though I'm sure plenty of songs use that progression.
My favourite new (to me) channel! As a guitar player I never REALLY learned music, I rather learned patterns and shapes. You sir, brilliantly fill all the gaps in my musical knowledge. Thank you for these thorough and mindfull expositions. Love it how you are able to take a bitesize topic and fully expand on it yet keeping it simple.
Ah, thanks and welcome!! I appreciate your kind comment and glad you're getting some value from my videos. Thanks for taking the time to share the love 🙏
SUper clear as ever with easy play along tempos....Some fun little practice nuggets...And who cares if they're CLiche's when they can be great vehicles / transition points to wherever you want to go. Hat tip to you once again !
I would say it's called a line cliche because the ascending chromatic quality, especially three chromatic notes in a row, makes its motion more predictable
According to the musician,David Bennet, whose RU-vid channel is David Bennet Piano, the term Line Cliché is derived from The Great American Songbook, which contains songs from the 1920s to the 1960s. There is so much of that pattern in the songbook that it became a “cliché”, hence LINE CLICHE.
guessing a line cliché because everyone uses it 🤔 😊… great video, btw. i play guitar but this help me understand this better especially thinking about stacked maj 3rd instead of raising the 5th.
I had exactly the same confusion about "-" being used to denote minor chords. Thirty years of looking at least sheets for popular music, and in every one of them, the notation for A minor seven was Am7. Then someone gave me The Real Book for my 45th birthday, I think it was, and as I flipped through it (pretty drunk at the time) I remember thinking, man, this is way more daunting than I expected. These jazz people really love their diminished chords, don't they? Look, I can understand if there is a truly universal practice of some irregular notation that has lingered for historical reasons, and we just have to go along with it. But that's not the case at all for minor chords. The justification for "-" is therefore marginal at best, an affectation rather than a coherent argument.
Pls sir is there any private courses you taking on piano class from beginners to professional? I haven't seen someone who explain and makes things easier the way you do. Pls I would like for you to make a video on the right approach or concept to use in playing the twelve keys without having to play only one key and transpose.
Great vid, thanks a lot! Did u actually end up going to the conservatoire? Because i believe i heard u say in another vid u also worked for a game studio?
Thanks man. Yeah, I did go to music college for three years and did play music full time for about 3 or 4 years but then have worked in video production since then but this year I’ve started to get back more music work again.
Hi Artie, it’s a Nord Stage2 EX, although I don’t remember which piano patch it was. They have a number of piano sample options on their website that you can install on the board and occasionally add new ones. Great keyboard although it’s not that new there’s now a Nord Stage 4 available.
Think I will stick to Boolean algebra! So much easier. You are a good teacher however. Music theory so arcane! Imagine you have been baking for years and then somebody tries to explain the molecular construction of glutens and how heat impacts physical properties of a food. Suddenly it stops being fun.
Ha! I agree that there are sometimes when music theory seems unnecessary but there are also times when it unlocks something amazing. Imagine you’ve been driving all your life with your comfortable but average car, then someone shows you how to take all the bits a create your dream car. Whether you choose to learn and create it is up to you!
they just feel suspended, to me. Like a sus 4 feels like it SHOULD resolve to the maj chord so that aug you played in the intro just felt like it should go back to the first chord (cuz the 5 was raised instead of the normal 4). Unresolved but a little more suspenseful sounding to me. Also probably useful in key shifting since they are symmetrical. 3 of them in a key and 4 dim 7 in a key so.... you can find common notes and move to new keys I'm assuming. hmm watched and yep. just as I thought. haha nice vid.
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, it definitely has an unresolved sound to me too although I don't think of it like a sus chord, for me, the resolution of a sus chord feels like it's back to the original chord. So, C Csus4 C Csus2 C. Those C chords feel like the resolution but to my ear the C+ wants to resolve somewhere else that has that next chromatic note of A, so resolving to the Am or F, although I guess that's solely in relation to where it's come from. If I play a C then a C+ I feel like it's heading somewhere else but if I just play a C+ it could resolve in either direction to the C or F or Am. Interesting! Thanks for the conversation starter!
@@michaelkeithson Well, where a sus 4 is asymmetric, then it is clear where that will resolve to (i think). But as the augmented chord is symmetric, it can resolve to 3 different chords, all of them sounding equally as good (I think). Because it's just your point of ref because what really is the difference? It's all 4 notes apart so the ONLY ref as you said is just what chord you started with and then it's likely you want to hear one over the other. But since aug is just a major chord with raised 5, I do feel it's a suspension waiting to resolve just like sus 4. Aug is just sus 5. HEHE. but... WHICH sus 5? there are 3 possible chords so..... Just how I see it. Keep it simple. hehe thanks for the vids and reply. I should explore the aug chord more and try to use it to write some horror soundtrack. Incorporate that with the "Hungarian" scale. hmmmmm
Interesting! I guess it depends on your definition of what constitutes an augmented chord. Is it merely a chord with a sharpened 5th or is it a chord made of two major thirds? I see you point if your definition is the former but if it's the latter then an augmented chord is an augmented chord, it's not a major chord or a minor chord. I don't know if there's a correct answer, or if there needs to be.
A "cliché" is an over used meme, or stereotype in French. "Line" is not French though. Line cliché was probably used to describe a cheap musical trick.
In my life experience there are very few people who can explain things as well as you. A lot of smart people fall silent with their eyes pointed to the sky when trying to explain and leave you thinking that they understand it, but we are not capable of understanding, rather than they just cannot explain it. And you deliver the goods with the wry sense of humor. I am working through your whole list and learning so much and having fun doing so. light bulbs going on in my head, appreciating music so much more
😳🙏 Thank you for such a generous comment. It's so nice to read stuff like this, really helps me feel like I'm on the right path at the moment and building something important and it's so good to know that I'm a part of other people's musical journey from all over the world. I appreciate you being here and leaving a comment, thank you 🙏
Thanks Michael. Love the modulation bit at the end. The “cliche” in line cliche is basically because cliches are predictable. We know the punchline… the direction is expected. Therefore a line cliche means we know the next in the sequence as we can predict it.
I’ve been trying to figure out what it is that makes your videos so unreasonably effective… it’s a hard thing you are doing, and you make it look easy! You have a really cool combination of often complicated subject matter approached with practical examples, explained verbally, musically, with chord charts, and with the on-screen piano. I find myself rewatching bits and taking notes on all of your videos.
Thanks for your generous comment Alexander. I'm really pleased you feel that way about my videos and that you seem to be getting some value from them. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment 🙏
I wonder when you speak at the end of using the augmented chord as a pivot chord to get to other key how many of those do players hear? The line cliques work because they are familiar to the ear. Just a thought might be a good suggestion for a follow up video
I recall that back in 1970 I began hearing people around me speaking music terminology. I only remembered a few things from music class in eighth grade. I wanted to know what they meant by chords and keys and progressions etc. I went to the library and took out books on music theory. Next I figured I better get a musical instrument so that I could apply what I learned. I bought a guitar. I was an art student at the time so my investigations were more of a hobby, not a favorite word of mine. I really like your videos as they are taking me into unknown territory. Thanks.
Thanks for your comment Patrick, we're all on different journeys as musicians and all have different destinations, I'm pleased to be part of yours and glad my content is helping you. 🙏
So many approach the augmented systems as a scale or altered dominants. Very few speak is the harmonic opportunities, much less as well as you did here. Thank you!
