What is Polytonality? | Q+A 

“Two keys at once?!” My big brain: C# and Db

all licks in todays episode are in 17-tone equal temperament.

People always ask, “what is jazz?” but never, “how is jazz?” How is jazz, Adam?

Can we talk about how hard it is to purposefully sing in a different key than the accompaniment?? That might be the most impressive segment I've seen from you.

I never sing out of key. My singing is polytonal with respect to the music.

Fun fact: ADAM NYLEE'S WORST TRAINWRECK WAS A POLYTONAL ELTON JOHN COVER AT A WEDDIN

The part about “Happy Birthday” always becoming polytonal is so true

I like how Ives also wrote "actual notes" in the trumpet for The Unanswered Question. Like, no we didn't write this wrong.

WHEN I WAS A YOUNG BOY MY FATHER TOOK ME INTO THE CITY TO SEE 2 MARCHING BANDS AT THE SAME TIME

Music has always been a meme. Mozart wrote a song called "lick my ass" that he liked so much that he even wrote a sequal.

The fact that you can sing happy birthday in f# while accompanying yourself in c. You are truly incredible

Music can be a joke if it wants, we dont progress at anything if we're stifled over convention

"Q+A" to "New Horizons in Music" is the same as how "Michaels Toys" is to "Vsauce"

Mozart had a lot of memes in his music (a musical joke, and of course, the classic leck mich im arsch). Haydn in his 6th symphony gives the horn a two-bar solo, most likely as an inside joke with his horn player. Bach inserted folk songs into his Goldberg Variations. Bold of you to assume musicians ever did treat music seriously, Jeff T.

No, I'm not tone deaf! I just sing with ✨ *P o l y t o n a l i t y* ✨

During worship rehearsals, I've gotten pretty good at throwing off the lead vocalist by harmonizing the melody a half step below. I'm now better at that than actually singing a melody

Q. How the hell did you sing in a different key?

With all this spice you'll need to start your own version of Hot Ones where you expose people to denser and denser polytonality until they cry.

The unanswered question from Charles Ives is a genius masterpiece.

I used the picardy third ending in a thrash mental song about a wizard (written with a bunch of elementary school grade 4 kids for an engagement program I ran), because the suddenly happy ending sounded medieval to me. They dug it

I'm actually taking a certain musical meme very seriously in my next musical composition. I must be the future (-:

PROTIP make sure the synth and the vocals are in the SAME KEY

“ A trumpet playing some weird stuff.” Welcome to 4th grade trumpet lessons

Gets copyrighted for happy bday*

“We get the woodwinds coming at you with… some more weird stuff” sounds like my highschool concert band lol😂

8:17 For real tho, Mozart and Haydn are the two memelords of the classical music canon. After listening to their music you get the feeling that neither of them took life that seriously. No wonder they were best friends.

you could’ve used a song that isn’t happy birthday one’s ears are trained to accept happy birthday being sung in all 12 keys Edit: nevermind he made fun of it in the video

Compose a piece with polytonality. The treble clef will play in F# major scale while the bass cle will play in the key of Gb major. Let's see if that'll annoy the pianist. 🤣🤣

An interesting theory about the Picardy third is that because the major 3rd occurs so strongly in the overtone series that when choral music was sung in a cathedral, say the Amiens cathedral in Picardy, France, that when you ended a piece on a minor chord the minor third would clash with the overtone major 3rd of the fundamental. The Picardy 3rd was the solution to that and it kind of stuck.

Nobody: 14-year olds who know more than one Nirvana song: 6:47

Polytonality: “A musical joke” - W.A. Mozart

Hey Adam, question for your next Q+A: Musical storytelling is heavily influenced by the notions of tension and release, which in academical music are realized by harmonic tools (chords, progressions, etc). But as you mentioned in some of your videos, other styles of music use other devices: EDM has buildups and drops, extreme metal has breakdowns and so on. If harmony creates tensions/releases because of dissonant and consonant sounds, what is explanation behind drops and breakdowns? Does our ear prefer slower parts, or is it because of passing from dense parts to more saturated ones? As usual, great content!

I just want to say the thumbnail is not clickbaity enough. May I recommend something more along the lines of "TWO keys at ONCE? Experiment gone WRONG (I DIED)"

Alright, which tuning system are you doing the lick on today

man, that interpretation of the trumpet asking the question gave me the chills! Thank you opening my mind to this beautiful and intriguing kind of music

What is lost in translation is often regained through interpretation.

House of cards, holding A minor on your left hand feels kind of wrong, hmmmmm

I truly learn a lot from your videos. I love cramming all the musical brain food in to my face holes. Thanks for being a crazy awesome human being.

Thank you so much for these videos, Adam. My school background in (English) composition and teaching, not music-But the pandemic has me spending a lot of time with my guitar now, trying to understand music from the building-blocks up. I’ve had trouble finding references that do this-but you are always willing to go deep and explain things to the root. I’ve so much appreciation for your knowledge, experience, perspective, humor and morals. Thank you for continuing to share

Adam Excellent content again. Thanks for highlighting "The Unanswered Question" from Charles Ives. I had never heard it. I like haunting music and the dissonance from the trumpets and woodwinds in this piece definitely invoke a strong emotional response. Pure gold thanks...

6:42 > transhumanism avatar > disgusted at playful experimentation with weird ideas to achieve new sensations pshhhhhh

Sounds like how you would sing Happy Birthday at a funeral.

Fantastic Teacher guides his students literally thru the entire Cosmos of Music. This Dude is an extremely talented high performing VJ and content creator blessed with a beautiful, perfectly modulating maskulin kind of voice, which but only to listen to is a already a perfect treat….!

This video is pure gold with the Amadeus edit and the fact that the lick transitions are all polytonal

Diaghilev: How much longer will it go on like that? Stravisnky: Till the end, my dear fellow

Yesterday, I converted one of my melodies into a polytonal one. Originally, it was in E major, but I made a version in F major and C sharp major. When I first heard it, I thought "This sounds ugly but I like it". Since then, I've listened to it several times and I've gotten desensitized to it so it doesn't actually sound bad anymore.

A simple fan comment. Adam your stuff is great. Keep up the good work!

I cannot describe how much I love ur channel... Thank u

I quite like the fact that today is my birthday and Adam just played this amazingly spicy 'happy birthday'🌶😂

I didn't know my life was missing a Djent form of the lick but now I do. Stevie T, where you at?

That picardy 3rd is just so soothing I've listened to it 200 times at least.

You are literally talking about really deep melodic music theory mostly in the context of classical music. I am a trap producer who only knows the real basics. Music is awesome, so diverse and different yet so similar at the same time. I love your stuff Adam :)

Multiple Adam Neely's singing Happy Birthday polytonically is one of my favourite clips now.

Question for your next Q & A: Is there a way of accurately transcribing ambient and glitch music? The artists like William Basinski or Tim Hecker are amongst my favorites and it makes me curious about the theory behind it all.

Adam Neely Hi, I’m an a level music student at the moment and I’m struggling quite a bit with essays and understanding terms (still struggling with essays they are so confusing and complicated). However, thanks to your videos I feel like I understand a bit better now. Which is really amazing because I would really like to be better at the subject I want to spend (and have spent) all my life on. Thanks a lot, Ethan

The first thing I thought of was Petrushka, a favourite of mine. Thanks for putting some in, and the link to the live performance.

question for q and a - "is 1/1 the best time signature?" Thanks for great videos, adam :)

Hi Adam! I keep hearing the question: "does it djent?", but I have yet to discover HOW something djents. Could you elucidate how a monotonic, syncopated, percussive guitar riff can be so intriguing? Here, I am not referring to the origin of the term, which is, as far as I know, essentially just an onomatopoeia misheard by an interviewer of Fredrik Thordendal. Thank you!

I've been trying to figure out how people get this sound for sooooooo long. Thank you so much Adam this is now my favorite video of yours because now I can finally express myself with the sounds I've always wanted to achieve. Hello pollytonality!

Great video! I live in rural Honduras where often at church services the person leading the singing starts in one key and the accompanying keyboardist has to play the song in several keys until he finds the vocalist's key (who may or may not have modulated to another key) or just settles into whatever key he's most comfortable with. The rest of us get to pick whether we want to follow the vocalist with the microphone or the keyboard. Also muy picante.

I used to use the piccardy third to end "breaking the girl" in a band I had back in the day. fun way to spice up a song that had a minor fade out

I was hoping you’d say Happy Birthday, Canada on the happy birthday song!

Question for your next Q&A: How familiar are you with the music theory behind Ska as a genre, and more specifically behind Streetlight Manifesto? I haven't been able to find a lot of in depth conversation about their music that really gets into the theory, and I'm still very much beginning so I don't know exactly what to be looking for. Thanks for all the great content!

More on polytonality. I need more. Great video as per usual Adam.

Just adding to the Bernard Hermann lovefest: his last and most violent-sounding score, due to its lack of strings, Taxi Driver. It's one of the best accompaniments to a dramatic story I've ever heard. RIP

Bartok uses a lot of polytonality in many of his seminal works like Dance Suite, Wooden Prince, The Miraculous Mandarin, Concerto for Orchestra and some of his chamber music.

The Twilight Zone theme was actually composed by Marius Constant. Herrmann wrote an earlier theme for Twilight Zone that was replaced.

Love your channel Adam! thank you!

for your next Q&A: what makes good free jazz?

Question for your next Q&A; Hello Adam, What do you think about playing chords on bass as a 'flavor enhancer"? As someone who plays prog-rock and alternative, I like to throw chords in sometimes, but these are genres were this is more acceptable. I know that bass "is not supposed to do that", but, I feel that they could have some really nice effects on traditional pop and or Jazz music. Thoughts :)

I'm gonna have to take these video's one day at a time, I'm afraid it's gonna short the wiring in my head if I marathon em... no matter, awesome work.

I really love this channel in explaing hard stuff in easy way

You might mention it, but I might forget to write, so. I'm thinking about "F sharp" by Tim Minchin.

"The Unanswered Question" is one of the eeriest things I've ever heard.

You do a really good job with those diplomacy questions. Bravo.

I feel like I deserve another music degree after watching all your videos. You rock!! (and roll ;) And, I reeeeally appreciate your food analogies. They work very well for me as a musician and complete foodie.

Heinrich Biber

Question for QnA: Have you ever accompanied a harp, and if so, how well suited do you think the harp is for jazz performances?

My wife is a music teacher; we are both musicians, but she taught me about the Picardy Third. Now, I can't unhear it. We laugh whenever it comes up. We've noticed that quite a few church pianists/organists will throw it in whether or not the song calls for it.

When I was a beginner composer (before I learned any theory) I unintentionally made polytonal music, one of them is actually one of my favourite pieces I've ever made. And looking back at it now is quite cool!

Bernard Herrmann's theme for the Twilight Zone was only used in season one; the theme you played in the video was composed by Marius Constant and was used for the rest of the series.

Question for the next QnA: Im curious, because your band makes EDM, what are some interesting bits of music theory that appear in the genre?

i'm so impressed by your ability to play and sing in two different keys holy crap

I'm a guitarist who trys to learn some bass at the moment (just for fun... I'm not a professional musician) and I tryed that 45° suggestion.... wow... what a difference!!! Thanks!!

Even the Beatles played with the Picardy Third in "And I Love Her". It's in F#m (and then Gm) and ends on D.

[long post and no patato + English is not my mother tongue = i'm sorry. But the music list is worth it ! ] I've been tracking down songs that seem to have at some point a tone in both major and minor, like Jeff Beal's House of Cards theme (which btw was the last title I added to that list). Here it goes: - The (quite long) outro of NIN's cover of Gary Numan's Metal (it gets very clear at around 4:45) [ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-B-qPWh_jDLA.html ] - in Radiohead's Daydreaming, the sudden modulation in A major at 3:56 is accompanied by Thom's backward high pitch voice hitting a C natural at 3:59 [ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TTAU7lLDZYU.html ] - in Tangerine Dream's "Resurection", from their album Electronic Meditation, you can hear a G natural played throughout, while the harmonies shime and change. At 1:05, a D sharp minor comes in, while the G natural remains. This is a great one. [ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-egqNokZNXgY.html ] - in Harry Smith's 1952 "Anthology of American Folk Music" famous compilation, you can hear a tune called "Wake Up Jacob" by a band called "Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers". The tune has a violin riff in E minor playing upon a guitar strumming an E major. This is socially interesting, and must certainly be linked to the "blue note". [ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-B0wMJBpAoMQ.html ] - in Robert Cray's last album, there's a lovely soul song called "The Way We Are", with a clean guitar solo, as you should expect. At 2:59, Robert hits an A natural on a F# major chord. I suppose this is classic blue note and it blends in quite naturally. [ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4rL8K63wjqo.html ] - NIN (again) has a beautiful "quiet" version of "The Day The World Went Away" on the album "Halo 13 - The Day the World Went Away". From 4:43 on, giving free way to his habit of repeating a musical phrase while the harmonies change, Trent has the piano playing a melody that starts in F#, E, B... . Every first chord of the progression is a muffled C# major, making the piano's B very spicy. This is a great example, as I believe it to be a very conscious choice, quite similar to Jeff Beal's. [ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gWDnbyiMhaU.html ] - The song that triggered my attention was William Sheller's beautiful song "La Navale", which has some lovely unexpected maj7 chords scattered here and there. In the solo, you can hear the guitarist hit an ugly (not spicy, ugly) C natural at 4:45 while the rest of the band is playing a conclusive A major. This is the one case I just can get used to. [ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KiC3XS036RM.html ] - I used it in a soundtrack I wrote to a friend of mine's play, so I guess this is a good opportunity for sharing a piece of my music, so I guess this is a "wanna check my SoundCloud?" time : soundcloud.com/maxke/06-le-survivant-fait-un-mauvais-reve The "spicy part" is obvious and starts at 3:55. The play is about to survivors that need to share whatever is left of livable space and end up in confrontation. This tune is about a dream the main character has. I wanted to express the gap between reality as it was and our memories of it. In bonus, two songs that flirt with this process, but instead of superposing the minor third with the major one, they alternate them in a very tricky way: - Swansea by Joanna Newsom (this one is very subtly written, perhaps closer to a "blue note" you can hear it at 4:40, the melody plays an E natural and is soon after joined by a C# major chord, which is the tone of the song) [ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NUpElXWVMj4.html ] - The Horrors (man, do I luv'em) in the groovy "Sea Within a Sea": in the lovely and mesmerizing outro (btw just how that intro is blended with the first half of the song must please Tantacrul), Faris Rotter sings a melody in F# that goes C#, A#, B, A#, G#. Now, the outro arpeggiator makes a 3 chords progression that goes F# major, D# minor, G# major. That G# major is very spicy, it comes in just a moment after Rotter hits the B natural. [ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4r2KPRYsQSk.html ] I think some composers use it more purposefully than others. To me, NIN did particularly good. I mean you would'nt want your strawberry icecream topped with hot Tabasco, right? Cheers from Belgium

One of the few polytonal pieces I played was the George Washington Bridge. I hated it in high school but listening to it years later and it is an incredible song that blends it's conflicting keys beautifully together for 7 minutes. Also, the Skyrim theme has one of my favorite picardy thirds.

You just answer why i like so much Bernard Hermann... Mega well explain my friend. Cheers

Hey Adam! You made clear to us many times that straight wrists are important in regards to preventing injury. As I am transitioning to 6 string bass I am finding it a lot more difficult keeping a straight left wrist especially when playing lower strings. What tips can you recommend for people on 6 string in regards to preventing any injury playing?

PROTIP make sure the key and the key are in the SAME KEY

I saw this headline 5 days ago. Attwmpted to write polytonal, had really exciting success, I made a beautiful polytonal chord proggression. Then I watched this video. I feel validated.

Those first examples of happy birthday sound like the usual renditions you get from your mates down the pub! But, Mr Neely, massive kudos to you for being able to sing and play like that on purpose! 👍👏

Question for your next Q&A what can you say on music before the classical era? I was wondering what kind of music there was before classical

"a djent version of the lick" Now that needs to happen like rn

When you said polytonality adds spice at first I was incredibly skeptical. But then you brought in the overspicing analogy and that’s honestly the greatest explanation I’ve ever heard.

Hey, Adam. Congrats on getting 800k subscribers. Here's a question for your next Q+A: You use sibelius to compose music, how much do you rely on the program playing the notes back at you? Do you think you'll be able to write down exactly what you want without this audio feedback? And for even crazier measure, would you be able to write music blindfolded but with sound on? Which way would it be easier and why? P.S. Isn't that crazy that I read my own comment in your voice as I'm writing it?

It actually amazes me how you can sing in another key. I would just now physically be able to :D

July 1st is Sufjan Stevens’ birthday and I take the fact that you didn’t mention him personally

Good sir, you have absolutely relit a fire in me for musical theory. It's amazing to here you go on so passionately about all of the "to do" in composition. Where or what resources might one look into in regards to learning about all of the scales that you refer to? (Like the Dorian and the phygian scales, and so on)

Wow, Picardy third, that thing Sui Generis did at the end of "Cuando comenzamos a nacer", a very grounded raw dramatic representation of life's darkest aspects, which uses a minor scale to acompany the sadness and depression of the themes it describes only to finish in a major version of the tonic chord. I always ended the song on the minor chord and never adhered to the original composer's use of Picardy. Never knew it had a name, either.