I have been making videos for RUclips for 6+ years now, and I never expected that this video would blow up the way it did. I fully expected it to FLOP. That said, I really didn't put a ton of time in making this into a great video. There are a few mistakes that I made throughout this video (such as me saying that "there's no such thing as a Cb", when we all know that there is...but I was just trying to keep things simple for the sake of the video). Had I known that this video would be my 4th most highly viewed video ever, I would have been much more careful about this. Anyway, please check out my part 2 video here titled "25 practical uses of the Tonnetz chart". This one is mistake-free and much easier to follow along with 😀: ruclips.net/video/E3knV3ZQBcY/видео.html
@@williamhogge5549 There is no point in keeping track of the note letter names, when trying to visualize music. Obviously assigning sharps and flats to notes doesn't change how a note sounds in reality. the system of note letter names has sharps and flats to aid in the transcription of music. When it's not really that important to have keep track of and is superflous otherwise. I dropped the sharps, double flats, ect and started using numbers years ago. It just automatically makes way more intuitive sense then to try and visualize everything with a key signature and musical notation... Obviously people can do what ever they want and it makes no difference to me. I'm just saying the fact of the matter is, that there are only 12 distinctly differrent notes in a key and only 12 different identical keys, the extra keys are not real, and a note doesn't change because you decided to call it a B#, rather then a C. The system simply does this so that you don't have to add tons of accidentals when writing music notation, but they don't change anything in reality. I don't know how to explain this any more clearly...
Cb exists in the key of Gb (Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb, Db, Eb, F ...). E# is in the key of F# (F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E#, F#). But I agree with having approaches that make things non-confusing as possible :). (and Gb/F# isn't exactly a key you run into often!)
@@Joel_PowellF# is the relative minor of A major (4 sharps) The V chord in a minor key is a minor chord. If you raise the 3rd, you get a major/ dominant V chord, and the harmonic minor scale. Just for little ol' E#. Ps, don't tell Dick Richards. Lol, kidding.
@@dickrichard626 I deleted my other comment. Maybe my blood pressure was spiking or something. My bad. Today I read your comment and don't see the attitude I did before. Humble apologies.
The original Tonnetz grid was created by arguably the greatest mathematician who ever lived, Leonhard Euler. He turned his mathematical mind to graphing music and first noted that a Major chord is a Major 3rd with a minor 3rd stacked on top, while a minor chord is a minor 3rd with a Major 3rd stacked on top. From there he branched out the relationships of those starting notes and built the grid mathematically
that's interesting Luke. In the 90s I studied for about 10 years (into the noughties) with allaudin mathieu. His version of this chart was very helpful in visualizing where to go when improvising. See his "harmonic experience"
I'm sure he was a wonderful mathematician but he was by no means the first person to understand the structure of chords. all musicians know that and have done since the invention of harmony
I was astonished when looking at this chart. I used to play accordian and this chart is exactly how the counterbass buttons are arranged. I never knew why they were arranged the way they were or their relationship to each other. I just knew they worked.
Funny u should mention that, I’m actually writing an accordion piece rn lmao😂 it was kinda weird for me, since I was already familiar with this system of harmony, but had no idea how the arrangement of the buttons worked (until recently lolol, the piece is due soon 😂)
I know next to nothing about the accordian but always wondered why the buttons were so arranged. The accordion players I asked didn't know either. Glad you mentioned it. 👏
not according to google images, accordians have 4 rows of chords, 2 rows of single notes. Other differences are the 5th row are all 7ths and the 4th row is all minors...
You can see the chart as simply encoding the idea that the standard chords of western music are made by stacking thirds. Major chords start with a major third and then stack a minor third on top of it. Minor chords start with a minor third and stack a major third on top of it. Both of them have a perfect fifth interval between the 1st and 3rd note. The rows are fifths because of that latter property. Up-to-the-right is a minor third, down-to-the-right is a major third, and when you stack those thirds to build minor or major chords, you naturally build the upward or downward triangles. The extended chords (M7, m7) add another major or minor third to the stack, resulting in the zig-zag pattern for such chords. -Tom
I thought it was confusing first... But this is a pretty amazing chart to understand chords. Major = Triangle down🔻 Minor = Triangle up 🔺 Diminished = Slash going up ↗️ Augmented= Slash going down ↘️ Min7 = zig zag N ( /\/ ) Min9 = zig zag M ( /\/\ ) Maj7 = trent reznor N ( \/\ ) Maj9 = zig zag W ( \/\/ ) Dom7 = normal check mark ✔️ ***Just wanted to see the other ✔️ patterns as I'm typing this*** AugMaj7 = Backwards upright checkmark (leaning back L shape) MinMaj7 = Upside down checkmark (leaning forward 7 shape) Min7b5 = up3 notes, down1 checkmark ↗️↗️↗️↘️
much easier and better to simply learn normal music theory and the structure of chords than mess about with this daft chart. diatonic chords are built on each scale degree in 3rds.. what's the big deal?
Learn those patterns and still not remember the notes of the chords? Sounds like an extra couple steps. Some are counter intuitive... Major goes down and Minor goes up?!
@@williamhogge5549 Yes, it's ridiculous. people need to learn the standard easy way to build chords. it's very easy. this chart is completely unnecessary.
I think some people, like me, find it easier to view things.. it helps when imagining it in my mind. I can easily play many instruments by ear but, for whatever reason, music theory it’s one of two things that doesn’t want to enter my brain…. (the other one is german language.. but this it’s because I don’t like how it sounds, probably) 🤷🏻♂️ …now let’s see if this chart will help me.
For anyone wondering: the German word "Tonnetz" just means "tone net" translated to English. It's not a name of some inventor or something 😁 Greetings from Germany🇩🇪
I've always said music theory in its essence isn't complicated. It's the notation that makes it complicated and using 7 symbols to rerpesent 12 semitones
Whoever who created notation was indeed a good musician, not as good at putting effort or teaching tho😂. Fifths etc...meaning essentially 3...tells you they didnt tried hard😂
Oh yes, lets dumb down 350 years of musical heritage with tabs so some asshole can figure out how to make asshole tapping and sweep picking passages easier.
@@lawrenceredmacher4382 My totally un-researched theory is that these naming conventions make more sense if you think of them in terms of how they relate to a piano keyboard.
@@lawrenceredmacher4382 The terminology makes sense though, it's just based on scales instead of semitones. So on a piano, if you're in C Major (all the white notes), a 'major second' is the second note in the scale, 'major sixth' is the sixth note etc.
Accordions are set up like this. I think it's more for ease of use than teaching music theory. Not really an improviser so learning the notes on the fretboard worked for me.
I first came across this a couple years ago (drawn mirror image to yours top to bottom). There are heaps of insights in the chart, secondary dominants, parallel keys etc. Very cool.
The Tonnetz Lattice is also useful in non-equal-temperament tuning systems. Consider the "C major" view, where 2 Ds are on opposite sides of the "C major" segment. In non-ET systems, those 2 Ds are almost always not equal, and this lattice clearly shows this. Example: look up "1/4 Comma Meantone" tuning.
The circle of fifths is inside the Tonnetz lattice. Just pick a spot and look left-right, from the "common" perspective. In a real sense, the "circle" is a 1D view of the 2D lattice.
I've never seen this before. Very cool! You went pretty fast with the patterns. I would love to see a follow up where you explore these patterns a little deeper. Just one constructive comment for you. I watched this on my phone and it looked like you were moving your mouse around to demonstrate the patterns but it was really hard to see and follow. Maybe if you could use some arrows or highlighting to demonstrate the patterns it would be easier to follow. Thanks for the great content. Keep it up!
Just in case you are not aware, you can slow RUclips videos down. Go to the cogwheel settings and the speed control is in there. Apologies if you already know this.
Very cool! Gives a nice visual on how everything is connected and the same. Basically a quick reference guide / cheat sheet. Once you understand the major scale, triads and the circle of fifths this tone chart becomes very useful. Thank you sir!
I am not sure which is awesome, this music tool or Brian's ability to write legibly with a mouse where it does not look like a kindergartener with a broken hand wrote the letters. Thank you for sharing, this is really mind blowing stuff!
@@keanuuuu It's not a stylus. You can tell by the cursor movements, along with the fact that there is a cursor. If you adjust your mouse sensitivity for the task you can get much better results. I use mice that have a button for toggling sensitivity. It's a gamer thing.
I've learned this 30 years ago. My guitar teacher tought me when i was a boy. In german it is called "Qintenzirkel". Quinte = 5th step up from the key note. Zirkel = circle. But i never learned it by heart because theory is boring 😅. It is much easier when you look at your fretboard and just play. When you know your notes on the fretboard you don't need to learn this. Knowing the notes is essential imo. For example look at D major and D minor: Where is the ground tone on the E string? Playing D minor you start the cage of the pentatonic scale with your pointing finger. When you play major you start the key note with your pinky 🙂 Now look at your hand in case of playing major and see where your pointing finger is put on - it is on the note B, right? Now you realize you are in the cage of B minor pentatonic scale. Practice that a few times with your looper and you will never have to take a look at that theoretical circle again. Rock on! 🤘
B to D is either a minor 3rd or a major 6th... The reason it's odd is because, allow me to quote John Clease of Monty Python... we've already got one. 😁 We have a circle of 5ths and its actually a circle.
This was driving me nutty. I knew he was going to end up with a triangular grid, and it was sooooo uncomfortable seeing it written out on a conflicting square grid.
Really helpful. One suggestion: since this is a very busy and colorful chart, it would help when you are pointing and moving around with the cursor, it would be easier to follow where you move if you either change the color of your cursor, or enlarge it, or both. It was especially difficult to follow when you were explaining the scales and moving the cursor quickly. Thanks. Good lesson. Had not heard of this before.
I hear ya! And I did that too...but the screen capture software that I used reverted the mouse back to a small size. I have no idea why... technology 🤷
Thanks for taking the time to introduce this as I've never heard of it before. It seems to work well for what you explained, but perhaps not so well for altered harmony. E.g. C7#5b9 (C E G# Bb Db). Harmonic minor looks interesting on this grid
I’m a music ed student, and I could never see myself using this to teach a class. It seems like more work to figure out chords and scales than just know the basic formulas
I would agree that understanding music theory is helpful, and sure, in a class setting, this might not be the ideal lesson. However, once one knows how the chart works, for composers, song writers and musicians that want a clean simple reference/practice chart, this is convenient. It could also be useful when collaborating with others of various levels of music theory knowledge. I have to say, I'm surprised how much information is represented in this chart. I'll be making one to put in my studio. Also, this chart might cater more towards people who have an easier time with understanding math and seeing a visual graph showing the relationships between the scales and notes within with the various patterns etc while others may find it more as you said, work to remember this chart rather then just memorizing the actual theory. On that "note", have a great week!
Agreed. It is unnecessary non-musical fluff. No sure what the point of such a chart would be. Learn your scales, that covers everything including what they sound like which is the most important thing.
This is kinda useful but honestly I feel like doing it your own way is best. I'd love to make my own app where I can organize chords and scales and shapes as I like color coordinating them all and giving anything names to suit my needs. But sadly there isn't an app out there yet that is as customizable as each individual would need for themselves.
Super important for Neo-Riemannian theory, which is helpful for analyzing increasingly chromatic pieces between 1880-1915. Which is beyond the scope of undergraduate theory classes.
This is extremely useful for composition, if you select triangles in a geometrical pattern you end up with a pretty cool chord progression with really really cool modulations every now and then. This is partly caused by the fact that chords you find in adjacent triangles have at least 2 notes in common with one another. so the progression feels smooth and interesting. You have to chose an arbitrary chord to resolve on though cause this goes on forever, building more and more tension. You will probably get the feel for it if you try it for yourself. On the other hand, I dont find it really useful to identify scales since the whole thing is arranged in thirds and fifths intervals, if you have to memorise a pattern just memorise the pattern on the guitar fretboard then. it also works. no matter where the starting point is, the pattern for a major/minor chord and the pattern for a major/minor scale is the same.
For what it's worth, there is such a thing as a Cb. For instance, in a Db7 chord, the 7th is Cb. Calling it B natural would be wrong, because any sort of B (flat, natural, or sharp) denotes a 6th relative to any sort of D (flat, natural, or sharp). Fb, B#, and E# are also "real" and function similarly. Good video, thanks.
I recognized this as the accordion fingerboard from the thumbnail and I was confused to hear it talked about like nobody has ever heard of it but I guess that makes sense for guitarists lol
Reminds me of Bartok's pitch axis theory being explained through the harmonic wheel. I like the lattice more, I think, since I don't have to keep tilting my head 😅
Wow great job! For an harmonica player like me, it gave me new idea to play with my Harmonetta (weird harmonica from the 60's). Thanks for this great video! 🤜🤛 Now I going to watch the part 2!
I only recently learned about this myself. I prefer writing it in excel with the sharps on top and the flats on the bottom. But it’s basically the same idea. I think it’s a neat supplement to the circle of fifths. But the circle of fifths is by far better overall, if I had to choose one over the other. What I like about tonnetz is seeing all the triads that have say, C in them. They all touch C. That’s not as easy to see on the circle of fifths. Thank you Brian for covering the topic! I agree it can have its uses.
That’s a very valid point! I was wondering what this would be useful for and that’s certainly one this is triads with common tones and I’m sure there’s a bunch of other hidden gems if someone with some solid theory sat down with it for awhile
@@mountfoolish oh that’s cool! I haven’t gotten to deep into those. You basically mean taking Chords from the parallel minor or major key right? My understanding is it’s basically taking a 3 or 6 chord and making it major in a major key or minor in a minor key
@@kane6529 Short answer: basically. Longer answer (but not long enough): when taking a major chord, C Major for example, you wind up with 8 chords by going up and down by major and minor 3rds. So basically yeah, variations of the 3 and 6 chords. The 4 major chords are non-diatonic chromatic mediants (and yep, they are in parallel keys to C Maj and A min) - A Maj, Ab Maj, E Maj, and Eb Maj. That leaves you with 2 diatonic minor chords (a min & e min) and 2 two non-diatonic double chromatic mediants (ab min & eb min). When starting with a minor chord, it is reversed. The 4 minor chords are non-diatonic chromatic mediants. Then 2 major diatonic chords and 2 major non-diatonic double chromatic mediants. Bottom line: tonnentz shows that much better than I just explained it. Each corner on tonnetz touching C, for example, connects to a mediant, submediant, chromatic mediant, and/or double chromatic mediant. Pretty neat stuff.
Great info! I kinda get it, but immhaving trouble seeing the cursor trying to follow... id suggest a colored, larger cursor for things like this (please!) Im going to have to watcha few times to get the idea, but it looks very interesting right off!!
Hi, Thanks for the video. I'll add my theory 2 cents just to clarify things about why there are flats and sharps representing the same perceived note (like D# and Eb). You said that it was to also have the flat version (above) of the same sharp note (below). What seems more appropriate is to says that the third is 2 letters above the root. Ex : If the root is B, you skip the C which is the 2nd and you have D as the letter representing the 3rd. D is only 1 and a half step above B so it's the minor 3rd. You need a sharp to make it major. So D# is the 3rd of G. If you want the 3rd below G, it's also 2 letters below (you skip the F) so it's E. Between E and B, it's a minor 3rd so you have to flatten the E to have a major 3rd. This means that even if D# and Eb sound the same, they don't have the same meaning in a chord or a scale. A known example is the Jimmy Hendrix chord (E7#9) which is like containing a major and a minor 3rd. The root is E, the major 3rd is G#. As the 3rd (G) is already used, the "minor 3rd" is called a sharp ninth (=sharp 2nd) which is F##.
Isn't the primary utility of this for neo-Riemannian theory of chord progression? I'm no musician, but I remember seeing these diagrams when I was looking up non-diatonic theory.
2:01 The tonnetz doesn't have to be infinite, just like how things loop on a circle. If you have a repeating pattern like ...ABCABCABC... it is a cycle, in this case the 3-cycle (ABC), but that could be read on a circle. Drummers map rhythms onto a circle (for neighborhood analysis?). Cycles have the topology of a circle, meaning the neighbors of the points don't have to break, just like how everyone can hold hands in a circle. In that sense a triangle is a circle, it has the topology of a circle. Since the pattern repeats in x and y it has the topology of a donut. For your tattoo, you'd need to break it and just let it have the topology of a cylinder around your wrist, if that isn't too hard to line up
Awesome info. I might recommend that for other videos like this that you use some kind of larger mouse pointer or something because it's hard to see what you're doing on the chart, thanks.
I swear I did do that!! The screen capture software made it small again!! That's also why I made part 2, which is a bazillion times better 😁: ruclips.net/video/E3knV3ZQBcY/видео.html
I may be missing something, but isn't it just easier to learn the triads and flatting the 3rd for minor, adding a semitone below the tonic octave above for M7, sharping the 5th for an aug5, etc ... or is this about something more than chord structures and scales?
Tonnetz is German for "Tone Net", but that really isn't the word used for this layout. It's usually called 'Stradella' or 'Stradella Bass System' Many folk instruments have this layout, but folk players often don't learn the system behind it.
It seems like the relative major and minor are just the box to the top left and the top right of the root note on the chart. So doing the triangle next to it doesn't actually seem necessary.
I sure would have liked it if you had a line you drag around while you were showing the shapes. I spent the whole video looking for your curser. I was also waiting for you to explain the little numbers in each cell and what the upside down 3s we're all about. This does look like an amazing way to look at music, I just wasn't able to follow your very fast discussion about it without seeing where your cursed curser was.
Thanks for sharing this! It makes complete sense - but I certainly have never seen or heard of it in all my 58.5 years. And I am part of a “musical family”! About to hit up my niece and nephew (cousins not brother & sister) that both went to Berklee to see if they were exposed to it.
@3:26 D# and Eb might be the same note on the keyboard, but whenever there's a harmonic context, they should be named differently because they imply different tonalities. @4:28 "there's no such thing as a Cb" Yes there is. What would you call the 4th degree of the Gb Major scale? If you were to call it B, there would be a Bb AND a B on the same scale, and would skip the C entirely. That's not the main reason, though. While determining an interval, the number (second, third, forth, etc.) will dictate the name of the note. For example, the minor third from C will NEVER be called D# because the "third" implies the third letter, starting from the original note (C). Likewise, the perfect forth (4th degree) in the Gb Major scale should NEVER be B, because the number of the interval G - B is a third (independently from the amount of flats and sharps: the interval Gbb - B## IS STILL A THIRD). While teaching music theory and harmony, not making these concepts clear might cause confusion in the future.
All valid points--but also all artifacts of the western note naming system that uses only 7 letters to name the 12 notes actually contained in an octave. This (eventually) leads to the necessity of conventions like treating enharmonic notes as different, and requiring the use of sharps and flats to ensure that a western scale does not have two notes named with the same letter, etc. They are necessary conventions, for the reasons you outlined, but they stem from what is, I think, a fundamental flaw and not a feature--the decision to continue using only 7 basic identifiers for the 12 tones, a holdover that traces its roots back to a time before "different keys" and the 12-tone octave was even a concept. Imagine instead that notes were numbered chromatically--A=1, A#/Bb=2, B=3, etc. up to G#/Ab=12. In that case, the interval between what we call a major third would always be a simple difference between two numbers, this case 4. You could find the "major third" of any note by just adding 4 to it, no messing around with sharps, flats, or doubles thereof. A major triad would be defined as just "your base number, plus 4, and plus 8", regardless of what number you started on. Enharmony becomes an unneeded concept because you no longer need to conceptually differentiate between Cb and B to clarify what you mean by a "third" or a "fourth". The number of steps up the chromatic scale that defines the interval you want is always mathematically explicit. I'm not saying we should all drop western notation, after all we've got centuries backing it up, but it's worth remembering that western music theory is built out of the language being used to describe it. If we used a different language to describe music then comments like "Cb and B are the same note" would be equivalent to saying "3 and 3 are the same note". In one language the difference between them is meaningful, and in another it is not. LIkewise, contrast saying "G-B and Gbb- B## are both a third" and "3-5 and 1-7 are both a 'third'". In one it's a meaningful statement, and in the other it's clearly not. But you can still describe the same concepts in either system with the right words: a major scale can be either "whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half", or "+2+2+1+2+2+2+1"
Looked cool but to be honest I wasn't quick enough to find the triangle, I will go through this a few times and hopefully I will eventually twig. Thanks for sharing, it is something I had never seen or heard of before
The Nashville Numbers are (shift one to the left, so I is on your starting point): IV I V, then directly under them are ii vi iii vii. Which is easy to read if you take a moment to figure it out.
I’m confused at point 13:07, the formula or pattern for the Dm scale, you start on D, back up to the Bb but Bb isn’t one of the notes of the D minor scale, right? So if I was asked to figure out the notes for another minor scale key using the pattern, I’m not sure I could.
I think this tonnetz is very helpful when playing with modes.. You can easily chart out what changes needs to be done on each chord triads, for each modes.. Thank you for revealing this awesome diagram to us
@@whatilearnttoday5295 It's a bit harder to explain in here, but I'll try anyway First of all, if you so far only understand modes as "same as major scale, just different starting position" you won't be able to see it. In my opinion, this is the least useful way to look at modes, because the tonic note also change this way. For example, if you are trying to compare C Major scale (ionian) to let say F Lydian side by side, it is probably very hard for you to hear the difference, because they share the same notes, same chords. You'll probably just hear C major scale on both case. What is most useful in modes in my opinion is to understand and compare modes when the tonic is fixed. Ie, F Major (Ionian) vs F Lydian, C Major (Ionian) vs C Mixolydian etc. When comparing modes this way, I'll guarantee you will immediately hear the difference if both of the scale is played side by side. Going this route, you should find out what note was changed within the major scale to change it into a "modal" sound. For example, a Lydian mode scale has a sharpened 4th note in comparison to Major scale, Mixolydian mode has a flattened 7th and so on. So when notes are being sharpened and flattened like this, it'll also affect the Chords quality within the scale. At this point, you should already know that in Major scale, the chord quality goes from Major (I), minor (ii), minor (iii), Major (IV), Major (V), minor (vi) and diminished (viiio), and why. If you have not understand why the chord quality of the major scale is arranged this way, you should. This is also visible in the Tonnetz diagram. Next, why is Tonnetz chart useful for modes. Let's say you want to play in Lydian mode. Using the major scale shape in the Tonnetz diagram, just flip the 4th note of the scale to make it a sharpened note. For Example, for C major scale, the fourth note is F, in C Lydian this F has become F#, other notes remain the same. You will immediately notice the 4th note is no longer making a triangle with the 6th and 1st Note of the scale to make a Major 4th chord. It is now forming a straight upward diagonal line, which means it is a diminished chord. You should also see the 2nd Chord is now Major, and 7th Chord is now a Minor chord. So for a Lydian mode scale, the chord quality goes like this, Major (I), Major (II), minor (iii), diminished (ivo), Major (V), minor (vi), minor (viii), all shown in the Tonnetz diagram. With the Tonnetz chart, you should be able to easily see which Chord have changed quality due to the sharpen or flattening of notes, and probably determine which chord is best to be used within any particular modes.
@@poof3d My modal perspective like your own is correct, while my fretboard knowledge is complete. Thus this chart is entirely useless as all this stuff is mapped in my head in a way which is practical and useful. If I want to play Lydian I play a #4.
@@whatilearnttoday5295 very cool. If you only played guitar, yeah I would agree this chart is not that helpful. Since my goal is make music with many different instruments in it other than just guitar, this chart is still invaluable. What you memorize on fretboard does not always translate to other instruments, like piano.
Very Interesting, But what is the purpose of the numbers in each of the circles with the note, I noticed some of the 3's were inverted , which leads me to believed the 6" are inverted as well, and noticed the the numbers 0 and X, whats that all about? Thanks Brian, for the video and possibly an answer to my question
I just said this in another comment. I believe it's base 12 counting, also known as duodecimal. There are 12 notes in the chromatic scale. Each note from A is given a number, so you can see where it sits in relation to A. I imagine you could put 1 on any note and build the new diagram from that. Here is an interesting picture for you: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal#/media/File:Keys_in_dozenal_clock.svg X is known as Dek. The E is known as El. Rather than writing 12, which actually would be "Ten" in duodecimal, it uses 0 to represent 10, which converted from the duodecimal to our typical numbering system would be what we count as twelve. If base 12/duodecimal is hard to wrap your head around, start with binary. Base 2.
It seems cumbersome and I think understanding the existing pattern of how fretboard laid out in fourths and knowing your intervals in relation to the Root, and how chords are built would serve a guitarist better and keeps focus on fretboard as the guide. Remember the notes in order of Fourths and how it continues down the neck is something very few people talk about. Here's how to get started: Remember BEADGCF (edited/typo). This pattern will continue horizontally toward the floor. The pattern will shift one fret towards body on the b string because of the tuning. The notes will continue into flats on same fret but you can continue following natural notes in fourths (BEADGCF) by shifting a fret towards body when you restart pattern with the natural 'b' note again. There are other tips a lot of channels shared in order of figuring out all the notes that can help in conjuction, but knowing how all your interval patterns, including octaves and unison notes. Ry Naylor has one of the best guides on the knowing the fretboard and it's free.
Hi, Just a quick message so that you edit your message not to confuse people. The 1st time you wrote the pattern, you made a typo : you switched the C and the F.
This chart looks like a 17th application of the Circle of 5th to me :) That thing with flats/sharps comes from this simple rule: we have to make the 3rd flat for Minor or sharp for Major. Besides this, those triangles look the same on the two layer Circle of 5th.
@Joaquín Jara Berón I don't follow what you're saying, but to be clear... Look at the triangles (patterns for triads) on the Circle of 5th. If you pick a Major triad, the second note will be the major 3rd. If you add flat (first, second, or cancel sharp), it becomes a parallel Minor triad. The same with Minor triads, except we're adding sharp. This little trick helps to extract the same information from the Circle of 5th without navigating that messy chart.
I agree. It really is just another use of the circle of fifths. Each row is just the circle of fifths in a straight line. I hope Brian does a deep dive into comparing the pros and cons of the circle of fifths Vs tonnetz and how to use them together while searching for different things. I never get tired of his circle of fifths videos. This would be a great reason to do another one.
That’s fun. It would maybe grab more likes if there were some cool geometric “magical” symbols overlayed … Love music theory and had to check it out. Cheers!
That's some crazy shit, man. Maybe it gets a little convoluted at some point but the major to minor relationships in the very least are pretty cool laid out like that
I understand your self criticism of this explanation of the chart. The red banner at the top got in the way of following the diagram as you were explaining it, and I don't know the whiteboard app that you were using but it would have helped immensely if you had a large, hard to miss pointer to show which directions you were going in, and how far you went in each direction. I'll watch it again after printing out the chart and looking at the relationships in my own slow time.
What are all the differences between the colors and what does LPR mean or what does RLP mean or what does PRL mean? I guess I’ll have to Google this. Because I think we could go way more in depth on it.
It refers to the "transformations" that are required when moving from one chord to another. L = leading tone transformation. For example from C to Em or vice versa. When moving between these chords, the root of the first chord changes to the leading tone of that chord (C E G -> B E G - B is the leading tone of C), or vice versa (the leading tone moves up to the tonic E G B -> E G C). P = parallel transformation. For example C to Cm or vice versa. You just move between parallel major and minor (C E G -> C Eb G). R = relative transformation. For example C to Am or vice versa. You just move between relative major and minor (C E G -> C E A). Notice how all of these transformations only require changing one note when moving between the chords. So, any chord change can be described as a combination of these transformations. And these transformations basically show you how distant the chords are from one another (meaning, how many notes you need to change to get from one chord to another, and what kind of changes you need to make). For example F major would be two relative transformations away from C major (C -> Am -> F, or C E G -> C E A -> C F A). G major would be a leading tone and a relative transformation away from C major (C -> Em -> G, or C E G -> B E G -> B D G). LPR would be the change from C major to C# minor (C -> Em -> E -> C#m, or C E G -> B E G -> B E G# -> C# E G#). RLP would be the change from C major to F minor (C -> Am -> F -> Fm, or C E G -> C E A -> C F A -> C F Ab). PRL would be the change from C major to G minor (C -> Cm -> Eb -> Gm, or C E G -> C Eb G -> Bb Eb G -> Bb D G).
You can find all intervals if you know the moves. Minor second is one left, one left-up. Major second is one left, one left-down. We know major and minor for third. Perfect fourth and fifth are the same, and the note between is obvious. But the diminished fifth is just the minor second move from the fourth: two left, one left-up. The augmented fourth is two right, one right-down. (Do this to properly name them by the interval you are using. Example is E, with the B flat up and leftwards, passing over the perfect Fourth to get to the Diminished Fifth Minor sixth is directly left-up, Major sixth is directly left-down. By now if you find the minor and major seventh alone you’ll see the pattern can be applied for intervals as well as chords by just finding the starting note. Apply to different modes and the scale structure is a web that can be cast over the bones of this pattern. By the way, minor seventh is one right, one up-right, and going the mirrored way downward for the major seventh.
You can also learn intervals by simply counting notes. Let's start from A. "1st" (i.e., unison) is A. 2nd is A B. 3rd is A B C. 4th is A B C D. 5th is A B C D E. 6th is A B C D E F. 7th is A B C D E F G. 8th is the same as the octave, which is the same as the note you started on (A B C D E F G A). Interval qualities: There are two kinds of 2nds and 3rds - a smaller one (minor) and a larger one (major). Minor 2nd is a half step, major 2nd is a whole step. (Just remember: B-C and E-F are half steps, everything else is a whole step.) Minor 3rd is whole + half, major 3rd is whole + whole. 4ths and 5ths are easy: All 4ths and 5ths are perfect, except B-F 5th and F-B 4th (which is when you need to raise the F or lower the B) - that's the tritone that's right between the perfect 4th and 5th. 6ths and 7ths are easiest to count as 2nds and 3rds down from the octave. M7 = m2 below the octave. m7 = M2 below the octave. M6 = m3 below the octave. m6 = M3 below the octave. No need to check any charts - just count note names and half/whole steps. Pretty simple, and comes with the benefit of actually understanding why the intervals are named the way they are (number means note names, major/minor simply means larger/smaller). Also, takes less time to memorize than how to find each of these intervals from the chart (because you can kind of deduce it from the way the intervals are named if you understand what the interval names refer to).
What a wonderful resource - thanks, Brian! I can see the benefit of studying this without a guitar in hand, but I wonder if some folks can keep this in mind and make use of this while playing (with a guitar in hand) ?♪!♫?
My thought exactly! I can watch dozens of theory videos but once it's just me and my guitar I can't really seem to appply any of the theory! Good to know though...
@@FlowerdyPilllow if you're going to be learning music theory and applying it to stuff you're doing on the guitar, I would think it's necessary to first memorize the fretboard. You'd have to be familiar with it enough so that you don't even think about where a particular note is; in your mind you should see a fretboard and every spot on it where that note will sound. From there you'll start seeing and understanding all the relationships of the intervals. And those relationships are mostly what theory is going to be talking about. You gotta know where all the notes are first though, otherwise none of what you learn can be practically applied..
Honestly, I'm not sure if this makes music theory simpler, because you need to always have the chart in front of you, and also memorize the pattern for each thing you are looking for. There are certain less obvious relationships that this chart may show (I can see how it could be used for experimenting with weirder chord progressions where each chord still connects to the previous chord through a common tone, and you could find interesting ways of modulating to different keys), but for the basics, I honestly would just recommend learning the basics in the "normal" way. Yes, you can also find them from this chart if you want to, but do you actually LEARN those basics that way? It's either based on looking at the chart or pure memorization of the chart, and not the logic behind the patterns. And I don't think that's true learning. And the basics are definitely things that you want to understand, and not things that you need to check from a chart. The basics of music theory are quite simple if you learn what the names of the concepts actually refer to, and memorize a couple of basic things (which BTW you can always deduce by looking at the black/white key pattern on the piano keyboard - for anyone interested, I explain this in a reply to this comment). Now, I do think one could use this chart to explain where the concepts come from. But just looking at the chart and using patterns that you memorize (without actually learning where the patterns come from, which makes you forget the patterns pretty easily) doesn't really teach you much, and makes you dependent on the chart. I don't think it truly simplifies these concepts.
So, about the black/white key thing... You can figure out which steps are half steps or whole steps on the natural notes simply by finding the white keys that don't have a black key between them (because one key up on a piano is always a half step up, just like one fret up on a guitar is always a half step up). These are E-F and B-C. You should memorize these notes, but if you forget them, you can always find them really easily by looking at the piano keyboard. You can also use the black/white key pattern for figuring out the major and minor scale formulas (and also the formula for the other modes - but let's focus on major and minor first before talking about modes). You just need to remember that C major and A minor are the keys without any sharps/flats. Now play the white key notes from C to C and look at the half/whole step pattern. That's W W H W W W H. This is the formula of all major scales. Now try it from any other note, and you can build any major scale. Play the white key notes from A to A and look at the half/whole step pattern. That's W H W W H W W. This is the formula of all minor scales. Now try it from any other note, and you can build any minor scale. If you happen to forget the half/whole step structure of the scale, you can always come back to C major and A minor to figure it out. And if you remember C major and A minor, you know how to figure out the relative major/minor. How many half/whole steps are between C major and A minor? The answer is a whole step and a half step. This applies to all keys - the relative minor is always one and a half steps below the major, and the relative major is always one and a half steps above the minor. You can also use this knowledge to figure out basic chord formulas. C major chord uses every other note of the C major scale (1 3 5), so let's look at the whole and half step pattern again to find the major chord pattern. C major is C E G. C to E is two whole steps (C D = whole; D E = whole). E to G is one and a half steps (E F = half; F G = whole). Now we know the major chord structure. Two whole steps on the bottom, one and a half steps on the top. Build any major chord using this pattern. Same goes for minor chord - let's simply take 1 3 5 of the A minor scale to figure out the minor chord structure. Am = A C E, A to C is one and a half steps (A B = whole; B C = half). C to E is two whole steps (C D = whole; D E = whole). Now we know the minor chord structure. One and a half steps on the bottom, two whole steps on the top. Build any minor chord using this pattern. Also, notice that it's the mirror image of a major chord. And also notice that the only difference between major and minor is the middle note - the 3rd. In minor it's lower, and in major it's higher. One more. You can figure out the diatonic chords of the major and minor keys this way too. Just build all the triads on the white keys and figure out their quality. C E G = C major (2 whole steps + 1½ steps). D F A = D minor (1½ steps + 2 whole steps). E G B = E minor (1½ steps + 2 whole steps). F A C = F major (2 whole steps + 1½ steps). G B D = G major (2 whole steps + 1½ steps). A C E = A minor (1½ steps + 2 whole steps). B D F = B diminished (1½ steps + 1½ steps). Notice how the last chord, B diminished, was the only one that didn't use a combination of 1½ steps and 2 whole steps. This makes the 5th of the chord a half step smaller, which is why the chord is also called diminished. Okay, now we know the qualities of the chords in C major: M m m M M m dim. This is the pattern that all major keys use. Start the same pattern from the A minor chord, and you get the chord qualities in the minor key: m dim M m m M M. Applies to all minor keys. So, there are a lot of patterns you can deduce from the white keys of the piano by memorizing just a couple of things. Of course these are all patterns one should memorize, but knowing how to figure them out if you forget the patterns is pretty useful. This also shows where the patterns come from and teaches you the logic behind them - you don't only memorize them but actually LEARN them. It's really all about half and whole steps. The most important things to memorize are C major/A minor are the keys with no sharps/flats, chords are built by taking every other note (1 3 5), and the half steps are E-F and B-C (which you can always find from the piano keyboard). The rest is simply applying these patterns to different keys.
This is more complicated than just learning the major triads. Flat the third for minor, major 7 is half step below root, dominant a full step below root. That's it. And you don't need a reference chart. 🤷♂️
The tonnetz is much more useful/intuitive when playing on an isomorphic keyboard, because on such a keyboard you can make the tonnetz just by drawing lines on the keyboard. See the figures near the end of Wikipedia's article on the tonnetz.
@@enelson1976 Yes. Especially the "trick" about 7th chords that you mentioned is really useful. That's something that actually simplifies music theory.
I have been making videos for RUclips for 6+ years now, and I never expected that this video would blow up the way it did. I fully expected it to FLOP. That said, I really didn't put a ton of time in making this into a great video. There are a few mistakes that I made throughout this video (such as me saying that "there's no such thing as a Cb", when we all know that there is...but I was just trying to keep things simple for the sake of the video). Had I known that this video would be my 4th most highly viewed video ever, I would have been much more careful about this. Anyway, please check out my part 2 video here titled "25 practical uses of the Tonnetz chart". This one is mistake-free and much easier to follow along with 😀:
ruclips.net/video/E3knV3ZQBcY/видео.html
Could be worse. You could be arguing with people who say there is no C flat or B sharp. Been there done that.
@@williamhogge5549 There is no point in keeping track of the note letter names, when trying to visualize music. Obviously assigning sharps and flats to notes doesn't change how a note sounds in reality. the system of note letter names has sharps and flats to aid in the transcription of music. When it's not really that important to have keep track of and is superflous otherwise. I dropped the sharps, double flats, ect and started using numbers years ago. It just automatically makes way more intuitive sense then to try and visualize everything with a key signature and musical notation... Obviously people can do what ever they want and it makes no difference to me. I'm just saying the fact of the matter is, that there are only 12 distinctly differrent notes in a key and only 12 different identical keys, the extra keys are not real, and a note doesn't change because you decided to call it a B#, rather then a C. The system simply does this so that you don't have to add tons of accidentals when writing music notation, but they don't change anything in reality. I don't know how to explain this any more clearly...
Cb exists in the key of Gb (Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb, Db, Eb, F ...). E# is in the key of F# (F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E#, F#). But I agree with having approaches that make things non-confusing as possible :). (and Gb/F# isn't exactly a key you run into often!)
@@Joel_PowellF# is the relative minor of A major (4 sharps)
The V chord in a minor key is a minor chord. If you raise the 3rd, you get a major/ dominant V chord, and the harmonic minor scale. Just for little ol' E#.
Ps, don't tell Dick Richards. Lol, kidding.
@@dickrichard626 I deleted my other comment. Maybe my blood pressure was spiking or something. My bad.
Today I read your comment and don't see the attitude I did before.
Humble apologies.
The original Tonnetz grid was created by arguably the greatest mathematician who ever lived, Leonhard Euler.
He turned his mathematical mind to graphing music and first noted that a Major chord is a Major 3rd with a minor 3rd stacked on top, while a minor chord is a minor 3rd with a Major 3rd stacked on top.
From there he branched out the relationships of those starting notes and built the grid mathematically
that's interesting Luke.
In the 90s I studied for about 10 years (into the noughties) with allaudin mathieu. His version of this chart was very helpful in visualizing where to go when improvising. See his "harmonic experience"
I just did a screen capture of this chart and trimmed it in Paint.
I'm sure he was a wonderful mathematician but he was by no means the first person to understand the structure of chords. all musicians know that and have done since the invention of harmony
by the way, Euler started to study the theory of music back in 1739 and published his "net of tones" in 1773.
@@evetsnitram8866 geni0s
I was astonished when looking at this chart. I used to play accordian and this chart is exactly how the counterbass buttons are arranged. I never knew why they were arranged the way they were or their relationship to each other. I just knew they worked.
That's fascinating.
I am sure that is where this chart came from.
@Paul Siwy Wow. We never stop learning…
Funny u should mention that, I’m actually writing an accordion piece rn lmao😂 it was kinda weird for me, since I was already familiar with this system of harmony, but had no idea how the arrangement of the buttons worked (until recently lolol, the piece is due soon 😂)
I know next to nothing about the accordian but always wondered why the buttons were so arranged. The accordion players I asked didn't know either. Glad you mentioned it. 👏
not according to google images, accordians have 4 rows of chords, 2 rows of single notes. Other differences are the 5th row are all 7ths and the 4th row is all minors...
You can see the chart as simply encoding the idea that the standard chords of western music are made by stacking thirds. Major chords start with a major third and then stack a minor third on top of it. Minor chords start with a minor third and stack a major third on top of it. Both of them have a perfect fifth interval between the 1st and 3rd note. The rows are fifths because of that latter property. Up-to-the-right is a minor third, down-to-the-right is a major third, and when you stack those thirds to build minor or major chords, you naturally build the upward or downward triangles. The extended chords (M7, m7) add another major or minor third to the stack, resulting in the zig-zag pattern for such chords. -Tom
I thought it was confusing first... But this is a pretty amazing chart to understand chords.
Major = Triangle down🔻
Minor = Triangle up 🔺
Diminished = Slash going up ↗️
Augmented= Slash going down ↘️
Min7 = zig zag N ( /\/ )
Min9 = zig zag M ( /\/\ )
Maj7 = trent reznor N ( \/\ )
Maj9 = zig zag W ( \/\/ )
Dom7 = normal check mark ✔️
***Just wanted to see the other ✔️ patterns as I'm typing this***
AugMaj7 = Backwards upright checkmark (leaning back L shape)
MinMaj7 = Upside down checkmark (leaning forward 7 shape)
Min7b5 = up3 notes, down1 checkmark ↗️↗️↗️↘️
much easier and better to simply learn normal music theory and the structure of chords than mess about with this daft chart. diatonic chords are built on each scale degree in 3rds.. what's the big deal?
Thank you! Very handy to have!
Learn those patterns and still not remember the notes of the chords? Sounds like an extra couple steps.
Some are counter intuitive...
Major goes down and Minor goes up?!
@@williamhogge5549 Yes, it's ridiculous. people need to learn the standard easy way to build chords. it's very easy. this chart is completely unnecessary.
I think some people, like me, find it easier to view things.. it helps when imagining it in my mind.
I can easily play many instruments by ear but, for whatever reason, music theory it’s one of two things that doesn’t want to enter my brain…. (the other one is german language.. but this it’s because I don’t like how it sounds, probably) 🤷🏻♂️
…now let’s see if this chart will help me.
For anyone wondering: the German word "Tonnetz" just means "tone net" translated to English. It's not a name of some inventor or something 😁
Greetings from Germany🇩🇪
Wenn man als Muttersprachler ein neues Wort lernt 😁
Toe Nuts
Deez Nuts
Dankenetz 😀
See the wonderful write-up at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonnetz --- I was intrigued to see that my favorite mathematician created this masterpiece!
The German word "Ton" translates better (here) as "note" so "Note net" fits even better.
I've always said music theory in its essence isn't complicated. It's the notation that makes it complicated and using 7 symbols to rerpesent 12 semitones
and the confusing terminology. like a "major second" interval being 2 semitones, "major third" being 4, "major sixth" being 9, etc...
Whoever who created notation was indeed a good musician, not as good at putting effort or teaching tho😂. Fifths etc...meaning essentially 3...tells you they didnt tried hard😂
Oh yes, lets dumb down 350 years of musical heritage with tabs so some asshole can figure out how to make asshole tapping and sweep picking passages easier.
@@lawrenceredmacher4382 My totally un-researched theory is that these naming conventions make more sense if you think of them in terms of how they relate to a piano keyboard.
@@lawrenceredmacher4382 The terminology makes sense though, it's just based on scales instead of semitones. So on a piano, if you're in C Major (all the white notes), a 'major second' is the second note in the scale, 'major sixth' is the sixth note etc.
Accordions are set up like this. I think it's more for ease of use than teaching music theory. Not really an improviser so learning the notes on the fretboard worked for me.
I first came across this a couple years ago (drawn mirror image to yours top to bottom). There are heaps of insights in the chart, secondary dominants, parallel keys etc. Very cool.
The Tonnetz Lattice is also useful in non-equal-temperament tuning systems. Consider the "C major" view, where 2 Ds are on opposite sides of the "C major" segment. In non-ET systems, those 2 Ds are almost always not equal, and this lattice clearly shows this. Example: look up "1/4 Comma Meantone" tuning.
The circle of fifths is inside the Tonnetz lattice. Just pick a spot and look left-right, from the "common" perspective. In a real sense, the "circle" is a 1D view of the 2D lattice.
Really makes you wonder why it's not more popular.
As a lifelong musician and theory nerd (piano), I’ve never heard of this scale until I got an Akai Force. (It’s a setting in the Notes function).
Reminds me of everything else learned. By the time you learn how to use it you have memorized all options. Back in the Folder it goes
mathematician Leonhard Euler came up with this. The stradella bass notes for an accordion follows a similar logic.
I've never seen this before. Very cool! You went pretty fast with the patterns. I would love to see a follow up where you explore these patterns a little deeper. Just one constructive comment for you. I watched this on my phone and it looked like you were moving your mouse around to demonstrate the patterns but it was really hard to see and follow. Maybe if you could use some arrows or highlighting to demonstrate the patterns it would be easier to follow. Thanks for the great content. Keep it up!
I made the cursor super big, but the screen capture software that I use reverted it back to the original "small" size. Technology 🤷
Major = Triangle down🔻
Minor = Triangle up 🔺
Diminished = Slash going up ↗️
Augmented= Slash going down ↘️
Min7 = zig zag N ( /\/ )
Min9 = zig zag M ( /\/\ )
Maj7 = trent reznor N ( \/\ )
Maj9 = zig zag W ( \/\/ )
Dom7 = normal check mark ✔️
AugMaj7 = Backwards upright checkmark (leaning back L shape)
MinMaj7 = Upside down checkmark (leaning forward 7 shape)
Min7b5 = up3 notes, down1 checkmark ↗️↗️↗️↘️
Just in case you are not aware, you can slow RUclips videos down. Go to the cogwheel settings and the speed control is in there. Apologies if you already know this.
@@arthurmee that’s new to me so thank you!!
@@arthurmee I rely *so* much on this feature! My old ears work slower than most young people's mouths... =;o}
Very cool! Gives a nice visual on how everything is connected and the same. Basically a quick reference guide / cheat sheet. Once you understand the major scale, triads and the circle of fifths this tone chart becomes very useful. Thank you sir!
I am not sure which is awesome, this music tool or Brian's ability to write legibly with a mouse where it does not look like a kindergartener with a broken hand wrote the letters.
Thank you for sharing, this is really mind blowing stuff!
🤣🤣🤣
Surely he’s using a stylus? Supreme mouse control to add to his list of skills otherwise !
Indeed. That is other worldly mouse control at a level we mortals can only dream of.
@@keanuuuu It's not a stylus. You can tell by the cursor movements, along with the fact that there is a cursor. If you adjust your mouse sensitivity for the task you can get much better results. I use mice that have a button for toggling sensitivity. It's a gamer thing.
I've learned this 30 years ago. My guitar teacher tought me when i was a boy. In german it is called "Qintenzirkel". Quinte = 5th step up from the key note. Zirkel = circle. But i never learned it by heart because theory is boring 😅. It is much easier when you look at your fretboard and just play. When you know your notes on the fretboard you don't need to learn this. Knowing the notes is essential imo.
For example look at D major and D minor: Where is the ground tone on the E string? Playing D minor you start the cage of the pentatonic scale with your pointing finger. When you play major you start the key note with your pinky 🙂
Now look at your hand in case of playing major and see where your pointing finger is put on - it is on the note B, right? Now you realize you are in the cage of B minor pentatonic scale. Practice that a few times with your looper and you will never have to take a look at that theoretical circle again. Rock on! 🤘
Odd to call it the circle of 5ths...
@@williamhogge5549 ....just count along the scale: B is 5 steps up from D, right?
B to D is either a minor 3rd or a major 6th...
The reason it's odd is because, allow me to quote John Clease of Monty Python... we've already got one. 😁
We have a circle of 5ths and its actually a circle.
"And it's very nice". 😁
i like how, despite the whiteboard youre using having grid marks, you eschew the guides and choose to just free hand the whole thing.
Haha sorry 🤣🤣🤣
This was driving me nutty. I knew he was going to end up with a triangular grid, and it was sooooo uncomfortable seeing it written out on a conflicting square grid.
Amazing
Once I tried to make up a 2d piano keyboard layout and this scheme was one of variants I came up with
Fascinating how math and music are related. Thank you as always, Brian! With this, Ill be able to know which chords share the same notes
Cheers Brian, I shall watch this again and make my own chart.
Really helpful. One suggestion: since this is a very busy and colorful chart, it would help when you are pointing and moving around with the cursor, it would be easier to follow where you move if you either change the color of your cursor, or enlarge it, or both. It was especially difficult to follow when you were explaining the scales and moving the cursor quickly. Thanks. Good lesson. Had not heard of this before.
I hear ya! And I did that too...but the screen capture software that I used reverted the mouse back to a small size. I have no idea why... technology 🤷
@@zombieguitar contact the company and ask. If people use this software for this type of thing, seems like a pretty sweet feature to add
Great way of simply illustrating how a note can be part of three minor and three major chords.
I like this explanation better than most. The Navichord app on iOS is based on tonnetz but minor and major axis are flipped.
Never heard of this but worth reviewing. Thanks for sharing. I can print out the chart and use it for Chinese checkers.
I thought the same, I can use my Chinese checkers to apply this.
Thanks, You did so much work. Only limitation was that pointer. A red one and a slower pace, might help.
You gotta watch part 2 😁
Thanks for taking the time to introduce this as I've never heard of it before. It seems to work well for what you explained, but perhaps not so well for altered harmony. E.g. C7#5b9 (C E G# Bb Db). Harmonic minor looks interesting on this grid
I love stuff like this, thanks for sharing, Brian!!
I've got an Akai Force here that has a Tonnetz option layout on the pads. Its a 64 pad grid. I must go back an have a look!
What to the numbers signify in the diagram?
I’m a music ed student, and I could never see myself using this to teach a class. It seems like more work to figure out chords and scales than just know the basic formulas
It's just a cool chart that shows the equivalent intervallic relationship between the 12 notes. That's all 😀
At first glance, it’s cool because it would take less space than listing out all the chords and scales. Space saver.
I would agree that understanding music theory is helpful, and sure, in a class setting, this might not be the ideal lesson. However, once one knows how the chart works, for composers, song writers and musicians that want a clean simple reference/practice chart, this is convenient. It could also be useful when collaborating with others of various levels of music theory knowledge. I have to say, I'm surprised how much information is represented in this chart. I'll be making one to put in my studio. Also, this chart might cater more towards people who have an easier time with understanding math and seeing a visual graph showing the relationships between the scales and notes within with the various patterns etc while others may find it more as you said, work to remember this chart rather then just memorizing the actual theory. On that "note", have a great week!
It's another way to visualize the tones, and a nice tool for those of us who were not born Mozart.
Agreed. It is unnecessary non-musical fluff. No sure what the point of such a chart would be. Learn your scales, that covers everything including what they sound like which is the most important thing.
This is kinda useful but honestly I feel like doing it your own way is best. I'd love to make my own app where I can organize chords and scales and shapes as I like color coordinating them all and giving anything names to suit my needs. But sadly there isn't an app out there yet that is as customizable as each individual would need for themselves.
Super important for Neo-Riemannian theory, which is helpful for analyzing increasingly chromatic pieces between 1880-1915. Which is beyond the scope of undergraduate theory classes.
It's actually a pretty useful chart. I give 25 practical applications in part 2 here 😁: ruclips.net/video/E3knV3ZQBcY/видео.html
pretty cool poster or cheat sheet, also up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-b-a :D
Never heard of it, either, but I gotta say, it seems pretty cool. For those wondering, Tonnetz is German for "tone network".
This is extremely useful for composition, if you select triangles in a geometrical pattern you end up with a pretty cool chord progression with really really cool modulations every now and then. This is partly caused by the fact that chords you find in adjacent triangles have at least 2 notes in common with one another. so the progression feels smooth and interesting. You have to chose an arbitrary chord to resolve on though cause this goes on forever, building more and more tension. You will probably get the feel for it if you try it for yourself.
On the other hand, I dont find it really useful to identify scales since the whole thing is arranged in thirds and fifths intervals, if you have to memorise a pattern just memorise the pattern on the guitar fretboard then. it also works. no matter where the starting point is, the pattern for a major/minor chord and the pattern for a major/minor scale is the same.
I remember playing accordion years ago. I wish I would have known this. Would have helped alot. Tnx Brian
This is a really cool chart. I don't know why this isn't more popular, but good thing you recieved that email.
For what it's worth, there is such a thing as a Cb. For instance, in a Db7 chord, the 7th is Cb. Calling it B natural would be wrong, because any sort of B (flat, natural, or sharp) denotes a 6th relative to any sort of D (flat, natural, or sharp).
Fb, B#, and E# are also "real" and function similarly.
Good video, thanks.
It's just....make a "rule"...later, select where to break said rule...
I recognized this as the accordion fingerboard from the thumbnail and I was confused to hear it talked about like nobody has ever heard of it but I guess that makes sense for guitarists lol
I loved that used an EtchoSketch to lay this out! Great video even still.
Reminds me of Bartok's pitch axis theory being explained through the harmonic wheel. I like the lattice more, I think, since I don't have to keep tilting my head 😅
Wow great job!
For an harmonica player like me, it gave me new idea to play with my Harmonetta (weird harmonica from the 60's).
Thanks for this great video! 🤜🤛
Now I going to watch the part 2!
I only recently learned about this myself. I prefer writing it in excel with the sharps on top and the flats on the bottom. But it’s basically the same idea. I think it’s a neat supplement to the circle of fifths. But the circle of fifths is by far better overall, if I had to choose one over the other. What I like about tonnetz is seeing all the triads that have say, C in them. They all touch C. That’s not as easy to see on the circle of fifths. Thank you Brian for covering the topic! I agree it can have its uses.
That’s a very valid point! I was wondering what this would be useful for and that’s certainly one this is triads with common tones and I’m sure there’s a bunch of other hidden gems if someone with some solid theory sat down with it for awhile
@@kane6529Looking at it again. Chromatic mediants are MUCH easier to see on tonnetz than circle of fifths.
@@mountfoolish oh that’s cool! I haven’t gotten to deep into those. You basically mean taking Chords from the parallel minor or major key right? My understanding is it’s basically taking a 3 or 6 chord and making it major in a major key or minor in a minor key
@@kane6529 Short answer: basically.
Longer answer (but not long enough): when taking a major chord, C Major for example, you wind up with 8 chords by going up and down by major and minor 3rds. So basically yeah, variations of the 3 and 6 chords.
The 4 major chords are non-diatonic chromatic mediants (and yep, they are in parallel keys to C Maj and A min) - A Maj, Ab Maj, E Maj, and Eb Maj. That leaves you with 2 diatonic minor chords (a min & e min) and 2 two non-diatonic double chromatic mediants (ab min & eb min).
When starting with a minor chord, it is reversed. The 4 minor chords are non-diatonic chromatic mediants. Then 2 major diatonic chords and 2 major non-diatonic double chromatic mediants.
Bottom line: tonnentz shows that much better than I just explained it. Each corner on tonnetz touching C, for example, connects to a mediant, submediant, chromatic mediant, and/or double chromatic mediant. Pretty neat stuff.
Great info! I kinda get it, but immhaving trouble seeing the cursor trying to follow... id suggest a colored, larger cursor for things like this (please!) Im going to have to watcha few times to get the idea, but it looks very interesting right off!!
Checked out the pinned comment
Hi,
Thanks for the video. I'll add my theory 2 cents just to clarify things about why there are flats and sharps representing the same perceived note (like D# and Eb). You said that it was to also have the flat version (above) of the same sharp note (below). What seems more appropriate is to says that the third is 2 letters above the root.
Ex : If the root is B, you skip the C which is the 2nd and you have D as the letter representing the 3rd. D is only 1 and a half step above B so it's the minor 3rd. You need a sharp to make it major. So D# is the 3rd of G.
If you want the 3rd below G, it's also 2 letters below (you skip the F) so it's E. Between E and B, it's a minor 3rd so you have to flatten the E to have a major 3rd.
This means that even if D# and Eb sound the same, they don't have the same meaning in a chord or a scale. A known example is the Jimmy Hendrix chord (E7#9) which is like containing a major and a minor 3rd. The root is E, the major 3rd is G#. As the 3rd (G) is already used, the "minor 3rd" is called a sharp ninth (=sharp 2nd) which is F##.
All of this same information is available easily in the circle as well.
Isn't the primary utility of this for neo-Riemannian theory of chord progression? I'm no musician, but I remember seeing these diagrams when I was looking up non-diatonic theory.
2:01 The tonnetz doesn't have to be infinite, just like how things loop on a circle. If you have a repeating pattern like ...ABCABCABC... it is a cycle, in this case the 3-cycle (ABC), but that could be read on a circle. Drummers map rhythms onto a circle (for neighborhood analysis?). Cycles have the topology of a circle, meaning the neighbors of the points don't have to break, just like how everyone can hold hands in a circle. In that sense a triangle is a circle, it has the topology of a circle. Since the pattern repeats in x and y it has the topology of a donut. For your tattoo, you'd need to break it and just let it have the topology of a cylinder around your wrist, if that isn't too hard to line up
It could technically be finite in a way
Maybe you could have a donut with the network on it
Awesome info. I might recommend that for other videos like this that you use some kind of larger mouse pointer or something because it's hard to see what you're doing on the chart, thanks.
I swear I did do that!! The screen capture software made it small again!! That's also why I made part 2, which is a bazillion times better 😁: ruclips.net/video/E3knV3ZQBcY/видео.html
I may be missing something, but isn't it just easier to learn the triads and flatting the 3rd for minor, adding a semitone below the tonic octave above for M7, sharping the 5th for an aug5, etc ... or is this about something more than chord structures and scales?
You might like part 2 😁 ruclips.net/video/E3knV3ZQBcY/видео.html
Tonnetz is German for "Tone Net", but that really isn't the word used for this layout. It's usually called 'Stradella' or 'Stradella Bass System'
Many folk instruments have this layout, but folk players often don't learn the system behind it.
It seems like the relative major and minor are just the box to the top left and the top right of the root note on the chart.
So doing the triangle next to it doesn't actually seem necessary.
I sure would have liked it if you had a line you drag around while you were showing the shapes. I spent the whole video looking for your curser.
I was also waiting for you to explain the little numbers in each cell and what the upside down 3s we're all about.
This does look like an amazing way to look at music, I just wasn't able to follow your very fast discussion about it without seeing where your cursed curser was.
You might like part 2 better then 😁ruclips.net/video/E3knV3ZQBcY/видео.html
Thanks for sharing this! It makes complete sense - but I certainly have never seen or heard of it in all my 58.5 years. And I am part of a “musical family”! About to hit up my niece and nephew (cousins not brother & sister) that both went to Berklee to see if they were exposed to it.
@3:26 D# and Eb might be the same note on the keyboard, but whenever there's a harmonic context, they should be named differently because they imply different tonalities.
@4:28 "there's no such thing as a Cb" Yes there is. What would you call the 4th degree of the Gb Major scale? If you were to call it B, there would be a Bb AND a B on the same scale, and would skip the C entirely. That's not the main reason, though. While determining an interval, the number (second, third, forth, etc.) will dictate the name of the note. For example, the minor third from C will NEVER be called D# because the "third" implies the third letter, starting from the original note (C). Likewise, the perfect forth (4th degree) in the Gb Major scale should NEVER be B, because the number of the interval G - B is a third (independently from the amount of flats and sharps: the interval Gbb - B## IS STILL A THIRD).
While teaching music theory and harmony, not making these concepts clear might cause confusion in the future.
Pinned comment
All valid points--but also all artifacts of the western note naming system that uses only 7 letters to name the 12 notes actually contained in an octave. This (eventually) leads to the necessity of conventions like treating enharmonic notes as different, and requiring the use of sharps and flats to ensure that a western scale does not have two notes named with the same letter, etc. They are necessary conventions, for the reasons you outlined, but they stem from what is, I think, a fundamental flaw and not a feature--the decision to continue using only 7 basic identifiers for the 12 tones, a holdover that traces its roots back to a time before "different keys" and the 12-tone octave was even a concept.
Imagine instead that notes were numbered chromatically--A=1, A#/Bb=2, B=3, etc. up to G#/Ab=12. In that case, the interval between what we call a major third would always be a simple difference between two numbers, this case 4. You could find the "major third" of any note by just adding 4 to it, no messing around with sharps, flats, or doubles thereof. A major triad would be defined as just "your base number, plus 4, and plus 8", regardless of what number you started on. Enharmony becomes an unneeded concept because you no longer need to conceptually differentiate between Cb and B to clarify what you mean by a "third" or a "fourth". The number of steps up the chromatic scale that defines the interval you want is always mathematically explicit.
I'm not saying we should all drop western notation, after all we've got centuries backing it up, but it's worth remembering that western music theory is built out of the language being used to describe it. If we used a different language to describe music then comments like "Cb and B are the same note" would be equivalent to saying "3 and 3 are the same note". In one language the difference between them is meaningful, and in another it is not. LIkewise, contrast saying "G-B and Gbb- B## are both a third" and "3-5 and 1-7 are both a 'third'". In one it's a meaningful statement, and in the other it's clearly not. But you can still describe the same concepts in either system with the right words: a major scale can be either "whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half", or "+2+2+1+2+2+2+1"
Brian thanks for all your videos top class lad cheers from Ireland 🇮🇪!!! Brian
This channel should be called "Apocalypse" Guitar for all of the useful Revelations here. Wonderful job, as usual.
That's awesome!! Thanks man 😁
Looked cool but to be honest I wasn't quick enough to find the triangle, I will go through this a few times and hopefully I will eventually twig.
Thanks for sharing, it is something I had never seen or heard of before
I was skeptical, but that is useful. Thanks!
Oh - and I've been playing since '84 and have never seen it before.
AMAZING. Thanks for sharing!
The Nashville Numbers are (shift one to the left, so I is on your starting point): IV I V, then directly under them are ii vi iii vii. Which is easy to read if you take a moment to figure it out.
Wow! Another tool to help expand & simplify understanding music chord building; thank you Brian 👍🏾👍🏼
💪🏻👈🏽
I’m confused at point 13:07, the formula or pattern for the Dm scale, you start on D, back up to the Bb but Bb isn’t one of the notes of the D minor scale, right? So if I was asked to figure out the notes for another minor scale key using the pattern, I’m not sure I could.
D natural minor: D E F G A Bb C 😁
Interesting. Where do I get a copy of this scale?
I can see the usefulness of this as a button pattern for a button accordion.
What are all the numbers below the notes? Such as the 0729 and the X? I didn’t name all the numbers I just named 072 and 9.
WOW, that brilliant. It's a lot to take in but I'm getting the relationships that explain so much I didn't know. Thanks Brian.
holy crap...things just make so much more sense! cheers!
Thank you soo much! Sharing as I speak.
I think this tonnetz is very helpful when playing with modes.. You can easily chart out what changes needs to be done on each chord triads, for each modes.. Thank you for revealing this awesome diagram to us
What changes? What modes? Sounds like you're playing within a key.
@@whatilearnttoday5295 It's a bit harder to explain in here, but I'll try anyway
First of all, if you so far only understand modes as "same as major scale, just different starting position" you won't be able to see it. In my opinion, this is the least useful way to look at modes, because the tonic note also change this way. For example, if you are trying to compare C Major scale (ionian) to let say F Lydian side by side, it is probably very hard for you to hear the difference, because they share the same notes, same chords. You'll probably just hear C major scale on both case.
What is most useful in modes in my opinion is to understand and compare modes when the tonic is fixed. Ie, F Major (Ionian) vs F Lydian, C Major (Ionian) vs C Mixolydian etc. When comparing modes this way, I'll guarantee you will immediately hear the difference if both of the scale is played side by side. Going this route, you should find out what note was changed within the major scale to change it into a "modal" sound.
For example, a Lydian mode scale has a sharpened 4th note in comparison to Major scale, Mixolydian mode has a flattened 7th and so on.
So when notes are being sharpened and flattened like this, it'll also affect the Chords quality within the scale. At this point, you should already know that in Major scale, the chord quality goes from Major (I), minor (ii), minor (iii), Major (IV), Major (V), minor (vi) and diminished (viiio), and why. If you have not understand why the chord quality of the major scale is arranged this way, you should. This is also visible in the Tonnetz diagram.
Next, why is Tonnetz chart useful for modes. Let's say you want to play in Lydian mode.
Using the major scale shape in the Tonnetz diagram, just flip the 4th note of the scale to make it a sharpened note. For Example, for C major scale, the fourth note is F, in C Lydian this F has become F#, other notes remain the same.
You will immediately notice the 4th note is no longer making a triangle with the 6th and 1st Note of the scale to make a Major 4th chord. It is now forming a straight upward diagonal line, which means it is a diminished chord. You should also see the 2nd Chord is now Major, and 7th Chord is now a Minor chord. So for a Lydian mode scale, the chord quality goes like this, Major (I), Major (II), minor (iii), diminished (ivo), Major (V), minor (vi), minor (viii), all shown in the Tonnetz diagram.
With the Tonnetz chart, you should be able to easily see which Chord have changed quality due to the sharpen or flattening of notes, and probably determine which chord is best to be used within any particular modes.
@@poof3d My modal perspective like your own is correct, while my fretboard knowledge is complete. Thus this chart is entirely useless as all this stuff is mapped in my head in a way which is practical and useful. If I want to play Lydian I play a #4.
@@whatilearnttoday5295 very cool. If you only played guitar, yeah I would agree this chart is not that helpful. Since my goal is make music with many different instruments in it other than just guitar, this chart is still invaluable. What you memorize on fretboard does not always translate to other instruments, like piano.
@@poof3d The ear training always translates though and is the thing which enables recognition.
William A. Mathieu book ,
Harmonic Experience explains this chart
in the greatest detail EVER.
Holy mackerel, I wish I had known about this from the start. Thanks a million!
Each time Brian described another thing this chart elegantly maps out, I swore. Now I think I've got Tonnetz Syndrome...
Cheers, mate! Never heard of it myself. I’ll definitely give it a try. Nice one!
Verrrry helpful. im a "visual learner" and this helps a lot.
Dude! This was excellent 🙏🏻
Very Interesting, But what is the purpose of the numbers in each of the circles with the note, I noticed some of the 3's were inverted , which leads me to believed the 6" are inverted as well, and noticed the the numbers 0 and X, whats that all about? Thanks Brian, for the video and possibly an answer to my question
I just said this in another comment. I believe it's base 12 counting, also known as duodecimal. There are 12 notes in the chromatic scale. Each note from A is given a number, so you can see where it sits in relation to A. I imagine you could put 1 on any note and build the new diagram from that.
Here is an interesting picture for you:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal#/media/File:Keys_in_dozenal_clock.svg
X is known as Dek. The E is known as El. Rather than writing 12, which actually would be "Ten" in duodecimal, it uses 0 to represent 10, which converted from the duodecimal to our typical numbering system would be what we count as twelve.
If base 12/duodecimal is hard to wrap your head around, start with binary. Base 2.
It seems cumbersome and I think understanding the existing pattern of how fretboard laid out in fourths and knowing your intervals in relation to the Root, and how chords are built would serve a guitarist better and keeps focus on fretboard as the guide.
Remember the notes in order of Fourths and how it continues down the neck is something very few people talk about. Here's how to get started:
Remember BEADGCF (edited/typo). This pattern will continue horizontally toward the floor.
The pattern will shift one fret towards body on the b string because of the tuning.
The notes will continue into flats on same fret but you can continue following natural notes in fourths (BEADGCF) by shifting a fret towards body when you restart pattern with the natural 'b' note again.
There are other tips a lot of channels shared in order of figuring out all the notes that can help in conjuction, but knowing how all your interval patterns, including octaves and unison notes. Ry Naylor has one of the best guides on the knowing the fretboard and it's free.
But this isn't just for guitar. It's general music theory 😁
Hi,
Just a quick message so that you edit your message not to confuse people. The 1st time you wrote the pattern, you made a typo : you switched the C and the F.
This chart looks like a 17th application of the Circle of 5th to me :) That thing with flats/sharps comes from this simple rule: we have to make the 3rd flat for Minor or sharp for Major. Besides this, those triangles look the same on the two layer Circle of 5th.
not every 3rd is flat or sharp
@Joaquín Jara Berón I don't follow what you're saying, but to be clear... Look at the triangles (patterns for triads) on the Circle of 5th. If you pick a Major triad, the second note will be the major 3rd. If you add flat (first, second, or cancel sharp), it becomes a parallel Minor triad. The same with Minor triads, except we're adding sharp. This little trick helps to extract the same information from the Circle of 5th without navigating that messy chart.
I agree. It really is just another use of the circle of fifths. Each row is just the circle of fifths in a straight line. I hope Brian does a deep dive into comparing the pros and cons of the circle of fifths Vs tonnetz and how to use them together while searching for different things. I never get tired of his circle of fifths videos. This would be a great reason to do another one.
This is brilliant! Thank you 🙏
That’s fun. It would maybe grab more likes if there were some cool geometric “magical” symbols overlayed …
Love music theory and had to check it out. Cheers!
Check out part 2 😁
Is there a ‘Coltrane’ for this era, who could turn this into a 21st century, ultimate Giant Steps?
Wow that's really cool!
Hey man, keep up the great work. Such great content.
That's some crazy shit, man. Maybe it gets a little convoluted at some point but the major to minor relationships in the very least are pretty cool laid out like that
Pretty cool. I didn't know about this. Thanks!
I understand your self criticism of this explanation of the chart. The red banner at the top got in the way of following the diagram as you were explaining it, and I don't know the whiteboard app that you were using but it would have helped immensely if you had a large, hard to miss pointer to show which directions you were going in, and how far you went in each direction. I'll watch it again after printing out the chart and looking at the relationships in my own slow time.
Watch part 2 instead 😁: ruclips.net/video/E3knV3ZQBcY/видео.html
What are all the differences between the colors and what does LPR mean or what does RLP mean or what does PRL mean? I guess I’ll have to Google this. Because I think we could go way more in depth on it.
It refers to the "transformations" that are required when moving from one chord to another.
L = leading tone transformation. For example from C to Em or vice versa. When moving between these chords, the root of the first chord changes to the leading tone of that chord (C E G -> B E G - B is the leading tone of C), or vice versa (the leading tone moves up to the tonic E G B -> E G C).
P = parallel transformation. For example C to Cm or vice versa. You just move between parallel major and minor (C E G -> C Eb G).
R = relative transformation. For example C to Am or vice versa. You just move between relative major and minor (C E G -> C E A).
Notice how all of these transformations only require changing one note when moving between the chords. So, any chord change can be described as a combination of these transformations. And these transformations basically show you how distant the chords are from one another (meaning, how many notes you need to change to get from one chord to another, and what kind of changes you need to make).
For example F major would be two relative transformations away from C major (C -> Am -> F, or C E G -> C E A -> C F A).
G major would be a leading tone and a relative transformation away from C major (C -> Em -> G, or C E G -> B E G -> B D G).
LPR would be the change from C major to C# minor (C -> Em -> E -> C#m, or C E G -> B E G -> B E G# -> C# E G#).
RLP would be the change from C major to F minor (C -> Am -> F -> Fm, or C E G -> C E A -> C F A -> C F Ab).
PRL would be the change from C major to G minor (C -> Cm -> Eb -> Gm, or C E G -> C Eb G -> Bb Eb G -> Bb D G).
would this be a diminished chart just when you had a double flat.
Never heard of it It’s ABSOLUTLY brillant
You can find all intervals if you know the moves.
Minor second is one left, one left-up.
Major second is one left, one left-down.
We know major and minor for third.
Perfect fourth and fifth are the same, and the note between is obvious.
But the diminished fifth is just the minor second move from the fourth: two left, one left-up.
The augmented fourth is two right, one right-down.
(Do this to properly name them by the interval you are using. Example is E, with the B flat up and leftwards, passing over the perfect Fourth to get to the Diminished Fifth
Minor sixth is directly left-up, Major sixth is directly left-down.
By now if you find the minor and major seventh alone you’ll see the pattern can be applied for intervals as well as chords by just finding the starting note. Apply to different modes and the scale structure is a web that can be cast over the bones of this pattern.
By the way, minor seventh is one right, one up-right, and going the mirrored way downward for the major seventh.
Yessir 😁
You can also learn intervals by simply counting notes.
Let's start from A.
"1st" (i.e., unison) is A.
2nd is A B.
3rd is A B C.
4th is A B C D.
5th is A B C D E.
6th is A B C D E F.
7th is A B C D E F G.
8th is the same as the octave, which is the same as the note you started on (A B C D E F G A).
Interval qualities: There are two kinds of 2nds and 3rds - a smaller one (minor) and a larger one (major).
Minor 2nd is a half step, major 2nd is a whole step. (Just remember: B-C and E-F are half steps, everything else is a whole step.)
Minor 3rd is whole + half, major 3rd is whole + whole.
4ths and 5ths are easy: All 4ths and 5ths are perfect, except B-F 5th and F-B 4th (which is when you need to raise the F or lower the B) - that's the tritone that's right between the perfect 4th and 5th.
6ths and 7ths are easiest to count as 2nds and 3rds down from the octave. M7 = m2 below the octave. m7 = M2 below the octave. M6 = m3 below the octave. m6 = M3 below the octave.
No need to check any charts - just count note names and half/whole steps. Pretty simple, and comes with the benefit of actually understanding why the intervals are named the way they are (number means note names, major/minor simply means larger/smaller). Also, takes less time to memorize than how to find each of these intervals from the chart (because you can kind of deduce it from the way the intervals are named if you understand what the interval names refer to).
@@MaggaraMarine it's just another tool in the toolbox man 😀
What a wonderful resource - thanks, Brian! I can see the benefit of studying this without a guitar in hand, but I wonder if some folks can keep this in mind and make use of this while playing (with a guitar in hand) ?♪!♫?
My thought exactly! I can watch dozens of theory videos but once it's just me and my guitar I can't really seem to appply any of the theory! Good to know though...
@@FlowerdyPilllow if you're going to be learning music theory and applying it to stuff you're doing on the guitar, I would think it's necessary to first memorize the fretboard. You'd have to be familiar with it enough so that you don't even think about where a particular note is; in your mind you should see a fretboard and every spot on it where that note will sound. From there you'll start seeing and understanding all the relationships of the intervals. And those relationships are mostly what theory is going to be talking about.
You gotta know where all the notes are first though, otherwise none of what you learn can be practically applied..
Awesome informative video. Thanks!
Looks great! Although I think I missed something. The natural minor scale of D doesn't have a B flat in it?
It does though. Same key signature as F major...the key with 1 flat in it 😀
@@zombieguitar I was thinking of D minor in the key of C, and just the triad notes! Thanks for the reply.
Brian, props to you for taking on this thankless task...
Honestly, I'm not sure if this makes music theory simpler, because you need to always have the chart in front of you, and also memorize the pattern for each thing you are looking for. There are certain less obvious relationships that this chart may show (I can see how it could be used for experimenting with weirder chord progressions where each chord still connects to the previous chord through a common tone, and you could find interesting ways of modulating to different keys), but for the basics, I honestly would just recommend learning the basics in the "normal" way. Yes, you can also find them from this chart if you want to, but do you actually LEARN those basics that way? It's either based on looking at the chart or pure memorization of the chart, and not the logic behind the patterns. And I don't think that's true learning. And the basics are definitely things that you want to understand, and not things that you need to check from a chart.
The basics of music theory are quite simple if you learn what the names of the concepts actually refer to, and memorize a couple of basic things (which BTW you can always deduce by looking at the black/white key pattern on the piano keyboard - for anyone interested, I explain this in a reply to this comment).
Now, I do think one could use this chart to explain where the concepts come from. But just looking at the chart and using patterns that you memorize (without actually learning where the patterns come from, which makes you forget the patterns pretty easily) doesn't really teach you much, and makes you dependent on the chart. I don't think it truly simplifies these concepts.
So, about the black/white key thing... You can figure out which steps are half steps or whole steps on the natural notes simply by finding the white keys that don't have a black key between them (because one key up on a piano is always a half step up, just like one fret up on a guitar is always a half step up). These are E-F and B-C. You should memorize these notes, but if you forget them, you can always find them really easily by looking at the piano keyboard.
You can also use the black/white key pattern for figuring out the major and minor scale formulas (and also the formula for the other modes - but let's focus on major and minor first before talking about modes). You just need to remember that C major and A minor are the keys without any sharps/flats.
Now play the white key notes from C to C and look at the half/whole step pattern. That's W W H W W W H. This is the formula of all major scales. Now try it from any other note, and you can build any major scale.
Play the white key notes from A to A and look at the half/whole step pattern. That's W H W W H W W. This is the formula of all minor scales. Now try it from any other note, and you can build any minor scale.
If you happen to forget the half/whole step structure of the scale, you can always come back to C major and A minor to figure it out.
And if you remember C major and A minor, you know how to figure out the relative major/minor. How many half/whole steps are between C major and A minor? The answer is a whole step and a half step. This applies to all keys - the relative minor is always one and a half steps below the major, and the relative major is always one and a half steps above the minor.
You can also use this knowledge to figure out basic chord formulas. C major chord uses every other note of the C major scale (1 3 5), so let's look at the whole and half step pattern again to find the major chord pattern. C major is C E G. C to E is two whole steps (C D = whole; D E = whole). E to G is one and a half steps (E F = half; F G = whole). Now we know the major chord structure. Two whole steps on the bottom, one and a half steps on the top. Build any major chord using this pattern.
Same goes for minor chord - let's simply take 1 3 5 of the A minor scale to figure out the minor chord structure. Am = A C E, A to C is one and a half steps (A B = whole; B C = half). C to E is two whole steps (C D = whole; D E = whole). Now we know the minor chord structure. One and a half steps on the bottom, two whole steps on the top. Build any minor chord using this pattern. Also, notice that it's the mirror image of a major chord. And also notice that the only difference between major and minor is the middle note - the 3rd. In minor it's lower, and in major it's higher.
One more. You can figure out the diatonic chords of the major and minor keys this way too. Just build all the triads on the white keys and figure out their quality. C E G = C major (2 whole steps + 1½ steps). D F A = D minor (1½ steps + 2 whole steps). E G B = E minor (1½ steps + 2 whole steps). F A C = F major (2 whole steps + 1½ steps). G B D = G major (2 whole steps + 1½ steps). A C E = A minor (1½ steps + 2 whole steps). B D F = B diminished (1½ steps + 1½ steps). Notice how the last chord, B diminished, was the only one that didn't use a combination of 1½ steps and 2 whole steps. This makes the 5th of the chord a half step smaller, which is why the chord is also called diminished.
Okay, now we know the qualities of the chords in C major: M m m M M m dim. This is the pattern that all major keys use.
Start the same pattern from the A minor chord, and you get the chord qualities in the minor key: m dim M m m M M. Applies to all minor keys.
So, there are a lot of patterns you can deduce from the white keys of the piano by memorizing just a couple of things. Of course these are all patterns one should memorize, but knowing how to figure them out if you forget the patterns is pretty useful. This also shows where the patterns come from and teaches you the logic behind them - you don't only memorize them but actually LEARN them. It's really all about half and whole steps. The most important things to memorize are C major/A minor are the keys with no sharps/flats, chords are built by taking every other note (1 3 5), and the half steps are E-F and B-C (which you can always find from the piano keyboard). The rest is simply applying these patterns to different keys.
This is more complicated than just learning the major triads. Flat the third for minor, major 7 is half step below root, dominant a full step below root. That's it. And you don't need a reference chart. 🤷♂️
@@MaggaraMarine Awesome breakdown. Thanks!
The tonnetz is much more useful/intuitive when playing on an isomorphic keyboard, because on such a keyboard you can make the tonnetz just by drawing lines on the keyboard. See the figures near the end of Wikipedia's article on the tonnetz.
@@enelson1976 Yes. Especially the "trick" about 7th chords that you mentioned is really useful. That's something that actually simplifies music theory.
Wow! I never heard of this. I could use this.
Perfect this and perfect that... I'm thinking perfect wallpaper. Thanks heaps Brian.
Never heard of this - but it's quite cool, need to do some research -- Thanks Brian!