Hello everyone. I am aware that a number of you are finding the background music in the first section quite distracting - I'm really sorry about this. All I can say is, I hope you can still enjoy the video nonetheless! Please know that this is something I've been working on a lot since putting this video out into the world, so thank you for your feedback.
It was incredibly distracting. Thanks for owning up to it, and please please think twice about your background music in the future. It takes away from your content!
Jacob's music got me into trying to learn music theory once again in order to understand what he's doing, and your videos are my go-to whenever I'm feeling lost about my creative pursuits, so this combination is quite a nice one for me!
Jacob is the first western composer to make micro tuning palatable and uplifting and one of the reasons I consider him to be the single most brilliant musical mind of this century.
I am not a musician, but I listened intently to this entire presentation because it was written exceptionally well which made it extremely interesting and accessible. I may not get out of it what a musician would, but I've come away knowing a little bit more than when I got here. BTW, I don't know what the fuss is about. Nothing distracted me. I think the mix is perfect.
4:53-6:27 I LOVE how you blended all these pieces! From left to right, all while following your dialogue. You made them all sounds as if they were complimentary works intended to go from one to the other. I really enjoyed the sound and I could totally see this being a form of art in itself.
Incredible job. June Lee’s work transcribing these pieces blows my mind. Your analysis is equally impressive. Jacob is, I agree with you, a once-in-a-lifetime musician/composer. I’m in awe of his ability and musical sensitivity. Great video, keep up the good work.
As a youngster I had the privilege of working around concert and solo musicians who naturally used the "just" method of playing and tuning..not one of them could explain it. This is utterly fascinating!! Which is why I took to Jacob's methods so logical and eerily beautiful!
Typically people who teach classes in music schools follow the standard rules. Jacob makes up his own rules and follow them whenever he wants to generate something outside the box he's broken new ground and everybody needs to catch up to him see if they want to be on The Cutting Edge of creativity. Or not. I guess it really doesn't matter when you're talking about art
@@dreammix9430 There is no rule in art. There are guidelines. Jacob follows these guidelines but also reframe them and sometimes break them. Lots of academia aware of these guidelines, but you need a genius to make the complex guides sound smooth and natural.
The music lover in me loves the dude. But the insecure aspiring musician/composer in me, who wishes to break similar barriers as him is also frustrated. Oh well lol. Thank god for massively talented people like mr collier
@@jreal3072 Hi, why trying? If you don't like the music you don't need to try because people say he is good. Personally i love it, if you look for enjoy it, i recomend you to hear a lot of jazz and come back in a time.
I understand where you come from but I think that this feeling comes from - as you said - insecurity. What insecurity usually is, is the reflection of your ego being hurt. As in you wish other people would talk about you the same way they talk about Jacob. I think it has nothing to do with the art itself and more to do with how you see yourself and wished people saw you as (subconsciously) . You can still break barriers in simplicity vs. going into the more complex, virtuoso or "scientific" parts of music (Erik Satie would be a perfect example of that among others).
Do you really have only 100 subscribers? Some of your videos only 100 views or so? incredible! The quality of your videos is great! I can see those numbers growing pretty quickly, is just a matter of time! Will be my pleasure seeing this channel’s growth! Congratulations, great job!
Well that's very kind! I've really only just started putting up video essays, so hopefully I'll start growing little by little. Thank you so much for your help!
Dude this video is pure gold for me, i am doing right now an investigation about microtonal music, thank you so much man, keep doing videos like these please
investigation about microtonal music. whaaaaa? btw i humbly bought the idiots guide to music theory a long time ago and it just made my mixing and composing a whole lot worse. whats up with that. knowing too much about rules to halt creativity?
@@franksorry2653 Hahaha. You need to think in breaking rules. Music is that, rules doesn't exist since it is an art. Learning theory helped me to understand a lot of modern music that I love. And I personally don't think that theory close your mind. Your mind closes itself, and you need to find a way to destroy that creative blank that doesn't let you compose original things. I'm a 15 years old composer myself, take my word haha.
@@rollomaughfling380 I'd say several centuries. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, these are the figures I'd consider his peers. Oh, and Stevie Wonder. That man has a deeper understanding of harmony and music-as-language than perhaps anyone in history. ... except maybe Jacob.
Constructive Criticism: Background music should be relatively quiet and recessive. The orchestral track playing from 1:10 to 3:25 makes that part of the video quite hard to watch. Similarly for the ticking track from 3:53 - 4:24. Superb content, however!
Hi - thank you for your feedback. Completely understood. I'm definitely aiming to improve this with every video. Just starting out learning everything! Will also look at sidechain compression (thanks to the comment below!). Really glad you enjoyed the video.
I am not musically knowledgeable enough to pretend I understood all of what was just presented. That said it confirms what I've always felt about Jacob's music that it is just on another level, where all the complexity is always in support of the musical message that just comes across naturally and beautifully wether you "understand" it or not. Excellent video, much appreciated.
It’s my pleasure. I think that is one of the hardest thing to achieve as a musician - to write something that’s complex and difficult, but still appears to people, and still feels direct. I think Jacob definitely reaches this goal. Thank you for watching.
In addition to Julian Anderson, Thomas Adès and Unsuk Chin, the German composer Enno Poppe is also using microintervals in an incredibly expressive way.
I could be wrong here but I think 12TET has even affected the way JC plays piano too, I noticed he likes adding 2's on major chords, for this example I'm specifically referring to where the 2nd & 3rd are a whole tone apart, something like 15123. If my analysis servers me correct, he realizes that the distance between a justly tuned major second interval is 204 cents, but because in 12TET the distance is only 200, -4 cents flat, then by adding the 2nd next to the 3rd and in between the root, that helps eliminate the +14 dissonance on the piano between the root and major 3rd, so the listener hears the -4 between 1st-2nd-3rd compared to the +14 you'd get in 135. Using JI for 15123 would yield the same results as the Pythagorean 3rd which is +8 cents sharp, 22 cents higher than JI. In the second interview he had with June, Jacob implied this secret with the example of the 6/9 chord - 153695, which could be said to be even more consonant since that's built in 4ths, the distance between which is now only +2 cents sharp for every fourth interval rising consecutively. While the existence is all there for the 3rd at +14, +16 in between the 5th-3rd & Root-6th, -4 for the 9th, and -2 for the 5ths, again the consecutive 4ths which are only +2 cents sharp for each one rising means all those non justly tuned intervals are perceived as consonant despite them being "imperfectly" tuned. This can even be applied to polychords and such, like *159367♯15♯11 / F♯C♯G♯A♯D♯FGC.* (Not sure if G needs a double sharp instead, if so forgive me). I _guess_ it can be seen as D♯/G♯/F♯, or F♯ Super Lydian. Each consecutive interval is either a 5th, 2nd or 4th apart so if anything this chord consonance on ecstasy, even in 12TET, if not especially in 12TET.
No, I don’t think you’re wrong at all. I need to have a better look through your comment but on first look, that all seems correct and very interesting!
this is positively genius. there is something unique about the way 6/9 chords can flow into each other in basically any temperament, i think you're really on to something here
Personally, I’m not a fan of Jacob Colliers music, but I do enjoy his performance energy and I appreciate the technical complexity and uniqueness of his arrangements.
Yeah I was like that at first too. But once you get really really deep into harmony and start to understand it you can really feel what he’s trying to tell. At first it’s like a foreign language. But when you’re able to follow along you’re in love.
@@l3gendbaap963 His music isn't just his harmonies. Getting into harmony won't magically make you enjoy Collier. I like Jacob's super stacked vocal harmonies and his early acapella stuff (his arr. of In The Bleak Midwinter is fantastic) but find his djesse albums and attempts at progressive pop and r&b borderline unlistenable
This video explains why Jacob Collier has so many listeners (including me), at 6:20 when he talks about other 20th century composers it is truly hard to listen to but because it seems like they have problems with the balance of complexity and story, but with Jacob Collier he is the best at that balance. This is why he is one of the best composers to date.
Actually, I love both contemporary and Jacob Collier pieces. Their harmony and colors are beautiful to listen. You just need to accostumish yourself to dissonances, that's all.
These composers didn't have problems with balancing different aspects of music, it's just that they had no intention of being easily digestible. They were explorers, discovering new things in music, trying to compose works that were completely unique and that required a new way of listening. It's difficult to get into this stuff but if you put in the effort, you'll be rewarded with an entirely new soundscape that can have a great emotional effect on you. Obviously Collier is a brilliant musician, but he's ultimately just using insights and methods created by experimental composers decades earlier and applying them to popular music. It makes these experimental techniques more approachable for listeners but personally, I prefer the uncompromising atonal experiments by people like Grisey because I find them more rewarding. These composers weren't held back by the need to appeal to large audiences and so their explorations are much more in-depth. This is generally how it works with innovations in pop music: these innovations usually are already decades old, having first been discovered by experimental composers (classical or jazz). That's not to take away anything from people like Collier who transfer these approaches to the pop world, but it is important to keep in mind the larger context.
When making sampled orchestral instruments sound real. . . slightly detune. You begin making your software simulate complex overtones. Detune = Tambre. What's interesting about this, when Collier makes specific chords: Knowing what notes you want to highlight. Base notes, 4ths, and retune vertically accordingly to create effects. Rather than emphasizing a note by playing it louder, he appears to emphasize a note by "forcing" all other notes in a chord to fit with the emphasized notes. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful stuff.
This was really fascinating to watch. I've recently (as in over the past year or so) done a deep dive into historical western European music, so a lot of this information was pretty accessible for me. I was thinking about the fact that A has been tuned to all different pitches throughout time (e.g. A=415, A=392, etc.) and I was pleased that you mentioned the A=432 bit towards the end. One thing about just intonation is that if you follow pure intervals throughout a song, as you pointed out, the pitch will either raise or lower. Doing so could naturally raise A=432 to A=440 without putting in much extra thought. This was a huge conundrum historically, and is why various temperaments like Pythagorean (just fifths and fourths) and 1/4 comma meantone (just major thirds) exist, because maintaining pure intervals and stable pitch throughout a song is physically impossible (as least it certainly appears that way). Again, great video!
A beautiful, wonderfully explained analysis. Unlike your breakdown of "Moon River" I felt like I probably understood more like 10% as opposed to the 5% from the aforementioned. That's a pretty heady change in the curve for teaching over the course of 20 minutes. Thank you again,
I love Britten's variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell that is playing the background, just like I love Jacob Collier's music. Thanks for this video.
ahhhh, this is terrifying, hearing a young persons guide to the orchestra after my orchestra played an awful version of it two night ago and don't think i can ever listen to it again XD
thanks for explaining, it does solve many questions I have for awhile about how does orchestra choose between different intonations, cuz it could affect how I need to practice on my flute more on same note but different pitches. I post this question on reddit, there are common answer like using the ears to match the bass, ditching the tuner...etc. I feel it's not complete, cuz there are some notes on flute which are difficult to play sharper or flatter to match Just Intonation from Equal Temperament , it does need practice to produce those frequency(like microtonality here) with tuner/drone. So I can hear it constantly and get familiar that with my brain, not simply just open the ears. Moreover Jacob is so amazing that using Just intonation to slowly raise the pitch, it smartly solve the trade-off between these two intonations, and also give comfort to the ears.
Wonderful job with this. I (and most others that are musically educated) have always known Jacob was in a league of his own, and you just explained one the subtle but AMAZINGLY complex reasons why lol. Well done!!!
Haha! No no, he wants to share. I think he would be at his happiest in a planet of Jacob Colliers (well, all of us as individuals but with his intelligence).
Oh-my-dear! So much information in thus little space... better I‘d never found this channel.No I‘m 50 more years away from understanding the minimum of music and being. Thank you for this teaching
Please do not listen to any criticism. Your music videos are amazing!Those critics mostly have no idea about contemporary classical music whatsoever as equally have never produced any professional video channel not mentioning to the standards you do.I enjoyed the background music during your explanation and understood everything not being distracted at all ! I subscribed to your channel after first minutes of watching this video. Good luck to your channel, you are doing amazing job!
How I incorporate micro-tonality: Throw on some weird fx that messes with harmonics, put it back in the mix a little with some reverb, and see if it ends up sounding good. (Ohh yeah, and be ready to do some extreme EQ work, as well as throwing out the sound or keeping it for later in the end anyway) Seriously, it's crazy what kind of tones can sound completely natural on top of compositions based on our normal tuning system
I saw more ow your breakdows. I'm not a native speaker but understanding english very well, but when it gets complicated it's getting difficult. A tip, therefore: if you tell things a bit slower it will be understoud much better AND it does not sound ad if you're running a race. The contents though is magnificent, well done!
2:05 Equal temperament is not out of tune, because the very definition of being in tune is given by the choice of temperament. Just intonation is not “more in tune.” Though, what we can say is that Equal temperament intervals are not pure, while just intonation intervals are(intervals with the root are going to sound really nice) out of tune/pure intervals are very different concepts Equal temperament thirds are awful if you really pay attention to it. C E beats really bad, while equal temperament fifths are okay. (pureness wise) Nonetheless, the main reason behind using temperaments is choosing which third is going to sound nice. To have a nice experience of C major, you can reduce the size of those fifths C G, G D, D A, A E while remaining all other fifths untouched. Those fifth are going to sound a little bit flat, while making the third C E sound pure.
anisometropie Benihime yeah but it’s all a facade. If we played in 8 equal divisions of the octave it’s not “just as in tune as just intonation”, it just sounds like crap (using 8 as an example, most intervals in it don’t approximate any low harmonics well at all). 12 equal temperament just sounds less like crap (but just because it’s not as bad as other tunings doesn’t make it objectively good). But regardless, I think you’re mainly just arguing semantics. What he said is still right, you’re just nitpicking the exact terminology he used because you disagree on the definition of “in tune”, though the way he used it is also correct from an objective definition standpoint. You’re both right but you’re also both kinda wrong because it’s all basically semantics.
@@bragtime1052 thank you for writing that comment, that just saved me 5 minutes writing the exact same thing. I had myself a little eye roll at the first comment when I read it, you've restored my faith in musical education 😂
Fantastic Analysis! - in-depth commentary on an extremely complex and systematically 'grey' area of music, whilst successfully bringing this obscure subject to refreshing light is no mean feat, and HIGHLY COMMENDABLE!
Both of them are music geniuses but when I look at Jacob shows I see Frank.. wow. And the best is yet to come! We should feel fortunate to have such incredible talents!
OF course many artists, from Blues to Folk to Country artists, those of an African Hindu Arabic and Asian traditions all depend on microtonality, they don't reason about it or write it in notation, they use it by ear as does this artist. If you try to use reason to compose music even 12 equal sounds out of tune, you MUST use feeling, then every artists natural inclination is toward microtonal infliction as is the case in the speaking voice, we all express emotion by the tones and rhythms we speak with and this happens without our even thinking about it! That makes all humans ingenious then, everyone speaks with music of voice that is perfect to express their feelings and all of this depends on microtonality that everyone handles every time they talk, no one speaks in 12 equal with A at 440.
I’m just impressed he can sing in perfect pitch like that. This seems like a theory that’s only applicable to vocals if you’re able to perfectly increase/decrease your pitch by a couple cents.
Georgian music takes this deviation in just intonation into account as well, especially in the music of the ancient school of the Gelati monastery where many parallel movements of chords of stacked fifths take place.
Really interesting video! Just a minor point: The chart that maps out the harmonics of a sound (2:34), doesn't follow the harmonic series. If the fundamental would be 1Hz... (which is below our hearing range... if we would detect it at all, we would sense that more as a rhythm than a note) the first overtone would be the octave at 2Hz.. not 3... Not all instruments follow the harmonic series btw (bells, lowest strings on the piano etc...).
Delicious video and comment! Apparently, we get harmonic sounds when our sound is exactly periodic, as happens for an ideal low amplitude string and little else. Louder than pianissimo or for nonstring shapes, a quick impulse (e.g. plucking string, striking bell) tends to excite a slightly anharmonic series --- e.g. we get the distinctive "plucking" sound by slightly flatting 1xn,3xn,5xn (the odds). A minor minor point (micropoint?) on top of Tijs' is that if we restrict to even functions (wave looks the same played forward and backward), then it is okay to restrict to 1xn,3xn,5xn etc --- this is because the 2xn,4xn,6xn will all be multiplied by zero. A very crude intuition is that the even multiples add "edge" whereas the odd multiples add "warmth". E.g. a slightlysmoothed square wave sounds warmer and less edgy than a slightlysmoothed sawtoothwave.
This is incredibly inspiring. Jacob's music is very worthy of this type deep dive. I hope it's the first of many such endeavors. For example, I'm getting interested lately in his use of leitmotifs, and even asked him about it in a Patreon chat. They pervade his work not only within songs, but between his entire body of work, as I imagine you've noticed. BTW, because Moon River is so steeped in microtonality you may wish to update this current awesome video. I ask selfishly because I want to know how he pulls some of that stuff off!
Thank you so much - I’m really glad you enjoyed it. His use of recurring ideas is really interesting - you’re right. Like the ‘in my world a box of stars’ that appears in ‘Moon river’. Annoyingly, I uploaded my video just before he published ‘Moon river’, and it contains so many examples of microtonality! I might just do a whole separate video on it. Thanks for supporting my channel.
@@ListeningIn I, for one, would love to see you analyze Collier's Moon River -- so complex, yet so effortless-sounding: how the heck does he pull that off? BTW, you seem to be pitching your videos at a really appropriate level for those of us who are not actually professional musicians, but who have a reasonably serious interest in music (I played a couple of instruments and was a chorister back in the day, but never did college-level music beyond a non-majors music history course).
@@daviddickey370 I would love to analyse it as well. I was completely astounded when I heard it. He seems to be just getting better and better. I will definitely consider it for a future video. I'm also really pleased you like the level of my essays - that's definitely what I was aiming for! Thank you so much for supporting my channel.
Jacob's art has never really gelled with me. Although no doubt at times enjoyable, I find a lot of his music to be indulgent and schmaltzy. His visual style and fashion choices in particular often make me cringe, underpinning an aesthetic characterized by ostentation and attention seeking exhibitionism, which just isn't my bag. I hope this isn't taken to be mean-spirited, although it is perhaps a reaction to the deluge of praise he gets everywhere. Jacob is obviously a genius and phenomenally creative, and the theory behind his musical ideas is fascinating. I very much enjoyed this video and thanks to Listening In for an excellent discussion of some of these ideas. It's really amazing to me what the human voice is capable of, to say nothing of the human brain.
Oh boy your comment is like a dessert spring of cool water! The fascination with Collier is IMO a kind of fetishism: a fascination with the trappings of genius (he plays everything, has super-perfect-pitch, uses microtonal modulations, sings 23 part cluster harmonies etc). But behind all these bright shiny lights, what is his music like? Ironically, with all the microtonal stuff going on the end product Sounds like a bland overly auto-tuned Christmas choir compilation meant to be played as background music in a department store. It’s a similar phenomenon to people equating the value of a movie with the level of its special effects. Anyway seems like a nice guy, so good for him 🤣
He's an amazing talent & it's great what he's done for microtonality/JI; shame none of it's to my personal taste but I must check out the other compositions you mention.
Have you listened to any of his recent pop music (charted at #1 hip hop album) or his jazz? That's "standard" easily digestible music and still infused with his depth of harmonic fluency. I'm sure you could find something you'd like! For instance there's that really cool choral section that sounds like a Royal March for like 5 seconds in "sleeping on my dreams", but it JUST FITS?!?! and the voice leading & harmony in that tiny passage alone is like, something worthy of study. He actually breaks down composing that entire tiny section in one of his logic session vids.
I like the concept, but when I listen to his music by itself it feels flat. Like a lot of the chords just sound like mush. I think it might be that using just pitch makes it blend to well. I feel there needs to be some pull in the intonality to elicite an emotional response. Or it could just be that I'm so used to hearing standard tuning & it's not different enough (like different tunings in middle eastern & caucasian music) that it doesn't sound good to me.
Crit - C it took me at least five times listening to a single song of his for my ear to really start to get it and for it to sound good to me. Now I’m able to enjoy the rest of his music and pick up on spicy chords in other music much more!
@@revangerang Agreed. I had the same complaint as Crit-C when I started listening to some of his music, but you just have to keep listening to 'unlearn' the harmonics and tunings you have heard all of your life. This is new. Finally!!
I would disagree vehemently that just intonation is the "correct" tuning. Theres a lot of solid reasons we dont traditionally use it, the big reason being that just intonation is only actually in tune in certain keys, whereas equal temperatment is roughly as in tune regardless of key, its a compromise that lets us play in any key.
I knew Jacob was employing some "crazy" stuff, but was not even REMOTELY aware HOW crazy. I really like his music, and his attitude. In more ways than just music, he is a welcome breath of fresh aire...yeah, I liked Manhattan Steamroller too. ;-)
For calculations:- 1200*log_2(4/3) = 498.044999c (c=cents) 498.044999-500 = -1.955001c (ignore the negative sign) its just 1.955001c To stack up 6 fourths we can add 498.044999... 6 times and subtract the octaves Or exponentially 4^6/3^6 4096c/729c 729c is much lower in octave, let's bring it up, 729*2 = 1458*2 (one more) = 2916c 1200*log_2(4096/2916) = 588.269995 which is 11.730005c lower from the F# (bass note) to C (treble note).
Hi Chris - thanks! I’m really glad you liked it! I think you can call it either. A lot of people (including Jacob!) refer to it as G-half sharp major, but as a G quarter-sharp is half way between a G natural and G sharp, you can also call it G quarter-sharp major (I think!).
@@ListeningIn Thank you for your reply! I am certain the note that's halfway from G to G-sharp is G-half-sharp. The "half" means that the accidental is going to raise the note only half of the way to the full sharp. The confusion might come from the fact that a half-sharp is a quarter-tone. The labels for sharp and flats will always be double the labels for tones. For example: one sharp = half-tone half-sharp = quarter-tone quarter-sharp = eighth-tone I have never heard it the way you described. Lol, if G-quarter-sharp is a quarter-tone up from G, that means G-sharp is a tone up from G, which would be A. But as a theory person I've love to see what source you got it from! Thanks again!!
I think it's just the way I've always referred to the accidentals in the microtonal music I've written in the past. So I would refer to the 'G-half sharp' as G-quarter sharp (half way between a G natural and G sharp), the normal sharp as just 'G sharp' and the note between G sharp and A as G three-quarter sharp. It might just be a British vs American thing?!
@@ListeningIn That is interesting! It might be a British thing. For me, since 3/4 is less than 1, I would interpret a 3/4-sharp as less than a normal sharp. The note you mentioned I would call a 3/2-sharp. Interesting...so what would you call the note that is 1/4 of the way from G to G-sharp?
@@ChrisBandyJazz Sounds like a pi vs. tau debate to me ^^ Why make it more complicated than it already is? Jacob Collier, June Lee, David Bruce all call it G 1/2 (which also makes more sense to me) so why not stick with it? And in case we ever need the actual G 1/4 sharp we better call it that rather than G 1/8 sharp or whatever Barnaby Martin would call it... Great video though :)
i listened through laptop speakers the point was to understand the title, it was super clearly presented i didn'tt even notice back ground music my focus was on listening voice...cheers mate
Wow. This video is amazing. I imagine that in 60 years people are going to be looking back at a lot of the footage you captured of Jacob here, referencing it as his "beginning years". Imagine the stuff he's going to release over the next half-century. We're in for some good stuff!
I'm glad you mentioned people besides JC too! There are others, believe it or not. Great explanation. If you're looking for more people who have covered songs in microtonal keys, people who have done that include The Mercury Tree (imperial march), Stephen Weigel, Jacob Barton, John Moriarty, Mike Battaglia, and Aaron Wolf (playing the Kite guitar)
Hello everyone. I am aware that a number of you are finding the background music in the first section quite distracting - I'm really sorry about this. All I can say is, I hope you can still enjoy the video nonetheless! Please know that this is something I've been working on a lot since putting this video out into the world, so thank you for your feedback.
I thought I was tripping on this dayquil lol
@@braedonavants what was the background music in the begining
I liked it tho
YOU SHOULD DO A GILBERTO GIL *LISTENING IN* !!!! ELDER BRAZILIAN SINGER/SONGWRITER WHO LIKES TO PLAY AROUND LIKE HIM A LOOOOOT.
It was incredibly distracting. Thanks for owning up to it, and please please think twice about your background music in the future. It takes away from your content!
I was totally following along and understanding this until 0:01
Plenty of help for attention deficit disorder can be found on your local world wide web.
Omg, this is the best comment on here. Made me lol. Lol.
Thanks for being a guide for us music noobs and showing us why what we're listening to in Jacob's music blows us away. Great breakdown.
It's my pleasure! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. Jacob's music is definitely mind-blowing.
You guys have similar styles in your storytelling!
Did not expect to see you here! But of course you are, incredible mind Sean!
Jacob's music got me into trying to learn music theory once again in order to understand what he's doing, and your videos are my go-to whenever I'm feeling lost about my creative pursuits, so this combination is quite a nice one for me!
Wow, im a fan of your work too
Jacob is the first western composer to make micro tuning palatable and uplifting and one of the reasons I consider him to be the single most brilliant musical mind of this century.
I am not a musician, but I listened intently to this entire presentation because it was written exceptionally well which made it extremely interesting and accessible. I may not get out of it what a musician would, but I've come away knowing a little bit more than when I got here. BTW, I don't know what the fuss is about. Nothing distracted me. I think the mix is perfect.
0:30 that’s me in the blue sweater two years ago in his masterclass in Buenos Aires, Argentina. One of the most beautiful moments of my life 🙏🏽🌻🧡
Perfectly described! I'm in awe at how musically advanced Jacob is. Thanks for the video!!
Thank you! I’m in awe as well. Really pleased you enjoyed the video.
Jacob Collier liked this!
Haha, yeah man, I was too stalking his likings. Really interesting stuff.
Hey, me too!
Did he?
@@josyfalcon5442 Can no longer peek at his likes. :(
Josy Falcon how do you see what videos he likes??
That was the cleanest explanation of equal/just intonation I’ve ever seen! Bravo!
4:53-6:27 I LOVE how you blended all these pieces! From left to right, all while following your dialogue. You made them all sounds as if they were complimentary works intended to go from one to the other. I really enjoyed the sound and I could totally see this being a form of art in itself.
Thank you so much! I really enjoyed putting that bit together, and I was rather pleased with how it all worked out. Probably 80% design, 20% luck!
Please keep up the excellent work and thank you for replying! I love it when creators are interactive 😁
Incredible job. June Lee’s work transcribing these pieces blows my mind. Your analysis is equally impressive. Jacob is, I agree with you, a once-in-a-lifetime musician/composer. I’m in awe of his ability and musical sensitivity. Great video, keep up the good work.
Thank you - that is very kind!
As a youngster I had the privilege of working around concert and solo musicians who naturally used the "just" method of playing and tuning..not one of them could explain it. This is utterly fascinating!! Which is why I took to Jacob's methods so logical and eerily beautiful!
It's not just his genius but his personality as well, drawing me in to his music
If every music school theory class played this, they would be years ahead of where they normally are.
Typically people who teach classes in music schools follow the standard rules. Jacob makes up his own rules and follow them whenever he wants to generate something outside the box he's broken new ground and everybody needs to catch up to him see if they want to be on The Cutting Edge of creativity. Or not. I guess it really doesn't matter when you're talking about art
@@dreammix9430 There is no rule in art. There are guidelines. Jacob follows these guidelines but also reframe them and sometimes break them. Lots of academia aware of these guidelines, but you need a genius to make the complex guides sound smooth and natural.
@@segmentsAndCurvesVery true
@@dreammix9430 I'm aware.
The music lover in me loves the dude. But the insecure aspiring musician/composer in me, who wishes to break similar barriers as him is also frustrated. Oh well lol. Thank god for massively talented people like mr collier
TheApostleofRock I’m really trying here with Jacob.... so please tell me what barriers? Am I missing something??
@@jreal3072 Hi, why trying? If you don't like the music you don't need to try because people say he is good. Personally i love it, if you look for enjoy it, i recomend you to hear a lot of jazz and come back in a time.
I understand where you come from but I think that this feeling comes from - as you said - insecurity. What insecurity usually is, is the reflection of your ego being hurt. As in you wish other people would talk about you the same way they talk about Jacob. I think it has nothing to do with the art itself and more to do with how you see yourself and wished people saw you as (subconsciously) . You can still break barriers in simplicity vs. going into the more complex, virtuoso or "scientific" parts of music (Erik Satie would be a perfect example of that among others).
@@OsvaldoBayerista JC is “jazzy”. And that is meant to be an insult.
@@deplant5998 ok
Do you really have only 100 subscribers? Some of your videos only 100 views or so? incredible! The quality of your videos is great! I can see those numbers growing pretty quickly, is just a matter of time! Will be my pleasure seeing this channel’s growth! Congratulations, great job!
Well that's very kind! I've really only just started putting up video essays, so hopefully I'll start growing little by little. Thank you so much for your help!
@@ListeningIn I was about to write something similar to Jonathan, I am now subscribed! Curious about your next essays :) Great job!
Thank you - new video (reasonably) soon!
Hey, you were right! :)
This comment aged well👍🏼
Dude this video is pure gold for me, i am doing right now an investigation about microtonal music, thank you so much man, keep doing videos like these please
Thank you so much Diego! I’m so pleased you’ve found it useful. I will definitely keep making videos like this!
investigation about microtonal music. whaaaaa? btw i humbly bought the idiots guide to music theory a long time ago and it just made my mixing and composing a whole lot worse. whats up with that. knowing too much about rules to halt creativity?
@@franksorry2653 Hahaha. You need to think in breaking rules. Music is that, rules doesn't exist since it is an art. Learning theory helped me to understand a lot of modern music that I love. And I personally don't think that theory close your mind. Your mind closes itself, and you need to find a way to destroy that creative blank that doesn't let you compose original things. I'm a 15 years old composer myself, take my word haha.
my brain is still processing this video hours after i watched it
holy moly Jacob really is a once-in-a-generation artist
I know.... he is most definitely once in a generation. Thanks for watching.
Listen to Trey Spruance.
Once in a century in my book.
@@rollomaughfling380 I was going to say perhaps once and for all.
@@rollomaughfling380 I'd say several centuries. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, these are the figures I'd consider his peers. Oh, and Stevie Wonder. That man has a deeper understanding of harmony and music-as-language than perhaps anyone in history. ... except maybe Jacob.
Constructive Criticism: Background music should be relatively quiet and recessive. The orchestral track playing from 1:10 to 3:25 makes that part of the video quite hard to watch. Similarly for the ticking track from 3:53 - 4:24. Superb content, however!
this
Yes! Love how he makes video essays about music, but doesn’t notice how distracting his background music is
Agreeeeed
Sidechain compression! Use it!
Hi - thank you for your feedback. Completely understood. I'm definitely aiming to improve this with every video. Just starting out learning everything! Will also look at sidechain compression (thanks to the comment below!). Really glad you enjoyed the video.
I am not musically knowledgeable enough to pretend I understood all of what was just presented. That said it confirms what I've always felt about Jacob's music that it is just on another level, where all the complexity is always in support of the musical message that just comes across naturally and beautifully wether you "understand" it or not. Excellent video, much appreciated.
It’s my pleasure. I think that is one of the hardest thing to achieve as a musician - to write something that’s complex and difficult, but still appears to people, and still feels direct. I think Jacob definitely reaches this goal. Thank you for watching.
In addition to Julian Anderson, Thomas Adès and Unsuk Chin, the German composer Enno Poppe is also using microintervals in an incredibly expressive way.
I could be wrong here but I think 12TET has even affected the way JC plays piano too, I noticed he likes adding 2's on major chords, for this example I'm specifically referring to where the 2nd & 3rd are a whole tone apart, something like 15123. If my analysis servers me correct, he realizes that the distance between a justly tuned major second interval is 204 cents, but because in 12TET the distance is only 200, -4 cents flat, then by adding the 2nd next to the 3rd and in between the root, that helps eliminate the +14 dissonance on the piano between the root and major 3rd, so the listener hears the -4 between 1st-2nd-3rd compared to the +14 you'd get in 135. Using JI for 15123 would yield the same results as the Pythagorean 3rd which is +8 cents sharp, 22 cents higher than JI.
In the second interview he had with June, Jacob implied this secret with the example of the 6/9 chord - 153695, which could be said to be even more consonant since that's built in 4ths, the distance between which is now only +2 cents sharp for every fourth interval rising consecutively. While the existence is all there for the 3rd at +14, +16 in between the 5th-3rd & Root-6th, -4 for the 9th, and -2 for the 5ths, again the consecutive 4ths which are only +2 cents sharp for each one rising means all those non justly tuned intervals are perceived as consonant despite them being "imperfectly" tuned.
This can even be applied to polychords and such, like *159367♯15♯11 / F♯C♯G♯A♯D♯FGC.* (Not sure if G needs a double sharp instead, if so forgive me). I _guess_ it can be seen as D♯/G♯/F♯, or F♯ Super Lydian. Each consecutive interval is either a 5th, 2nd or 4th apart so if anything this chord consonance on ecstasy, even in 12TET, if not especially in 12TET.
No, I don’t think you’re wrong at all. I need to have a better look through your comment but on first look, that all seems correct and very interesting!
this is positively genius. there is something unique about the way 6/9 chords can flow into each other in basically any temperament, i think you're really on to something here
This is such a great glimpse into how sonic structure can inform musical color in a functional & intuitive way. YES!
Personally, I’m not a fan of Jacob Colliers music, but I do enjoy his performance energy and I appreciate the technical complexity and uniqueness of his arrangements.
Yeah I was like that at first too. But once you get really really deep into harmony and start to understand it you can really feel what he’s trying to tell. At first it’s like a foreign language. But when you’re able to follow along you’re in love.
"Personally I'm not a fan of Jacob Colliers music"
The biggest deja vu I ever had, seems like the matrix is having a hard time rn
Lol top comment
Ah, but which of his music? He has so many styles.
@@l3gendbaap963 His music isn't just his harmonies. Getting into harmony won't magically make you enjoy Collier. I like Jacob's super stacked vocal harmonies and his early acapella stuff (his arr. of In The Bleak Midwinter is fantastic) but find his djesse albums and attempts at progressive pop and r&b borderline unlistenable
This video explains why Jacob Collier has so many listeners (including me), at 6:20 when he talks about other 20th century composers it is truly hard to listen to but because it seems like they have problems with the balance of complexity and story, but with Jacob Collier he is the best at that balance. This is why he is one of the best composers to date.
Actually, I love both contemporary and Jacob Collier pieces. Their harmony and colors are beautiful to listen. You just need to accostumish yourself to dissonances, that's all.
These composers didn't have problems with balancing different aspects of music, it's just that they had no intention of being easily digestible. They were explorers, discovering new things in music, trying to compose works that were completely unique and that required a new way of listening. It's difficult to get into this stuff but if you put in the effort, you'll be rewarded with an entirely new soundscape that can have a great emotional effect on you.
Obviously Collier is a brilliant musician, but he's ultimately just using insights and methods created by experimental composers decades earlier and applying them to popular music. It makes these experimental techniques more approachable for listeners but personally, I prefer the uncompromising atonal experiments by people like Grisey because I find them more rewarding. These composers weren't held back by the need to appeal to large audiences and so their explorations are much more in-depth.
This is generally how it works with innovations in pop music: these innovations usually are already decades old, having first been discovered by experimental composers (classical or jazz). That's not to take away anything from people like Collier who transfer these approaches to the pop world, but it is important to keep in mind the larger context.
Hans Mahr Very insightful, thanks for commenting.🙏🏿
Very interesting. What kind of person can think like this? Jacob is from another world. Incredible
When making sampled orchestral instruments sound real. . . slightly detune. You begin making your software simulate complex overtones. Detune = Tambre. What's interesting about this, when Collier makes specific chords: Knowing what notes you want to highlight. Base notes, 4ths, and retune vertically accordingly to create effects. Rather than emphasizing a note by playing it louder, he appears to emphasize a note by "forcing" all other notes in a chord to fit with the emphasized notes. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful stuff.
This was really fascinating to watch. I've recently (as in over the past year or so) done a deep dive into historical western European music, so a lot of this information was pretty accessible for me. I was thinking about the fact that A has been tuned to all different pitches throughout time (e.g. A=415, A=392, etc.) and I was pleased that you mentioned the A=432 bit towards the end. One thing about just intonation is that if you follow pure intervals throughout a song, as you pointed out, the pitch will either raise or lower. Doing so could naturally raise A=432 to A=440 without putting in much extra thought. This was a huge conundrum historically, and is why various temperaments like Pythagorean (just fifths and fourths) and 1/4 comma meantone (just major thirds) exist, because maintaining pure intervals and stable pitch throughout a song is physically impossible (as least it certainly appears that way). Again, great video!
A beautiful, wonderfully explained analysis. Unlike your breakdown of "Moon River" I felt like I probably understood more like 10% as opposed to the 5% from the aforementioned. That's a pretty heady change in the curve for teaching over the course of 20 minutes. Thank you again,
June Lee, Listening In, and JC! All three + more! y'all are rad, thanks for making new information fun and easier to digest!
Wow. Such depth and such good production value. This channel deserves so much more views.
Thank you - that means a lot. Hopefully the views will come!
Wonderfully explained.. you really got to the heart of it. thanks so very much. Really enjoyed it.
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
He is sooo great at blending microtonal notes into a harmonious song!!
I love Britten's variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell that is playing the background, just like I love Jacob Collier's music. Thanks for this video.
ahhhh, this is terrifying, hearing a young persons guide to the orchestra after my orchestra played an awful version of it two night ago and don't think i can ever listen to it again XD
“All of these pieces might initially be difficult to listen to”
Meanwhile I’ve been legit jamming out I love this
thanks for explaining, it does solve many questions I have for awhile about how does orchestra choose between different intonations, cuz it could affect how I need to practice on my flute more on same note but different pitches. I post this question on reddit, there are common answer like using the ears to match the bass, ditching the tuner...etc.
I feel it's not complete, cuz there are some notes on flute which are difficult to play sharper or flatter to match Just Intonation from Equal Temperament , it does need practice to produce those frequency(like microtonality here) with tuner/drone. So I can hear it constantly and get familiar that with my brain, not simply just open the ears.
Moreover Jacob is so amazing that using Just intonation to slowly raise the pitch, it smartly solve the trade-off between these two intonations, and also give comfort to the ears.
Wonderful job with this. I (and most others that are musically educated) have always known Jacob was in a league of his own, and you just explained one the subtle but AMAZINGLY complex reasons why lol. Well done!!!
Thank you Dan! He really is in a league of his own. I'm really glad you enjoyed the video.
This an amazing, DEEP, analysis of Collier. Wow. What incredible context given via teh avantgarde music references .,..
Thank you! I'm glad you liked the references to the other composers...I was quite pleased with that!
He reveals his secrets because none can do the same. Hahahaha...
Exactly what I realised just now!
Haha! No no, he wants to share. I think he would be at his happiest in a planet of Jacob Colliers (well, all of us as individuals but with his intelligence).
@@kylezo Hahaha I was just kidding. I believe he has a good heart.
@@silviomp OH ok that makes much more sense! Couldn't pick up all the tone you implied thru the comment :)
@@kylezo His message is all about joy and happiness.
Oh-my-dear!
So much information in thus little space...
better I‘d never found this channel.No I‘m 50 more years away from understanding the minimum of music and being.
Thank you for this teaching
Please do not listen to any criticism. Your music videos are amazing!Those critics mostly have no idea about contemporary classical music whatsoever as equally have never produced any professional video channel not mentioning to the standards you do.I enjoyed the background music during your explanation and understood everything not being distracted at all ! I subscribed to your channel after first minutes of watching this video. Good luck to your channel, you are doing amazing job!
Thank you - I really appreciate that! And I really hope you enjoy my future videos!
Yes yes yes! Thank you for such a well executed video on Jacob’s mastery of harmony. Excellent work!
Thank you Leon! I’m really glad you liked it.
I'm not a bad singer, I'm just singing in microtonality.
XD
Good and true joke!
How I incorporate micro-tonality: Throw on some weird fx that messes with harmonics, put it back in the mix a little with some reverb, and see if it ends up sounding good. (Ohh yeah, and be ready to do some extreme EQ work, as well as throwing out the sound or keeping it for later in the end anyway)
Seriously, it's crazy what kind of tones can sound completely natural on top of compositions based on our normal tuning system
I saw more ow your breakdows. I'm not a native speaker but understanding english very well, but when it gets complicated it's getting difficult. A tip, therefore: if you tell things a bit slower it will be understoud much better AND it does not sound ad if you're running a race. The contents though is magnificent, well done!
2:05 Equal temperament is not out of tune, because the very definition of being in tune is given by the choice of temperament.
Just intonation is not “more in tune.”
Though, what we can say is that Equal temperament intervals are not pure, while just intonation intervals are(intervals with the root are going to sound really nice)
out of tune/pure intervals are very different concepts
Equal temperament thirds are awful if you really pay attention to it.
C E beats really bad, while equal temperament fifths are okay. (pureness wise)
Nonetheless, the main reason behind using temperaments is choosing which third is going to sound nice.
To have a nice experience of C major, you can reduce the size of those fifths C G, G D, D A, A E while remaining all other fifths untouched.
Those fifth are going to sound a little bit flat, while making the third C E sound pure.
anisometropie Benihime yeah but it’s all a facade. If we played in 8 equal divisions of the octave it’s not “just as in tune as just intonation”, it just sounds like crap (using 8 as an example, most intervals in it don’t approximate any low harmonics well at all). 12 equal temperament just sounds less like crap (but just because it’s not as bad as other tunings doesn’t make it objectively good).
But regardless, I think you’re mainly just arguing semantics. What he said is still right, you’re just nitpicking the exact terminology he used because you disagree on the definition of “in tune”, though the way he used it is also correct from an objective definition standpoint. You’re both right but you’re also both kinda wrong because it’s all basically semantics.
@@bragtime1052 thank you for writing that comment, that just saved me 5 minutes writing the exact same thing. I had myself a little eye roll at the first comment when I read it, you've restored my faith in musical education 😂
Fantastic Analysis! - in-depth commentary on an extremely complex and systematically 'grey' area of music, whilst successfully bringing this obscure subject to refreshing light is no mean feat, and HIGHLY COMMENDABLE!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your comment. And thank you, also, for watching!
I am a fifty year old guitar player but Jacob is true genius, I am learning a great deal but it is quite deep and challenging lol.
The background on music was terrific!
Both of them are music geniuses but when I look at Jacob shows I see Frank.. wow. And the best is yet to come! We should feel fortunate to have such incredible talents!
It takes a genius to explain a genius - Well done mate
OF course many artists, from Blues to Folk to Country artists, those of an African Hindu Arabic and Asian traditions all depend on microtonality, they don't reason about it or write it in notation, they use it by ear as does this artist.
If you try to use reason to compose music even 12 equal sounds out of tune, you MUST use feeling, then every artists natural inclination is toward microtonal infliction as is the case in the speaking voice, we all express emotion by the tones and rhythms we speak with and this happens without our even thinking about it!
That makes all humans ingenious then, everyone speaks with music of voice that is perfect to express their feelings and all of this depends on microtonality that everyone handles every time they talk, no one speaks in 12 equal with A at 440.
I’m just impressed he can sing in perfect pitch like that. This seems like a theory that’s only applicable to vocals if you’re able to perfectly increase/decrease your pitch by a couple cents.
I can do it with my pharts
Basically you have to relearn intervals.
Georgian music takes this deviation in just intonation into account as well, especially in the music of the ancient school of the Gelati monastery where many parallel movements of chords of stacked fifths take place.
This video deserves more attention.
That is the best explanation of just intonation.
Really interesting video! Just a minor point: The chart that maps out the harmonics of a sound (2:34), doesn't follow the harmonic series. If the fundamental would be 1Hz... (which is below our hearing range... if we would detect it at all, we would sense that more as a rhythm than a note) the first overtone would be the octave at 2Hz.. not 3... Not all instruments follow the harmonic series btw (bells, lowest strings on the piano etc...).
Delicious video and comment!
Apparently, we get harmonic sounds when our sound is exactly periodic, as happens for an ideal low amplitude string and little else. Louder than pianissimo or for nonstring shapes, a quick impulse (e.g. plucking string, striking bell) tends to excite a slightly anharmonic series --- e.g. we get the distinctive "plucking" sound by slightly flatting 1xn,3xn,5xn (the odds).
A minor minor point (micropoint?) on top of Tijs' is that if we restrict to even functions (wave looks the same played forward and backward), then it is okay to restrict to 1xn,3xn,5xn etc --- this is because the 2xn,4xn,6xn will all be multiplied by zero. A very crude intuition is that the even multiples add "edge" whereas the odd multiples add "warmth". E.g. a slightlysmoothed square wave sounds warmer and less edgy than a slightlysmoothed sawtoothwave.
This is some high quality content!!! Thank you so much for your work on this! Can’t wait for more videos
My pleasure! Thank you for watching!
The video quality is worthy of the subject matter.
Thank you!
@@ListeningIn ;-)
Outstanding content! Missed the shepard tone kinda groove on "dun ba ba" that is just brilliant.
Talents like his' only comes once in a blue moon
Thank you Vinicius!
Brilliant, pacy exposition and very polished. Well done.
Thank you Kiat!
dude. insane explanation. so concise and easily understandable. great editing as well
Thanks Ben - really appreciate that! Glad you enjoyed the video.
I need a playlist of all the intonated compositions by other composers IMMEDIATELY!!!!
i saw this dude live show once and i was blown away.
One of the best lessons I ever heard. Thanks a lot ❤
This is incredibly inspiring. Jacob's music is very worthy of this type deep dive. I hope it's the first of many such endeavors. For example, I'm getting interested lately in his use of leitmotifs, and even asked him about it in a Patreon chat. They pervade his work not only within songs, but between his entire body of work, as I imagine you've noticed. BTW, because Moon River is so steeped in microtonality you may wish to update this current awesome video. I ask selfishly because I want to know how he pulls some of that stuff off!
Thank you so much - I’m really glad you enjoyed it. His use of recurring ideas is really interesting - you’re right. Like the ‘in my world a box of stars’ that appears in ‘Moon river’. Annoyingly, I uploaded my video just before he published ‘Moon river’, and it contains so many examples of microtonality! I might just do a whole separate video on it. Thanks for supporting my channel.
@@ListeningIn I, for one, would love to see you analyze Collier's Moon River -- so complex, yet so effortless-sounding: how the heck does he pull that off?
BTW, you seem to be pitching your videos at a really appropriate level for those of us who are not actually professional musicians, but who have a reasonably serious interest in music (I played a couple of instruments and was a chorister back in the day, but never did college-level music beyond a non-majors music history course).
@@daviddickey370 I would love to analyse it as well. I was completely astounded when I heard it. He seems to be just getting better and better. I will definitely consider it for a future video. I'm also really pleased you like the level of my essays - that's definitely what I was aiming for! Thank you so much for supporting my channel.
Jacob's art has never really gelled with me. Although no doubt at times enjoyable, I find a lot of his music to be indulgent and schmaltzy. His visual style and fashion choices in particular often make me cringe, underpinning an aesthetic characterized by ostentation and attention seeking exhibitionism, which just isn't my bag.
I hope this isn't taken to be mean-spirited, although it is perhaps a reaction to the deluge of praise he gets everywhere. Jacob is obviously a genius and phenomenally creative, and the theory behind his musical ideas is fascinating. I very much enjoyed this video and thanks to Listening In for an excellent discussion of some of these ideas. It's really amazing to me what the human voice is capable of, to say nothing of the human brain.
Oh boy your comment is like a dessert spring of cool water! The fascination with Collier is IMO a kind of fetishism: a fascination with the trappings of genius (he plays everything, has super-perfect-pitch, uses microtonal modulations, sings 23 part cluster harmonies etc). But behind all these bright shiny lights, what is his music like? Ironically, with all the microtonal stuff going on the end product Sounds like a bland overly auto-tuned Christmas choir compilation meant to be played as background music in a department store.
It’s a similar phenomenon to people equating the value of a movie with the level of its special effects. Anyway seems like a nice guy, so good for him 🤣
I knew Jacob was a wizard, but I didn't know it ran so deep. Great video!
Thank you...he is an actual wizard. I'm convinced.
Thank you for your amazing generosity of spirit in making this beautiful video. It was a total joy and inspiration to listen to.
He's an amazing talent & it's great what he's done for microtonality/JI; shame none of it's to my personal taste but I must check out the other compositions you mention.
Have you listened to any of his recent pop music (charted at #1 hip hop album) or his jazz? That's "standard" easily digestible music and still infused with his depth of harmonic fluency. I'm sure you could find something you'd like! For instance there's that really cool choral section that sounds like a Royal March for like 5 seconds in "sleeping on my dreams", but it JUST FITS?!?! and the voice leading & harmony in that tiny passage alone is like, something worthy of study. He actually breaks down composing that entire tiny section in one of his logic session vids.
Excellent explanation of microtonality.
June Lee certainly is amazing too!
He certainly is!
Wow, amazing! Keep up the good work! :)
finally someone can explain what Jacob is doing.
Your channel is amazing !! I will watch any JC video you make !
Thank you! I better make more then!
“Adding color” well yes I thank him for doin tht dawg cuz perfect pitch is like seeing color💯💯
Came from your other videos, equally wowed by this. Incredible stuff, thank you
I like the concept, but when I listen to his music by itself it feels flat. Like a lot of the chords just sound like mush. I think it might be that using just pitch makes it blend to well. I feel there needs to be some pull in the intonality to elicite an emotional response. Or it could just be that I'm so used to hearing standard tuning & it's not different enough (like different tunings in middle eastern & caucasian music) that it doesn't sound good to me.
Crit - C it took me at least five times listening to a single song of his for my ear to really start to get it and for it to sound good to me. Now I’m able to enjoy the rest of his music and pick up on spicy chords in other music much more!
@@revangerang Agreed. I had the same complaint as Crit-C when I started listening to some of his music, but you just have to keep listening to 'unlearn' the harmonics and tunings you have heard all of your life. This is new. Finally!!
Wow it's amazing he's able to use these incredibly non-standard harmonies in a way that doesnt sound weird at all
I would disagree vehemently that just intonation is the "correct" tuning. Theres a lot of solid reasons we dont traditionally use it, the big reason being that just intonation is only actually in tune in certain keys, whereas equal temperatment is roughly as in tune regardless of key, its a compromise that lets us play in any key.
Yo the audio editing on this is 🔥
Very well done, excelent video summarizing and collecting a lot of information that is on the internet but is not so easy to find
Thank you Leonardo! There is a lot of information about this topic - thought it would be useful to put it all in one place!
6:19 ,the singer sang An “B” ,and in the sheet Music she should sang an “Bb”
Maybe is a diferent HZ pitch
Thank you! Amazing video. The Music is a litte bit too loud in 1:24 to 3:25 , but great explanations!
Seconded. The background music was really distracting, especially when you're playing notes on top of that. Just some feedback. Nice video thanks 😊
I was going to comment this
Britten tho...
Glad you liked it! Thanks for the feedback. Definitely noted I was trying new things out...! Next time, I’ll make things like this a lot clearer.
You can use sidechain compression, probably multiband, eq at least, orr just use less intense music
I actually really like the music in this video; didn’t find it distracting for the most part
I knew Jacob was employing some "crazy" stuff, but was not even REMOTELY aware HOW crazy. I really like his music, and his attitude. In more ways than just music, he is a welcome breath of fresh aire...yeah, I liked Manhattan Steamroller too. ;-)
Wow, what a beautiful video!! Your channel is great!
Thanks Joel! I had great fun putting it together.
For calculations:-
1200*log_2(4/3) =
498.044999c (c=cents)
498.044999-500 = -1.955001c (ignore the negative sign) its just 1.955001c
To stack up 6 fourths we can add 498.044999... 6 times and subtract the octaves
Or exponentially 4^6/3^6
4096c/729c
729c is much lower in octave, let's bring it up, 729*2 = 1458*2 (one more) = 2916c
1200*log_2(4096/2916) = 588.269995 which is 11.730005c lower from the F# (bass note) to C (treble note).
Dude this is an AWESOME video! Excellent work!
At 7:30, I think you mean G-half-sharp major, right?
Hi Chris - thanks! I’m really glad you liked it! I think you can call it either. A lot of people (including Jacob!) refer to it as G-half sharp major, but as a G quarter-sharp is half way between a G natural and G sharp, you can also call it G quarter-sharp major (I think!).
@@ListeningIn Thank you for your reply!
I am certain the note that's halfway from G to G-sharp is G-half-sharp. The "half" means that the accidental is going to raise the note only half of the way to the full sharp.
The confusion might come from the fact that a half-sharp is a quarter-tone. The labels for sharp and flats will always be double the labels for tones. For example:
one sharp = half-tone
half-sharp = quarter-tone
quarter-sharp = eighth-tone
I have never heard it the way you described. Lol, if G-quarter-sharp is a quarter-tone up from G, that means G-sharp is a tone up from G, which would be A.
But as a theory person I've love to see what source you got it from!
Thanks again!!
I think it's just the way I've always referred to the accidentals in the microtonal music I've written in the past. So I would refer to the 'G-half sharp' as G-quarter sharp (half way between a G natural and G sharp), the normal sharp as just 'G sharp' and the note between G sharp and A as G three-quarter sharp. It might just be a British vs American thing?!
@@ListeningIn That is interesting! It might be a British thing.
For me, since 3/4 is less than 1, I would interpret a 3/4-sharp as less than a normal sharp. The note you mentioned I would call a 3/2-sharp.
Interesting...so what would you call the note that is 1/4 of the way from G to G-sharp?
@@ChrisBandyJazz Sounds like a pi vs. tau debate to me ^^ Why make it more complicated than it already is? Jacob Collier, June Lee, David Bruce all call it G 1/2 (which also makes more sense to me) so why not stick with it? And in case we ever need the actual G 1/4 sharp we better call it that rather than G 1/8 sharp or whatever Barnaby Martin would call it... Great video though :)
This is truly amazing. Unbelievable gift
i listened through laptop speakers the point was to understand the title, it was super clearly presented i didn'tt even notice back ground music my focus was on listening voice...cheers mate
Thanks Shawmik! Really glad you enjoyed it.
Wow. This video is amazing. I imagine that in 60 years people are going to be looking back at a lot of the footage you captured of Jacob here, referencing it as his "beginning years". Imagine the stuff he's going to release over the next half-century. We're in for some good stuff!
Thank you Nate! You're right - I can't wait to hear what he comes up with in the future.
Brilliant explanation!
Thank you!
Wow, you explained them really well!
I'm glad you mentioned people besides JC too! There are others, believe it or not. Great explanation. If you're looking for more people who have covered songs in microtonal keys, people who have done that include The Mercury Tree (imperial march), Stephen Weigel, Jacob Barton, John Moriarty, Mike Battaglia, and Aaron Wolf (playing the Kite guitar)
Wow! What an amazing channel you've got!!
ive never heard of this guy! i am such a fan now... thank you!!
Amazing work you've done here!
This is the best video i ever saw in my life. Tranks Barnaby Martin !
My pleasure!
Thanks Barnaby and June Lee!