I like the way that Adam's keyboard just slides out of what appears to be his desk. I imagine that he has keyboards concealed in his kitchen table and countertops, and bedside table, and probably even the bathroom sink.
@@pikapool4571 Also, it's like a meme inside the fandom to (jokingly) assume that people are furries even when it obviously isn't the case. Sadly, some non-furry doesn't like that.
"You can't always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." -- Frank Zappa
"Tears in Heaven" by Clapton as a wedding song always boggled my mind. Had that a few times. It's a song about Clapton's grieving for his dead son. Talk about setting yourself up with some bad voodoo lol
"Smile" by the Cockney Rebels baffles me why people find it all cheery. It's a sarcastic/angry song about his ex-bandmates screwing him over. Then you had a spate of people having "Wake me up when September ends" by Green Day as their wedding song when that came out --???!
Being a grieving dad, also, I totally get this. Especially since my daughter was barely older than his son when it happened. My daughter would be turning 11 yrs old this year, on Sept 11. Instead, she's forever 22 months old thanks to her mother, who thought that texting was more important than actually paying attention to the road while she was driving. And she wrecked. And that wreck killed our child. Absolute worst day of my entire life.
It's one of those fun colloquial style phrases that people like to use. Instead of using the word "slowly," I would argue using the word "deliberately;" that is to learn to tackle a new muscular movement by understanding exactly what the movement is so that your brain and your body can synchronize and program the movement appropriately to recall at speed later. For instance on guitar, moving from one chord shape to another might require a particular odd jump for a particular finger while simultaneously being more accurate and strong with your pinky stretched on the second chord. If that's the first time you are learning a switch like that, it helps to slow down and understand that movement in order to be able to do it quickly in a fast tempo.
2:27 Kaytranada uses this type of voicing so much in his production! He'll often pan one chord (e.g. B minor with F# on the bottom) in the left ear and another chord a 4th above (i.e. E minor with B on the bottom) that one into the right ear, which can create that dissonant yet harmonious effect (cos you're filling in the minor 9th of F# and G with the notes in between).
@@conorreedR2C yeah, well, I don’t really have the tools nor space to do that, so, why make something myself when I can pay someone else to do it for me 😁
10:00 There's a song you'll hear on every polish wedding, "windą do nieba": ruclips.net/video/PWTLbvZRdJw/видео.html The chorus is a somewhat dreamy piece about how the girl is getting ready for her wedding. The stanza is about the bride saying farewell to her crush, about how she has no feelings for the groom, long story short - about how she is not at all happy with the situation. If one actually follows the text, the song is not dreamy, but quite melancholic - and by no means to be sung at a wedding. Still, you'll hear it at every wedding from Świnoujście to Ustrzyki
The entire history of human culture follows the principle of that line from Nirvana's In Bloom - most people are just sort of nodding along with what's going on around them hoping no one notices they haven't got a clue what they're doing. The reproducibility of culture is affected far more deeply by the attempt to fit in than we give it credit for.
3:59 Case in point, that chord is genuinely horrifying enough to make it feel like this moment was taken from a horror film where Adam is an evil piano teacher who murders his kidnapped "students" who make the mistake of not approaching the music on its own terms.
@@gamer966 I would argue he is indirectly. Here is a direct quote of Frank's: In other words, if you hear in the bass a C and a G, you know, "You're in the key of C, buddy." You are anchored to a tonality, and when a soloist comes along and plays the C#, he's sending you a message. And where that C# goes is part of the adventure of playing the solo. And if he's playing a B natural or an F# against those notes ... they're like ingredients in a stew. I mean, there's a right way and a wrong way to stick a C# on top of a C-G groundbase. If you play all notes that are part of the C major scale, the recipe you have just prepared is oatmeal, know what I mean? So it's like the difference between eating oatmeal and eating salsa.
@@gamer966 Indirect Zappa quote at the end as well, really thought he would bring it up :( “The Ultimate Rule ought to be: 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchin'; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty."
If you record yourself and it sounds like you're Russian, try not writing in A or D minor, using fewer dominant 5ths, adding in less over the top harmonic minor violin runs, and using fewer male choirs. Also bass playing cat as Adam's sona is so cute and so fitting.
In other words, if you hear in the bass a C and a G, you know, "You're in the key of C, buddy." You are anchored to a tonality, and when a soloist comes along and plays the C#, he's sending you a message. And where that C# goes is part of the adventure of playing the solo. And if he's playing a B natural or an F# against those notes ... they're like ingredients in a stew. I mean, there's a right way and a wrong way to stick a C# on top of a C-G groundbase. If you play all notes that are part of the C major scale, the recipe you have just prepared is oatmeal, know what I mean? So it's like the difference between eating oatmeal and eating salsa.
In Jiu Jitsu they say "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast." I think that holds up pretty well for what you talk about in the high tempo playing section!
As a graphic designer who knows nothing about music, I can tell you that you do a good job of making your typography interesting and balanced. For a non-initiated, you get my seal of approval!
I think it's interesting that even though I know intellectually that a major 7th is considered dissonant, in context it can be incredibly beautiful. Even before I learned music theory, I intuitively perceived harmonies or melodies focusing on the major 7th as "pretty" sounding, even more so than other intervals. a piece like satie's gymnopedie no1, which is built around the major 7th, sounds peaceful and serene, rather than harsh. it doesn't sound "tense" or unresolved. context absolutely transforms how we hear dissonances, even if the interval by itself sounds harsh or unpleasant.
he interrupts the "repetition legitimizes" joke, a pattern that settles nicely into 9/8, to talk about how other cultures are more used to music in 9/8? what??
@@leaveitorsinkit242 re-pe-ti tion-le-gi ti-miz-es. nine syllables that don't roll off the tongue in 9/8, but can be broken into a pattern of 3 sets of 3 syllables. that's how i metrically percieve it though, results may vary
@@themandownstairs4765 😆 I’ll give you credit for that, but the 9/8 rhythm in his example had three groups of 2’s and one group of 3. So... I don’t know if three groups of 3’s really makes the cut.
dude im an engineering student and its also pretty cool when he talks about things that leave me just as confused as the things we just so happened to go over in physics like two days ago its like wow im confused again only this time its my own fault lmao
2:17. I love the sound of that chord. Especially the way you balanced the notes of that voicing on the bass. It's a really melancholy take on the major 7th, Lots if cool places that could go. Even if just as a passing chord, it has a real visceral quality.
Hey Adam. I am a partially hearing person as a result of childhood illness and hearing injuries while in the military. According to my audiologist I am 60% deaf, meaning I can’t hear 60% of frequencies. After my later injury my doctor flat out told me I would never enjoy a Tool album again. I feel like my hearing loss has deeply affected the music I enjoy. (Mostly jazz and metal for some reason). Any thoughts on partially hearing people listening to, or playing music?
There was a story on vice a while ago about a punk bar operated in a deaf community center in San Francisco in the 70’s, and apparently a lot of deaf people would frequent the shows holding balloons up to their chests or heads to ‘feel’ the sounds the bands made. I also used to tune timpanis over the sound of the horn line in my school bands by holding a tuning fork to the back of my skull. Idk if that helps your situation at all but I thought I’d mention it
Very profound but also simple. I’ve heard from drummers that the hardest things to play are slow grooves because it’s tough to keep time. I imagine practicing slow gets you more relaxed at keeping time and thus more comfortable playing fast.
Hey Adam! I'd love to hear you cover a video on how some musicians use certain aspects of music theory as their kind of sound or calling card. People like Zappa or Steely dan with their special chords that they used all the time. And how to make those ideas and calling cards not feel lazy or repetitive etc. Might be another interesting video like this one was!
Hey Adam, I was playing around with Logic 10 because you said it was difficult to do automations like that in non-Ableton DAWs. I found the tool for it actually relatively quickly. It might have been a new addition, but in either case it's there now. It's definitely a little more difficult than Ableton from what I've seen, but it's really very similar and still doesn't cross the threshold of what I would call difficult (as someone who has literally been using Logic for less than a week at this point). It's a slightly different workflow, for sure, but ultimately it's a similar presentation to how you would apply effects in Ableton. Not trying to trash you, Ableton, or come off like a Logic stan haha, but I just felt it should be said. Anyways, love your videos, have a good one!
I think the main distinction is whether the automation lines appear over the audio track itself, or in a separate space parallel to it. How they actually operate is pretty much the same in every major DAW, I think.
11:50ish. “The Ultimate Rule ought to be: 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchin'; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty. The more your musical experience, the easier it is to define for yourself what you like and what you don't like." - Frank Zappa
5:12 actually, propellerhead's reason 11 has an automation feature almost identical - other than the automation being on a seperate track, due to the way that effects are visualised
I have begun to listen to a lot of Bowie again lately and was fascinated by the chords in "Ashes to Ashes". It involves a lot of major third movement. Would love to see a Neeley take on the functions of this songs chords!
It’s not played at the same time as a chord though so it doesn’t really count. It does create tension as a dissonant riff but I don’t feel it has any need to resolve harmonically.
5:15 Closest thing I got in Reaper is to assign keyboard shortcuts for switching between automation modes "latch" and "trim/read". Works quite neatly as well.
FL Studio is extremely capable at Automation, I recommend checking it out (demo is free). You can set each line of your automation to be a line, sine wave, step series, half-wave, logarithmic sinusoid, and everything in between.
Yeah, I got the impression FL Studio is actually quite intuitive and thus beginner-friendly. I.e. if the entry threshold is low, you can immediately lauch like a rocket, and then if it you grow dissatisfied, it is because of the great energy it unlocked in you that wants to break barriers.
The fact that you didn't just plug your own video earns my respect. Most creators would have just said to go watch that other video and moved on. Much love, my musical friend.
As a visual artist who has a ton of experience using Photoshop, I was amazed the first time I saw someone using Ableton. It's like magic! The changes you can make with such minor adjustments in Ableton blow my mind.
The problem with the “if it feels good, it is good” mentality is that I’ve found so many people who don’t know theory end up defaulting to only one or two scales/modes because that’s what “feels” natural and good to them. They are limited in their musical vocabulary and experimentation because of it.
Simplicity isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I do however understand your frustration. If you fully understand the rules, you'd also know when to break them. The problem isn't necessarily lack of knowledge, but rather fear of failure. If something works just fine, you see no reason to change anything, hence you won't change anything, leading to lack of experimentation
exactly, the most "dissonant" is a highlighted minor second sforzatto in FFF dynamics and in a consonant context. Best at the C-2 and c-3 range (alt/soprano voice). To low or to high is again more consonant
I think the problem is yours. If someone is ok, for example, with a blue scale, there's no problem at all. I think musical limitation is a problem from your perspective and ambitions
I'm pretty sure I can do that same automation thing in Logic. Just hit A on your computer keyboard and all the automation pops up in the same way with the lines and everything.
FL Studio (which I insist is the most dubby DAW) also makes it really easy. Its not a line on the track like in Ableton but is rather a separate element on the UI, but I like to see it separately anyway and it is still very easy to manipulate and interpret.
That's when someone is not an authority on DAWs. There is plenty of basic wisdom on DAWs, including stuff that is defying the claim Adam made: Like that the DAW you use is of little relevance; If you have mastered one, you can do everything with it. The point is simply which makes it easiest for your personal taste to master it.
YOU ROBBED ME OF MY REPETITION LEGITIMISES! That hurt way more than I was ready for. Damn you and your subversion of expectations toying with my emotions, Neely. But also I love you, keep up the awesome work you're the one reason I've kept studying music in my own time as an adult. ❤️ Much love from Australia!
I just realized one of your biggest appeals as a youtube is that you never outright say the use of some theory or technique in music is "wrong" outright. Sometimes you meme it but usually you just outright tell people the reality - it may be tough to use it musically but its always possible and if you are of the right mind you can make that typically out of place sound... great, pretty much. Kickass.
_Fonts in Use_ calls your particular font choice for those thumbnails “the most prominent usage of *Coolvetica* since the _Catch Me If You Can_ title sequence.” Bravo!
Fully agree! To REALLY play a lick fast -- practice it with a metronome at 1/4 speed. Lock it in your brain -- and eventually all of the notes will become a single thought that just spills out and flows.
There is a direct quote for Frank in an interview where he discusses, within an example, using a C# note within an improvised guitar solo over a C and a G within the bass. I have studied Zappa for about 2 years now (Specifically the way he composed and improvised guitar from about 1977 through 1988) and plenty of topics in music theory that Adam Neely discusses tangentially augments my Frank studies. His bandmate's, Shawn Crowder, first major RUclips video discusses in great depth how to tackle Frank's most infamously rhythmically difficult pieces.
The chord at 2:08 B E G C can work pretty well as a passing dissonance. Resolve the B down to A to get a C6 or A min7 voicing, or up to C to end up with a C triad. Barry Harris would consider it a "borrowed diminished note" from B diminished. Anyway, just wanted to point out to others that want to mess around that it's a pretty chord if you resolve the tensions afterwards.
5:30 FL Studio has automation like that, but it doesn't always show itself. Instead you have to find it in the Tools menu and automate the last edited or next-to-last edited. If it's an FL native plugin, automation can be done with a right click.
Why is the minor ninth more dissonant than the minor second? I thought spreading notes between octaves instead of clustering them always made it sound less dissonant.
yeah i thought that too but i think it's since notes get further apart as you go up the harmonic scale (ok that's kinda contradictory but in the case of just Gb and A, Gb4 and A4 are 25 Hz apart whereas Gb5 and Ab are 30, but 30:880 is a smaller ratio than 25:440, so the minor ninth is closer together, thus a more complex ratio, and therefore more dissonant ), the minor ninth is proportionally closer to the root and therefore more dissonant? i could be totally wrong tho
It could be that an octave is still "close enough." Maybe it has to do with how every square root 4 and higher is greater than 2. Since frequencies two octaves up are 4 times greater, that acts as a, sort of, soft mathematical property explaining the dissonance within the interval of two octaves (frequency ratios whose square roots are between 1 and 2 are potentially significantly dissonant)
My guess is that it's uncomfortably close to a "sharp octave". The major seventh gets a slight pass on this front because we're somewhat used to hearing it as part of a major seventh chord. Just a guess for those of us who aren't into weird numerology superstitions, I don't really know for sure.
@Kit Duguay "Psychologically constructed" ("culturally constructed"?) doesn't mean "there is no reason", it just means that the reason (if it exists) stems from tradition or coincidence. The fact that all intervals can be considered consonant in some contexts doesn't really change that, it's just a reminder that all theory is heavily contextual.
Hi Adam! Question for the Next Q&A: So, I'm an amateur jazz pianist. I've been playing for about two years and I started looking into jazz over quarantine. I purchased a Real Book about a month ago, and I had a question about the way I should play chords. Say, for instance, I'm playing All of Me. The first chord is a C6, which I could easily play as C-E-G-A. The second chord is E7, which, once again, I could easily play as E-Ab-B-D. But should I play them this way? I am educated about inversions, so should I use those more often? Furthermore, I've been told that one doesn't need to play all the notes of a chord to get the full sound. Which notes can be omitted? (On a related note, if I'm playing with a group of people, and not playing the melody, only chords, how do I voice them efficiently?) Thanks in advance!
apart from all the music stuff, one of the greatest things Adam has shown me is the value of asking questions that... I don't want to call them bad or pointless, but questions many would see as not worth asking, or not very relevant, because the unveiling of anything reveals a lot about how and why we veil things, and how and why we remove it later.
2:06 - 2:53 I've definitely heard this exact chord somewhere, but I can't remember where. Oh, okay, I found it - I hear it like a b6 chord with 5 in bass, like a Cm(b13) that wants to resolve to Cm. Also something like C(b13) -> Cm which I think is derived from harmonic major scale is a common thing in sci-fi soundtracks and was masterfully used in 1917 soundtrack. Also it sounds good to me and I don't understand why an inversion of maj7 chord must sound like a maj7 chord. Esus4(b13b9) or F/E5 or F5/E5 sounds good to me. Also b9 sounds good as a phrygian note that resolves into a tonic basically anywhere, like Dmb9 -> Dm, or F7b9 -> Dm, F7b9 -> D, For extensive use of b9 listen (or read the notes) to Obscura (Anticosmic Overload, Septuagint, Sermon of The Seven Suns, Fractal Dimensions), they use a lot of dissonance in their application of death metal. In some of my compositions b9 is so important that I can't substitute it with 8th or 9th. It just has this unique dissonance and emotion. Also if you play chords with 9th up or down a diatonic scale you're gonna have b9 on phrygian and locrian parts. In Radiohead song 2 + 2 = 5 first two chords are Fm -> Em(b6b9no5) or Fsus2/E (?). If you substitute b9 with 8 (thus making it just a first inversion V chord) it will sound super resolved and very wrong. I think the reason is in intervals between the notes that are created because of b9 note: b9, 4 and 2 which are creating this wide and at the same time dissonant sound (also low guitar tunning makes it even more dissonant), with b6, b3 and 5 being more neutral intervals which just indicate a minor sound. If you use an 8th note intervals are gonna be 8, 3 and b3 which sound normal beacuse it's a triad. Also b9 can be used extensively if composing using diminished scales. Also E(add11)/A or over E is beautiful. Also.
I love your emphasis on how a decision in songwriting doesn't always need to have a music theory justification behind it, I would add that the flip side is also true, that a piece of music might be incredibly theorically complex and masterful from the sheet music's perspective, but if it just doesn't sound good to you, you're not "wrong" in disliking it
I like the way that Adam's keyboard just slides out of what appears to be his desk. I imagine that he has keyboards concealed in his kitchen table and countertops, and bedside table, and probably even the bathroom sink.
funniest comment looooool
Out of his pillow cover lol
Only liked to make the 400th comment
now I want keyboards everywhere like this. How convenient will that be!
no I won't imagine
the quizzical way with which you said "fursona" was just...the best thing that's happened to me all morning.
He kinda said it like Raymond Holt would ahahah
⁸
I am so 0
88feet of course
As a furry, I absolutely agree-
That was hilarious!
“I think you would call that a- uh… *fursona..?* “
I could never imagine Adam saying "fursona"... oh my
Catam Neely.
made so much better by him pretending not to know exactly what it means
legitimately caught me off guard
There is already r34 art of him
when he said that i felt a primal fight-or-flight response in my soul
The way you feigned discomfort when you said, "Fursona" killed me lmao
It wasn't a feign (I hope)
@@davidchurchman5771 Are you sure?
@@segmentsAndCurvesI mean who in the hell discusses furries and fursonas without at least some degree of discomfort?
@@pikapool4571 You haven't learnt much.
@@pikapool4571 Also, it's like a meme inside the fandom to (jokingly) assume that people are furries even when it obviously isn't the case. Sadly, some non-furry doesn't like that.
I love how you never refer to any of these intervals or chords as “bad” just that they’re dissonant or a little spicy. It’s all subjective
Very Persichetti of him
"dude that sounds SO bad!"
*it's not bad, it's SPICY*
Dissonance is not bad if it resolves
@@pdorism I mean I think one could also find a creative artistic use for unresolved dissonance.
Your hair is looking very E today adam
very purplemaj7th indeed
i don’t get it
@@louiszaffino4071
It's ok louis
Why did I think that this meant his hair was gonna be green?
@@louiszaffino4071 need to watch his video where he talks about Chromesthesia
How dare you interrupt the "repetition legitimizes" joke. I expect this interruption to be repeated in future videos.
Thats the only way I would acknowledge its legitimacy
I was waiting for that, godd*** xD
My exact thought
Went straight to the comment section to search for this haha
Illegitimacy has to have been repeated enough times by now to reach legitimacy.
"I believe it is called a..."
Please say Catam Neely, please say Catam Neely, please say Catam Neely -
"...Fursona"
DAMNIT!!!
Catam Furry
I wish id seen this a few seconds earlier lmao
on the upside now we have a clip of adam saying fursona
It's official, he's a furry.
Adam Nya-ly
I love how the human brain associates the word “dissonance” with Frank Zappa, as shown by the thumbnail.
I associate it with Schönberg
Or Sun Ra
@@TimothyReeves I associate dissonance with Schönberg by way of his influence on Zappa
"You can't always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." -- Frank Zappa
Idk
"Tears in Heaven" by Clapton as a wedding song always boggled my mind. Had that a few times. It's a song about Clapton's grieving for his dead son. Talk about setting yourself up with some bad voodoo lol
"Smile" by the Cockney Rebels baffles me why people find it all cheery. It's a sarcastic/angry song about his ex-bandmates screwing him over.
Then you had a spate of people having "Wake me up when September ends" by Green Day as their wedding song when that came out --???!
Ive had several ask for Every Breath You Take. I've had to explain to them the song isn't what they think 🤣
Being a grieving dad, also, I totally get this. Especially since my daughter was barely older than his son when it happened.
My daughter would be turning 11 yrs old this year, on Sept 11. Instead, she's forever 22 months old thanks to her mother, who thought that texting was more important than actually paying attention to the road while she was driving. And she wrecked. And that wreck killed our child. Absolute worst day of my entire life.
@@bordershader I don't ever remember hearing When September Ends as a wedding song. It was always used as a graduation song.
what i expected: dissonant intervals
what i got: adam neeley fursona
Glad i wasnt alone in that
"Metal music theory" channel has wonderful breakdowns of metal harmony and rhythmic structures
Can't complain though!
Best treat in years!
So Adam Neely unironically suggested that 'If you can play it slowly, you can play it quickly'.
..you can though?
Only because he practices 40 hours a day
sAcRiLegIoUs
inTeResTing
It's one of those fun colloquial style phrases that people like to use. Instead of using the word "slowly," I would argue using the word "deliberately;" that is to learn to tackle a new muscular movement by understanding exactly what the movement is so that your brain and your body can synchronize and program the movement appropriately to recall at speed later. For instance on guitar, moving from one chord shape to another might require a particular odd jump for a particular finger while simultaneously being more accurate and strong with your pinky stretched on the second chord. If that's the first time you are learning a switch like that, it helps to slow down and understand that movement in order to be able to do it quickly in a fast tempo.
"That jokes not even funny". I dunno Adam, I breathed a little heavier when the joke came up. Id say that counts for something.
I did slightly exhale the air out of my lungs a bit faster than i had during his previous statements
I had smoke coming out of my nostrilovs. (Quickly at first, then slaving down.)
Instructions unclear. Manual breathing mode activated
@@jwaj watch the he-man 3 non blondes cover and automatic breathing should reengage
Edit: I wrote 3. Imagine instead if i had written 4, instead
😤
I just wanna say I'm hopeful we get to see a Zappa music analysis anytime soon.
I've heard that essentially all of the "improvised" bits for all of the Zappa recordings were carefully written.
2:27 Kaytranada uses this type of voicing so much in his production! He'll often pan one chord (e.g. B minor with F# on the bottom) in the left ear and another chord a 4th above (i.e. E minor with B on the bottom) that one into the right ear, which can create that dissonant yet harmonious effect (cos you're filling in the minor 9th of F# and G with the notes in between).
HE PULLED OUT THE PIANO FROM HIS DESK AGAIN THIS IS SO COOL
He's a musician, that's why.
I pull out a computer keyboard from under my desk...
What do you pull out?
@@JoeLabisch I pull out my... Nevermind...
MIDI controller, to be precise. Hell of a tool.
Now I just want to get a mini piano keyboard and swap it for a coworkers computer keyboard :-D
I'm jealous of your desk that allows to to conjure a keyboard. How do I get one?
Have one custom made for you. That’s how I got mine, and I’m sure Adam got his that way too.
check out zaofurniture and studio desk forniture
@@dirgmario or you could be like rdavidr and just build your own custom desk lol
I thought he just has a rollable slab of wood attached to it, which he placed a keyboard on
@@conorreedR2C yeah, well, I don’t really have the tools nor space to do that, so, why make something myself when I can pay someone else to do it for me 😁
Adam saying 'Fursona' has had a collossal effect on my recommended videos.
Oh no.
*J O I N U S*
"Maybe this is the sound that gets you there."
MASHES KEYBOARD REPEATEDLY
The “dragon” and “Russian” pun got me :D
10:00 There's a song you'll hear on every polish wedding, "windą do nieba": ruclips.net/video/PWTLbvZRdJw/видео.html The chorus is a somewhat dreamy piece about how the girl is getting ready for her wedding. The stanza is about the bride saying farewell to her crush, about how she has no feelings for the groom, long story short - about how she is not at all happy with the situation. If one actually follows the text, the song is not dreamy, but quite melancholic - and by no means to be sung at a wedding. Still, you'll hear it at every wedding from Świnoujście to Ustrzyki
The entire history of human culture follows the principle of that line from Nirvana's In Bloom - most people are just sort of nodding along with what's going on around them hoping no one notices they haven't got a clue what they're doing. The reproducibility of culture is affected far more deeply by the attempt to fit in than we give it credit for.
When Zappa is on the cover, the video goes straight to the top of the line!!!
They should pitch those vaccine posts with zappa pics
Top of the line? How do you mean?
@@leaveitorsinkit242 the line of videos to watch
but why was zappa on the cover? he didn't mention him at all. I clicked for zappa and got nothing :(
@@cmingus2044 I was thinking the same thing. I wasn’t disappointed by the video tho. Adam does a good job.
Adam Neely matures into stately meandering Q&A's.
3:59 Case in point, that chord is genuinely horrifying enough to make it feel like this moment was taken from a horror film where Adam is an evil piano teacher who murders his kidnapped "students" who make the mistake of not approaching the music on its own terms.
0:16
i genuinely didnt see him pull it out the first time i watched i was like WHAT MAGIC IS THIS
what a
*_smooth criminal_*
clicked so fast as soon as I saw Zappa in the thumbnail.
Unfortunately no Zappa to be found on the video :(
@@gamer966 I would argue he is indirectly. Here is a direct quote of Frank's:
In other words, if you hear in the bass a C and a G, you know, "You're in the key of C, buddy." You are anchored to a tonality, and when a soloist comes along and plays the C#, he's sending you a message. And where that C# goes is part of the adventure of playing the solo. And if he's playing a B natural or an F# against those notes ... they're like ingredients in a stew. I mean, there's a right way and a wrong way to stick a C# on top of a C-G groundbase. If you play all notes that are part of the C major scale, the recipe you have just prepared is oatmeal, know what I mean? So it's like the difference between eating oatmeal and eating salsa.
Hmm - me too... we've been click-baited. LOL Neely is very cunning!
@@gamer966 Indirect Zappa quote at the end as well, really thought he would bring it up :(
“The Ultimate Rule ought to be: 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchin'; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty."
Is there an unspoken tradition in Neelyspeak that Zappa is to be tiptoed around?
I had to play "How to disappear completely" by Radiohead at a wedding. Excellent song, extraordinarily odd wedding song lol
damn that's the worst wedding song ever
Wow lol
Some good advice that you just didn't take...
And it isn't Ironic.
Really?? Now that is my type of wedding.
If you record yourself and it sounds like you're Russian, try not writing in A or D minor, using fewer dominant 5ths, adding in less over the top harmonic minor violin runs, and using fewer male choirs.
Also bass playing cat as Adam's sona is so cute and so fitting.
Хорошо, я учту
Ahaa this is great lmao
Why do I need to hide that I’m Russian?
daaaaaaaaaaaa
@@mikubrot It’s more of an ironic question
I love how you're able to answer the question posed right in the thumbnail and I still click the video.
anti-clickbait
"That joke's not even funny"
False. I laughed quite a bit at that joke. Good one, Adam.
these anti-thumbnails are somehow more effective..
it works because you want to hear the explanation
Seriously though
ruclips.net/video/IImYdIXAz-4/видео.html
In other words, if you hear in the bass a C and a G, you know, "You're in the key of C, buddy." You are anchored to a tonality, and when a soloist comes along and plays the C#, he's sending you a message. And where that C# goes is part of the adventure of playing the solo. And if he's playing a B natural or an F# against those notes ... they're like ingredients in a stew. I mean, there's a right way and a wrong way to stick a C# on top of a C-G groundbase. If you play all notes that are part of the C major scale, the recipe you have just prepared is oatmeal, know what I mean? So it's like the difference between eating oatmeal and eating salsa.
It’s Adam’s specialty
In Jiu Jitsu they say "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast." I think that holds up pretty well for what you talk about in the high tempo playing section!
Thats a saying in auto racing aswell
Same thing in firearms competitions
Also mountain biking.
also sex
@@schweppes1313 severely underrated reply
As a graphic designer who knows nothing about music, I can tell you that you do a good job of making your typography interesting and balanced. For a non-initiated, you get my seal of approval!
I think it's interesting that even though I know intellectually that a major 7th is considered dissonant, in context it can be incredibly beautiful. Even before I learned music theory, I intuitively perceived harmonies or melodies focusing on the major 7th as "pretty" sounding, even more so than other intervals. a piece like satie's gymnopedie no1, which is built around the major 7th, sounds peaceful and serene, rather than harsh. it doesn't sound "tense" or unresolved. context absolutely transforms how we hear dissonances, even if the interval by itself sounds harsh or unpleasant.
1:44 to 1:55, is a central motif in Tom Waits’ “Alice”. Hauntingly beautiful song.
he interrupts the "repetition legitimizes" joke, a pattern that settles nicely into 9/8, to talk about how other cultures are more used to music in 9/8? what??
if you follow the channel, the joke is at the stage where you hear it without it even needing to be there
it's become natural like 4/4
@@dopaminecloud No joke, I hear those words in my head often now whenever a relevant situation (musical or otherwise) arises.
The pattern settles nicely into 9/8? How do you mean?
@@leaveitorsinkit242 re-pe-ti tion-le-gi ti-miz-es. nine syllables that don't roll off the tongue in 9/8, but can be broken into a pattern of 3 sets of 3 syllables. that's how i metrically percieve it though, results may vary
@@themandownstairs4765 😆 I’ll give you credit for that, but the 9/8 rhythm in his example had three groups of 2’s and one group of 3. So... I don’t know if three groups of 3’s really makes the cut.
The most important lesson I took away from this video is that Adam Neely has a Fursona
and it’s a cat, which honestly is a *purr*fect fit. please end me.
Hearing that hit me like a truck, I was _not_ expecting that
There is a furst for everything.
Question And Answer Time With CATAM FURRY
Hehehe
Uster was a piece of rack mount gear called "Russian Dragon" for keeping on beat.
As a current Berklee student, it's pretty cool when you talk about things that we just so happened to go over in class like two days ago
dude im an engineering student and its also pretty cool when he talks about things that leave me just as confused as the things we just so happened to go over in physics like two days ago
its like wow im confused again only this time its my own fault lmao
2:17. I love the sound of that chord. Especially the way you balanced the notes of that voicing on the bass. It's a really melancholy take on the major 7th, Lots if cool places that could go. Even if just as a passing chord, it has a real visceral quality.
Confirmed: Adam is a flat-niner
Wow... that's a great movie reference.
Facts
11:04
Broke: Fursona
Woke: Cat-am Neely
I physically snorted when Adam said "fursona".
Hey Adam.
I am a partially hearing person as a result of childhood illness and hearing injuries while in the military. According to my audiologist I am 60% deaf, meaning I can’t hear 60% of frequencies. After my later injury my doctor flat out told me I would never enjoy a Tool album again.
I feel like my hearing loss has deeply affected the music I enjoy. (Mostly jazz and metal for some reason).
Any thoughts on partially hearing people listening to, or playing music?
There was a story on vice a while ago about a punk bar operated in a deaf community center in San Francisco in the 70’s, and apparently a lot of deaf people would frequent the shows holding balloons up to their chests or heads to ‘feel’ the sounds the bands made. I also used to tune timpanis over the sound of the horn line in my school bands by holding a tuning fork to the back of my skull. Idk if that helps your situation at all but I thought I’d mention it
bass is your best friend!
@@pentaholicproductions5468 bruh lmfao
That's just mean
Did he maybe say that because Tool are bad?
9:05 "if you can play it slowly, you can play it quickly"
This TwoSet quote needs more love.
Came looking for this
Very profound but also simple. I’ve heard from drummers that the hardest things to play are slow grooves because it’s tough to keep time. I imagine practicing slow gets you more relaxed at keeping time and thus more comfortable playing fast.
I love videos where you take questions, Adam. I hope you have the time to do them more frequently! Fursona???!
Hey Adam! I'd love to hear you cover a video on how some musicians use certain aspects of music theory as their kind of sound or calling card. People like Zappa or Steely dan with their special chords that they used all the time. And how to make those ideas and calling cards not feel lazy or repetitive etc.
Might be another interesting video like this one was!
4:47 Local jazz musician grows mad with power (2021, colorized)
The minor 9th is my favourite sound. Along side the major7#11 arpeggiated on a guitar it sounds so mysterious but beautiful
Hey Adam, I was playing around with Logic 10 because you said it was difficult to do automations like that in non-Ableton DAWs. I found the tool for it actually relatively quickly. It might have been a new addition, but in either case it's there now. It's definitely a little more difficult than Ableton from what I've seen, but it's really very similar and still doesn't cross the threshold of what I would call difficult (as someone who has literally been using Logic for less than a week at this point). It's a slightly different workflow, for sure, but ultimately it's a similar presentation to how you would apply effects in Ableton. Not trying to trash you, Ableton, or come off like a Logic stan haha, but I just felt it should be said. Anyways, love your videos, have a good one!
I think the main distinction is whether the automation lines appear over the audio track itself, or in a separate space parallel to it. How they actually operate is pretty much the same in every major DAW, I think.
Q: "Where's the minor 9th useable in western music"
Me: *djent breakdown noises*
This comment was GOLD!
Lmao
Nods in Frank Zappa.
Listen to Scriabin etude 65 n 1 for beautiful ninths uwu
DJDE
11:50ish. “The Ultimate Rule ought to be: 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchin'; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty. The more your musical experience, the easier it is to define for yourself what you like and what you don't like." - Frank Zappa
5:12 actually, propellerhead's reason 11 has an automation feature almost identical - other than the automation being on a seperate track, due to the way that effects are visualised
2:12 i actually love that sound a lot
The anti clickbait thumbnails make me click so much faster. Adam, you squirrelly goose
"If you can play it slowly..."
- A certain violinist duo, probably
I was looking for that... We need a TwoSet and Adam cooperation
Two set!!
Grade X Under X pls no. Too memey and kid-targeted. They’re like the davie504 of violin
@@thesmashfloydian Gotta agree about the kid-targeted subject, I’d still want it though
@@thesmashfloydian funny is for kids now? Adult entertainment are on other websites my dude
I have begun to listen to a lot of Bowie again lately and was fascinated by the chords in "Ashes to Ashes". It involves a lot of major third movement. Would love to see a Neeley take on the functions of this songs chords!
First 60 seconds of the video
Adam: "These are called prime dissonances."
Me: No, those are panic chords
Prime Dissonance! At The Disco
idk how to make a mathcore joke here, i pretty much BOTCHed it
Yep, the whole time he was talking about those intervals, I was like "I know one way to use all 3 of them: in a breakdown between chugs"
@@heavymachete6235 I love botch
Intro to "Killing in the name of" is example of using minor 9th exactly because it creates so much tension
It’s not played at the same time as a chord though so it doesn’t really count. It does create tension as a dissonant riff but I don’t feel it has any need to resolve harmonically.
5:15 Closest thing I got in Reaper is to assign keyboard shortcuts for switching between automation modes "latch" and "trim/read". Works quite neatly as well.
Now we need a shirt with "CLICK. RED LINE. DRAW!" on it xD
When I click onto the red line, it is always a draw.
oh boy i cant wait to hear adam talk about frank zappa!
Edit:😢
Adam's musical skill level is so high he can summon a keyboard out of thin air
I love that Adam puts the answer in the thumbnail so I don’t actually have to watch the video, thanks Adam
"If you can play it slowly, you can play it quickly" - Ben Lee, sacreligious boi.
Ling Ling 40 hrs!!
I’m a simple man, I see Frank Zappa, I click.
Bingo.
First time I've seen Zappa used as clickbait. Oh well, good video.
@@dickiebobradio1304 Here I sit all broken hearted, clicked for Zappa or Captain Beefheart.... ed
Same here lol
i was hoping to hear him talk about fz
FL Studio is extremely capable at Automation, I recommend checking it out (demo is free). You can set each line of your automation to be a line, sine wave, step series, half-wave, logarithmic sinusoid, and everything in between.
Yeah, I got the impression FL Studio is actually quite intuitive and thus beginner-friendly. I.e. if the entry threshold is low, you can immediately lauch like a rocket, and then if it you grow dissatisfied, it is because of the great energy it unlocked in you that wants to break barriers.
The fact that you didn't just plug your own video earns my respect. Most creators would have just said to go watch that other video and moved on.
Much love, my musical friend.
at 1:26, it reminds me of the progression toward the end of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata
As a visual artist who has a ton of experience using Photoshop, I was amazed the first time I saw someone using Ableton. It's like magic! The changes you can make with such minor adjustments in Ableton blow my mind.
This is the only channel where I look forward to Q&A’s.
The problem with the “if it feels good, it is good” mentality is that I’ve found so many people who don’t know theory end up defaulting to only one or two scales/modes because that’s what “feels” natural and good to them. They are limited in their musical vocabulary and experimentation because of it.
Simplicity isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I do however understand your frustration. If you fully understand the rules, you'd also know when to break them. The problem isn't necessarily lack of knowledge, but rather fear of failure. If something works just fine, you see no reason to change anything, hence you won't change anything, leading to lack of experimentation
exactly, the most "dissonant" is a highlighted minor second sforzatto in FFF dynamics and in a consonant context. Best at the C-2 and c-3 range (alt/soprano voice). To low or to high is again more consonant
I think the problem is yours. If someone is ok, for example, with a blue scale, there's no problem at all. I think musical limitation is a problem from your perspective and ambitions
haha total!
c major first inversion and g major first inversion are the only things that makes me feel good
I'm pretty sure I can do that same automation thing in Logic. Just hit A on your computer keyboard and all the automation pops up in the same way with the lines and everything.
FL Studio (which I insist is the most dubby DAW) also makes it really easy. Its not a line on the track like in Ableton but is rather a separate element on the UI, but I like to see it separately anyway and it is still very easy to manipulate and interpret.
That's when someone is not an authority on DAWs.
There is plenty of basic wisdom on DAWs, including stuff that is defying the claim Adam made: Like that the DAW you use is of little relevance; If you have mastered one, you can do everything with it. The point is simply which makes it easiest for your personal taste to master it.
YOU ROBBED ME OF MY REPETITION LEGITIMISES! That hurt way more than I was ready for. Damn you and your subversion of expectations toying with my emotions, Neely.
But also I love you, keep up the awesome work you're the one reason I've kept studying music in my own time as an adult. ❤️ Much love from Australia!
I just realized one of your biggest appeals as a youtube is that you never outright say the use of some theory or technique in music is "wrong" outright. Sometimes you meme it but usually you just outright tell people the reality - it may be tough to use it musically but its always possible and if you are of the right mind you can make that typically out of place sound... great, pretty much. Kickass.
"are you a rusher or a dragger?"
Yes, I play rythyn games.
10:58 Catam Neely
"Will you answer my question?"
"Yes!"
LMFAO
_Fonts in Use_ calls your particular font choice for those thumbnails “the most prominent usage of *Coolvetica* since the _Catch Me If You Can_ title sequence.” Bravo!
Fully agree! To REALLY play a lick fast -- practice it with a metronome at 1/4 speed. Lock it in your brain -- and eventually all of the notes will become a single thought that just spills out and flows.
I clicked first thing when I saw Frank Zappa in the thumbnail
I was disappointed he didn’t talk about him in the video 😢
@@AkimboCorndogs Same
I was disappointed and then I wasn't. Lol.
@@AkimboCorndogs I don't think you can say the name Zappa nowadays without getting legal threats from his family
There is a direct quote for Frank in an interview where he discusses, within an example, using a C# note within an improvised guitar solo over a C and a G within the bass.
I have studied Zappa for about 2 years now (Specifically the way he composed and improvised guitar from about 1977 through 1988) and plenty of topics in music theory that Adam Neely discusses tangentially augments my Frank studies. His bandmate's, Shawn Crowder, first major RUclips video discusses in great depth how to tackle Frank's most infamously rhythmically difficult pieces.
12:27 I've waiting too long for that, you don't imagine my emotion when I heard that
"I believe its called a... _fursona_ ?"
No idea what you're talking about man, not in the slightest
Hey I’ve never seen an Elias randomly like this!
@@Qyver there's a first time for everything
@@eliasmg9144 Great, a pure human being.
The chord at 2:08 B E G C can work pretty well as a passing dissonance. Resolve the B down to A to get a C6 or A min7 voicing, or up to C to end up with a C triad. Barry Harris would consider it a "borrowed diminished note" from B diminished. Anyway, just wanted to point out to others that want to mess around that it's a pretty chord if you resolve the tensions afterwards.
5:30 FL Studio has automation like that, but it doesn't always show itself. Instead you have to find it in the Tools menu and automate the last edited or next-to-last edited. If it's an FL native plugin, automation can be done with a right click.
Why is the minor ninth more dissonant than the minor second? I thought spreading notes between octaves instead of clustering them always made it sound less dissonant.
yeah i thought that too but i think it's since notes get further apart as you go up the harmonic scale (ok that's kinda contradictory but in the case of just Gb and A, Gb4 and A4 are 25 Hz apart whereas Gb5 and Ab are 30, but 30:880 is a smaller ratio than 25:440, so the minor ninth is closer together, thus a more complex ratio, and therefore more dissonant ), the minor ninth is proportionally closer to the root and therefore more dissonant? i could be totally wrong tho
It could be that an octave is still "close enough." Maybe it has to do with how every square root 4 and higher is greater than 2. Since frequencies two octaves up are 4 times greater, that acts as a, sort of, soft mathematical property explaining the dissonance within the interval of two octaves (frequency ratios whose square roots are between 1 and 2 are potentially significantly dissonant)
My guess is that it's uncomfortably close to a "sharp octave". The major seventh gets a slight pass on this front because we're somewhat used to hearing it as part of a major seventh chord. Just a guess for those of us who aren't into weird numerology superstitions, I don't really know for sure.
@Kit Duguay "Psychologically constructed" ("culturally constructed"?) doesn't mean "there is no reason", it just means that the reason (if it exists) stems from tradition or coincidence. The fact that all intervals can be considered consonant in some contexts doesn't really change that, it's just a reminder that all theory is heavily contextual.
@Kit Duguay Are you specifically say that I'm not musically trained?
I remember Rick Beatos wise words were: DISSONANCE = EMOTION
I remember, “Hendrix chord”.😉😅👍🏻
“Can you answer my question?”
Adam: “sure!”
*moves on to next question*
Well he did. What more do you want :p
i think that was his question
Hi Adam!
Question for the Next Q&A:
So, I'm an amateur jazz pianist. I've been playing for about two years and I started looking into jazz over quarantine.
I purchased a Real Book about a month ago, and I had a question about the way I should play chords.
Say, for instance, I'm playing All of Me. The first chord is a C6, which I could easily play as C-E-G-A. The second chord is E7, which, once again, I could easily play as E-Ab-B-D.
But should I play them this way? I am educated about inversions, so should I use those more often?
Furthermore, I've been told that one doesn't need to play all the notes of a chord to get the full sound. Which notes can be omitted?
(On a related note, if I'm playing with a group of people, and not playing the melody, only chords, how do I voice them efficiently?)
Thanks in advance!
apart from all the music stuff, one of the greatest things Adam has shown me is the value of asking questions that... I don't want to call them bad or pointless, but questions many would see as not worth asking, or not very relevant, because the unveiling of anything reveals a lot about how and why we veil things, and how and why we remove it later.
Lost it at 11:03, never thought i'd hear that from the neelster
I'm a simple man, I see Zappa in the thumbnail, I click
When your thumbnail is so anti-clickbait that it creates interest again
Good point on Ableton @5:00 I don't produce but it just seems more intuitive captures that playfulness of fuckin around with music
2:06 - 2:53 I've definitely heard this exact chord somewhere, but I can't remember where. Oh, okay, I found it - I hear it like a b6 chord with 5 in bass, like a Cm(b13) that wants to resolve to Cm.
Also something like C(b13) -> Cm which I think is derived from harmonic major scale is a common thing in sci-fi soundtracks and was masterfully used in 1917 soundtrack.
Also it sounds good to me and I don't understand why an inversion of maj7 chord must sound like a maj7 chord. Esus4(b13b9) or F/E5 or F5/E5 sounds good to me.
Also b9 sounds good as a phrygian note that resolves into a tonic basically anywhere, like Dmb9 -> Dm, or F7b9 -> Dm, F7b9 -> D,
For extensive use of b9 listen (or read the notes) to Obscura (Anticosmic Overload, Septuagint, Sermon of The Seven Suns, Fractal Dimensions), they use a lot of dissonance in their application of death metal.
In some of my compositions b9 is so important that I can't substitute it with 8th or 9th. It just has this unique dissonance and emotion.
Also if you play chords with 9th up or down a diatonic scale you're gonna have b9 on phrygian and locrian parts.
In Radiohead song 2 + 2 = 5 first two chords are Fm -> Em(b6b9no5) or Fsus2/E (?). If you substitute b9 with 8 (thus making it just a first inversion V chord) it will sound super resolved and very wrong. I think the reason is in intervals between the notes that are created because of b9 note: b9, 4 and 2 which are creating this wide and at the same time dissonant sound (also low guitar tunning makes it even more dissonant), with b6, b3 and 5 being more neutral intervals which just indicate a minor sound. If you use an 8th note intervals are gonna be 8, 3 and b3 which sound normal beacuse it's a triad.
Also b9 can be used extensively if composing using diminished scales.
Also E(add11)/A or over E is beautiful.
Also.
I want a loop of Adam going "CLICK! RED LINE! DRAW!"
Repetition Legitimizes, after all
Same lol
I'm starting a piece with that minor9th voiced major7th chord now.
ok glad to see other comments talking about him saying fursona that shit felt weird
I love your emphasis on how a decision in songwriting doesn't always need to have a music theory justification behind it, I would add that the flip side is also true, that a piece of music might be incredibly theorically complex and masterful from the sheet music's perspective, but if it just doesn't sound good to you, you're not "wrong" in disliking it
2:07 this chord, but with second inversion on top, is used in Avishai Cohen's Ani Aff