The weirdest thing is that this is the second time I've seen a content creator put their own ads on their RUclips channel. I wonder if they get money from this.
Even though I knew the vast majority of these, I watched the whole video. I really admired how smoothly you put it together, and how clear and concise your explanations were. And I did end up learning a few new terms like "simile," "anacrusis," and "rallentando." Amazing video.
I suppose given that David didn't differentiate between them, that "rallentando" and "ritardando" are only subtly different and not in a hard and fast way.
I’m 2 minutes in and I’m learning so much. I thought I would have known most of the stuff in the first half and I was wrong… thanks for making me learn more!
A mazing. In two words. I'm trying to build up my music knowledge especially since I started piano when I turned 65. I was the kid that the choir teachers told to move my lips and not make a sound. I joked that I had two left ears. There is another famous music channel that talks music theory, but he has a difficult time explaining things simply, without assuming that you have intimate knowledge of advanced ideas. To talk at a basic level is a gift, and you are a gifted person. Merci beaucoup.
Back in the pre-internet stone age, it took me years and a couple of books and sheet music explanations to get to know most of these, and still there were a couple that I've heard of for the first time time. It's a must see for all music lovers/amateur musicians to save valuable time. Hats off, David, for this gem!
Little kids guitar teacher here. I always stress the importance to them of learning the fundamentals of music theory, even if just to make my life easier explaining things to them as a teacher. Most of them are probably a little bit too young to grasp everything in this video but I'm going to show it to one of my students tomorrow. This is fantastic information, very well presented. Great video. Thank you.
Now Rick Beato is off interviewing all the big music stars, David is becoming genuinely one of the best music educators on RUclips. Congrats on your growth, David. Well-deserved.
When you talked about Dynamics, it wasn't enough developped: You only mentionned piano and forte, but there's also: ppp: pianississimo = extremely soft pp: pianissimo = very soft mp: mezzopiano = moderatively soft mf: mezzoforte = moderatively loud ff: fortissimo = very loud fff: fortississimo = extremely loud cresc. ( or >): crescendo = louder and louder dim. (or
I agree. Also something else ( nothing to do with dynamics or tempo) is pizzicato , a violin technique where you pinch (I thnik it's like that in English) the string as you would do on a guitar, giving a particular sound
These were the best 30 minutes I have ever spent learning music theory. That video is so informative and so well explained, but what makes it special are the transitions that are so smooth that it all feels genuinely connected and logical - so much that I have watch it all at once. THANK YOU!
It’s really good. I feel like there was a more missing in dynamics. What about mezo piano/forte? What about pianissimo/fortissimo? What about crescendos and decrescendos? What about sforzando?
the way I've heard so many of these terms before but never understood the technical reasoning behind their names - like diminished chords - is wild. I'm so appreciative of your videos, they really are absolutely brilliant. you explain things in such a simple, concise way without ever making me feel silly for not knowing those things. I've been watching your videos for maybe a year now and I've learned more from them about music theory than I ever did in high school choir or band. thank you
Even though I know most of this already, kudos from my side for the work you put into this video. Just adding the list of 50+ chapters to make things easier to find is already a lot of work.
Fabulous summary! Very impressive to pack so much into a short video yet maintain your usual clarity. How about counterpoint, fugue, chromatic mediant, suspension, register, measure, quantized, unquantized, in the pocket, groove, feel, saturation, waveforms as possible terms for the next 101 terms video?
11:51 - Being a Microtonality nerd, it’s worth pointing out that in other tunings - some older and some (arguably) futuristic - tunings F# and Gb are different pitches.
Great summary video! The vast majority of these terms I already knew (since I’ve taken Common-Practice Music Theory), but a few of the more jazz-oriented terms I did not know. So, thanks! 7:25 - minor nitpick: Strictly-speaking, a modulation (in that sense of the term) is a change of _tonal-center_ , not necessarily a change of key or of key signature. So, a change from C-major to C-minor _is_ a key change (no sharps nor flats to three flats), but not a modulation, because C is still the tonal center. It’s just a modal exchange from major to minor. C-major to A-minor _is_ a modulation, even though the key (or at least the key signature) does not change.
I've never felt as invested in a music theory video and I'm really trying to learn. Your video really got me hooked. That was so well-presented thank you so much !!
It's always been fascinating to me on just how people manage to describe sounds and music through literally terms. How exactly do you frame a melody with 24 characters? Of course I know the basic sheet music terms, but this video was extremely informative to a deeper understanding, so thanks!
Very well done video, comprehensive insight. Allow a few additions though. To clarify and round up the topic of inversion, it should be mentioned that a triad chord has two inversions. In the example at 7:03, the 1st inversion of the C chord (c-e-g) was C/E (e-g-c) is exemplified. Now, the 2nd inversion would be C/G (g-c-e). -- In the section about chromatic notes, accidentals and enharmonic notes, in particular 11:52-12:10, may I add that by convention, we usually write a flat (b) accidental when the melody goes down, and a sharp (#) when it goes up, which spares a subsequent natural sign which would be needed otherwise. Generally, it might be worth noting that it is not arbitrary which one of enharmonic notes are used. E.g., there is no c# in a Bb minor chord (bb-db-f), and no Eb in a B major chord (b-d#-f#). Btw, the word "chromatic" comes from the greek "chroma" which means "colour", so one could say that a chromatic tone gives colour to a melody, which would be a nice mnemonic clue. - To help remembering which note is where in a stave, one may remember that the treble clef at 17:15 is an ornamentic version of the letter "g", and also encircles the note "g". In a follow-up video, you might consider introducing the bass clef, and how it marks the „f“. - As to grace notes from 19:43, it might be worth mentioning that an appoggiatura (long grace) is always played on the beat of the main note while an acciaccatura (short grace) may be played on the beat or slighly before the beat of the main note, depending on style or epoch. E.g. in the clarinet intro to Rhapsody in Blue which is shown at 27:02, the double grace note is played ahead of the main beat. -- Also worth noting is that an upper mordent (see from 21:30) is known to the language of music only since the 19th century. Before, it was called a pralltriller or schneller (in German, it is still a Pralltriller while a Mordent is still reserved for a lower mordent). -- The part about homophony and polyphony seems to be debatable. Polyphony means that every voice is independent and stands on ist own. This is not the case in the Happy Birthday example at 26:21 which has still a predominant melody while the other voices are purely accompanying. IMHO, some arabesque ornamentation does not qualify for polyphony as it only plays around a harmony note or transits tot he following. The example at 26:32 seems to refer to a subset of homophony, namely melody-dominated homophony. Homophony in its purest form also is also homorhythmic, i.e., each melody note (or almost each) is backed by a harmony note played or sung by the other voices at the same time respectively (vertical harmony). - Please feel free to respond where I may have failed.
Bro where was this video when I had to do the AP test?? I mean got a 3 on the test but still! I knew more terms rn then when I had AP Music Theory last year. Beautifully well done video man 💙
Excellent flow through the terms! Missed most Italian words for tempo, coda, segno, capo, rests, leger lines, double bar lines, dotted bar, brace, crescendo, and diminuendo from the top of my head. Awesome work though - bring on the sequel!
Very nicely put together, and was a good rehearsal of a few that I forgot about.... Your explanations are always very good, using the correct terminology and words to clarify.
I watched the video even though I fully expected to already know all these terms (I have a music degree), but surprisingly I had never heard the terms “conjunct” or “disjunct” before for some reason. Good video as usual! I wish it had existed when I was starting to learn theory, I bet it will be very helpful for people who are new to this
Great video. I already knew most of these terms, but I still managed to learn new things. That said, I can think of several term that deserve to be in a follow-up video: Counter-melody Modes Letimotif Duet, trio, etc. Pentatonic (You only mentioned heptatonic scales, but pentatonic scales are also important) 7th chords (and 9th, 11th, etc) Alto and tenor clefs (why the viola hate, man? jk) German, English and French 6t chords (These are so underrated in my opinion and deserve more love) Tempo markings, like adagio and allegro.
Great video as always. Gave you a like. Follow up? The multitude of directions (usually in Italian), like: Allegro, Presto, Del Capo, Alto, and such. The Del Segno (which I find needs to be drawn a lot bigger to find it), Cresendo, Decresendo, Coda, 8va, 15va, 8vb, 15vb, Volta Clefs, Slur vs. Tie vs. Phrase, Volta Brackets, the C Clef and its various positions on the Stave. Clef Braces, Score Brackets. Bars mark a Measure, Repeat Bars (begin and end), Measure Numbers, Fingering Numbers, End Bar, Ledger Lines. Auxilliary Note, Courtesy Accidental. You may need 3 videos to cover it all... just add on as you go. I forget what they are called: The sharps and flats we use to indicate a Key... I call them "Incidentals", but that is not their proper name.
I don't believe crescendos or decrescendos were mentioned (Edit: There are more specific notations that would make the video significantly longer if they were explained, which is probably why they weren't. For instance; if something like "prestissimo" is written in music, it means to play at a really high tempo. Latin words are commonly used in music notation like this, so if you are good with latin it should be easy to pick apart what they mean. Some pieces use obscure notation in the form of words like this. For instance, at the beginning of Rush E, there is text in the sheet music that says "Lento, poco a poco accel". "Lento" means slow, "poco a poco" means little by little, and "accel" means fast. This would translate to "Slow, little by little fast". In other words, you slowly speed up over time. I'd recommend either looking it up or asking somebody who can translate latin if you see text like that and don't know how to read it.)
Hey I'm just know trying to learn the Piano n read music....but this is the first time I heard about the " Blue Note " Now I see why they was called " Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes " also I can see in my head how the BLUES started..the Brothers waaaay deep South..in those cotton fields was stretching the cords to 4 keys.. instead of 3. Bc of the PAIN!!!! n the SUFFERING..that they was accustom to..made every day dark .. dusty.. bluish looking surrounding..hence..I got the blues..so that note is called Blue Note bc the person who kept playing that extra note i.e. Muddy Waters..yeah I'm Black n born n raised in the ghetto of city Boston..60 years old n I had many on many days that was very blueish looking. So now I can see it CLEARLY...ty.
My favorite term is 'stretto' . Also the connection of the 2 treble and bass clefs (@26:24) is called a 'system'. You can have 2 or more 'systems' on one page and need to identify which needs attention. TV is broadcasting The Sound of Music tonight. What if they changed Do Ray Mi, to 'Do Ray Ma'? riots everywhere.
A couple more that came to mind. Alto & Bass Clef, did you say Tonic,supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant and leading note? 22 basic tempo markers + 22 additional western, 9 French and 7 German . I (Ionian) Don't (Dorian) Particularly (Phrygian) Like (Lydian) Modes (Mixolydian) A (Aeolian) Lot (Lorcrian) dbl sharp
As a (Suzuki Method) violin teacher I'll be sending this to my students, especially those who are taking their GCSE music. I do teach theory in my lessons, but it's great to have a resource of terms I can direct them to. Could you also add some orchestral shorthand - like the different ways of doubling or tremolando? But pretty please with sugar on it can you add harmonics? Both natural and 'forced' with the little diamond noteheads and how to play them - I STILL have my own problems with those!
This is a great video. I would only make one addition: When you were going over staccato, accents etc, you should have covered the bar over a note. The opposite of staccato, the tenuto tells the player to make sure he plays the note to its full length, even extending it slightly longer than indicated. You could have added the mercato, which is an even stronger accent than the > symbol, but now I'm picking nits. Otherwise, this was a great piece, and should be required watching for any music player.
I have a friend who majored in music theory to learn all this. He spent years in college. I spent 30 minutes on RUclips. I'm the one who actually wants to implement this creatively. College nearly killed his love of music. Life is funny.
*Resolution* could have been used with Cadence. Going into tension and release. Some people, especially young people, generally don’t understand a need to “resolve” melodies and harmonies. Although we still need extra terms, like extra dynamic terms, texture terms, and tempo terms (like accelerando and allegro), you did a mighty fine job, mate. Giving this to my kids to study. Make a part 2! in the words of Ian McDiarmid: *DEW IT!*
25:38 Here, a part of the difference in sound is also dynamics I guess? Like in ADSR terms, a piano has a very short attack phase, while the violin has a way longer attack phase. The transient is different so to say. Timbre is just the waveform, right? Or is it also "how the waveform evolves over time" ?
Yes you're absolutely right. To be more precize though, timbre is the number and loudness of overtones. The so-called "fundamental" is the base, meaning the lowest tone that plays and it is also of the same pitch as the basic note we describe the entire thing by. The "overtones" are naturally occuring tones above our fundamental. The first overtone is double the frequency of the fundamental, whilst the second overtone is double the first overtone's frequency and so on. Depending on how loud these overtones are, how many we percieve and which ones are audible, we percieve different timbres. For example a sine wave has absolutely no overtones and therefore it's waveform looks as basic as it is. Other instruments have different waveforms and therefore overtones of different loundnesses. Dynamics, transient, attack, decay, sustain and release are terms that only refere to the loudness of the entire note though. This means that the relative loudness between the fundamental and overtones stays practically the same throughout the entire duration of the note. The absolute loudness or at least the relative loudness in comparison to other notes and other instruments - when we consider the fundamental and overtones all as one comprehensive unit - is what we describe via ADSR, transient and Dynamics. That said: I wouldn't really consider dynamics as a difference in sound most of the time. While the transient/ ADSR describe how a single note's loudness behaives, dynamics are a way of describing loudness and softness throughout a larger musical unit - wether those would be smaller ones like bars and motifs or larger ones like melodies, verses or even entire pieces. I mean nobody would ever describe the attack or release as forte or pianissimo would they? This would classicly rather fall under the umbrella-term of articulations. Sorry for the long text I just wanted to be as thorough as possible from the start
@@erik6737 right, that is how I understand it . Now let me blur the lines with the following. Consider a static waveform (one unchanging ratio of root to overtones). But, instead of a volume envelope, a filter envelope. So ADSR but it controls cutof frequency of a filter instead of gain. I'd say it changes timbre. But it stil feels like the same instrument. It isn't as drastic as changing from say a trumpet to a guitar.. So what are your thoughts on that? Mine are that we humans really like to categorise things, put things into boxes. And the universe really just doesn't give a f*ck about those urges 😂
@@Quadr44t that's a good example my guy. I like you're philosophy behind it but let me explain how I think of this. The filter envelope uses the ADSR system, yet the ADSR doesn't directly affect the sound. It's just a way of controlling values and these values then get send to the filter. Afterwards the filter changes the sound. Filters - for me - fall under the category of effects. These can alter overall volume but also the timbre. For example if we take a filter and try to solo out only the frequency of our fundamental we end up with something that sounds like a sine wave and not our original instrument. We could technically also push individual overtones and soften others in order to produce something that sounds like a different instrument even though this would be more than tedious. The reason why the instrument sounds more or less like the same instrument is first of all because we usually don't change the relationship between overtones drastically enough for our brains to stop recognizing the instrument. Secondly, even if we apply quite heavy filters than context helps our brains. In the example of a filter envelope the sound changes over time. This means our brain already knows what it originally sounded like and kind of fills in the gaps to understand what it's hearing once the sound has been manipulated. I guess only if one were distracted enough you could make one loose track or what they're hearing.
@@erik6737 haha, totally agree. I notice you come from a more analogue perspective. I tend to make my own percussion with synths (which I do render as audio clips but that's just for workflow/CPU reasons). But there is vague territory. If you have an envelope that controls FM amount (or waveshape of the carrier signal). I do know (because I tried to digitally recreate this digitally, with the physics in mind) that a plucked guitar string over time loses the fundamental a bit, and the first harmonic starts to dominate. As it decays to rest. That is something a filter can mimic. But the highest overtones will decay first. I tend to use wavetables for a lot of sound design, drawing in harmonics at correct amplitude ratios, and phase for at least the first dozen harmonics. In fact, if you choose your fundamental to be 1or2 Hz, you can virtually (actually not virtually. Literally) recreate any sound. With that trick, and a lot of time on my hands, I recreated the iconic TR-909 open hihat sound. By adding 401 sine waves in correct respective amplitude and phase.... Yeah never again. But you aren't done yet. You only have the static waveform. You need envelopes to control filters, gain, maybe adjust wavetable to actually make it sound accurate. So with all this in mind, everything starts to blur. If I go even deeper it all is just event per unit of time. Rhythm, pitch, timbre, are all different sides of the same coin. All audio, including music only ever has a rhythmic element. It's just, when the rhythms go fast enough, we perceive em as pitch. And I kid you not, if you make a polyrhythm with the same ratios as the frequency ratios of a minor triad(or any chord), and you drastically increase the BPM of said polyrhythm until the rhythm becomes tone. You will actually hear that chord. Which makes sense if you think about it. But still. Rhythm and pitch are the same just like how blue light is the same as gamma radiation. Same thing different frequency. Sorry I trailed off there for a sec. I do enjoy casually nerding out about audio in a random YT comment chain tho. One of the gems of the internet 😂
@@Quadr44t I'm already familiar with the entire pitch = rythm thing but I smile everytime I see someone describe it again just because it's so freaking cool. :) But addressing your "blurring the lines" argument. I have to say that my background is quite similar to yours (even though I was sane enough to not recreate something to the degree you did xD). Of course the lines start to get blurry the deeper you go in but that brings me back to my first response. In order to most accurately describe what is happening we have to look at context and at which dimension (meaning length of time frame here) we look at these things. Just like dynamics are a thing we rather observe on a larger time frame like an entire piece, an envolope is usually developing over a single or even multiple notes. These things are technically and physically the same thing on a smaller scale yet they have completely different consequences in the resulting music. Take rythm and pitch for example: We can technically say they are the same thing, just at different speeds, yet when we here music, we perceive them as entirely different things. What I'm trying to say is: We have many different words for essentially the same things but they differentiate in context. So if you don't want to confuse anybody, then you should probably not use the word dynamics when you're trying to describe timbre. That all said...everything you said is - to my knowledge - technically right.
I really help me for non music background. I hope you can do a video about term and explaination on classical music. For example, what is rhapsody, canon, symphony. Why classical music use op. 9 in the name of song? Help me understanding classical music. Thanks!
at 12:48 the song is actually Alabama by John Coltrane not Afro Blue. I think the mistake come from both song being played in the really popular live performance at Birdland in 1963
There's a couple more articulations you could go over: the tenudo (especially contrasting it with the slur, and explaining the difference between them and legato), the marcato, and then all the combinations (staccato/tenudo + accent/marcato/slur)
I still can’t figure out the difference between legato-staccato and staccato-tenuto, I just play them both the same where I half each note duration. Silly ozymorons
I play music for the last 30 years and never boarded much about music theorie. Till the last 2 years I started to grow a interested in this Language…. Sire you were one of the reasons my interest grew….. Lovely greetings from a old f#ck from Germany…..
Great stuff right there! It's really great to have most of these terms described here. Three terms that are missing is crescendo et decrescendo, since you touched briefly on dynamics, and metric modulation, because that's the only modulation left out. Besides, great video! 👌
I was taught that rubato was something more specific, taking extra time to slow down a beat or two, and then catching up by speeding up following beats so that the overall time is maintained. I wondered what the difference was between tremolo and vibrato. Thanks for clarifying.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
I got an ad before the video and you already started talking, I was confused until I noticed you did an ad for RUclips xD
😂❤
The weirdest thing is that this is the second time I've seen a content creator put their own ads on their RUclips channel. I wonder if they get money from this.
@@lumpstergash2380 Keep making ads and it’s a real infinite money glitch!
Same 😂
Same
Even though I knew the vast majority of these, I watched the whole video. I really admired how smoothly you put it together, and how clear and concise your explanations were. And I did end up learning a few new terms like "simile," "anacrusis," and "rallentando." Amazing video.
Out of these three, I did know only the rallentando.
@@majman446 i’m the opposite of you lol i knew simile and anacrusis
I suppose given that David didn't differentiate between them, that "rallentando" and "ritardando" are only subtly different and not in a hard and fast way.
@@markchapman6800there's also "ritenuto" and the abbreviation "rit.", which may mean ritadando or ritenuto, depending on who wrote it.
surprised someone who knows about tritone substitution doesnt even know simile, anacrusis or rallentando
Tons of work. So well-presented, my man!
I’m 2 minutes in and I’m learning so much. I thought I would have known most of the stuff in the first half and I was wrong… thanks for making me learn more!
A mazing. In two words.
I'm trying to build up my music knowledge especially since I started piano when I turned 65. I was the kid that the choir teachers told to move my lips and not make a sound. I joked that I had two left ears.
There is another famous music channel that talks music theory, but he has a difficult time explaining things simply, without assuming that you have intimate knowledge of advanced ideas. To talk at a basic level is a gift, and you are a gifted person.
Merci beaucoup.
😊😊😊😊
Beato?
Back in the pre-internet stone age, it took me years and a couple of books and sheet music explanations to get to know most of these, and still there were a couple that I've heard of for the first time time.
It's a must see for all music lovers/amateur musicians to save valuable time.
Hats off, David, for this gem!
Little kids guitar teacher here. I always stress the importance to them of learning the fundamentals of music theory, even if just to make my life easier explaining things to them as a teacher.
Most of them are probably a little bit too young to grasp everything in this video but I'm going to show it to one of my students tomorrow. This is fantastic information, very well presented. Great video. Thank you.
Thank you so much for explaining some of the strange symbols i’ve seen in sheet music. It’s sometimes hard to google them
Now Rick Beato is off interviewing all the big music stars, David is becoming genuinely one of the best music educators on RUclips. Congrats on your growth, David. Well-deserved.
Beato is more difficult to figure out than David, and David is the better teacher.
22:32 : i've been looking for this words for so long *cries in relief*
The flow of this video is very impressive. This is a real gem.
I think my ears are getting better. When you played the tritone, I heard the little tune from the Vsause channel 😅
I feel proud that i knew the majority of these, but tonicization was fascinating!
Excellent 😃
When you talked about Dynamics, it wasn't enough developped: You only mentionned piano and forte, but there's also:
ppp: pianississimo = extremely soft
pp: pianissimo = very soft
mp: mezzopiano = moderatively soft
mf: mezzoforte = moderatively loud
ff: fortissimo = very loud
fff: fortississimo = extremely loud
cresc. ( or >): crescendo = louder and louder
dim. (or
I agree. Also something else ( nothing to do with dynamics or tempo) is pizzicato , a violin technique where you pinch (I thnik it's like that in English) the string as you would do on a guitar, giving a particular sound
You forgot ffff, fffff, ffffff, pppp, ppppp, pppppp, sf, sff, sfz, sffz, sfp, spf, fp, and pf
These were the best 30 minutes I have ever spent learning music theory.
That video is so informative and so well explained, but what makes it special are the transitions that are so smooth that it all feels genuinely connected and logical - so much that I have watch it all at once.
THANK YOU!
Incredibly formative, as always! Little Italian tip: "Acciaccatura" should be pronounced as "ah-tchak-atoora" 😉
I believe the second word you are looking for is "informative. "😁
It could be both.
@@josh0011-z4w Why? Formative means educational.
Excellent! Now, if I could only remember all of these. Thanks to you David, I am slowly improving.
I’m a bit of a music theory geek, and I still learned stuff from this video. Thanks David
Thank you for posting this after I failed my music theory class it really helps 😢👍
It’s really good. I feel like there was a more missing in dynamics. What about mezo piano/forte? What about pianissimo/fortissimo? What about crescendos and decrescendos? What about sforzando?
well that would make it more than 101 now wouldnt it
i forgot the name of it, but there's also a symbol that makes a note higher in octave.
Love this video, particularly the bits about articulation and ornamentation, thankyou! One thing I’d add to A Capella though is the concept of Organum
the way I've heard so many of these terms before but never understood the technical reasoning behind their names - like diminished chords - is wild. I'm so appreciative of your videos, they really are absolutely brilliant. you explain things in such a simple, concise way without ever making me feel silly for not knowing those things. I've been watching your videos for maybe a year now and I've learned more from them about music theory than I ever did in high school choir or band. thank you
Even though I know most of this already, kudos from my side for the work you put into this video.
Just adding the list of 50+ chapters to make things easier to find is already a lot of work.
Seriously impressed with the time and effort put into it! 👍
Absolutely wonderful. I can now understand my classical music friends!
Fake and reported
hmm
Fabulous summary! Very impressive to pack so much into a short video yet maintain your usual clarity. How about counterpoint, fugue, chromatic mediant, suspension, register, measure, quantized, unquantized, in the pocket, groove, feel, saturation, waveforms as possible terms for the next 101 terms video?
Friggin love the way you deliver this! I will likely watch this 3, 4, or 5 times! Very useful! Thank you!
A few that could be added: Polyrhythm, Cadence, Voice, Retrograde, Chord stacking, Tension, Tuning, Interval function
A good list, but I think David did include cadence here.
11:51 - Being a Microtonality nerd, it’s worth pointing out that in other tunings - some older and some (arguably) futuristic - tunings F# and Gb are different pitches.
Great summary video! The vast majority of these terms I already knew (since I’ve taken Common-Practice Music Theory), but a few of the more jazz-oriented terms I did not know. So, thanks!
7:25 - minor nitpick: Strictly-speaking, a modulation (in that sense of the term) is a change of _tonal-center_ , not necessarily a change of key or of key signature.
So, a change from C-major to C-minor _is_ a key change (no sharps nor flats to three flats), but not a modulation, because C is still the tonal center. It’s just a modal exchange from major to minor. C-major to A-minor _is_ a modulation, even though the key (or at least the key signature) does not change.
I've never felt as invested in a music theory video and I'm really trying to learn. Your video really got me hooked. That was so well-presented thank you so much !!
That’s great to hear!! 😊
i come from a classical background and ended up learning a lot of jazz terms, very well put together!
This is one of the most useful videos I've ever stumbled upon. I love knowing more about music so I really need this. Thank you for this video.
It's always been fascinating to me on just how people manage to describe sounds and music through literally terms. How exactly do you frame a melody with 24 characters? Of course I know the basic sheet music terms, but this video was extremely informative to a deeper understanding, so thanks!
Very well done video, comprehensive insight. Allow a few additions though. To clarify and round up the topic of inversion, it should be mentioned that a triad chord has two inversions. In the example at 7:03, the 1st inversion of the C chord (c-e-g) was C/E (e-g-c) is exemplified. Now, the 2nd inversion would be C/G (g-c-e). -- In the section about chromatic notes, accidentals and enharmonic notes, in particular 11:52-12:10, may I add that by convention, we usually write a flat (b) accidental when the melody goes down, and a sharp (#) when it goes up, which spares a subsequent natural sign which would be needed otherwise. Generally, it might be worth noting that it is not arbitrary which one of enharmonic notes are used. E.g., there is no c# in a Bb minor chord (bb-db-f), and no Eb in a B major chord (b-d#-f#). Btw, the word "chromatic" comes from the greek "chroma" which means "colour", so one could say that a chromatic tone gives colour to a melody, which would be a nice mnemonic clue. - To help remembering which note is where in a stave, one may remember that the treble clef at 17:15 is an ornamentic version of the letter "g", and also encircles the note "g". In a follow-up video, you might consider introducing the bass clef, and how it marks the „f“. - As to grace notes from 19:43, it might be worth mentioning that an appoggiatura (long grace) is always played on the beat of the main note while an acciaccatura (short grace) may be played on the beat or slighly before the beat of the main note, depending on style or epoch. E.g. in the clarinet intro to Rhapsody in Blue which is shown at 27:02, the double grace note is played ahead of the main beat. -- Also worth noting is that an upper mordent (see from 21:30) is known to the language of music only since the 19th century. Before, it was called a pralltriller or schneller (in German, it is still a Pralltriller while a Mordent is still reserved for a lower mordent). -- The part about homophony and polyphony seems to be debatable. Polyphony means that every voice is independent and stands on ist own. This is not the case in the Happy Birthday example at 26:21 which has still a predominant melody while the other voices are purely accompanying. IMHO, some arabesque ornamentation does not qualify for polyphony as it only plays around a harmony note or transits tot he following. The example at 26:32 seems to refer to a subset of homophony, namely melody-dominated homophony. Homophony in its purest form also is also homorhythmic, i.e., each melody note (or almost each) is backed by a harmony note played or sung by the other voices at the same time respectively (vertical harmony). - Please feel free to respond where I may have failed.
Bro where was this video when I had to do the AP test??
I mean got a 3 on the test but still! I knew more terms rn then when I had AP Music Theory last year. Beautifully well done video man 💙
I play piano by ear, so am learning about most of these terms for the first time. Thanks for sharing 🙏
Excellent flow through the terms! Missed most Italian words for tempo, coda, segno, capo, rests, leger lines, double bar lines, dotted bar, brace, crescendo, and diminuendo from the top of my head. Awesome work though - bring on the sequel!
u just saved my music gcse thank u
Bravo, David. I have so much respect for the work you put into all your excellent videos!
This is a FANTASTIC video, holy shit. Well done David!!! Defo gonna be referencing video for a while.
Very nicely put together, and was a good rehearsal of a few that I forgot about.... Your explanations are always very good, using the correct terminology and words to clarify.
One term which I think was omitted was Modes. But those seven terms could be their own video and lesson. Great stuff as always!
He made a whole video on modes including their differences and emotions they evoke
The fact that listening to this video helps me understand theory more is so nice
14:13 14:41 17:40 18:11 18:40
19:02 19:44 20:40 21:30
22:12 22:32 23:35
24:42
25:22
26:54
So much information packed into one video, thank you for taking the time to make it! I'm bookmarking it to review later too
The goosebumps when Maiden Voyage sprouts up out of the blue, in the Quartal Harmony section...
Very useful little video...has cleared up a few misconceptions I had, thank you David ☺️
Thank you 😊😊😊
I watched the video even though I fully expected to already know all these terms (I have a music degree), but surprisingly I had never heard the terms “conjunct” or “disjunct” before for some reason. Good video as usual! I wish it had existed when I was starting to learn theory, I bet it will be very helpful for people who are new to this
As someone taking Music Theory, I appreciate this :)
Glad to see the Push in it, I have seen many terms used for this but this one seems the most agreed upon , happy to finally know it
Great video. I already knew most of these terms, but I still managed to learn new things. That said, I can think of several term that deserve to be in a follow-up video:
Counter-melody
Modes
Letimotif
Duet, trio, etc.
Pentatonic (You only mentioned heptatonic scales, but pentatonic scales are also important)
7th chords (and 9th, 11th, etc)
Alto and tenor clefs (why the viola hate, man? jk)
German, English and French 6t chords (These are so underrated in my opinion and deserve more love)
Tempo markings, like adagio and allegro.
thanks for this video! It helped me a lot plus congratsfor almost 1 million subs!
Thanks!
This was such a good review and showed me how much I've forgotten but still have locked away inside 💜
I have always loved music my whole life and I have always wondered about this stuff. This video helped me so much! Thank you!!
As an Italian, I am glad to see so many Italian words. It makes it a bit easier for me.
...or "più semplice", as we might see on a music score :)
The pronunciation of "acciaccatura" made me smile 😁
As soon as you played the tritone, I instantly thought of the Vsauce theme.
Great video as always. Gave you a like.
Follow up?
The multitude of directions (usually in Italian), like: Allegro, Presto, Del Capo, Alto, and such. The Del Segno (which I find needs to be drawn a lot bigger to find it), Cresendo, Decresendo, Coda, 8va, 15va, 8vb, 15vb, Volta Clefs, Slur vs. Tie vs. Phrase, Volta Brackets, the C Clef and its various positions on the Stave. Clef Braces, Score Brackets. Bars mark a Measure, Repeat Bars (begin and end), Measure Numbers, Fingering Numbers, End Bar, Ledger Lines. Auxilliary Note, Courtesy Accidental. You may need 3 videos to cover it all... just add on as you go.
I forget what they are called: The sharps and flats we use to indicate a Key... I call them "Incidentals", but that is not their proper name.
I think it's important that tremolo can also mean the rapid repetition or rapid switching between notes (but notated differently from trills)
that's what I thought, like when a pianist is twisting their hand to bounce between a note with their thumb and a note with their pinky
Ojala este video tuviera los subtitulos en español como los demas!! los subtitulos siempre son muy buenos y ayudan mucho
Always a pleasure to learn Piano (music theory) and English with your videos!
I don't believe crescendos or decrescendos were mentioned
(Edit: There are more specific notations that would make the video significantly longer if they were explained, which is probably why they weren't. For instance; if something like "prestissimo" is written in music, it means to play at a really high tempo. Latin words are commonly used in music notation like this, so if you are good with latin it should be easy to pick apart what they mean. Some pieces use obscure notation in the form of words like this. For instance, at the beginning of Rush E, there is text in the sheet music that says "Lento, poco a poco accel". "Lento" means slow, "poco a poco" means little by little, and "accel" means fast. This would translate to "Slow, little by little fast". In other words, you slowly speed up over time. I'd recommend either looking it up or asking somebody who can translate latin if you see text like that and don't know how to read it.)
It's Italian not Latin lol
Oh, man!! You are the best! What a great video, as always!
This video is golden, the most useful video on RUclips for Music Theory
The best way to get better at speaking a language is by conversing regularly with people who speak the language. This video is a good start.
Absolutely superb stuff! The flow of this video was amazing!
Quality video! You might want to follow up with impoartant notation markings like crescendo, 8va, repetition, da capo al fine etc.
This is excellent! Thank you for being so clear and interesting. Great for revision.
Glad it was helpful!
I used this as a little quiz to test my knowledge on music and I still have a lot to learn.
Very comprehensive music theory. So grateful Sir. Ben.
Hey I'm just know trying to learn the Piano n read music....but this is the first time I heard about the " Blue Note " Now I see why they was called " Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes " also I can see in my head how the BLUES started..the Brothers waaaay deep South..in those cotton fields was stretching the cords to 4 keys.. instead of 3. Bc of the PAIN!!!! n the SUFFERING..that they was accustom to..made every day dark .. dusty.. bluish looking surrounding..hence..I got the blues..so that note is called Blue Note bc the person who kept playing that extra note i.e. Muddy Waters..yeah I'm Black n born n raised in the ghetto of city Boston..60 years old n I had many on many days that was very blueish looking. So now I can see it CLEARLY...ty.
Wow! Great stuff! Great review! I love the illustrations and musical examples...very well done!
My favorite term is 'stretto' . Also the connection of the 2 treble and bass clefs (@26:24) is called a 'system'. You can have 2 or more 'systems' on one page and need to identify which needs attention. TV is broadcasting The Sound of Music tonight. What if they changed Do Ray Mi, to 'Do Ray Ma'? riots everywhere.
Sharp/flat/natural, Major/Minor, sforzando, solo/soli, structure (e.g., AABA, Suite, Movement).
This video was great! I have been playing the piano for 6 years but I did not know even half of these! Thank you! Very helpful!
A couple more that came to mind.
Alto & Bass Clef,
did you say Tonic,supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant and leading note?
22 basic tempo markers + 22 additional western, 9 French and 7 German .
I (Ionian)
Don't (Dorian)
Particularly (Phrygian)
Like (Lydian)
Modes (Mixolydian)
A (Aeolian)
Lot (Lorcrian)
dbl sharp
2:17 : Hey Vsauce, Michael here
I can hear it now...
“What IS music, and what does it mean?”-Vsauce, never
Great video! I have music theory up to grade 7 but still earned loads
As a (Suzuki Method) violin teacher I'll be sending this to my students, especially those who are taking their GCSE music. I do teach theory in my lessons, but it's great to have a resource of terms I can direct them to.
Could you also add some orchestral shorthand - like the different ways of doubling or tremolando? But pretty please with sugar on it can you add harmonics? Both natural and 'forced' with the little diamond noteheads and how to play them - I STILL have my own problems with those!
This is a great video. I would only make one addition: When you were going over staccato, accents etc, you should have covered the bar over a note. The opposite of staccato, the tenuto tells the player to make sure he plays the note to its full length, even extending it slightly longer than indicated. You could have added the mercato, which is an even stronger accent than the > symbol, but now I'm picking nits.
Otherwise, this was a great piece, and should be required watching for any music player.
I have a friend who majored in music theory to learn all this. He spent years in college. I spent 30 minutes on RUclips. I'm the one who actually wants to implement this creatively. College nearly killed his love of music. Life is funny.
*Resolution* could have been used with Cadence. Going into tension and release. Some people, especially young people, generally don’t understand a need to “resolve” melodies and harmonies.
Although we still need extra terms, like extra dynamic terms, texture terms, and tempo terms (like accelerando and allegro), you did a mighty fine job, mate. Giving this to my kids to study. Make a part 2! in the words of Ian McDiarmid: *DEW IT!*
Loved it❤
Brilliant video David, thank you very much for this!
Thank you for this great video.
Really, Really enjoyed this !!!
😉😉😉
Love this video. Really helped refresh what I learnt as a teenager
0:36 Nice swing melody
Looks like star spangled banner
Ro-ckets red glare, the bombs bur-sting in air, g-ave proof and I said to the manager
wait, I made a mistake
25:38 Here, a part of the difference in sound is also dynamics I guess? Like in ADSR terms, a piano has a very short attack phase, while the violin has a way longer attack phase. The transient is different so to say. Timbre is just the waveform, right? Or is it also "how the waveform evolves over time" ?
Yes you're absolutely right.
To be more precize though, timbre is the number and loudness of overtones.
The so-called "fundamental" is the base, meaning the lowest tone that plays and it is also of the same pitch as the basic note we describe the entire thing by. The "overtones" are naturally occuring tones above our fundamental. The first overtone is double the frequency of the fundamental, whilst the second overtone is double the first overtone's frequency and so on. Depending on how loud these overtones are, how many we percieve and which ones are audible, we percieve different timbres. For example a sine wave has absolutely no overtones and therefore it's waveform looks as basic as it is. Other instruments have different waveforms and therefore overtones of different loundnesses.
Dynamics, transient, attack, decay, sustain and release are terms that only refere to the loudness of the entire note though. This means that the relative loudness between the fundamental and overtones stays practically the same throughout the entire duration of the note. The absolute loudness or at least the relative loudness in comparison to other notes and other instruments - when we consider the fundamental and overtones all as one comprehensive unit - is what we describe via ADSR, transient and Dynamics.
That said: I wouldn't really consider dynamics as a difference in sound most of the time. While the transient/ ADSR describe how a single note's loudness behaives, dynamics are a way of describing loudness and softness throughout a larger musical unit - wether those would be smaller ones like bars and motifs or larger ones like melodies, verses or even entire pieces.
I mean nobody would ever describe the attack or release as forte or pianissimo would they? This would classicly rather fall under the umbrella-term of articulations.
Sorry for the long text I just wanted to be as thorough as possible from the start
@@erik6737 right, that is how I understand it .
Now let me blur the lines with the following.
Consider a static waveform (one unchanging ratio of root to overtones). But, instead of a volume envelope, a filter envelope. So ADSR but it controls cutof frequency of a filter instead of gain.
I'd say it changes timbre. But it stil feels like the same instrument. It isn't as drastic as changing from say a trumpet to a guitar..
So what are your thoughts on that? Mine are that we humans really like to categorise things, put things into boxes. And the universe really just doesn't give a f*ck about those urges 😂
@@Quadr44t that's a good example my guy. I like you're philosophy behind it but let me explain how I think of this.
The filter envelope uses the ADSR system, yet the ADSR doesn't directly affect the sound. It's just a way of controlling values and these values then get send to the filter. Afterwards the filter changes the sound.
Filters - for me - fall under the category of effects. These can alter overall volume but also the timbre. For example if we take a filter and try to solo out only the frequency of our fundamental we end up with something that sounds like a sine wave and not our original instrument. We could technically also push individual overtones and soften others in order to produce something that sounds like a different instrument even though this would be more than tedious.
The reason why the instrument sounds more or less like the same instrument is first of all because we usually don't change the relationship between overtones drastically enough for our brains to stop recognizing the instrument. Secondly, even if we apply quite heavy filters than context helps our brains. In the example of a filter envelope the sound changes over time. This means our brain already knows what it originally sounded like and kind of fills in the gaps to understand what it's hearing once the sound has been manipulated.
I guess only if one were distracted enough you could make one loose track or what they're hearing.
@@erik6737 haha, totally agree. I notice you come from a more analogue perspective. I tend to make my own percussion with synths (which I do render as audio clips but that's just for workflow/CPU reasons).
But there is vague territory. If you have an envelope that controls FM amount (or waveshape of the carrier signal).
I do know (because I tried to digitally recreate this digitally, with the physics in mind) that a plucked guitar string over time loses the fundamental a bit, and the first harmonic starts to dominate. As it decays to rest. That is something a filter can mimic. But the highest overtones will decay first.
I tend to use wavetables for a lot of sound design, drawing in harmonics at correct amplitude ratios, and phase for at least the first dozen harmonics.
In fact, if you choose your fundamental to be 1or2 Hz, you can virtually (actually not virtually. Literally) recreate any sound. With that trick, and a lot of time on my hands, I recreated the iconic TR-909 open hihat sound. By adding 401 sine waves in correct respective amplitude and phase.... Yeah never again.
But you aren't done yet. You only have the static waveform. You need envelopes to control filters, gain, maybe adjust wavetable to actually make it sound accurate.
So with all this in mind, everything starts to blur. If I go even deeper it all is just event per unit of time. Rhythm, pitch, timbre, are all different sides of the same coin. All audio, including music only ever has a rhythmic element. It's just, when the rhythms go fast enough, we perceive em as pitch. And I kid you not, if you make a polyrhythm with the same ratios as the frequency ratios of a minor triad(or any chord), and you drastically increase the BPM of said polyrhythm until the rhythm becomes tone. You will actually hear that chord. Which makes sense if you think about it. But still.
Rhythm and pitch are the same just like how blue light is the same as gamma radiation. Same thing different frequency.
Sorry I trailed off there for a sec. I do enjoy casually nerding out about audio in a random YT comment chain tho. One of the gems of the internet 😂
@@Quadr44t I'm already familiar with the entire pitch = rythm thing but I smile everytime I see someone describe it again just because it's so freaking cool. :)
But addressing your "blurring the lines" argument. I have to say that my background is quite similar to yours (even though I was sane enough to not recreate something to the degree you did xD). Of course the lines start to get blurry the deeper you go in but that brings me back to my first response.
In order to most accurately describe what is happening we have to look at context and at which dimension (meaning length of time frame here) we look at these things. Just like dynamics are a thing we rather observe on a larger time frame like an entire piece, an envolope is usually developing over a single or even multiple notes. These things are technically and physically the same thing on a smaller scale yet they have completely different consequences in the resulting music.
Take rythm and pitch for example: We can technically say they are the same thing, just at different speeds, yet when we here music, we perceive them as entirely different things.
What I'm trying to say is: We have many different words for essentially the same things but they differentiate in context. So if you don't want to confuse anybody, then you should probably not use the word dynamics when you're trying to describe timbre.
That all said...everything you said is - to my knowledge - technically right.
5:50 hey Vsauce Michael here
Great vid as always 💪
❤ Loved it.
I really help me for non music background. I hope you can do a video about term and explaination on classical music. For example, what is rhapsody, canon, symphony. Why classical music use op. 9 in the name of song? Help me understanding classical music. Thanks!
A canon is basically when you play a melody and then play a the same melody over the top after a few bar, basically a round, like row row your boat
at 12:48 the song is actually Alabama by John Coltrane not Afro Blue. I think the mistake come from both song being played in the really popular live performance at Birdland in 1963
This is so usefull for me because I know a lot of the words but in Spanish. Now I know the translation of a lot of terms I didn't hear of.
Hello, amazing video and explanation. Just wanted to say that the term "comp" also is used a lot in folkmusic😊😁
I need to play catch-up with the new lexicon of music. A video on that could be interesting. Terms such as riser, drop, ratchet, wobble, hit, etc.
thank you, my fav music teacher
There's a couple more articulations you could go over: the tenudo (especially contrasting it with the slur, and explaining the difference between them and legato), the marcato, and then all the combinations (staccato/tenudo + accent/marcato/slur)
I still can’t figure out the difference between legato-staccato and staccato-tenuto, I just play them both the same where I half each note duration. Silly ozymorons
I play music for the last 30 years and never boarded much about music theorie.
Till the last 2 years I started to grow a interested in this Language….
Sire you were one of the reasons my interest grew…..
Lovely greetings from a old f#ck from Germany…..
Good to hear the words 'tone' and 'semitone', rather than 'step' and 'half-step'.
Great stuff right there! It's really great to have most of these terms described here. Three terms that are missing is crescendo et decrescendo, since you touched briefly on dynamics, and metric modulation, because that's the only modulation left out.
Besides, great video! 👌
I was taught that rubato was something more specific, taking extra time to slow down a beat or two, and then catching up by speeding up following beats so that the overall time is maintained.
I wondered what the difference was between tremolo and vibrato. Thanks for clarifying.