Even though these videos often move too fast for me to thoroughly learn anything, I appreciate how they never fail to give me a good grasp of how each subject works before I learn them for real!
Thank You, for this clear and helpful analysis. As a lutenist practicing baroque music, ALL the 17th and early 18th cent. "basso continuo" line of music is written that way ! Except earlier music (Monteverdi and als) where there is NO figure at all, you must guess... For people who may think that no one care about 17th century music, let me just remind that it includes Purcell, Bach, Weiss, Teleman, Haendel, Couperin, Lully, Charpentier, Rameau, Marais, Campra, Forqueray, Delalande, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Strozzi, Scarlatti and an the other thousand I forget 😉And are concerned Lute, Harpsichord, positive organ, harp, baroque guitar and viola da gamba
Figured bass is not about telling you which chord tone the bass note is. It's much simpler, it's a list of the intervals above it. Understanding continuo in the 21st century requires unlearning the idea of chordal roots. Music in the 17th century was transitioning out of a lateral, contrapuntal style, of which figured bass is a kind of shorthand, into a vertical, harmonic paradigm.
Very true! However, in practice, the two have the same effect: If the bass is G and there's a B and an E above it, then it's an E minor with a third in the root, whether that's how 17th century composers would describe it or not.
@@12tone if you will forgive me for responding to your five-year-old comment, for the sake of its new audience, I will say you are mistaken, because 17th century continuo manuals state that the 63 chord, which you call a first inversion triad, is to be played without doubling the bass note. That is, it was considered a lighter sonority than the 53 chord, which a modernist would call a root position triad. Such subtleties are lost on a person who views old music through a newer lens.
@@taylordiclemente5163 please, can you tell me where begin to reading into this? Two weeks into studying this topic and most all sources are lacking or unintelligible for my low level of theoretical studies.
Inversions on piano make sense and are easier for me to comprehend. When it comes to chordal stringed instruments most chords are already a form of inversion. I know this wonderful and much appreciated channel is rarely instrument specific yet I would still like to understand inversions for guitar and I feel you would be the best at describing how the rules are different on chord strings.
Almost everyone watching this channel is probably a "musician". I play the piano. I am not a "musician". And I was wondering if I don't have Aural Aphantasia since I don't have music in my head. But I learned the Rule of the Octave last week, and started practicing it. And it was becoming like any other chord exercise. Until I went back and tried to harmonize either the tonic, third or fifth. Just two voice harmony. And listed to the notes and even sing them. That is a major accomplisment since i was told to move my lips and not make a sound all my life. But I think that's the key for starting out. It worked with orphans in Napoli.
Came here to see if there were any comments to this point. Various figured bass traditions treat accidentals either as generic alterations (as described in the video) or as literal accidentals.
Very interesting to see a person, who prefers Chord symbols, presenting figured bass! The sentence in the beginning: "Why they ever thought that's easier, I don't know" is incredibly interesting, because I really have troubles with chord symbols but not with figured bass. I guess it simply depends in which music area you are "at home". So there is a question coming up: Do chord symbols "discourage from" / ignore voice leading? What's the difference in thinking when interpreting music "based on" chord symbols vs. figured base? You mention "realisation" - is that not the case with chord symbols? Excellent video - thank you very much!
One should also learn Figured Bass if one wants to understand how common practice period composers thought. They didn’t think so much in chord inversions, but considered the different figures as chords unto themselves.
I have been reading through a text book (Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music by Robert Gauldin) and I couldn't figure out, figured base until you explained it.
I had a similar experience back in college! We had a pretty bad teacher for my first level, so I tried to learn stuff from our textbook (Harmony, by Walter Piston) and I had no idea what was going on, then I switched to a different teacher and the way they explained it just made so much more sense. Glad we could help!
Realising figured bass at the keyboard is the only way that truly makes sense in my opinion. Even if you do it on paper, I find ich so much more practical to write 3 voices on the top system, leaving the bass alone underneath. Not violating any rule then becomes much easier than you seem to imply. A technicality: the 42 chord is actually just notated 2 if it remains within the scale (diatonic).
Good video. For this musical technique, the Italian pronunciation is used, Bass (like "base" for the instrument) is pronounced as Baaah-so Continuo. 🎶🙂
I tried to comment on your blog with the exercises, but the comment section ate it twice. FB seems to me to be most useful for keyboard players, giving them what to play with the right hand to fill out the harmony above the bass in the left. Possibly it also is a better indicator of functional harmony than chord symbols, depending on the system used for the latter. As a singer, I find FB an interesting curiosity. As a composer, I've never used it, although it could be a good way to remind me of the harmonic decisions that I've made.
This was very helpful! Thanks for posting. But I have to comment: "Unless you're trying to get a music degree"? Really? There's a big (pro and am) Baroque scene where I live, and we would encourage the continuo player to simply relax, get off the page, play the chords and make up an accompaniment. It's how it was done.
Interesting! I haven't really encountered much in the way of a "Baroque scene" outside of my theory classes, but it's really cool that it's still out there. I'd stand by my statement 'cause I still think most people aren't very likely to encounter it very often, but to be clear, I didn't meant that it wasn't going to be useful or fun to know, just that I think most non-academic musicians are unlikely to run into it much.
I'm in the SF Bay Area where the Early Music community is pretty vibrant. I at least know that the figures should serve as a skeletal outline of the harmonies, and good players were (still are!) able to improvise using the figures as a guide. I am writing a piece that uses continuo for a client who wants me to add the figures AND write in a realization for less-experienced players, just like any good modern edition of a Baroque piece would do. I am not very experienced as a continuo keyboardist myself (hence seeking out instructional videos), so it's kind of a slow process.
Good explanation, but watch out at 4:43: You need to prepare the seventh of the D7, if you want to use it. Since the C is not part of the chord before (G/B), you cannot put it into the D7, unless you place it as a passing note in an unaccented beat (for example D on beat 3 moving to D7 on beat 4). Please follow the rules of four part writing.
You mean to say ...instead of composing a melody line , we have to compose a bass line ...and then according to that bass line ...we find the chords ?... Is this figured bass ????
“Unless you’re trying to get an actual music degree, you won’t encounter figured bass very often”
Why do you think I’m here 😭
"Unless you're trying to get an actual music degree, you won't encounter figured bass that much"
Me, a music major-- o_O
Me: in AP theory °´°
@@desereeboyer7555 AP the harmonic style of 18th-century European musician.
See my comment above
Even though these videos often move too fast for me to thoroughly learn anything, I appreciate how they never fail to give me a good grasp of how each subject works before I learn them for real!
came here for help in theory class, but young 12tone is actually so cute
Thank You, for this clear and helpful analysis. As a lutenist practicing baroque music, ALL the 17th and early 18th cent. "basso continuo" line of music is written that way ! Except earlier music (Monteverdi and als) where there is NO figure at all, you must guess... For people who may think that no one care about 17th century music, let me just remind that it includes Purcell, Bach, Weiss, Teleman, Haendel, Couperin, Lully, Charpentier, Rameau, Marais, Campra, Forqueray, Delalande, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Strozzi, Scarlatti and an the other thousand I forget 😉And are concerned Lute, Harpsichord, positive organ, harp, baroque guitar and viola da gamba
This seems like the most intuitive way to jam with other musicians besides straight listening. We need to bring it back 😄
Figured bass is not about telling you which chord tone the bass note is. It's much simpler, it's a list of the intervals above it. Understanding continuo in the 21st century requires unlearning the idea of chordal roots. Music in the 17th century was transitioning out of a lateral, contrapuntal style, of which figured bass is a kind of shorthand, into a vertical, harmonic paradigm.
Very true! However, in practice, the two have the same effect: If the bass is G and there's a B and an E above it, then it's an E minor with a third in the root, whether that's how 17th century composers would describe it or not.
, thank you. You eloquently explained what everyone seems to be not saying.
@@mrsam2026 I am very happy to have helped!
@@12tone if you will forgive me for responding to your five-year-old comment, for the sake of its new audience, I will say you are mistaken, because 17th century continuo manuals state that the 63 chord, which you call a first inversion triad, is to be played without doubling the bass note. That is, it was considered a lighter sonority than the 53 chord, which a modernist would call a root position triad. Such subtleties are lost on a person who views old music through a newer lens.
@@taylordiclemente5163 please, can you tell me where begin to reading into this? Two weeks into studying this topic and most all sources are lacking or unintelligible for my low level of theoretical studies.
Inversions on piano make sense and are easier for me to comprehend. When it comes to chordal stringed instruments most chords are already a form of inversion. I know this wonderful and much appreciated channel is rarely instrument specific yet I would still like to understand inversions for guitar and I feel you would be the best at describing how the rules are different on chord strings.
This is by far the best video on figured bass I’ve encountered. I love that you also bothered to explain WHY figured bass came about. Thank you.
Almost everyone watching this channel is probably a "musician".
I play the piano. I am not a "musician".
And I was wondering if I don't have Aural Aphantasia since I don't have music in my head.
But I learned the Rule of the Octave last week, and started practicing it. And it was becoming like any other chord exercise. Until I went back and tried to harmonize either the tonic, third or fifth. Just two voice harmony. And listed to the notes and even sing them. That is a major accomplisment since i was told to move my lips and not make a sound all my life.
But I think that's the key for starting out.
It worked with orphans in Napoli.
I would take issue with the point at 3:34, figured bass often uses naturals. (My source: Continuo Playing According to Handel)
Came here to see if there were any comments to this point. Various figured bass traditions treat accidentals either as generic alterations (as described in the video) or as literal accidentals.
Very interesting to see a person, who prefers Chord symbols, presenting figured bass! The sentence in the beginning: "Why they ever thought that's easier, I don't know" is incredibly interesting, because I really have troubles with chord symbols but not with figured bass. I guess it simply depends in which music area you are "at home".
So there is a question coming up: Do chord symbols "discourage from" / ignore voice leading? What's the difference in thinking when interpreting music "based on" chord symbols vs. figured base? You mention "realisation" - is that not the case with chord symbols?
Excellent video - thank you very much!
Thank you so much for this. I think I'm starting to understand and this is the closest I've become. Your lessons are so helpful.
One should also learn Figured Bass if one wants to understand how common practice period composers thought. They didn’t think so much in chord inversions, but considered the different figures as chords unto themselves.
I have been reading through a text book (Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music by Robert Gauldin) and I couldn't figure out, figured base until you explained it.
I had a similar experience back in college! We had a pretty bad teacher for my first level, so I tried to learn stuff from our textbook (Harmony, by Walter Piston) and I had no idea what was going on, then I switched to a different teacher and the way they explained it just made so much more sense. Glad we could help!
You saved my music theory grade!
Realising figured bass at the keyboard is the only way that truly makes sense in my opinion. Even if you do it on paper, I find ich so much more practical to write 3 voices on the top system, leaving the bass alone underneath. Not violating any rule then becomes much easier than you seem to imply.
A technicality: the 42 chord is actually just notated 2 if it remains within the scale (diatonic).
Good video. For this musical technique, the Italian pronunciation is used, Bass (like "base" for the instrument) is pronounced as Baaah-so Continuo. 🎶🙂
This makes me wish I can go back in time and smack the snot out of myself and learn music theory.
Thank god I found a proper video of explaining
I tried to comment on your blog with the exercises, but the comment section ate it twice.
FB seems to me to be most useful for keyboard players, giving them what to play with the right hand to fill out the harmony above the bass in the left. Possibly it also is a better indicator of functional harmony than chord symbols, depending on the system used for the latter.
As a singer, I find FB an interesting curiosity. As a composer, I've never used it, although it could be a good way to remind me of the harmonic decisions that I've made.
Know what’s more fun than figured bass? Unfigured bass homework at 2:05 in the morning
i relate to that
This was very helpful! Thanks for posting. But I have to comment: "Unless you're trying to get a music degree"? Really? There's a big (pro and am) Baroque scene where I live, and we would encourage the continuo player to simply relax, get off the page, play the chords and make up an accompaniment. It's how it was done.
Interesting! I haven't really encountered much in the way of a "Baroque scene" outside of my theory classes, but it's really cool that it's still out there. I'd stand by my statement 'cause I still think most people aren't very likely to encounter it very often, but to be clear, I didn't meant that it wasn't going to be useful or fun to know, just that I think most non-academic musicians are unlikely to run into it much.
I'm in the SF Bay Area where the Early Music community is pretty vibrant.
I at least know that the figures should serve as a skeletal outline of the harmonies, and good players were (still are!) able to improvise using the figures as a guide. I am writing a piece that uses continuo for a client who wants me to add the figures AND write in a realization for less-experienced players, just like any good modern edition of a Baroque piece would do. I am not very experienced as a continuo keyboardist myself (hence seeking out instructional videos), so it's kind of a slow process.
Thanks for this video!! Very well explained and well presented!!👍
thanks this is helping me prepare for my PhD exam!!!
Omg I have mine next month and I’m stressed lol
I love this channel. Thank you. Bring on the merch ... me want!
thank you for amazing lesson very clear
Good explanation, but watch out at 4:43: You need to prepare the seventh of the D7, if you want to use it. Since the C is not part of the chord before (G/B), you cannot put it into the D7, unless you place it as a passing note in an unaccented beat (for example D on beat 3 moving to D7 on beat 4). Please follow the rules of four part writing.
What I learnt is that you only have to prepare the 7th of a ii7 chord, and not a V chord.
Dominant 7ths need no preparation.
I've never heard of this "rule" before.
Thank you 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
What if under the bass note, it just has a flat or sharp?
Does that imply the 3rd is altered?
@@abelmank Yes! :)
12tone There is realized Continuo aka Facilitated Continuo
I’m just not completely understanding the bass. Is the bass going to be the root or the third?🤔
it depends on what the figured bass says it is.
You mean to say ...instead of composing a melody line , we have to compose a bass line ...and then according to that bass line ...we find the chords ?...
Is this figured bass ????
Aw dude those are the best jelly babies... Haribo amirite?
And just when i expected the French notation explained, i heard "and this is figured base". For real? That's all there is to know?
0:29 it isn´t simpler
Exactly, the point was to save ink and paper, not simplicity.
It is in fact, way simpler for the kind of harmonic improvisation people did at the time.
New handwriting?
Right hand writing
***thoroughbass
This is not the kind of video to talk fast and use fast forwarded penning dude
slow down
It's actually called thoroughbass, not through bass.
Interesting! That's not what my teachers called it, but looking it up, that seems to be right. Thanks!
It's a onomatopoeia... :O
Wtf