Here’s the thing. I already “know” all the music theory and composition stuff you talk about. I have a B.Mus., I later took an in-person course taught one of the most successful TV composers, and I taught a composition class at a small local college. But when you present it, it’s clearer, more meaningful, and simply inspiring. After watching one of your vids, I can’t help but go write something immediately.
I love how half the comments are “well akchualy i wait 4 ur videos cuz I like them”. yeah obviously you’re not the kind of person that message was directed toward. She’s addressing the alarmingly large group of people that for reasons unbeknownst to anyone think any information they learn on RUclips must be a long guarded industry secret that the elite cabal in their ivory tower don’t want the small folk to learn and these altruistic RUclipsrs are risking it all to provide the masses with knowledge
If no one has recommended his work, yet, I would like to put in a word for Alan Belkin. He is a retired professor of composition and an excellent composer, himself. He has a RUclips channel with lengthy, multipart videos on things like counterpoint and harmony, along with exercises and loads of examples. He wrote a very practical textbook on composition called _Musical Composition: Craft and Art,_ which focuses on a lot of things that composition books don't usually cover.
I second the recommendation for Alan Belkin. His content is a lot drier than Anne's to be sure, but very enlightening and thorough. In a totally different vein I've also been getting a lot from Charles Cornell recently. It isn't exactly a composition channel really, more music appreciation, but his ability to drill down into what's happening and instantly reinterpret it on the piano makes each video a fun little snippet of score study.
that's exactly what I was going to say. Alan Belkin's serie on counterpoint is the best that can be found on online videos. His other series are excellent too, but since Anne talks a lot about counterpoint on her ending message, it's the best place to start online. The other guy that everyone should know about regarding orchestration training is Thomas Goss, of course. He has done so much already, and is building such an amazing community on "orchestration online" ...
Keep bringing this content, please. It doesn't matter how many times these things are viewed and reviewed. Sometimes it's the presentation that enables learning. Clearly there are a whole lot of people who take away a lot from yours. Thank you for presenting!
I just found you a couple days ago but realized immediately that you are special. You have a gift for music, but you also have a gift for teaching. Yes, there are books, scores and tons of videos, but few distill it into a useable product so to speak like you do. I've known music theory for 50 or more years, but you bring a neat perspective to it. It's one thing to know what a "hammer and nail" are, but it's another thing to learn to be a carpenter. I've made a living in music all my life and the one thing I have learned above all is that, you never know all there is to know about music. Why? Because just like the infinite variations we can derive from twelve tones and rhythm, there are infinite ways to "look at" it. I went thru the number system in collage but did not fully grasp it's power until I saw Bernstein explain it one day in a 5 minute segment of one of his children's concert series that I just happened to catch one Sunday afternoon on PBS. Back then we only had a few stations we could get and no internet at all. But there was my life in music before that 5 minutes and there was my life in music after that. Bernstein was also not only a great composer/conductor, he was a great musicologist and teacher. In your own way, you have that same teaching skill that he had. I just want to encourage you to make as many of these as you can. You probably have no idea how important you will be to many "newbies" and us "old dogs" as well! You just have an incredible grasp of how to simplify what in a book would seem complicated. You are indeed special!
I guess most of the people here are exatly the ones who watched hundreds of RUclips videos before they found your channel. And those who understand that your vision and explanation are exactly what they were looking for.
In the early 90's, out of anger and frustration I quit my university music studies. My major was composition and by that point I had 3 years of college music studies and was more than half way through my second year. I did, however, have a wonderful career in the music industry over the years despite my leaving school but quitting my studies has always bothered me. 12 years ago, I stopped eating, sleeping and breathing music and began a new career which afforded me the ability to purchase the recording software, plugins, gear I wanted and have a recording studio in my home but something was missing. I had to finish what I started and left so many years ago. I have no desire to go back to school at my age but I am reinvesting in myself and I am studying music again. Your teaching style inspired me to embark on my journey to write orchestral music. Thank you for that and if you ever decide to put an online course together, I will be student #1. In the meantime, I'm going to buy you several coffees!
Hey Anne, great content as usual! I'm not one of those who complained about something, in fact I am super grateful for what you're doing, but I will share my opinion about this topic, because I think it's a big problem for beginners: I can hear/feel when something is "off" in my compositions, but often enough I can't figure out what the actual problem is. Yes, in theory I could look it up somewhere (YT tutorial, book, online course etc.), but that assumes that I can name the problem... Thing is, when I don't even know that a certain "thing" or concept exists, I can't look it up and that's exactly where your videos come in very handy and are helpful. You not only introduce beginners to concepts they've never heard of, you also show them what it's actually about plus you show examples of how and why it's used. One huge mistake I see many beginners (including myself) do is they look up mixing tutorials for how to clean up their muddy mix, because they heard somewhere that it's probably a mixing problem, when in fact the problem can be the arrangement itself. Realizing that was an eye-opener for me and so I started to look up how to write better arrangements. But finding the problem was difficult, because as a beginner you don't even know what mistakes you're making...😅 All you have is this underlying feeling that something is wrong... The sheer mass of music education content that's available on YT today can be overwhelming for beginners and they can get lost quickly and start to confuse one problem with another and look up the "wrong" solution. At least that's my experience haha... Conclusion: I consider your videos to be of the best and most helpful in the field of music education/film scoring. And also your personality and the way you teach are very pleasant. That's probably what makes people wait for you to upload a new video. Please excuse the wall of text.. 😅 All the best, Chris
I love your videos! I studied composition at Uni, so what I like most about your videos is definitely the DAW and MIDI end of things. Also your insider perspective/ terminologies of the film music industry 🤓 It’s like there is a ladder now into this field and to write mock-ups and orchestrations for any type of music! As an important example from my training, Hans Zimmer’s MasterClass was super great for motivation and interpersonal work relationships view of the job, but you get into the nitty-gritty details and how-to’s (of deeply complex topics) with very elegant simplicity! Thank you for making these 🙏 ☺️
I should add that I also genuinely appreciate videos like this one too, where you demystify the harmonic language of film scores with the same in-depth but pleasantly audible and visible approach 🌝😎
1st time here... Having learnt basic theory (plus history) its nice to have a fresh look at this. My tutor was so good at conveying the rudimentaries that it was like going leaps and bounds with ease. Well done Anne-Kathrine for such a clear easy to follow mini class.
Yeah it may have something to do with the fact you present well and you're a great teacher. Books are great, but having the MIDI examples play while you explain is incredibly useful. I've done enough music theory to know there are no secrets and I've watched enough music theory videos to last me a lifetime. You're helping me to understand corners of music theory I never really got before, that's really valuable. Thank you!
WOW, I'm just a low life guitar player but these examples have really inspired me to break out the midi keys and load up some Kontakt soundscapes. Really great demos and expertise. Thank You Anne-Kathrin
Thanks! It’s always nice to see you in the morning! Great beginning of the day! This video is very nice structured even if I knew this before, but you putted it in order.
Just discovered your RUclips channel a few days ago and have watched a handful of you videos and various topics. You're very impressive you knowledge musically, technically, and from music biz standpoint. I grew up and spent most my life in Venice area so the openings of your videos bring back a lot of memories. I'm an Jurassic age guy I remember when there wasn't a Marina Del Rey, I spent half my life working in all aspects of the music biz, playing, live sound, recording engineer, and worked for one one of the great music schools in L.A. back in the day the Grove School of Music which was known for it's arranging and composing program. So working at the school and later in recording studio I was around film and TV biz, so familiar with how things were done before computers so hearing you talk about how things are done now is very intriguing. So really glad I discovered your channel and look forward to watching more videos.
I like so much your content. It's like, I don't know where to start because in every video I learn a lot. I hope you get to be the composer you aspire of.
I'm enjoying watching your RUclips videos, so far just the one on mediants. You too seem to be having a great old time explaining all this. And you're good at it! I'm amazed that you give away these ideas for free; I picked up most of the ideas you presented by fooling around on kbd instruments, e.g. pipe organs, but my training never moved into improvisation, so it's startling to hear it presented this way. Arch
I was an Oberlin Conservatory Composition/Theory Major. I'm now 81, still arranging, playing, and learning. I want to get a DAW, probably Logic Pro X, but I'm concerned about working not looking at notation. I think that, in time and practice, I could deal without notation, but, is it possible to do sound tracks using actual notation and not the various (I call them) colored "bands"? Honestly, Anne, you are a joy to watch and to listen. Thanks for taking time from your other projects. Bo Ayars
If you go with Logic Pro, and as long as you're working with MIDI (vs. recorded audio), you can see both the piano roll (your 'colored bands') as well as traditional notation, and you can conveniently toggle between both views with a simple keystroke ('p' to view the piano roll, or 'n' to view notation). Go for it - you'll have a blast
I need to check and see if you have any videos on passing chords or modal substitution, because if you explain those as well as you did this topic I’ll be so excited!!!
I know you point it out multiple times in the video... but i still can't over how many of these chord changes are just *so damn evocative* of the LotR score. there were only maybe two of them that didn't instantly just scream LotR to me. The strings patch you were using probably helped a lot though x'D
A lot of things people often feel are "gate-kept" really fall under the category of "you don't know what you don't know". I have a BFA in audio production with a minor in Music but I've found more compositional things have eluded me until I learn a certain term or description I can Google. I often don't know what I'm searching for, I just know what it sounds like and that I can't reproduce it until I have a name for it. Like the German 6 chord you mentioned in your video on modulation. Now it has a name and a function logged in my memory
Thank you for another great video, mediants are awesome for evoking emotion and mood 🙂 I think the reason for a lot of the comments and wishes for you to make more videos on specific subjects is that a lot of people here really like the way you explain things, and most have probably already sifted through a lot of videos and articles that didn't resonate with them, so take it as a compliment ;-) That being said, I think books are a kind of "forgotten" information source for our generation when google and youtube is so readily available, and we tend to be kind of spoiled in terms of getting the information we want immediately - at least I'm guilty of that 😛 That said, I have started to buy some books on composing and orchestration the last year (Adler, Belkin, Persichetti etc), and the information contained in books is of course so much denser then one can put in a YT-video, for obvious reasons. Also the topic of counterpoint is a huge undertaking, and as you said, really has to be practised over and over to get a grasp on, preferably with feedback on your homework from a teacher or something, at least if you want to do it like they did hundred of years ago. But some core principals of counterpoint that are more applicable to modern music and scoring would be a cool video/series to see 🙂
hi Anne, hello from Turkey. I follow you on youtube. I am teaching Harmony and counterpoint at university. Thank you for your videos. I agrre with you it takes a long time learning all of them, but especially music students are curious learning chords like tthis video. I am going to plan making a video series about Classical Chorus harmony for youtube. Have a nice days.
I don't know what those folks are talking about, however, I enjoy your videos because 1-I am brand new and wouldn't know which way to look. 2- You break things down that I can understand and make me try different things with what you share. and Finally--3--I LOVE your videos and easy way of talking. Thank you so much!!
That's an interesting perspective, thank you for chiming in! I hadn't actually thought about it this way but it's something I encounter when I look for video related stuff - if you don't know what to look for (e.g. the right terminology) then how can you look for it? I always need to ask actual video professionals in my life what to Google because otherwise I'd never find the right source of information. This is great input, thank you!
@@AnneKathrinDernComposer I have this experience an awfully lot of times too! Looking into let's say a part to fix something and in internet store A they call it this, in B that, in C that etc. If you're not familiar with a term you're like a baked potato: overexposure without a found solution. And in YT looking for some instruction to get you on the way fixing your bike e.g. gets you to go through all the advertisements too. I guess YT should make a difference in really pure instruction videos and entertainment videos as to the amount of shown advertisements. Well, probably¥ they just want to sell you (and me) a subscription fee to their website....
You're right about the multitude of resources. But here's the thing: you explain these things way better and make things much clearer than most. I know, because I'm a teacher and one of the things I teach is Musical Illustration to Digital Media majors, that is students who normally have never really studied music. So I know how difficult it is to select the relevant information which they can understand and which will get them going (assuming that if they will decide that they need more, they can learn everything that I cannot possibly teach them about studio work and musical creation in the course of a short semester). So thank you, you really reinforce the idea that - as Kodaly put it - music belongs to everyone.
I have only watched a few of your videos, but I have gotten TONS of information I “knew” but never heard explained like you do. Simply incredible information that makes hungry to compose! That’s rare for me. You have a gift!
Great video, thanks. I think the best way to learn is by transposing some music that you like so that you can play it in the new key. But it's bloody hard work, for me anyway.
I found myself mentally singing the opening phrase of “Dock of the Bay” to these progressions for some really interesting results! Thanks for the lesson!
@@AnneKathrinDernComposer The joke isn't really on you though. A secret is something that is intentionally hidden. A mystery is unexplainable. You've done a good job of explaining here, though :p
A point on counterpoint, one of the best teachers of it , James Mack, worked with Ramsey Lewis and his jazz ./ classical album Classic Encounters..a great resource, and the Jazz Orchestration book from William Russo is also a great resource! I happen to be partial to my fellow chicago muso's. =)
I've found that mediant progressions are a little easier to conceptualize if you think in terms of the parallel major + minor relationship. C major and C minor have the same tonic,yet their key signatures are minor 3rd apart. With the two keys and their relative major and minor,you have 4 keys: C/Am,Cm/E flat. Each of these 4 keys has their own subdominant and dominant. Choosing chords between these four keys results in really rich,expressive harmony while still firmly in the Common Practice style. Imo,the past 20 years or so of popular music has really been ignoring the expressive possibilities of harmony,and mediants are one of the richest sources.
I'm familiar with so many of these progressions but as a non-professional I wasn't aware they were encapsulated in the term "Mediant Chords". Thanks! Great stuff!
Anne-Kathrin, I have a question about your template. You said you put short and long (strings for instance) on separate tracks. Why? What is the point? What benefits do you get from that instead of using one track for 1st violins (for instance, again) and use articulation maps to change the note type when needed? Is it because it's tedious? Or because it's easier for the orchestrator who comes after you? Or a question of habit? Or any other reason(s)? Doesn't this make it harder to visualize what this specific instrument score looks like when it's divided into several tracks depending on the note types? Just wondering...
I believe it's becasue of negative track delays. The value you need for shorts is different to longs which is why they're on separate tracks. Pretty sure she talks about it in more detail in her Daw setup video: ruclips.net/video/AznRiT9o1pM/видео.html
@@graingerproduction1 Indeed, I had missed (or rather, forgotten) that part. Interesting. I don't know if I find this slight delay annoying enough to completely change my current template. It doesn't bother me much, actually, but it's good to know if I ever encounter a situation where the delay is noticeable enough to bother me. Thanks for your answer, Adam.
One of the best instances of a mediant is the Tristan und Isolde beginning. When the forte starts, chromatically rising to a E7 only to not resolve to the A major, but to it's mediant F major (where the 5th of the E7 becomes a #4 resolving to the 3rd)
12:02 Thanks, Anne, for thoughts. Can you share some names of books or links to books that worthy to read? You are right at some point, but the problem of those many books is that they are outdated or/and they are often written in overcomplex language, they don't designed for modern people, for modern software, modern approaches, modern changes in cinematic production, modern orchestration generally. They have 600-700 of pages, but super useful information can be fit into 10 (it's exaggerated). And they don't have audio examples to understand the color and emotion of they are written about. All the information exclusively as musical notes for those, who can easily read in any key in any tonality. For example, there's have a book of Rimsky-Korsakov of orchestration, but there's nothing (for obvious reasons) about how to use layering in Cubase OR tip that for brass section, it would be nice to place one solo trombone in there to make a wider sound. His book doesn't have any audio examples to analyse (for obvious reasons too). So, maybe all of this information is not the secret, but it's buried very very deep, in my opinion. You must spend weeks to understand and get at least one useful skill.
I would like to highlight the example at minute 10:56 when he adds the sixth flat to the arpeggio, that resource added to the movement by thirds is instantaneous magic.
I am back year for a complete different reason a year later. I understand mediants a lot better now so it's like a whole new video. Sort of amazing, right? thanks, again
The topic with counterpoint is kind of true: I really want to learn it so I bought the Fux book and practiced every day for weeks. No amount of videos can replace the practice of the concepts and rules. But once you learn it you kind of cannot unlearn it and everywhere you start seeing interwined melodic lines. Then I kind of get OCD with the intervals between them :) I am really liking this composing series, what will come next I wonder.
To be fair, in my case it has always been about wanting to know about this stuff, but because I didn't even know such names and terms I was never able to find about it. If you look for Chromatic Mediants on RUclips you'll find plenty of stuff, but for most beginners the challenge is to find out about the names of these concepts such as the Harmonic Planing one. I think that's why it seems like it's such a hidden secret. I've been googling about movie soundtracks for ages and I've watched a lot of content about it but only found out about Planing last week. And afterwards, the RUclips algorithm recommended me other videos about planing from 4 years ago. But still, after taking a look at those, the one who made the most sense to me, and the one that I learned the most from was your video. So I think that's why people might be so grateful to you too. At least that's my case :)
Anne: question about the logistics of composing for film. Or rather, it's a 'how does Hollywood do this'. Are pieces of film scored in such a way that one DAW project file contains one musical cue, be it 10 minutes or 10 seconds...? Or is it more common to break a score down into larger sections of e.g. 15 minutes or so, put the film onto the timeline and really score 15 minutes, including leaving several minutes of silence between cues? Or do composers load e.g. the whole 120 minutes o' film onto their timeline, having the complete score on screen - including all the silent bits?
I laughed when you gave the first example. When played I said, "Ooh Enya", then you said Radio head. Very different genre's but sounds great just the same. And yep, almost every soundtrack uses this wonderful technique Thanks for walking us through it.🙂
C major to E minor, especially voiced the way you voiced it, ALWAYS says "Pearl Harbor" to me. HZ's theme to that was one of the first film scores to make me really start thinking about writing film music. Took me a couple decades to get here, but I'm finally doing it!
Once again thank you so much for doing these... I have a comment on your final words :)... You are underestimating how fantastic and effective a teach you are.. yes the info is out there... I myself have probably ten books on orchestration...none of them I find as informative and effective as you doing it in one of these tutorials... thanks again.. rsp
Fantastic lesson. Love hearing the examples. I’ve been aware of mediants for some time, but a very basic understanding of them apparently. You opened my eyes to all the options and possibilities. My problem is I get stuck in the diatonic box. My approach to medians thus has been a minor third down from the root or a major third up, or vice versa - and sticking to the respective diatonic chord. All 16 of your examples sounded great in their own way. I just never know when to break out of that diatonic box and use the “wrong” chords. Is there a rule or formula that guides us in this way? Cheers
I’m a new AKD channel junkie! I’ve learnt so much, or rather gathered so much inspiration, in the last week of bingeing. Thank you so much! You’re great. Brilliant! Thank you.
I was like "Wow.. this all sounds like Lord of the Rings" and then you dropped the bomb on me. 😂... It's been awhile since I've been here so I've missed quite a bit if it was brought up before hand!
At 15.54. ESSENTIAL information from Anne-Kathrin. It DOES work miracles. Performing instrument-by-instrument into your DAW will teach you absolutely everything you need to know. Anything Ravel, anything Holst from "The Planets", anything Stravinsky, anything Bartok, Mahler etc. All is available for FREE as PDF or for a small $12.99 on Amazon as an actual paper book (recommended). Many composers in media (Hollywood and elsewhere) learned the art of orchestration/composition THAT WAY, since MIDI became available (mid 1980s). It takes time.. no shortcuts 🙂
I dont think its a "secret" but the, "where to find something that you dont know what you are looking for" its the issue, you presenting the topic and showing it and talking about has a bigger impact than searching a library that dont event categorizes correctly the topics, or overcomplicates thing because its "academic" its always better to learn from a profesional teacher that go through the self taught route.
I am aware of this phenomenon but have found to be very lucky to have come across this article that explains what it is called and which types of third-degree movements qualify to be classified as such.
Ok it just turns out that the simplest iteration of a SUS chord is very often the stationary fulcrum between a mediant relationships.{ Look I understand no one is gonna go outa their way to see how frickin hip what I'm laying out is but trust me it sounds great.} So example: Ab-11 to C-11. Common tones Bb,Eb,F =FSus. Ok so Bb,Eb,F right hand 1,5,9 left so C,G,D left, right Bb,Eb,F sustain pedal 👂this is a C-11 okay next Ab,Eb,B, right left Bb,Eb,F let B and Bb rub they'll be voiced by your thumbs.this is an Ab-11👂this game goes on and on if you especially if you begin to include melodic minor ascending modes. But these are just major minor world. So just 2 more Gb,Db,Ab left, right once again Bb,Eb,F the stationary fulcrum of the seesaw. This yields Gb lydian btw now to F,C,G,left right once again Eb,Bb,F which could yield Fmixo but I hear F Dorian oh one more to B,F#,C# left hand A#,D#,E# or Bb,Eb,F same thing Idono about y'all but I live in a post tempered universe. If anyone bothers to check it out you'll like it.
Hey Anne-Kathrin, I have a question (maybe more a request for a video) as a guitarist and maybe you can help me out. I'm struggling with composing songs in a band context and trying to implement mediant chords and modulation (thank you on this point for your great videos!). Every time, when I've got an idea, that turns out to something, I'll find myself at the point in getting lost, when I have modulated or have used a mediant chord. It's like loosing the sight because of all the possibilities and my inner feel of tension and release in a practical way - and I'm stuck and don't get any further. Summa summarum: How do I compose, f.e. like Periphery, Seal (album III), Tina Turner, Def Leppard etc..and do modulation, mediant chords etc..?
Very cool video. I like how you present each possibility consecutively, methodically. The only thing that I didn't like was after playing a possible variant, you kept saying, "We all know this. We've all heard this in a million songs." I have? Which ones? I mean, the diatonic mediants sure--no elaboration required--but many of the others could have used more examples. Having said that, the LOTR examples were great; I also appreciated you putting them in C, for consistency. I couldn't immediately tell which song was using which mediant, so maybe labeling each one? Unless I missed it. Thank you again.
Here’s the thing. I already “know” all the music theory and composition stuff you talk about. I have a B.Mus., I later took an in-person course taught one of the most successful TV composers, and I taught a composition class at a small local college. But when you present it, it’s clearer, more meaningful, and simply inspiring. After watching one of your vids, I can’t help but go write something immediately.
Hi AMH, I can’t pretend to be at your skill level, but your reaction struck me, as I feel the same very much. Cheers from NL!
I love how half the comments are “well akchualy i wait 4 ur videos cuz I like them”. yeah obviously you’re not the kind of person that message was directed toward. She’s addressing the alarmingly large group of people that for reasons unbeknownst to anyone think any information they learn on RUclips must be a long guarded industry secret that the elite cabal in their ivory tower don’t want the small folk to learn and these altruistic RUclipsrs are risking it all to provide the masses with knowledge
Know how you feel the swing.
We wait for you because you are a really great instructor and provide great examples!
If no one has recommended his work, yet, I would like to put in a word for Alan Belkin. He is a retired professor of composition and an excellent composer, himself. He has a RUclips channel with lengthy, multipart videos on things like counterpoint and harmony, along with exercises and loads of examples. He wrote a very practical textbook on composition called _Musical Composition: Craft and Art,_ which focuses on a lot of things that composition books don't usually cover.
I second the recommendation for Alan Belkin. His content is a lot drier than Anne's to be sure, but very enlightening and thorough. In a totally different vein I've also been getting a lot from Charles Cornell recently. It isn't exactly a composition channel really, more music appreciation, but his ability to drill down into what's happening and instantly reinterpret it on the piano makes each video a fun little snippet of score study.
that's exactly what I was going to say. Alan Belkin's serie on counterpoint is the best that can be found on online videos. His other series are excellent too, but since Anne talks a lot about counterpoint on her ending message, it's the best place to start online.
The other guy that everyone should know about regarding orchestration training is Thomas Goss, of course. He has done so much already, and is building such an amazing community on "orchestration online" ...
Keep bringing this content, please. It doesn't matter how many times these things are viewed and reviewed. Sometimes it's the presentation that enables learning. Clearly there are a whole lot of people who take away a lot from yours. Thank you for presenting!
Grazie, generosa Anne.
I just found you a couple days ago but realized immediately that you are special. You have a gift for music, but you also have a gift for teaching. Yes, there are books, scores and tons of videos, but few distill it into a useable product so to speak like you do. I've known music theory for 50 or more years, but you bring a neat perspective to it. It's one thing to know what a "hammer and nail" are, but it's another thing to learn to be a carpenter. I've made a living in music all my life and the one thing I have learned above all is that, you never know all there is to know about music. Why? Because just like the infinite variations we can derive from twelve tones and rhythm, there are infinite ways to "look at" it. I went thru the number system in collage but did not fully grasp it's power until I saw Bernstein explain it one day in a 5 minute segment of one of his children's concert series that I just happened to catch one Sunday afternoon on PBS. Back then we only had a few stations we could get and no internet at all. But there was my life in music before that 5 minutes and there was my life in music after that. Bernstein was also not only a great composer/conductor, he was a great musicologist and teacher. In your own way, you have that same teaching skill that he had. I just want to encourage you to make as many of these as you can. You probably have no idea how important you will be to many "newbies" and us "old dogs" as well! You just have an incredible grasp of how to simplify what in a book would seem complicated. You are indeed special!
I guess most of the people here are exatly the ones who watched hundreds of RUclips videos before they found your channel.
And those who understand that your vision and explanation are exactly what they were looking for.
Hey Anne! You know, self-taught musicians currently use a lot this type of content. This video and your channel are a great find for me, thank you!
In the early 90's, out of anger and frustration I quit my university music studies. My major was composition and by that point I had 3 years of college music studies and was more than half way through my second year. I did, however, have a wonderful career in the music industry over the years despite my leaving school but quitting my studies has always bothered me. 12 years ago, I stopped eating, sleeping and breathing music and began a new career which afforded me the ability to purchase the recording software, plugins, gear I wanted and have a recording studio in my home but something was missing. I had to finish what I started and left so many years ago. I have no desire to go back to school at my age but I am reinvesting in myself and I am studying music again. Your teaching style inspired me to embark on my journey to write orchestral music. Thank you for that and if you ever decide to put an online course together, I will be student #1. In the meantime, I'm going to buy you several coffees!
It's amazing how you present material so clearly without dumbing down. Perfectly judged delivery. Thank you.
This is actually very interesting. I’ll be incorporating this into my compositions. I appreciate these videos!
Hey Anne, great content as usual! I'm not one of those who complained about something, in fact I am super grateful for what you're doing, but I will share my opinion about this topic, because I think it's a big problem for beginners:
I can hear/feel when something is "off" in my compositions, but often enough I can't figure out what the actual problem is. Yes, in theory I could look it up somewhere (YT tutorial, book, online course etc.), but that assumes that I can name the problem... Thing is, when I don't even know that a certain "thing" or concept exists, I can't look it up and that's exactly where your videos come in very handy and are helpful. You not only introduce beginners to concepts they've never heard of, you also show them what it's actually about plus you show examples of how and why it's used.
One huge mistake I see many beginners (including myself) do is they look up mixing tutorials for how to clean up their muddy mix, because they heard somewhere that it's probably a mixing problem, when in fact the problem can be the arrangement itself. Realizing that was an eye-opener for me and so I started to look up how to write better arrangements. But finding the problem was difficult, because as a beginner you don't even know what mistakes you're making...😅 All you have is this underlying feeling that something is wrong...
The sheer mass of music education content that's available on YT today can be overwhelming for beginners and they can get lost quickly and start to confuse one problem with another and look up the "wrong" solution. At least that's my experience haha...
Conclusion: I consider your videos to be of the best and most helpful in the field of music education/film scoring. And also your personality and the way you teach are very pleasant. That's probably what makes people wait for you to upload a new video.
Please excuse the wall of text.. 😅
All the best,
Chris
I love your videos! I studied composition at Uni, so what I like most about your videos is definitely the DAW and MIDI end of things. Also your insider perspective/ terminologies of the film music industry 🤓 It’s like there is a ladder now into this field and to write mock-ups and orchestrations for any type of music!
As an important example from my training, Hans Zimmer’s MasterClass was super great for motivation and interpersonal work relationships view of the job, but you get into the nitty-gritty details and how-to’s (of deeply complex topics) with very elegant simplicity! Thank you for making these 🙏 ☺️
I should add that I also genuinely appreciate videos like this one too, where you demystify the harmonic language of film scores with the same in-depth but pleasantly audible and visible approach 🌝😎
Thanks! I like your vids. I am a hobbyist desperately trying to make a side hustle yet still have fun.
Thank you 💐💐
1st time here...
Having learnt basic theory (plus history) its nice to have a fresh look at this. My tutor was so good at conveying the rudimentaries that it was like going leaps and bounds with ease.
Well done Anne-Kathrine for such a clear easy to follow mini class.
Sie sind wahnsinnig begabt. Vielen Dank für die klare Einleitung. Fantastic!
Yeah it may have something to do with the fact you present well and you're a great teacher. Books are great, but having the MIDI examples play while you explain is incredibly useful. I've done enough music theory to know there are no secrets and I've watched enough music theory videos to last me a lifetime. You're helping me to understand corners of music theory I never really got before, that's really valuable. Thank you!
Thank you, Anne, for teaching this study on the mediant chords.
Your tutorials and advices are great - thank you very much for that!
fabulous!!!
Thank you for the thorough examples!
Thank you to make me discover and understand median chords ! It's very useful for me to hear the chords the way you do it !! 😄
WOW, I'm just a low life guitar player but these examples have really inspired me to break out the midi keys and load up some Kontakt soundscapes. Really great demos and expertise. Thank You Anne-Kathrin
Thank you 🙏
Awesome! We need more of these lessons!
Thanks! It’s always nice to see you in the morning! Great beginning of the day! This video is very nice structured even if I knew this before, but you putted it in order.
Just discovered your RUclips channel a few days ago and have watched a handful of you videos and various topics. You're very impressive you knowledge musically, technically, and from music biz standpoint. I grew up and spent most my life in Venice area so the openings of your videos bring back a lot of memories. I'm an Jurassic age guy I remember when there wasn't a Marina Del Rey, I spent half my life working in all aspects of the music biz, playing, live sound, recording engineer, and worked for one one of the great music schools in L.A. back in the day the Grove School of Music which was known for it's arranging and composing program. So working at the school and later in recording studio I was around film and TV biz, so familiar with how things were done before computers so hearing you talk about how things are done now is very intriguing. So really glad I discovered your channel and look forward to watching more videos.
I like how she elegantly says "Don't be lazy. Seek and practice"
I like so much your content. It's like, I don't know where to start because in every video I learn a lot. I hope you get to be the composer you aspire of.
I have always loved this technique, mediant chords are amongst my favourites ❤
I'm enjoying watching your RUclips videos, so far just the one on mediants. You too seem to be having a great old time explaining all this. And you're good at it!
I'm amazed that you give away these ideas for free; I picked up most of the ideas you presented by fooling around on kbd instruments, e.g. pipe organs, but my training never moved into improvisation, so it's startling to hear it presented this way.
Arch
I was an Oberlin Conservatory Composition/Theory Major. I'm now 81, still arranging, playing, and learning. I want to get a DAW, probably Logic Pro X, but I'm concerned about working not looking at notation. I think that, in time and practice, I could deal without notation, but, is it possible to do sound tracks using actual notation and not the various (I call them) colored "bands"? Honestly, Anne, you are a joy to watch and to listen. Thanks for taking time from your other projects. Bo Ayars
If you go with Logic Pro, and as long as you're working with MIDI (vs. recorded audio), you can see both the piano roll (your 'colored bands') as well as traditional notation, and you can conveniently toggle between both views with a simple keystroke ('p' to view the piano roll, or 'n' to view notation). Go for it - you'll have a blast
I don't consider your videos as "hacks". These are lessons in physics and principles of music. Thanks!
I need to check and see if you have any videos on passing chords or modal substitution, because if you explain those as well as you did this topic I’ll be so excited!!!
I know you point it out multiple times in the video... but i still can't over how many of these chord changes are just *so damn evocative* of the LotR score.
there were only maybe two of them that didn't instantly just scream LotR to me.
The strings patch you were using probably helped a lot though x'D
I really enjoyed this video. Your comments at the end reminded me of the story of Bach, I think, sneaking out of bed to copy scores by candlelight.
A lot of things people often feel are "gate-kept" really fall under the category of "you don't know what you don't know". I have a BFA in audio production with a minor in Music but I've found more compositional things have eluded me until I learn a certain term or description I can Google. I often don't know what I'm searching for, I just know what it sounds like and that I can't reproduce it until I have a name for it. Like the German 6 chord you mentioned in your video on modulation. Now it has a name and a function logged in my memory
Thank you for making these
Thank you for another great video, mediants are awesome for evoking emotion and mood 🙂 I think the reason for a lot of the comments and wishes for you to make more videos on specific subjects is that a lot of people here really like the way you explain things, and most have probably already sifted through a lot of videos and articles that didn't resonate with them, so take it as a compliment ;-) That being said, I think books are a kind of "forgotten" information source for our generation when google and youtube is so readily available, and we tend to be kind of spoiled in terms of getting the information we want immediately - at least I'm guilty of that 😛 That said, I have started to buy some books on composing and orchestration the last year (Adler, Belkin, Persichetti etc), and the information contained in books is of course so much denser then one can put in a YT-video, for obvious reasons. Also the topic of counterpoint is a huge undertaking, and as you said, really has to be practised over and over to get a grasp on, preferably with feedback on your homework from a teacher or something, at least if you want to do it like they did hundred of years ago. But some core principals of counterpoint that are more applicable to modern music and scoring would be a cool video/series to see 🙂
Great video Anne 👍
Great final words - very wise advise.
You came up on my suggested channel list. I'm looking to get beyond just basic music theory. Your channel looks very interesting, so I subscribed.
That is a very interesting topic and you explained it very well, thank you!
How did I not found your channel before?! So good!
I'm a metal guy and I'll never forget when I first heard chromatic mediants on a Children of Bodom record, back in college : ) Cheers!
That was really eye-opening, looks easy to use for improvisation.
hi Anne, hello from Turkey. I follow you on youtube. I am teaching Harmony and counterpoint at university. Thank you for your videos. I agrre with you it takes a long time learning all of them, but especially music students are curious learning chords like tthis video. I am going to plan making a video series about Classical Chorus harmony for youtube. Have a nice days.
Muy bien video.
This was great, thank you!
I don't know what those folks are talking about, however, I enjoy your videos because 1-I am brand new and wouldn't know which way to look. 2- You break things down that I can understand and make me try different things with what you share. and Finally--3--I LOVE your videos and easy way of talking. Thank you so much!!
That's an interesting perspective, thank you for chiming in! I hadn't actually thought about it this way but it's something I encounter when I look for video related stuff - if you don't know what to look for (e.g. the right terminology) then how can you look for it? I always need to ask actual video professionals in my life what to Google because otherwise I'd never find the right source of information. This is great input, thank you!
@@AnneKathrinDernComposer I have this experience an awfully lot of times too! Looking into let's say a part to fix something and in internet store A they call it this, in B that, in C that etc. If you're not familiar with a term you're like a baked potato: overexposure without a found solution. And in YT looking for some instruction to get you on the way fixing your bike e.g. gets you to go through all the advertisements too. I guess YT should make a difference in really pure instruction videos and entertainment videos as to the amount of shown advertisements. Well, probably¥ they just want to sell you (and me) a subscription fee to their website....
Thanks for the video! Sometimes I forget how much theory I have forgotten lol!
You're right about the multitude of resources. But here's the thing: you explain these things way better and make things much clearer than most. I know, because I'm a teacher and one of the things I teach is Musical Illustration to Digital Media majors, that is students who normally have never really studied music. So I know how difficult it is to select the relevant information which they can understand and which will get them going (assuming that if they will decide that they need more, they can learn everything that I cannot possibly teach them about studio work and musical creation in the course of a short semester). So thank you, you really reinforce the idea that - as Kodaly put it - music belongs to everyone.
The score for the LOTR movies is full of these kinds of changes- if anyone wants a good example.
I have only watched a few of your videos, but I have gotten TONS of information I “knew” but never heard explained like you do. Simply incredible information that makes hungry to compose! That’s rare for me. You have a gift!
Bedankt
Thanks
maybe a video about which books you recommend =P
Great video, thanks. I think the best way to learn is by transposing some music that you like so that you can play it in the new key. But it's bloody hard work, for me anyway.
These are so great, Love the examples.
this is great - thank u
🎉🎉 great
I found myself mentally singing the opening phrase of “Dock of the Bay” to these progressions for some really interesting results! Thanks for the lesson!
Ground Control to Major Tom ....
"This isn't some gatekept secret that composers are hiding"
Video thumbnail: "The Mystery of Mediants"
Jokes aside, thanks for sharing these examples!
😅 I did not put that together. Joke’s on me! 😅
@@AnneKathrinDernComposer The joke isn't really on you though. A secret is something that is intentionally hidden. A mystery is unexplainable. You've done a good job of explaining here, though :p
A point on counterpoint, one of the best teachers of it , James Mack, worked with Ramsey Lewis and his jazz ./ classical album Classic Encounters..a great resource, and the Jazz Orchestration book from William Russo is also a great resource! I happen to be partial to my fellow chicago muso's. =)
I used to practice my scales in fourths. Now I do it in fifths. Now, I am going to do them in thirds.
Could you do a video on common diatonic chord progressions, especially about the chromatic chords used in them and 7th chords used in them?
I've found that mediant progressions are a little easier to conceptualize if you think in terms of the parallel major + minor relationship. C major and C minor have the same tonic,yet their key signatures are minor 3rd apart. With the two keys and their relative major and minor,you have 4 keys: C/Am,Cm/E flat. Each of these 4 keys has their own subdominant and dominant. Choosing chords between these four keys results in really rich,expressive harmony while still firmly in the Common Practice style. Imo,the past 20 years or so of popular music has really been ignoring the expressive possibilities of harmony,and mediants are one of the richest sources.
I'm familiar with so many of these progressions but as a non-professional I wasn't aware they were encapsulated in the term "Mediant Chords". Thanks! Great stuff!
Anne-Kathrin, I have a question about your template. You said you put short and long (strings for instance) on separate tracks. Why? What is the point? What benefits do you get from that instead of using one track for 1st violins (for instance, again) and use articulation maps to change the note type when needed?
Is it because it's tedious? Or because it's easier for the orchestrator who comes after you? Or a question of habit? Or any other reason(s)?
Doesn't this make it harder to visualize what this specific instrument score looks like when it's divided into several tracks depending on the note types?
Just wondering...
I believe it's becasue of negative track delays. The value you need for shorts is different to longs which is why they're on separate tracks.
Pretty sure she talks about it in more detail in her Daw setup video: ruclips.net/video/AznRiT9o1pM/видео.html
@@graingerproduction1 Indeed, I had missed (or rather, forgotten) that part. Interesting. I don't know if I find this slight delay annoying enough to completely change my current template. It doesn't bother me much, actually, but it's good to know if I ever encounter a situation where the delay is noticeable enough to bother me. Thanks for your answer, Adam.
@@amotkram99 Good point! Thanks.
One of the best instances of a mediant is the Tristan und Isolde beginning. When the forte starts, chromatically rising to a E7 only to not resolve to the A major, but to it's mediant F major (where the 5th of the E7 becomes a #4 resolving to the 3rd)
Brillant. Klare Erklärungen. Danke schön. Possible to pay via PayPal so we don't have to give up personal credit card number?
Would be great if you made a video about your recommended books, courses, etc.
12:02
Thanks, Anne, for thoughts. Can you share some names of books or links to books that worthy to read?
You are right at some point, but the problem of those many books is that they are outdated or/and they are often written in overcomplex language, they don't designed for modern people, for modern software, modern approaches, modern changes in cinematic production, modern orchestration generally. They have 600-700 of pages, but super useful information can be fit into 10 (it's exaggerated). And they don't have audio examples to understand the color and emotion of they are written about. All the information exclusively as musical notes for those, who can easily read in any key in any tonality.
For example, there's have a book of Rimsky-Korsakov of orchestration, but there's nothing (for obvious reasons) about how to use layering in Cubase OR tip that for brass section, it would be nice to place one solo trombone in there to make a wider sound. His book doesn't have any audio examples to analyse (for obvious reasons too).
So, maybe all of this information is not the secret, but it's buried very very deep, in my opinion. You must spend weeks to understand and get at least one useful skill.
I would like to highlight the example at minute 10:56 when he adds the sixth flat to the arpeggio, that resource added to the movement by thirds is instantaneous magic.
Another way to learn is to practice it yourself ! So transcribe or better yet write!
I am back year for a complete different reason a year later. I understand mediants a lot better now so it's like a whole new video. Sort of amazing, right? thanks, again
The topic with counterpoint is kind of true: I really want to learn it so I bought the Fux book and practiced every day for weeks. No amount of videos can replace the practice of the concepts and rules. But once you learn it you kind of cannot unlearn it and everywhere you start seeing interwined melodic lines. Then I kind of get OCD with the intervals between them :)
I am really liking this composing series, what will come next I wonder.
To be fair, in my case it has always been about wanting to know about this stuff, but because I didn't even know such names and terms I was never able to find about it. If you look for Chromatic Mediants on RUclips you'll find plenty of stuff, but for most beginners the challenge is to find out about the names of these concepts such as the Harmonic Planing one.
I think that's why it seems like it's such a hidden secret.
I've been googling about movie soundtracks for ages and I've watched a lot of content about it but only found out about Planing last week. And afterwards, the RUclips algorithm recommended me other videos about planing from 4 years ago. But still, after taking a look at those, the one who made the most sense to me, and the one that I learned the most from was your video.
So I think that's why people might be so grateful to you too. At least that's my case :)
Anne: question about the logistics of composing for film. Or rather, it's a 'how does Hollywood do this'. Are pieces of film scored in such a way that one DAW project file contains one musical cue, be it 10 minutes or 10 seconds...? Or is it more common to break a score down into larger sections of e.g. 15 minutes or so, put the film onto the timeline and really score 15 minutes, including leaving several minutes of silence between cues? Or do composers load e.g. the whole 120 minutes o' film onto their timeline, having the complete score on screen - including all the silent bits?
Reading the comments I see that what you bring to us is something unique ... whatever it is to each of us, we are all glad we found you. Thank you❤️
[4:55] C → E♭ reminds me of Annie Lennox "Don't Let It Bring You Down"
my immortal, Evanescence
very cool. check out the brilliant score "Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning Soundtrack 01. Main Theme""
Jerry Goldsmith's Basic Instinct Main Theme...Mediant Chord heaven.
I laughed when you gave the first example. When played I said, "Ooh Enya", then you said Radio head. Very different genre's but sounds great just the same. And yep, almost every soundtrack uses this wonderful technique Thanks for walking us through it.🙂
C major to E minor, especially voiced the way you voiced it, ALWAYS says "Pearl Harbor" to me. HZ's theme to that was one of the first film scores to make me really start thinking about writing film music. Took me a couple decades to get here, but I'm finally doing it!
To me, Moby says "Go!" :-)
Love it!
Hahaha lord of the rings, all 800 minutes of recording soundtrack with a few folky Dorian songs splayed within.
"Mr. Frodo. I can't carry the ring, but I can carry you."
Great lesson!!!! You just doubled my music theory knowledge. 😉
Once again thank you so much for doing these... I have a comment on your final words :)... You are underestimating how fantastic and effective a teach you are.. yes the info is out there... I myself have probably ten books on orchestration...none of them I find as informative and effective as you doing it in one of these tutorials... thanks again.. rsp
but point taken.. the info is indeed there...
Fantastic lesson. Love hearing the examples. I’ve been aware of mediants for some time, but a very basic understanding of them apparently. You opened my eyes to all the options and possibilities.
My problem is I get stuck in the diatonic box. My approach to medians thus has been a minor third down from the root or a major third up, or vice versa - and sticking to the respective diatonic chord. All 16 of your examples sounded great in their own way. I just never know when to break out of that diatonic box and use the “wrong” chords. Is there a rule or formula that guides us in this way?
Cheers
I’m a new AKD channel junkie! I’ve learnt so much, or rather gathered so much inspiration, in the last week of bingeing. Thank you so much! You’re great. Brilliant! Thank you.
4:55 LOTR? That's John Barry, _A View to A Kill_ ... and more John Barry ... and more
I've not heard of mediant chords before. So does it always have to be minor/major thirds to qualify. What about 2nds, 4ths. etc? Thanks.
I was like "Wow.. this all sounds like Lord of the Rings" and then you dropped the bomb on me. 😂... It's been awhile since I've been here so I've missed quite a bit if it was brought up before hand!
At 15.54. ESSENTIAL information from Anne-Kathrin. It DOES work miracles. Performing instrument-by-instrument into your DAW will teach you absolutely everything you need to know. Anything Ravel, anything Holst from "The Planets", anything Stravinsky, anything Bartok, Mahler etc. All is available for FREE as PDF or for a small $12.99 on Amazon as an actual paper book (recommended). Many composers in media (Hollywood and elsewhere) learned the art of orchestration/composition THAT WAY, since MIDI became available (mid 1980s). It takes time.. no shortcuts 🙂
I dont think its a "secret" but the, "where to find something that you dont know what you are looking for" its the issue, you presenting the topic and showing it and talking about has a bigger impact than searching a library that dont event categorizes correctly the topics, or overcomplicates thing because its "academic" its always better to learn from a profesional teacher that go through the self taught route.
I am aware of this phenomenon but have found to be very lucky to have come across this article that explains what it is called and which types of third-degree movements qualify to be classified as such.
Ok it just turns out that the simplest iteration of a SUS chord is very often the stationary fulcrum between a mediant relationships.{ Look I understand no one is gonna go outa their way to see how frickin hip what I'm laying out is but trust me it sounds great.} So example: Ab-11 to C-11. Common tones Bb,Eb,F =FSus. Ok so Bb,Eb,F right hand 1,5,9 left so C,G,D left, right Bb,Eb,F sustain pedal 👂this is a C-11 okay next Ab,Eb,B, right left Bb,Eb,F let B and Bb rub they'll be voiced by your thumbs.this is an Ab-11👂this game goes on and on if you especially if you begin to include melodic minor ascending modes. But these are just major minor world. So just 2 more Gb,Db,Ab left, right once again Bb,Eb,F the stationary fulcrum of the seesaw. This yields Gb lydian btw now to F,C,G,left right once again Eb,Bb,F which could yield Fmixo but I hear F Dorian oh one more to B,F#,C# left hand A#,D#,E# or Bb,Eb,F same thing Idono about y'all but I live in a post tempered universe. If anyone bothers to check it out you'll like it.
Hey Anne-Kathrin, I have a question (maybe more a request for a video) as a guitarist and maybe you can help me out. I'm struggling with composing songs in a band context and trying to implement mediant chords and modulation (thank you on this point for your great videos!). Every time, when I've got an idea, that turns out to something, I'll find myself at the point in getting lost, when I have modulated or have used a mediant chord. It's like loosing the sight because of all the possibilities and my inner feel of tension and release in a practical way - and I'm stuck and don't get any further. Summa summarum: How do I compose, f.e. like Periphery, Seal (album III), Tina Turner, Def Leppard etc..and do modulation, mediant chords etc..?
Thank you so much for explaining and demonstrating this :) What strings/string library are you using?
Very cool video. I like how you present each possibility consecutively, methodically. The only thing that I didn't like was after playing a possible variant, you kept saying, "We all know this. We've all heard this in a million songs." I have? Which ones? I mean, the diatonic mediants sure--no elaboration required--but many of the others could have used more examples. Having said that, the LOTR examples were great; I also appreciated you putting them in C, for consistency. I couldn't immediately tell which song was using which mediant, so maybe labeling each one? Unless I missed it. Thank you again.
Thank you so so much! I've been searching for such a long time to find a good video like this one!