Really helpful lesson. It would be interesting to look at this from the perspective of intermodulation distortion-when two sine waves of different frequencies pass through a nonlinear (distorting!) circuit, not only do you get harmonics of each frequency, but you also get components at non-harmonic frequencies, e.g., at the sum and difference of the input frequencies (and the harmonics). The difference frequencies can be small and may be perceived as rapid amplitude modulation ("beating") which I think is part of what gives rise to "lack of clarity" or "breaking up." Having separate guitars play notes with bad intermodulation components prevents those components from ever appearing, because the two notes are not being processed jointly with a nonlinearity. -Tom PS: Minor (pun!) error @ 8:15-E to G is a minor third, not a major third.
0:22 Hex fuzz! 0:47 * would 1:46 "Not the most metal thing": Because it doesn't use one of the "church modes". (I've felt that metal is schizophrenic in that it combines the chug-chug-chug of chords and non-Ionian modes.) 3:41 "There are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect." "Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?" "The extra ones, of course." -- Amadeus 4:44 The introduction to "Smoke On The Water" is in perfect fourths. 5:55 A diminished 6th is enharmonic with a perfect 5th. 7:52 But what if no pair of lines creates only consonant intervals? (Note: in your example, any two lines work.) 8:56 Or you could have four distorted guitars, each playing one line. (Oh, that's back to the hex fuzz idea ... ) 10:30 Since the top guitar plays only 3rds and 4ths, this means you can use ... double stops! 10:55 The Tommaso Zillio Guitorchestra! 12:10 F major 7 / A is F C A E, not F D A E.
@@MusicTheoryForGuitar Makes you think eh? Plug your guitar into an ice cream van speaker system… or perhaps a new Distortion Pedal called ‘Mr Whipey’. The knobs should include ‘With/ Without Flake’, ‘With/ Without Nut Crunch’, ‘With/ Without Strawberry Syrup’ and finally a knob varying the degree of ‘Melt and Dribble’
At first I thought you meant complex chords like with 9ths 11ths 13ths etc. (and any alterations of those b9 #9 #11 b13) I used what you described and thought of something. Since the core of a lot of rock/metal etc, even prog ; it's always the power chord.. as you said 8vs, P4, P5.. etc.. I started fooling around with alternate tunings. and the most popular one, as I've seen, is the DADGAD. there are 4ths betwee strings 5,4,3 those are the only strings unchanged from standard tunings. and like using the 6,5,4 strings to create all the power chords (P5 and with the 6th you can get P4s), as we all know and love, those intervals are still available in the alt tuning. Strings 5, 4, 3 still offer that (a 4th higher than the 6,5,4 string set on standard tuining.. but what about the altered 6th, 2nd, 1st strings? well.. if you think voice leading, now you can play power chords on those middle strings (5,4,3 (and 6 for knarly bass, leave that to the bass-player)) Now that the high strings (2 of them) are shifted, now I can physically, and easily add colorful dissonances (as passing notes) resolved to consanant notes that physically not many guitar players (with short fingers) could stretch their fingers and hit those stranger upper dissonance->consonant intervals for color. of course always keeping in mind using dissonance as flavor, not on the beat bu resolved on the beat, makes them resolve to a consanant interval.. That loved flat-5 or the devil's fith, the Tritone, which alwas gives you the tasty dissonance everyone loves to use. Why it works is that every Tritone inverval you can play is ALWAYS the major component of a DOMINANT 7th chord, (the 3rd and the b7 in either inversion, which, by it's nature always wants to resolve to a tonic and resolved center (or used like a substitute dominant (b5) movement)., So, introducing those tritones by adding the upper notes in either one or both those top strings (altered tuning). You can get some amazing sounds, and the top three strings at a single fret ALWAYS produce a suspended 4th chord, that is a great chord for transitions. I hope this makes sense, and I have to tell you, using DADGAD can give you some radical and grungy sounding power chords with intersting colors tension/release.. In regards to that dissonant b5 you have on that B dim chord in your example.. simply raise the F to F# and now you have a borrowed Dominant B7 that will resolve to the following Em/G chord in your example. that F# will throw in an unexpected color but sill works, and always will. yes there is a Maj7 interval between the bass (G) and the (F#) but if you keep them separated by more than an octave, it will work. it's all about creating a tension-release that always catches your ear. Thanks for reading.
Great video and a very important topic. Power chords get boring after a while. For a great example of complex distorted chords how about the Aristocrats’ “Terrible Lizard”? I’m not sure how Guthrie’s doing that so cleanly on a single guitar. Careful chord voicing probably.
I test distortion pedals by playing a half-dim7 with it. I don't know what scratchy OD he's using here, but there are plenty that are articulate and distorted. And if you want even more clarity, mix in some clean or crunchy signal, preferably in a harmonic region not covered by the other pedal. Personally, I run a Revv G4 and a Mystic Edge, and it works fine.
Hex fuzz is another way to "cheat" and get good-sounding chords. (Each string is distorted separately, and then they are combined. You need a guitar synth for this, though.)
This is intersting because I've recently been on the search for finding dissonant chord progressions (the antithesis of your video). These types of chords are common in black metal and also math (the genre). So basically I'll take all the advice you're giving here and invert it to find what I'm looking for. Breaking it up into two guitars is an interesting tidbit so it seems like If I were to invert your lesson I would make sure both guitars are playing dissonant chords in a dissonant chords progression. The other option is to have both guitars play consonant chords that when combined, result in a dissonant chord. Thoughts?
Imo the premise that the original progression sounds "horrible" with distortion is already flawed.. especially since the end result at 10:57 sounds like something inoffensive enough to be played in a supermarket as an instrumental
I haven't made it that far in the video yet, but I agree the initial play-through of the chords with distortion sounds pretty good to my ears (although I'm a fan of a bit of nasty dissonance now and then to rough up a tune; I'm sure many people prefer a "cleaner" sound).
Also just turn the gain down on the effect or the volume on your guitar so you're not hitting the font of the distortion so hard. It's surprising how little distortion is actually needed in a mix context. This also leaves you somewhere to go to when you really need to let rip.
![The Music Theory Thing That SLOWS You DOWN [Music Theory For Guitar]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Xdcy4w5Sl6k/mqdefault.jpg)
You must be proud to have influenced two hundred and seventy seven thousand people. Thanks
Really helpful lesson. It would be interesting to look at this from the perspective of intermodulation distortion-when two sine waves of different frequencies pass through a nonlinear (distorting!) circuit, not only do you get harmonics of each frequency, but you also get components at non-harmonic frequencies, e.g., at the sum and difference of the input frequencies (and the harmonics). The difference frequencies can be small and may be perceived as rapid amplitude modulation ("beating") which I think is part of what gives rise to "lack of clarity" or "breaking up." Having separate guitars play notes with bad intermodulation components prevents those components from ever appearing, because the two notes are not being processed jointly with a nonlinearity. -Tom PS: Minor (pun!) error @ 8:15-E to G is a minor third, not a major third.
I find that playing imperfectly consonant intervals more than an octave apart reduces the friction.
Yes
This a topic near and dear to my heart, because I love big, complex chords and interesting chord progressions.
0:22 Hex fuzz!
0:47 * would
1:46 "Not the most metal thing": Because it doesn't use one of the "church modes". (I've felt that metal is schizophrenic in that it combines the chug-chug-chug of chords and non-Ionian modes.)
3:41 "There are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect." "Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?" "The extra ones, of course." -- Amadeus
4:44 The introduction to "Smoke On The Water" is in perfect fourths.
5:55 A diminished 6th is enharmonic with a perfect 5th.
7:52 But what if no pair of lines creates only consonant intervals? (Note: in your example, any two lines work.)
8:56 Or you could have four distorted guitars, each playing one line. (Oh, that's back to the hex fuzz idea ... )
10:30 Since the top guitar plays only 3rds and 4ths, this means you can use ... double stops!
10:55 The Tommaso Zillio Guitorchestra!
12:10 F major 7 / A is F C A E, not F D A E.
I love this video - such a good answer to such a good question!
I don’t know why but your first distortion pedal demo reminded me of UK ice cream van music
Because they use crappy speakers that sound like bad distortion :-)
@@MusicTheoryForGuitar Makes you think eh? Plug your guitar into an ice cream van speaker system… or perhaps a new Distortion Pedal called ‘Mr Whipey’. The knobs should include ‘With/ Without Flake’, ‘With/ Without Nut Crunch’, ‘With/ Without Strawberry Syrup’ and finally a knob varying the degree of ‘Melt and Dribble’
interesting arrangement. This video gave me something to think about. thanks
At first I thought you meant complex chords like with 9ths 11ths 13ths etc. (and any alterations of those b9 #9 #11 b13) I used what you described and thought of something. Since the core of a lot of rock/metal etc, even prog ; it's always the power chord.. as you said 8vs, P4, P5.. etc.. I started fooling around with alternate tunings. and the most popular one, as I've seen, is the DADGAD. there are 4ths betwee strings 5,4,3 those are the only strings unchanged from standard tunings. and like using the 6,5,4 strings to create all the power chords (P5 and with the 6th you can get P4s), as we all know and love, those intervals are still available in the alt tuning. Strings 5, 4, 3 still offer that (a 4th higher than the 6,5,4 string set on standard tuining.. but what about the altered 6th, 2nd, 1st strings? well.. if you think voice leading, now you can play power chords on those middle strings (5,4,3 (and 6 for knarly bass, leave that to the bass-player)) Now that the high strings (2 of them) are shifted, now I can physically, and easily add colorful dissonances (as passing notes) resolved to consanant notes that physically not many guitar players (with short fingers) could stretch their fingers and hit those stranger upper dissonance->consonant intervals for color. of course always keeping in mind using dissonance as flavor, not on the beat bu resolved on the beat, makes them resolve to a consanant interval.. That loved flat-5 or the devil's fith, the Tritone, which alwas gives you the tasty dissonance everyone loves to use. Why it works is that every Tritone inverval you can play is ALWAYS the major component of a DOMINANT 7th chord, (the 3rd and the b7 in either inversion, which, by it's nature always wants to resolve to a tonic and resolved center (or used like a substitute dominant (b5) movement)., So, introducing those tritones by adding the upper notes in either one or both those top strings (altered tuning). You can get some amazing sounds, and the top three strings at a single fret ALWAYS produce a suspended 4th chord, that is a great chord for transitions. I hope this makes sense, and I have to tell you, using DADGAD can give you some radical and grungy sounding power chords with intersting colors tension/release..
In regards to that dissonant b5 you have on that B dim chord in your example.. simply raise the F to F# and now you have a borrowed Dominant B7 that will resolve to the following Em/G chord in your example. that F# will throw in an unexpected color but sill works, and always will. yes there is a Maj7 interval between the bass (G) and the (F#) but if you keep them separated by more than an octave, it will work. it's all about creating a tension-release that always catches your ear.
Thanks for reading.
Thank you. That was interesting informative and extremely useful.
Great video and a very important topic. Power chords get boring after a while. For a great example of complex distorted chords how about the Aristocrats’ “Terrible Lizard”? I’m not sure how Guthrie’s doing that so cleanly on a single guitar. Careful chord voicing probably.
Thank you, Zillo. It was great!!!
I test distortion pedals by playing a half-dim7 with it. I don't know what scratchy OD he's using here, but there are plenty that are articulate and distorted. And if you want even more clarity, mix in some clean or crunchy signal, preferably in a harmonic region not covered by the other pedal. Personally, I run a Revv G4 and a Mystic Edge, and it works fine.
Hex fuzz is another way to "cheat" and get good-sounding chords. (Each string is distorted separately, and then they are combined. You need a guitar synth for this, though.)
thanks so much for everything you do
great video, thank you
Bravo!!! Sto aspettando questo video da anni!
Dude you are becoming my favourite youtuber.
Wow, thanks
@@MusicTheoryForGuitar just one question, if I would decide to take 1 on 1 lessons with you, is this somehow possible?
@@headkickko609 Possible: www.musictheoryforguitar.com/private-lessons.html but my roster is full at the moment.
This is intersting because I've recently been on the search for finding dissonant chord progressions (the antithesis of your video). These types of chords are common in black metal and also math (the genre). So basically I'll take all the advice you're giving here and invert it to find what I'm looking for. Breaking it up into two guitars is an interesting tidbit so it seems like If I were to invert your lesson I would make sure both guitars are playing dissonant chords in a dissonant chords progression. The other option is to have both guitars play consonant chords that when combined, result in a dissonant chord. Thoughts?
Another great lesson!!!
Imo the premise that the original progression sounds "horrible" with distortion is already flawed.. especially since the end result at 10:57 sounds like something inoffensive enough to be played in a supermarket as an instrumental
Well, then you'd want to make sure there are some "bad" intervals every now and then in your arrangement, wouldn't you?
I haven't made it that far in the video yet, but I agree the initial play-through of the chords with distortion sounds pretty good to my ears (although I'm a fan of a bit of nasty dissonance now and then to rough up a tune; I'm sure many people prefer a "cleaner" sound).
Yeah, it's a bunch of opinionated nonsense just like his distaste for dissonance.
Also just turn the gain down on the effect or the volume on your guitar so you're not hitting the font of the distortion so hard. It's surprising how little distortion is actually needed in a mix context. This also leaves you somewhere to go to when you really need to let rip.
"It's not soul crushing - it doesn't really work for me."
Needs more distortion...