Thanks so much everyone for the love! Be sure to check out my new video on Judee Sill.. If you love Elliott Smith and you don't know her yet, I think you'll be in for a treat!
What a beautiful chord progression, thanks so much for explaining all the theory behind it! Hope you'll make the same kind of video on "Bottle Up and Explode!" someday
Wow, how cool to just sit down and find this. I am a big fan of ES music, songs, and songwriting. It’s really cool to find someone has broken down his song, illustrating some of its theoretical value, and why it’s good music, and why it catches your ear in certain distinct ways. Pretty cool man, pretty cool.
New to your channel. This is lovely and awesome as hell. Greatest songwriter of all time in my opinion and the more and more I’ve dug into his songwriting the more deeply I feel connected to music in general. I hope you’ll do more of his music. Clementine, memory lane, can’t answer you anymore, Christian brothers, distorted reality, man any and everything. Thank you!
Thanks for all the love! Yes, I'm planning to do another hopefully soon. ES is very special to me as well and touches things in me no other music has, his characteristic use of harmony and lyrics deep enough to dive into again and again, it's sublime.
This is AMAZING!! I have been down in the dumps all week because it is the week of the 21st and I've been just soaking in every piece of Elliott media I could find. This analysis is absolutely incredible. Thank you.
You're welcome! Well, the way I see it, being well versed in pop music the way Elliott was is its own study in theory. He could play countless songs by Cat Stevens, Big Star, The Beatles, and I"m sure lots more 60's pop by heart, which I'm sure he learned by ear. Theory is theory, whether or not you took a class or have a book in my opinion.
im so glad you brought up the I II IV thing because i hear it so much in his music that if he plays a II and it DOESNT go to IV i feel dissatisfied lol
Yeah! In general, the textbook "secondary dominant" function of this chord (" V of V" or as we're calling it, Major II) has been dramatically overridden in the past 50 or so years of popular music, by the general preference of movement to the IV chord, instead of the V as in the olden days.
Dude! Your explanations are insanely good. I loved this song so much when I first heard it was part of what got me into song writing in more than four chords in the same key. Keep it up man and your youtube channel is gonna blow up big. My one bit of advice as a sound engineer would be to try to get a MIDI keyboard of some kind set up to record these, as you've got so much room resonance, it's sometimes hard to tell just listening to the video whether you're playing a 1st or 5th because...well that's how room resonance works. A clearer midi recording would help my brain out a bit. But otherwise, just absolutely awesome. The piano sounds amazing - but it's just a bit too beautiful to focus on for a theory video.
Like no views for such an awesome video! Appreciated the music theory knowledge + the visuals a lot as a musician who listens to a lot of (and plays a lot) of smith. Would watch a million of these if they existed
That made my day, thanks so much! I'm sure I'll come back around and do another on him eventually, so keep in touch. I would absolutely lose my shit breaking down "everything means nothing to me" lol.
2 more songs of his that you should do a breakdown on: really great piano work on both of these tracks that deserves their own in-depth look. Waltz #1 Everything Means Nothing To Me
@@addyd.3140 coincidentally two of my favorites he wrote. He reaches Beatles-level on Pretty Mary K. LUSH with the Leslie cabinet guitar and tasty piano, Hammond / Leslie dramatic effects, the vocal harmonies, sophisticated chord changes... I have the sheet music for this song and would enjoy a harmonic analysis. EMNTM is almost Gabriel-era Genesis with the Rachmaninov bits, and Chamberlain strings filling the same space as would a Mellotron.
@@crimsonking70 haha, that's a really spot on description. I'm glad we share this angle of appreciation for ES's catalogue. May I ask What book do you have? I haven't really checked out any of the sheet music available so don't know which are good.
In the chorus, is the Bb major chord from the F major tonality, as opposed to the Ab major tonality (just wondering why it's orange at 3:45 given Bb major is not a chord in the Ab major tonality)? Apologies if I misunderstood, thanks!
You are correct! I foresaw someone saying that. I put a subliminal yellow disclaimer at 3:54 but you might have to play it at slow speed to catch it, my bad I should have left it in longer. In my interpretation, Smith uses the I II IV progression so often in his music in a way that doesn't function as indicative of a modulation, it's at home in the key and unremarkable due to its prevalence. I kind of see his songwriting as a school of harmony on it's own and some of my analysis is coming from that lens. I hope that helps explain my choice. Thanks for writing!
@@addyd.3140 Thank you for the response! Your answer made sense and sorry I didn't see the disclaimer:) Your answer emphasized how important I II IV is in Smith's music, which isn't something I appreciated. And of course, would love to see more analyses of Smith songs from this theory perspective (in particular other cool examples of how he uses modulations and relatedly how he writes these beautiful 8 chord progressions combining different keys :)
The only suggestion on improvement I can make is that you should display what chords you are playing during your little examples. Oh and that you should give small examples of your own stuff where you use his methods.
is there any reason to why the arrows are there at 2:35? to me it's like youre saaying elliott goes from F to F- to Ab with those arrows (or other way round). are you just drawing the chords with arrows for no reason?
Hi! I was attempting to show my train of thought, of how these keys a minor third apart are inherently related. By plucking the F chord from each key signature (F/Ab) and setting them side by side you can see another transformation wholly separate from relative major/minors, that being parallel major minors, where the letter name is shared but the quality of the chord is different. The arrows showed the path of the F chords from each key signature, one yellow (key of F major) one orange (key of Ab), being plucked out of their context and placed side by side. That diagram was more about understanding the relationships than applying it to any specific context in an ES song. Hope that helps? Thanks for writing!
@@tyler361t2 You could say the letter F as a root note (whether it be major or minor) is a channel between those two keys. But there's a multitude of ways to describe the relationship we're talking about, and you'd likely be better off using/finding your own, through your own practice and experience, than trying to fit mine into your perspective. I have my way of describing things and I don't expect everyone to relate to it. Look for more content on "relative keys" and then "parallel keys" if you still need a kick start, my videos don't provide great foundation for these concepts. All the best!
I think he refers to the unreleased Elliott song, some really interesting voicings in that one! Though my favourite Smith chords have got to be Everything Means Nothing to Me personally!!
Thanks so much everyone for the love! Be sure to check out my new video on Judee Sill.. If you love Elliott Smith and you don't know her yet, I think you'll be in for a treat!
ruclips.net/video/ahj17nnoaxE/видео.html heres a good explanation of I II IV. elliott loves moving major chords up minor thirds
Love myself a weird bus
What a beautiful chord progression, thanks so much for explaining all the theory behind it!
Hope you'll make the same kind of video on "Bottle Up and Explode!" someday
holy shit do more of these
One of the best Elliott smith analysis videos I’ve ever seen
Coming from the US Department of Music, that means a lot.
Your channel is a real gem
DAWWWW! ty
please more of these Elliott smith harmonic analysis vids! I just got here for Beefheart and stayed for Elliott Smith. Bravo.
the section transitions written on paper are really nice
Thank you for this. Back in 1997 this song was my introduction to Elliott Smith.
Your channel content is so great and I hope you get big enough to do this as much as you want.
That is so kind!
Wow, how cool to just sit down and find this. I am a big fan of ES music, songs, and songwriting. It’s really cool to find someone has broken down his song, illustrating some of its theoretical value, and why it’s good music, and why it catches your ear in certain distinct ways. Pretty cool man, pretty cool.
This was great. I'd love to hear more analysis on Elliott's music!
Incredible job
please keep doing what you're doing. I've watched alot of analysis videos of Elliotts work and you've covered it better than anyone. Great work!
Fantastic video, would love to see more of his catalogue analysed
Man this was an awesome video!!! Subscribed and liked
Thanks Alex!
Amazing content
i want to learn piano just to play Elliott now
Do it! Even if you have only 15 mins to practice a day, if you're focused you can do this in no time!
really cool analysis, one of my favorite songs of all time tbh
New to your channel. This is lovely and awesome as hell. Greatest songwriter of all time in my opinion and the more and more I’ve dug into his songwriting the more deeply I feel connected to music in general. I hope you’ll do more of his music. Clementine, memory lane, can’t answer you anymore, Christian brothers, distorted reality, man any and everything. Thank you!
Thanks for all the love! Yes, I'm planning to do another hopefully soon. ES is very special to me as well and touches things in me no other music has, his characteristic use of harmony and lyrics deep enough to dive into again and again, it's sublime.
Ah dude, thanks so much for this.
This is AMAZING!! I have been down in the dumps all week because it is the week of the 21st and I've been just soaking in every piece of Elliott media I could find. This analysis is absolutely incredible. Thank you.
I loved that. Thank you and great job. For what it's worth, I agree with your analysis.
Hey thanks! It's much appreciated.
Thank you so much for this…please do more of Elliott’s work! I wonder how much he was into theory and how much came intuitively for him….
You're welcome! Well, the way I see it, being well versed in pop music the way Elliott was is its own study in theory. He could play countless songs by Cat Stevens, Big Star, The Beatles, and I"m sure lots more 60's pop by heart, which I'm sure he learned by ear. Theory is theory, whether or not you took a class or have a book in my opinion.
Amazing analysis + I really like the handcrafted aesthetic. Thank you!
im so glad you brought up the I II IV thing because i hear it so much in his music that if he plays a II and it DOESNT go to IV i feel dissatisfied lol
also would love to see you analyze a prefab sprout song :)
Yeah! In general, the textbook "secondary dominant" function of this chord (" V of V" or as we're calling it, Major II) has been dramatically overridden in the past 50 or so years of popular music, by the general preference of movement to the IV chord, instead of the V as in the olden days.
This is great stuff.
"smithian harmony" love it
why would you say it's something lydian?
One of my absolute favorite Elliott Smith songs.
The self-titled is perfect to me, every song, god damn..
Great video! Will have to go back and study this more!
god these songs sound gorgeous on piano, thank you for this video!
You're welcome, thanks for the feedback!
I don't understand a lot, most of the terms you've mentioned I've never heard before, but man, is this video incredible. I loved it!
This is great.
I'd love to see a video about the songs of his that are outliers! Off the top of my head, maybe some things off of Roman Candle, or Waltz #1.
Thank you! This is beautiful.
More elliot smith analysis would be super appreciated! Your style is so engaging.
Amazing video, would love to see more harmonic analysis from you!
your playing is gorgeous! great analysis, thanks for making this :)
I would love to sit down with you, so I could be like "Hold up! Wait...what did you mean by that?"
that was
amazing. thank you very much
Dude! Your explanations are insanely good. I loved this song so much when I first heard it was part of what got me into song writing in more than four chords in the same key. Keep it up man and your youtube channel is gonna blow up big.
My one bit of advice as a sound engineer would be to try to get a MIDI keyboard of some kind set up to record these, as you've got so much room resonance, it's sometimes hard to tell just listening to the video whether you're playing a 1st or 5th because...well that's how room resonance works. A clearer midi recording would help my brain out a bit.
But otherwise, just absolutely awesome. The piano sounds amazing - but it's just a bit too beautiful to focus on for a theory video.
Thank you for your kind words and feedback!
Like no views for such an awesome video! Appreciated the music theory knowledge + the visuals a lot as a musician who listens to a lot of (and plays a lot) of smith. Would watch a million of these if they existed
That made my day, thanks so much! I'm sure I'll come back around and do another on him eventually, so keep in touch. I would absolutely lose my shit breaking down "everything means nothing to me" lol.
Thanks for this awesome video. So helpful and it’s cool
You're welcome! thx for coming by.
Finally a video truly for me
so cool!!
This is SUPER.
2 more songs of his that you should do a breakdown on: really great piano work on both of these tracks that deserves their own in-depth look.
Waltz #1
Everything Means Nothing To Me
YES! I have both of those (especially EMNTM) on my radar for future analysis.
Great video
Some analyses of David Ackles, Judee Sill, Laura Nyro, Nick Drake and Duncan Browne would be most welcome!
Brilliant rec's, you're speaking my language. I definitely the itch to do some Judee Sill, she is way up there for me.
wonderful video!
Beautiful
THANKS!
Keep 'em coming
thank you so much!
Pretty Mary K would be an interesting one to analyze
That song is way f**d up. Probably the furthest out he went harmonically, along with EMNTM
@@addyd.3140 coincidentally two of my favorites he wrote. He reaches Beatles-level on Pretty Mary K. LUSH with the Leslie cabinet guitar and tasty piano, Hammond / Leslie dramatic effects, the vocal harmonies, sophisticated chord changes... I have the sheet music for this song and would enjoy a harmonic analysis. EMNTM is almost Gabriel-era Genesis with the Rachmaninov bits, and Chamberlain strings filling the same space as would a Mellotron.
@@crimsonking70 haha, that's a really spot on description. I'm glad we share this angle of appreciation for ES's catalogue. May I ask What book do you have? I haven't really checked out any of the sheet music available so don't know which are good.
Nice!
Yeah! ok!
Edit: this was fantastic.
In the chorus, is the Bb major chord from the F major tonality, as opposed to the Ab major tonality (just wondering why it's orange at 3:45 given Bb major is not a chord in the Ab major tonality)? Apologies if I misunderstood, thanks!
You are correct! I foresaw someone saying that. I put a subliminal yellow disclaimer at 3:54 but you might have to play it at slow speed to catch it, my bad I should have left it in longer. In my interpretation, Smith uses the I II IV progression so often in his music in a way that doesn't function as indicative of a modulation, it's at home in the key and unremarkable due to its prevalence. I kind of see his songwriting as a school of harmony on it's own and some of my analysis is coming from that lens. I hope that helps explain my choice. Thanks for writing!
@@addyd.3140 Thank you for the response! Your answer made sense and sorry I didn't see the disclaimer:) Your answer emphasized how important I II IV is in Smith's music, which isn't something I appreciated. And of course, would love to see more analyses of Smith songs from this theory perspective (in particular other cool examples of how he uses modulations and relatedly how he writes these beautiful 8 chord progressions combining different keys :)
wow
The only suggestion on improvement I can make is that you should display what chords you are playing during your little examples. Oh and that you should give small examples of your own stuff where you use his methods.
do you have sheet music for his other songs i would die for that. great video btw
Hi i wonder if you still have/if youd share the arrangement you used for the video? Thanks!
Hey! do you mean like the lead-sheet that was used in the video?
@addyd.3140 yes yes!
@@addyd.3140 I keep trying to screenshot and missing haha
@@VeraMercier-l7w1 OK I was able to dig it up! I'll put a drive link of all the scores used in the video description, hopefully that helps. cheers!
@@addyd.3140 thanks so much!
Can you post a piano cover of this?
is there any reason to why the arrows are there at 2:35? to me it's like youre saaying elliott goes from F to F- to Ab with those arrows (or other way round). are you just drawing the chords with arrows for no reason?
Hi! I was attempting to show my train of thought, of how these keys a minor third apart are inherently related. By plucking the F chord from each key signature (F/Ab) and setting them side by side you can see another transformation wholly separate from relative major/minors, that being parallel major minors, where the letter name is shared but the quality of the chord is different. The arrows showed the path of the F chords from each key signature, one yellow (key of F major) one orange (key of Ab), being plucked out of their context and placed side by side. That diagram was more about understanding the relationships than applying it to any specific context in an ES song. Hope that helps? Thanks for writing!
@@addyd.3140 wait so theyre related through this shared f aeolian key?
@@tyler361t2 You could say the letter F as a root note (whether it be major or minor) is a channel between those two keys. But there's a multitude of ways to describe the relationship we're talking about, and you'd likely be better off using/finding your own, through your own practice and experience, than trying to fit mine into your perspective. I have my way of describing things and I don't expect everyone to relate to it. Look for more content on "relative keys" and then "parallel keys" if you still need a kick start, my videos don't provide great foundation for these concepts. All the best!
@@addyd.3140 mike george has a great video on them! you should check him out cause his diagrams are mindblowing for more advanced topics
i think you'd find stickman interesting
Tell me about it. Is it a band? I'm assuming you're not referring to the chapman stick group "stick men" with tony levin..
I think he refers to the unreleased Elliott song, some really interesting voicings in that one!
Though my favourite Smith chords have got to be Everything Means Nothing to Me personally!!
@@addyd.3140 it's an unreleased elliott smith song, it has really interesting voicings
@@JiyanSheppard Awesome! thanks for explaining, yes I have to check that out at my earliest convenience.
excellent video