Advanced Jazz Harmony Without the Indigestion (ft. June Lee's Pedal Point Etude)

How do you write a piece using rich, complex, chords that doesn't give you indigestion? And how do you use chromatic harmonies that don't fit into any particular key but somehow still sounds lush and delicious? Composer June Lee managed to do both of these in his little piano piece 'Pedal Point Etude' and in this video I look at and try to understand the various harmonic techniques he used in the piece. A huge thank you to June for his help preparing this video.
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#jazz #harmony

[@These4Chords]

Someone finally analyzing June Lee, instead of the other way around.

[@jeroenfigee]

I hear a little bit of Thijs van Leer in this. Or better .... It reminds me of this 1975 album ... :-) . kzbin.info/www/bejne/bofJnZWcgZyWpdk kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIGVi2qertCjqJY

[@punksterbass]

I love how this video is basically a distilling of Persichetti's book in twenty minutes

[@hipepleful]

Or at least the first few chapters, which are probably the "best" ones for not making extremely dissonant music like Stravinsky.

[@ThePrimeMinisterOfTheBlock]

What an age we live in, that I can not only connect with but also learn from professional composers. Thank you

[@wiktorjajcarz448]

Which one? : D

[@natasgabel1672]

@@wiktorjajcarz448 all of them (that are online anyways)

[@JonathanSWorsley]

I think a really important function of jazz harmony labels that is often overlooked is that they're incredibly useful for on-the-fly improvisation, rather than for pure analysis.

[@brookstarkington]

“A G# G F E D C#... Now that’s not any scale that I know the name of.” *Rick Beato has entered the chat*

[@brookstarkington]

“This is the 7th mode of the triple harmonic major scale, which you can find on page 535 of The Beato Book. Discount code beato20.”

[@stuartjohnstone2756]

@@brookstarkington Actual LOL

[@mrgabifour4]

@@brookstarkington Think of it as an A mixolydian b13 scale (without 2nd degree) and add a chromatic tone between b7 and 1 (commonly used in bebop). Nothing special man.

[@Darm0k]

Crazy scales are more up 12 tone's alley.

[@anotherplanetuk2]

Gabriel Červeňák or it could be the first six notes of the half-whole diminished scale with a chromatic alteration

[@leochavolla2263]

10:55 Instant throwback to my band director in high school trying to tune the clarinet section

[@gooball2005]

True

[@Alic4444]

Also, horror movies

[@JuneLee]

19:55 haha

[@HelloHello-vk5ob]

June Lee june flippin lee

[@alejandrocorona1766]

God forbid

[@rhettray8604]

Get LOFI-ed in the end..

[@realizbac4624]

Uhh. Maybe...

[@PeoplewithAccents]

This feels like a nod to Nahre Sol's "as digested by a classical musician" vids, it even has the technique descriptions labeled on the original piece at the end as they occur. Major props to her for such an effective video format. It's funny, the approach outlined in this vid is pretty much exactly my approach to some of the jazz-influenced guitar compositions I tend to write, though June's got much more harmonic firing power (I think it's generally accepted by guitar players that pianists are always going to have the harmonic upper hand).

[@MegaThunderfire]

I think we as guitar players often envy pianists for being able to easily play cluster voicings. :( Our voice leading is much more limited by how the hand works on the instrument...

[@marcusstoica]

@@MegaThunderfire From a pianist's perspective I think what you guys might lack in playing chords you more than make up in the ability to play scales in a unique way. I've been playing for 20 years and I'm still trying to properly learn how to play in all 12 keys the same.

[@ticfortea]

17:22 got me thinking. Like, Bach is famous for his micromodulations, where he utilizes miniature excursions into foreign keys relative to the key he's currently in as a kind of compositional effect, as color, or like a stop on an organ, rather than just as indicators of a new episode or movement having begun. Meaning, he was very good at granting foreign keys the legitimate paperwork to work in a key that should sound jarring, and get "back again". Whether June is consciously doing this or not, isn't what he's doing here kind of the exact opposite, but with a similar intention in terms of the effect on the listener? He's creating these little episodes that seem very secure in their tonal centering, but when they finally resolve it turns out that the entire _episode_ we just heard was a set-up, or an elaborate "excursion" away from, the final chord/harmony (in this case, B major to A major). In tandem with his keen observation of voice leading for integrity of expression, the effect (at least on me) is one of perpetual "openness" or curious naiveté. It puts me in this state where my ears are almost forced on their toes, eager to hear where the music is going. Like the music _is_ the excursion, away from and always towards, the resolution to "home", which is never heard until we finally arrive there, not knowing that this was home until we got there.

[@twangbarfly]

Excellent analysis!

[@karolakkolo123]

@@twangbarfly yup

[@SPLEclipse]

18:38 giant steps but its june lee

[@SoloGuitar1000]

I'm just a musician, not a composer but I think the last two chords resolve beautifully, using a combination of standard jazz resolution with an added twist. To me it seems it's just a Db (7 add 9 ? ) resolving up one-half step (standard jazz resolution) to a DMaj9. The twist is that in the 1st chord he throws in two notes from the next chord (Root and 5th - D and A) which creates tension by anticipating the next chord and allowing all the remaining notes resolve up to the final chord.

[@2li678]

As a folk musician interested in music theory I would love to see a video analyzing harmony in Irish music, which is historically a melodic rather than harmonic music, from the use of drones and regulators on uilleann pipes, to double stops on fiddle, to harmonic approaches on DADGAD guitar or GDAD bouzouki. I know you have a fondness for folky flavors, so it might be up your alley, too.

[@evertvandenberghe]

Hear hear!

[@nohaylamujer]

The overly-rich dessert versus the truffle metaphor... I call that class.

[@ericmyrs]

You should be "down with the kids" more often.

[@mykeinso1364]

I really love June's piece. And now we have video with it! Thanks David!

[@thomasreillymusic]

The work you put into this is absolutely amazing. You have a wonderful talent for clearly, concisely interpreting and disseminating musical information (which is truly advanced). You are incredibly gracious for sharing this with the world. Thank you dearly. Cheers

[@redhotbenny84]

Fascinating and insightful analysis. Lots of food for thought! Love the graphical display of dissonance.

[@danyanfish8850]

I appreciate the lofi and the thought out summary this has really helped me understand melody. Also, you are right, no one ever asks WHY to use such complicated chords. Getting to the root of why to use them has helped me put the time in to understand how they work. This whole video was a real help thank you!

[@simonthebard9512]

This piece reminded me of Olivier Messiaen "La colombe" so it is nice to hear that composer really refered to Messiaen.

[@idnemgk]

What a wonderful piece June wrote! Thank you for sharing your understanding of it. I also love your solo piano piece shared at the end of the video.

[@jshughes79]

Dude! I've been searching KZbin for MONTHS for good vids on this topic. THANK YOU!

[@kadourimdou43]

Sometimes really harmonically complex music can begin to sound like random chords, and you loose a sense of structure. Like it was mentioned. If you’re not in the mood its nice to hear a more coherent chord progression.

[@TheDutchCreeperTDC]

Pretty much why I can only take jazz to a certain extent. I love some spice in chords but I also love the feeling of tension and release that functional harmony provides.

[@turtlellamacow]

@@TheDutchCreeperTDC I agree; in this piece some chords are definitely more stable than others, but for the most part the harmonic motion just feels random. Smooth and with nice voice-leading, but undirected and without much tension-and-release. I think this type of composition is a lot easier to write than to analyze and justify tonally. Paradoxically the effect of all the chord extensions is to flatten everything out - each chord sounds like it could be any other. Mix too many colors and you just get brown.

[@fabiofazmusica]

And that is the beauty of have more choices than the obvious ones

[@ephjaymusic]

This was just a delight to watch! Thank you so much for being such a fantastic teacher!

[@frederickfritzsche97]

Absolutely fantastic video, thank you so much for that. Also for June Lee for writing that very fine piece

[@arne__]

The melody of your piece is very strong an logical imho - the falling thirds in calmer moments and rising seconds in moments of maximal tension really guide my ears through the chords smoothly!

[@paulussantosociwidjaja4781]

Really love it, Dave. Thank you for your beautiful concoction words of complex composition into more enjoyable consumption of the mind. Interesting collection of your various musical instruments, too. Cheers!

[@homeone4054]

At last! What a great informative and easy to follow video. Thia has helped me no end. Thank you!

[@MarcasLancaster]

Superb stuff yet again.

[@kell_0741]

Your etude was so wondrously beautiful, im looking to start writing my own piece and these videos really help in the absence of a course on music high school sophomore year.

[@Hist_da_Musica]

Hindemith developed an interesting method to quantify the degree of dissonance of chords and create coherent atonal chord progressions. It's a great pedagogical tool for young composers!

[@josedavidgranjamoreno9716]

what is this method called?

[@Linoleum027]

thank you!! i enjoyed your piece greatly as well

[@thimkthimk]

13:24 This Messiaen chord fits in the "Octatonic" mode which does not have a functional V-I relationship, nor a tonic / "starting" position.

[@evantyor6242]

Loved this! Thanks for the great, concise and digestible analysis

[@chadbierman8058]

Thank you so much for such a great video Bruce!

[@justinschaefers7185]

Fantastic review. Thanks!

[@Howard_Wright]

Really like both the Gluttony-free etude, and the lo-fi remix of June's piece. The fretless bass and touches of strings work really nicely to bring out some of the features of the original. Good stuff!

[@MrInterestingthings]

Wonderful what June Lee does . Pulls away then resolves in ways we've never heard before ! Reminds me of Lennie Tristano !

[@ikeabuchi1]

I admire how this guy gets straight to the point.

[@mercuryli3872]

I learned so much about Jazz harmony in 20 mins!! Thank you!!!

[@FilipJersMusic]

Great, inspiring and educational. Best 21 minutes I spent today.

[@roman13rooms]

Finally someone mentions Scriabin!

[@renandias7926]

I am waiting for someone to mention Carlo Gesualdo. He was doing way crazier dissonances back in 1570....those were the days lol

[@bohnulus]

Dissonance doesn't always have to find a resolution... I like the sound of that. great vid.

[@mandrewhannaford1755]

this is so good i love this please do more in depth analysis videos i love them

[@JJBerthume]

Your best video yet!

[@TinyMaths]

After years of delving into harmony this is such a welcomed overview. It's like reverse engineering to me really, I've been messing with the tools, but only now have decided to understand them at the fundamental level. Reminds me of college maths. All the operations I used since school, like addition, multiplication, and their opposites, and the different types of numbers, fractions, whole numbers, roots etc, I'm now learning 'why' they work on a fundamental level which helps you get a fascinating view of the subject and opens up a whole range of applications which I new nothing about before. It's funny, I've been away from the piano for a while, but these analyses are really fueling the fire in my desire to get back to experimenting in music.

[@EclecticSceptic]

Great vid - nicely explained.

[@LearningEnjoyingPianoMusic]

...This is the best part of You Tube I can fall in. Thank You for sharing!

[@davidmfoxe]

Well done. Many of these same approaches can also unlock how some of Berg’s musical results can be heard in a coherent fashion both linearly and vertically (even if they were generated by other means).

[@OohWeeShaShaCooCoo]

MAN the last 6 measures of your student SEND ME!!! And this logo remix! Wow! I love the gems you post on this channel

[@joskun]

I love this analysis and how you break it down David! You are so right about Jacob's progression being over the top and some days like you said I love immersing myself in them. Hope you have analyzed some of his tunes. You summed up June's music at the end well balanced for me. Your first half of June's style was a bit rough around the edges specially when you went to the lower registers even though I felt like they sounded well resolved and the 2nd half was pure enjoyment and intrigued 🙂. June has so much practice in his style and I give you props because you did a great job man, loved the ending too so zeny ummm

[@TLMuse]

David, that harmonic movement in the last two bars of "Glutton-free etude" (at 19:34) actually gave me the chills-just lovely, somehow simultaneously so unexpected and so right! I just went back and listened to that bit five times! -Tom

[@TheTroubadourRecords]

Dude, Bruce. Only you to make me understand half of that damn cluster chords while also teaching me a lesson in voice leading. Thanks again for the inspiration! P.S.: Sequoia sounds as amazing as always!

[@janvanwijk5979]

Great video David!

[@danieliwuala4093]

Good sight-reading of the etude!

[@emilianapiccini500]

Excelente video. Gracias!

[@HoraceMash]

Thank you for such a lucid perspective on such a complicated piece. This makes me wonder whether these harmonically rich chords can work well with less complex harmonies without jarring the listener too much. Can you mix chocolate truffles with toast? I wonder what the recipe secrets of that combination would be? Again thank you for your insight and generosity... you give me hope for long term impact of the Internet on civilisation...

[@petterhouting7484]

This is exactly what i have been looking for

[@DevilsBox61]

The rhythm of this piece holds it together as much as any harmonic or melodic elements.

[@ChicoChagasmusica]

Amazing! Thank you for posting

[@gavbrown01]

Thanks for an enjoyable post!

[@contopiasvids]

Fantastic video

[@kickbiker7920]

Great clip!

[@auashe]

June Lee's piece reminds me of the way Messiaen often explores nonfunctional harmonies over an unchanging pedal. Messiaen's 'Regard du Pere' comes to mind

[@stevemontgomeryunheardofgu2759]

Finally! What I've been looking for! Thanks for distilling and presenting some of the sounds and theory that "tickle" my ear. As a guitarist who uses both hands, I'm wondering if anyone has endeavored to make further distillations friendly to the fret board.

[@Brandon55638]

Imagining dominant pedal points under chromatic lines helps to unleash that harmonic potential. That's where all those chords seem to come from. I learned that from taking jazz piano lessons and listening to early 20th century post-Romantic music by Alexander Scriabin, Percy Grainger, and Eugene Goossens.

[@composer7325]

Excellent, thankyou.

[@DanGulinobass]

Enjoyed this. Thanks

[@hernanperez8930]

19:11 Even the piano felt that 𝐣 𝐚 𝐳 𝐳

[@thescowlingschnauzer]

Good metaphor. Jacob Collier's stuff is a candy milkshake rootbeer float. Just sweets on sweets on sweets. I'm impressed, but it can leave me wanting a rare steak.

[@alicec1533]

Since I've recently gotten my head around functional harmony, it's cool to return to this video, which goes over my head in a lot of ways. But it's interesting to learn about non-functional harmony.

[@RonenNissan]

18:37 Beautiful piece !! congratulations Dave

[@seattlevkk]

Excellent thought provoking video as always. In my experience with jazz alterations on dominants serve a very specific purpose to create more tension before resolving. Whereas alterations on non dominants are for color and don’t serve a functional purpose specifically. And I was taught to just think of it that simply. But if you are looking at something like June’s piece which doesn’t do anything traditionally functional all that goes out of the window and the methodologies you describe so well are the primary driving forces. You didn’t mention the former so thought I’d add that.

[@p3porro]

I loved your piece

[@DavidA-ps1qr]

Hugely informative. Thank u.

[@nnnn3563]

te amo david

[@TheRE4Player]

És brasileiro ou hispanohablante ?

[@OsvaldoBayerista]

@@TheRE4Player Eso es Español

[@TheRE4Player]

@@OsvaldoBayerista Ah sí, en português BR también hablamos "te amo", así que me confundi

[@TheBBQify]

i want to hear this on a rhodes

[@mikeciul8599]

I think you've got a point. The piano sound felt too dense for the harmonies to me.

[@bigPianist99]

Or a vocal version

[@TheBBQify]

@@bigPianist99 ooo now we're talking

[@GrumpyStormtrooper]

anyone care to do it? if not i might sit and learn it but i don't have time these months, maybe during august

[@joshuaallgood7030]

I want to hear this on an Ondes Martenot (brings out the Messiaen)

[@TheCiaP2]

Dude awsome video ! 😁

[@jarbasgoulartdecastro9104]

Thank you!

[@uhoh007]

Where the wild chords really work for me is in the playing of the current crop of great Gospel virtuosos. They hold the melodic fort against the great rise of all drums and percussion...a wonderful thing in itself. Take the pre-modal rules of BeBop and combine them with the slash chords of the Gospel Hammonds...sounds awesome and the head does not hurt so much. Thanks for all the ideas.

[@Floatwithme]

Hi David name is Ray (Floatwithme) a Dutch composer. Very intresting channel and glad I have subscribed. Keep up that great work in all you do. Cheers Ray

[@vaclavmiller8032]

The étude is so tonally advanced that it almost sounds like Messiaen.

[@AlessandroSistiMusic]

Me: This kinda sounds like Messiaen This video at 13:32 : June took this chord from Messiaen Me: Nice.

[@dannyfratina3901]

@@AlessandroSistiMusic And even then, it's nothing more advanced that a 1930s Duke Ellington voicing. It's Eb7 with a bunch of tonal alterations (b9, #9, #11), in 2nd inversion.

[@Ferrichrome]

Love messiaen :D

[@jonathanmenard9912]

"Can we do another (chocolate) take on that..." lol Thank you for this interesting lesson

[@Aleph_Null_Audio]

I agree with your assessment of Collier's work. Most of the time I love it. Sometimes it's a bit too much and I wonder if he will mellow a little with age and experience.

[@nickdick2]

He has reminded me Manhattan Transfer since I heard him first time… great interesting harmonies, but composing new music is another cup of tea…

[@ironmonger100]

Yes, I think and I hope that in a few years he'll realise more and more that his output needs to stay musical. It's packed with musicality now but that seems not yet to be his priority.

[@m.l.pianist2370]

@@pete3816 I beg to disagree, Jacob doesn't strike me as a musician who doesn't care about his listeners. On the contrary, his music feels incredibly generous and extroverted. His music screams to the audience "I want to share all this with you!"

[@m.l.pianist2370]

@@pete3816 I see what you mean, and I agree. I guess my point is that the music he loves making is music that has the audience in mind. Even at its most complicated, his music is particularly enjoyable to listen to. He's no Schoenberg or Stockhausen.

[@AdamDray]

I mentally compared David Bruce's comments about Collier's "lushness" with Salieri's "too many notes" comment to Mozart in Amadeus.

[@bryanpoulsen8969]

Wouldn’t say the music presented in this video is really my cup of tea, but I appreciate the analysis and explanation nonetheless. Always find something to learn in your videos.

[@chrisSkordPiano]

Thanks for the information

[@nukillerfridaymusic911]

Brilliant

[@inf0phreak]

6:06 a drop falls from David's mouth. You can't unsee it now. I certainly can't, dangit.

[@kristofwynants]

David you never sieze to amaze me with your topics. Keep'em coming

[@curtpiazza1688]

Great....like the dessert analogy!

[@francocarrieri1988]

I had that for breakfast. Very enjoyable.

[@jamesdick6246]

Whats that song you're playing in the transitions??

[@deldia]

For me there’s tension & release and familiarity & surprise. I always want a mixture of both.

[@jarbasgoulartdecastro9104]

MORE OF THIS!!!!

[@LTGuitarist]

Good stuff Dave! I always fall into the trap of trying to work out "what chords mean" rather than actually thinking about that for myself and using them based on my interpretation. Not sure if that was the point of the vid, but valuable nonetheless.

[@genesisPiano]

I'm glad you summarized at the end of this. There was a lot to take in, so a short review helped. I've understood jazz chords and how they work together on some level. I think I see what you mean about the labeling being possibly arbitrary and not all that useful in some cases. What you laid out here gives me (I hope) a framework of some utility for thinking about these more, I dunno, what do you call them? Advanced harmonies? You may have other videos on harmony that I haven't seen yet, but I hope you've done a good bit on different harmonic considerations. My initial way of understanding harmony was through the 80s pop songs I ingested growing up, so any help at all I could get with thinking about other ways of harmonizing would be useful. I started that thirty-six years ago, and yet even today I don't know enough about the harmonic approaches used in different periods of serious music, though I imagine there's more than I could possibly use online. I just need to pick an era and sit down and look at it. Unless I was going to write a piece that sounds Baroque, I'm not completely sure how helpful doing that would be, but on the other hand I would probably get more to expand my vocabulary and help me find my harmonic voice. I never had formal music training but I am working at writing for orchestra, so that's a significant challenge I face. So much to learn! I had some sheets to help me from the one semester I took music composition when I went to digest La Mer. The professor pointed out where certain scales were used and echoes of the Tristan chord. I noticed the book commentary I found on it didn't try to dissect it harmonically too much. I looked at a few short passages of Shostakovich's Violin Concerto in A Minor and was completely lost as to how to make sense of the clusters of pitches he uses to back the soloist. Every now and then he threw in a recognizable chord, but the bulk of it is just indecipherable from a tonal standpoint. I'll go back and think in terms of some of the things you've said and modeled here to help me make sense of it. Prokofiev seems to my ear to be doing some interesting non-diatonic things not only with his harmony but even in how he structured his melody lines. I'd like to look into his approaches someday to expand my thinking about how to accompany a given melody at the piano other than the Am F C G formula, for example.

[@whydidyouresign]

That was fun. Reminded me of some personal excursions on the piano during my teens when, fueled by adolescent rebellion I decided to throw out all the rules just to see what would happen. Not much did. I discovered some hip chords. But otherwise pretty much just got lost. Thanks! Thumbs up and a sub. :-)

[@KasranFox]

that lo-fi remix at the end was incredible

[@seheyt]

At 7:08 the sounded sample is wrong for the notation (in fact it matches the second voice leading example a few seconds later)

[@wilunki18]

great video

[@zackarykeleher6996]

12:44 That's so interesting, to see how you both differ on that last chord. I'm with June thinking that it isn't really that dissonant, as I've listened to a lot of Jazz and I really enjoy the calm and rested sound of a Maj 7th chord.