Backdoor Progression - How it works

[@Kazberhaf]

Thank you so much Matthias, I now have copious notes 😅👍🏻your explanations are very very clear, and very helpful brilliant!

[@keithcitizen4855]

About the simplest easier explanation I've seen .So much to learn in music theory.

[@ronnie4261]

great explanations here!

[@CornelisGerard]

Thanks for this!

[@craigmitchell8892]

viciously underrated content. Cheers for the videos (:

[@osvaldosanguinet7758]

Excelente ! Gracias !!

[@attifan]

thank you! brilliant work! time saved!

[@lionsskyblue442]

very good my friend, i have been watching your videos since years ago and you have helped me alot, thank you and god bless you

[@nickrees4706]

Brilliant Explanation!

[@williamlove9821]

Hey you finished it! congrats man!

[@JohnyMad1988]

Awesome videos man. You got yourself a new subscriber

[@Prilly49]

Thanks! Great explanation.

[@shirpower699]

Thanks!

[@01explorations]

Great that you explained this in so many different perspectives. best video i've seen on youtube on backdoor. However, I don't understand how your example 6 and 7 relate to Bb7?

[@MarcoEscalante1]

Excellent explanation dude

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

Thank you 😊

[@muuroonggeooffrey246]

Brilliant, Its just a rootless& fifthless Dominant with b9&#9

[@JonFrumTheFirst]

No it isn't - read my comment.

[@juditta2003]

as for the replacement of tritone E7 and Bb7 it works but Fm7 is not replacement of Tritone of Bm7. To have a tritone substitution and maintain the harmonic function of the chords it is necessary that the third and seventh be kept even if inverted, in this case this does not happen.

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

It’s true that Bm7 in itself is not a Tritone substitution of Fm7. But the whole ii-V progression is indeed a tritone substitution. Think of it as only tritone substituting the V chord and afterwards extending it into a ii-V progression. Another way to look at it is that the underlying keys are a tritone apart. Yet another perspective is to view the progression as a natural falling fifths movement and then simply using some modal interchange. It’s good to view progressions as a whole instead of focusing on each chord separately. It’s a bit like reading a text in sentences instead of word by word. This lets you see bigger patterns and allows you to apply techniques to those instead of single chords.

[@CarlosMartinez-gr1rp]

Is the backdoor progression related to the deceptive cadence? Because Bb7 to Cm would be such a move, right?

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

Exactly Carlos! The backdoor progression is a deceptive cadence, because it lets you expect a resolution to Eb major (in the case of Fm7 Bb7). There are many deceptive cadences (essentially every cadence not suggesting to be resolved to C). The backdoor has several properties making it sound so good - and the deceptive resolution is one of these 👍

[@SamiGundogdu]

Excellent, which scales should be play on these chords? Dorian on minor and lydian b7 on bVII7 ?

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

I would most likely play dorian on the iv chord and mixolydian on the bVII7 chord. So the note material is simply that of c minor or Eb major over both chords. Thinking to solo from c minor to C major (on the I chord) might be an easy rule to remember.

[@beat461]

9:40 Bm E7 is not a ii - V in A minor, a ii - V in A minor is Bm7b5 E7 right?

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

Partly right ;). Thanks for pointing it out! It's true that it depends on the flavor of minor you're looking at. Bm E7 is a ii-V in A melodic minor. Your proposed progression would be a ii-V in harmonic minor (it would probably also be E7b9 then). A third option would be Bm Em, which would be a ii-v in natural (aeolian) minor. I definitely went over it without explaining - sorry for that! It's not obvious that I chose melodic minor here. For the underlying reasoning it doesn't make much difference, however. The important point is that Fm7-Bb7 can be explained as a tritone substitution of "some" ii-V cadence in the relative minor key.

[@pizzichelli]

bravo

[@henrikhankhagnell]

awesome! thanks! let's now play jazz piano!

[@الشمسالحمراء-ع8ظ]

¿how i do this when my I Chord it's minor? For example, if i have a II ∅ to V7 (9b or 5#) to Im7 Should I keep the second semi-diminished and change the fifth by the bVII? Anyone can please explain me this, thanks so much.

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

Hey النطح ! The backdoor progression works best in major. The effect in minor is much less pronounced. The simple reason is: the backdoor progression uses borrowed chords from the parallel minor key! So if you already ARE in the minor key, the iv and bVII are simply diatonic chords. So you get a regular deceptive resolution of a major ii-V (Fm7 Bb7 Ebmaj7) to its relative minor key (i.e. Fm7 Bb7 Cm) - still a nice move, but far from the surprising and uplifting effect of the backdoor progression in major. I hope my explanation was comprehendible 😊

[@الشمسالحمراء-ع8ظ]

Thank you very much for your answer, it is totally understandable and it was very clear to me. A hug and thank you very much for showing us new ways of composing.

[@Ambidextroid]

I don't like the voice leading explanation. Many chords share more notes with the dominant chord and have better voice leading than the backdoor 5, yet the backdoor progression has a particularly smooth effect. I think the chord borrowing from the parallel minor is the correct explanation. A 2-5-6 progression in Eb major sounds resolved because the 6 chord has tonic function, just replace that 6 minor chord with a major chord (a classic picardy third) and the resolution is even stronger.

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

Thanks for thoughts! I like to think about music theory as not having one “correct“ explanation. I rather see it as different ways you can describe a phenomenon - not necessarily in full. One way of thinking about it might come more naturally to one person, another way might seem more logical to another.

[@andreasrehn7454]

I just think of it as a false cadence of Eb going to Cmaj instead if Cmin...

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

That’s right. Everybody has a different mental model how to explain this. I’ve learned that it’s always valuable to have two or more perspectives of the same phenomenon to kind of see it in 3D 😊

[@JonFrumTheFirst]

There are some reasonable points made here within the 8 explanations, but he never gets is right. Historically, a common progressions was I-I7-IV-IVmin-I. It's in the third four bars of When the Saints Go Marching In - one chord per bar. The IV-IVmin-I progression works because of the A-Ab-G movement (in C major). You can actually pull it back and create a line of C-Bb-A-Ab-G. So F-Fmin-C is just a way to get from F to C - try it and you'll hear the pull. Now, Bb7 is just Fmin6 with a Bb in the bass - it's a direct substitution. That is where the bVII7 comes from - not from any replacement of the ii7-V7 progression, and not from the relative minor. How many people actually hear chords as being taken from the relative minor? Only musicians with excellent ears, and music students who have taken theory classes. All the relative minor stuff is classroom theory that has no bearing on why the progression works. Finally, once songwriters started breaking away from that original cliche progression, someone tried the Bb7, and it sounded nice. And once you use ANY dominant seventh chord, it's trivial to add the relative ii minor 7 chord and make a ii7-V7 progression. And the reason it fits right in is that it (Fm7) also has the Ab leading tone. There's no doubt that this is how the so-called backdoor progression was created - you can see the original chords in many, many songs. After songwriters started substituting the bVII7 for the IVmin, then they began plugging the same chord in without the IV-in front of it, and then they added the IVm7 to make the new ii7-V7 leading to the tonic. All the altered chord stuff, the relative minor and the analogies to the diatonic ii7-V7 is just constructing an explanation out of classroom knowledge without a historical basis.

[@fenderbender1296]

I like the other theories but yours is more likely the truth.

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

Hey JonFrumTheFirst! Thanks for this awesome comment! I always appreciate exchange an new insights 👍. I will not deny that your explanation of the backdoor progression might be the historically correct deduction. Thanks for that! But as you said, music theory is not for classrooms - it is for improving the way we make music. And for that purpose, any theory construct that helps someone to understand progressions and come up with musical solutions in songwriting is a “right” theory. That is why I present so many different explanations here 😊. We have to acknowledge that music came first and theory second. Music theory was merely an invention to streamline education of young musicians in orphanages centuries ago, so that these kids could earn a living. It never claimed to be “right” - it just wanted to help to understand and write music in a more efficient manner than a decade long trial and error study with a master. In this spirit I want to sincerley l thank you again for giving me and all others this historical deduction of the progression, as it further helps our understanding and songwriting! Maybe one day I will do another video with more angles to view this progression including your wonderful deduction 👍 🎶

[@poderes]

Marco Minneman!

[@carlosmariosuarez5319]

i loved this video but the fact is this progression works even if the chords are imcomplete, eg without 7ths and 5ths, even without thirds, and that's what needs an explanation

[@vadegamingentertainment4377]

Shaggy??

[@paulgrass4855]

v neck aint working my man

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

Well, I care more aboutthe music. Anf about stage outfits: It’s less aboutthe outfit than about the attitude with which you wear it. I might have to work on my attitude during videos 😄

[@bentleysarts]

Wow so confusing

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

I hope I did plant more seeds for understanding than I confused you 😅. Indeed this video aims to show many different perspectives of the same phenomenon. It’s deep. If you only take away one thing from this, I would like it to be this: Music theory is not an exact science with one single answer for every phenomenon. It is more a world of different mental constructs we built after the fact to make explaining and understanding music a little easier. The more mental constructs we have, the more facets we can see and the more creative we can be. In mathematics there is also a thing called dualism, in which you describe the same mathematical phenomenon from two completely different angles. Sometimes it’s easier to explain or reason from one angle, sometimes the other is more convenient or opens up different solutions. It’s similar in music theory.

[@marinduque-theheartoftheph]

You're correct. It's deep but it is absolutely worth the dig. So much to learn underneath 😅

[@donlessnau3983]

Great music theory info. But why is it so hard to find any real, concrete background info on you. Where were you born, go to school, etc? The music theory is fantastic but all the other stuff sounds like bs.

[@RealWorldMusicTheory]

Hehe, I hide my mainstream stardom 🤪 But honestly, I think it’s because - likeso many of us - I’m a multi-faceted person. I do so much ither stuff that people might think it’s different persons 😆. What could you find aboutmy background?