Harmonic Analysis of Sad Song from Super Mario RPG

[@ChessCat1500]

Here from signals music studios

[@GUIM1797]

My email account has blown up with people coming from Signals! I'm very appreciative of his shoutout!

[@RyanLeach]

nice analysis

[@shuckyducky5212]

one of my fav's! Keep going man, great channel!

[@GUIM1797]

Thank you! I'm definitely going to keep it up! In fact, this year, my main goal is increase the rate of production and get a consistent flow of output.

[@RMLLcrazy]

Just found your channel. This is great :)

[@GUIM1797]

Awesome! I'm glad to hear! :)

[@OfficialMilkyFoxChannel]

It sounds pretty nice.

[@HeroLionHeart68]

Thank u man

[@GUIM1797]

You're welcome!

[@shing02]

can you do a harmonic anaysis on "under her control" from ff 8 this channel is great btw!

[@GUIM1797]

Thanks for the comment and kind words! Much appreciated! I'm listening to the tune now and I definitely think there's something I can say about the harmony, so I'd say keep an eye out for the tune! I already have installments finished and released for patrons that will be released publicly over the next month so it would come out some times after those.

[@shing02]

@@GUIM1797 Awesome thanks for the reply and no rush! cant wait and i enjoy all of your amazing content

[@GUIM1797]

@@shing02 If you have any other Final Fantasy requests from I - IX definitely let me know. I plan to look at Final Fantasy music regularly on this channel so any recommendations are appreciated (the FF catalogue is just... MASSIVE, haha). Thanks again!

[@shing02]

@@GUIM1797 omg! good to know will do!!

[@BD-rk6hx]

Quick question. I don't understand why the VII, III and VI are called "flat" chords. Everything here, outside of a few notes in the melody, appears to be diatonic. I just want to make sure I'm on the same page with you for whatever naming conventions you use as I imagine it's consistent through the videos.

[@GUIM1797]

Yes, the piece is predominantly built Diatonically. That said, my videos fall under the school of thought that indicates a Roman Numeral's position based on intervallic distance from the Tonic and not based on the selected Mode. So if a chord is built from the minor 3rd scale degree it is given a bIII Roman Numeral. I also use uppercase for Major quality, lowercase for minor, and lowercase with a degree sign for diminished. I'm familiar with many of the different systems since I read a lot of different texts based on music from the Common Practice Period, but I still have a preference for this system. And it is consistent in my videos. That said, if you happen to have any questions regarding any analysis, feel free to ask!

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

Maybe I can make that a little easier to understand: they're flat relative to the major scale. For example, in C minor, the bIII chord would be Eb Major, compared to the iii in C major being E natural minor.

[@TheBondboy99]

im curious as to why you chose to use the Ab major chord as V/iv yet ignored the kther tonicizing chords in the sequence. such as writing bVII instead of V/bIII and then V/bVI instead of the bIII chord.

[@GUIM1797]

Because those are not chromatically altered chords. bVII and bIII appear Diatonically in the minor mode, as a result they are never written as Applied Dominants even if they emulate Dominant motion. Ab∆, however, is a chromatically altered chord. If we open the door of labelling every chord as a V/ when it's a Major chord descending by 5th, then even a I to IV in a Major mode will be V/IV to IV and that's pretty sketchy.

[@GUIM1797]

Also, V/iv is really an alternative way to state i with a raised third. It's a Dominant emulating chord, but it's not actually a V in that key. It's still very much a chord operating within the tonality of Ab.