Naming All The Chords For Some Reason

Sometimes, the work I do explores deep, fundamental questions about music and our relationship with it. Sometimes my videos are intended to challenge viewers on their assumptions, or to provoke deep thoughts on important topics. And sometimes I spend 20 minutes naming chords because why wasn't there already a list of chord names out there? This seems like a pretty serious oversight, and fortunately, I have enough spare time to fix it. So I did! You're welcome. And I'm sorry.
Patreon: / 12tonevideos
Merch: standard.tv/12tone
Discord: / discord
Facebook: / 12tonevideos
Twitter: / 12tonevideos
Twitch: / 12tonevideos
Email: [e-mail]
Last: • Understanding Heart's ...
Least Important video: • I Fixed Music's Least ...
Exochord Video: • The Furthest Distance ...
Script: tinyurl.com/2p...
Huge thanks to our Elephant Club members:
Susan Jones
Jill Jones
Duck
Howard Levine
Brian Etheredge
Len Lanphar
Ken Arnold
Elaine Pratt
William (Bill) Boston
Warren Huart
Chris Prentice
Jack Carlson
Kevin Wilamowski
Christopher Lucas
Andrew Beals
Dov Zazkis
Hendrik P
Thomas Morley
Grant Aldonas
Jacob Helwig
Davis Sprague
Braum Meakes
Kelly Christoffersen
Hendrik Stüwe
Dan Bonelli
Kevin Boyce
Donal Botkin
Stephen Cook
Scott Howarth
Luke
David Bartz
Dhruv Monga
Ken Jones
Obadiah Wright
Carlos Rendon
Aleksandar Milojković
Kylie McInnes
Jody
Daniel Reaman
Tom
PhilRosas
Reiji Kobayashi
MISLS
Catherine Berry
Neil Moore
Yahir Perez
Kai
And thanks as well to Henry Reich, Gabi Ghita, Gene Lushtak, Owen Campbell-Moore, Eugene Bulkin, Logan Jones, Oliver, Anna Work, Adam Neely, Rick Lees, Dave Mayer, CodenaCrow, Arnas, Caroline Simpson, Michael Alan Dorman, Blake Boyd, Charles Gaskell, Ian Seymour, Trevor Sullivan, Tom Evans, Lamadesbois, JH, David Conrad, Ducky, Chris Borland, Todd Davidson, Elliot Burke, Jake Lizzio, Tim S., Elias Simon, Aaron Epstein, Chris Connett, Jerry D. Brown, Ohad Lutzky, Symmetry, Peter Leventis, Kenneth Kousen, James, h2g2guy, W. Dennis Sorrell, James A. Thornton, Professor Elliot, Stefan Strohmaier, Shadow Kat, Adam Wurstmann, Andrew Engel, Angela Flierman, Richard T. Anderson, Kevin Johnson, Peter Brinkmann, Joshua La Macchia, Rodrigo "rrc2soft" Roman, Jeremy Zolner, Patrick Callier, Danny, Francois LaPlante, Volker Wegert, Britt Ratliff, Darzzr, Alex Keeny, John Bejarano, naomio, Alex Mole, Gary Butterfield, Steve Brand, Rene Miklas, Red Uncle, Betsy, Tonya Custis, Dave Shapiro, Jacopo Cascioli, Doug Nottingham, Nicholas Wolf, Rafael Martinez Salas, Walther, Robert Beach, Graeme Lewis, Jake Sand, Jason Nebergall, Aditya Baradwaj, Mathew Wolak, S, Lincoln Mendell, Jim Hayes, Sam Rezek, Destros, Lucas Augusto, Scott Albertine, Evan Satinsky, RaptorCat, Jigglypuffer, leftaroundabout ., Jens Schäfer, Mikely Whiplash, Austin Amberg, רועי סיני, Francisco Rodrigues, Conor Stuart Roe, Michael Tsuk, Dragix PL, ThoraSTooth, Brandon Legawiec, Evgeni Kunev, Hikaru Katayamma, Gary Evesson, Kottolett, Dylan Vidas, Rob Hardy, Patrick Chieppe, Eric Stark, David Haughn, Gordon Dell, Byron DeLaBarre, Matty Crocker, anemamata, Brian Miller, Lee-orr Orbach, Eric Plume, Kevin Pierce, Jon Hancock, Jason Peterson, Peggy Youell, Bryn Davis, Pamela O'Neill, EJ Hambleton, Jos Mulder, Daryl Banttari, J.T. Vandenbree, Thomas Morgan, Ludwick Kennedy, John Castle, Ridley Kemp, Mark James, Wayne Robinson, Gabriel Totusek, Adam Ziegenhals, Mnemosyne Music, AkselA, Mark, Amelia Lewis, sonicolasj, Sam Plotkin, David MacDonald, Nellie Speirs Baron, Charles R., Joshua Lewis, Kristofer Hill, William Merryman, Ryan Mayle, Sam, DialMForManning, Wayne Weil, Michael Wehling, Brandon Peckham, Justin St John-Brooks, Mark Lacey, James, David T Peterson, Bryan C. Mills, Fernando Felix, Joseph Satin, Piush Dahal, Matthew Moore, XCompWiz, Michael Blaby, Bean, A Devoted Servant, Milan Brezovsky, Edmund Horner, NinoDoko, Andrew Wyld, JD White, M. Bock, Daniel Joseph Moynihan, Josh Witkowski, Somebody, Graham Orndorff, Michael Sacksteder, Joe Johnston, Jordan Friendshuh, Jason McPherson, Chris Robson, A.J. Yates, Matt Moulder, Leander Tietjen, Hakim C, Alex Tafur, Chris Davis, findRED, Howl’s one-handed, Gary Backaus, Claymore Alexander, Dixon Roberts, gunnito, Eugen Lounkine, Fernando Gros, Geoffrey Barnett, OVB_2nd, William, Joe Molloy, Jay Wilson, RoxyPop, Chris Breault, Pär Nord, Paul Tanenholz, Lev, Daniel Sim, David Wagner, Julio D, Justin Zboyovski, Adam Poata-Smith, J.R. Hyde, A, Jo Müller, Christopher Beattie, triskadecaepyon, Abie, Charles Jordan, Lyriian, Kelly Walker, derFunkenstein, Douglas Anderson, Foreign Man in a Foreign Land, Vigilance Deadname, Liz Webb, and Boomer Dell! Your support helps make 12tone even better!
Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold!

[@12tone]

Some additional thoughts/corrections: 1) I should note that the friend I consulted with on the Exochord video was actually very helpful! They pointed me to a couple specific resources and search terms that seemed likely to turn up a result. In the end, none of them did, but that's not my friend's fault. Informing me that no such list existed, or at least that if it did then it wasn't well-known enough that someone with a literal PhD in the field would've encountered it, was extremely useful, and I thank them for their insight. 2) I should also concede that it's very possible a list does exist, and as soon as I publish this, one of my music theorist friends might point me to it. If so, I'll add a link here, but I've been doing this for a long time and I haven't encountered one yet, at least not one that takes the approach I wanted to take with this, so if there is a list like this, I suspect it's fairly obscure even within music theory circles. I could be wrong, though! 3) Some of the names, like the Subverted Dominant and the Broken Mediant, could conceivably be read as insults, or implications that these relationships are bad or not worth using. I tried my best to be clear in the script that that was never my intention, and that all of these relationships have their uses. It's just some of them buck the trends established by other similar chords, and I wanted to highlight that. 4) Also some of the name include the word "traditional", which to be clear is not a value judgment either. It's just a description of the tendency in Western tonal theory to view this versions of the relationship as the default. Honestly, to me, they're among the least interesting within their respective categories, but that's a matter of personal taste. 5) Negative harmony is fine. It's just not nearly as powerful as the discourse around it implied. It mostly explains and predicts things that are already explained and predicted just fine by other models. 6) Most of the examples of the Broken Mediant that people sent me (including Say You'll Be There by the Spice Girls) actually used a dominant 7th, not a major triad, which is a somewhat different sound, so I'm not sure if those count. The b7 changes the implied scale, which means we're not diametrically opposed on the circle of 5ths anymore. Still, though, the relationship is pretty striking even with the dominant. 7) The definition I gave for modes is incomplete, you can have modes for any scale, not just major, but it was sufficient for the point I wanted to make and it's fairly common to see the term used specifically in the context of major so I'm calling it good enough. 8) To elaborate a little further on that point about associating steps with scales, each of those pairs of chords fills in 6 of the 7 notes of a scale. If we assume that one of the two chords is the I chord (which seems reasonable for naming conventions) then we're missing information about either the 6th or the 7th of the scale. Because the 7th has an unusually flexible role within tonal theory, it feels more natural to include information on the 6th because that's more likely to be fixed. This means treating the the lower of the two chords as the I chord, which leads to the names I described. Again, though, your mileage may vary, and if that reasoning doesn't make sense to you I'm certainly not gonna stop you from using the other names instead. 9) I want to clarify the difference between what we did for the Hexatonic Cycle process and what we did for the Exochord. For the Exochord, we were looking for transformations where two notes were the same. For the Hexatonic Cycle, we were looking for transformations where two notes were the same _and_ the third one moved by only a half-step. That's why the Hexatonic Cycle only used two transformations, while the Exochord used three: The Relative relationship does maintain two of the three notes, but the third note moves by a whole step, so it doesn't count for the stricter criteria of the Hexatonic Cycle. I tried to word the processes differently enough that the overlap wouldn't be obvious and thus the discrepancy wouldn't be confusing, but just in case, I wanted to explain what was going on here. 10) Technically the thing I drew is a variant on the tonnetz, often called the Chickenwire Tonnetz, which shows the chords rather than the individual notes. the "classic" tonnetz diagram is a series of triangles with lines connecting pairs of notes with different intervals depending on the angle: Each triangle is a chord, and chords are transformed into each other by inverting along one of the triangle's sides. This shows the voiceleading relationships more clearly, but was more awkward to draw in this particular context.

[@GizzyDillespee]

Thanks for clarifications 8, 9 and 10 - those answered 3 of my questions.

[@SplotchTheCatThing]

I swear I've heard that Broken Mediant motion popping up in movie scores now and again -- not 100% sure, but I can definitely imagine it having that nicely ominous sort of sound if it's given to something like a choir or a horn section. Will have to keep it in mind for a game-related project I'm working on.

[@jackielinde7568]

I think I'm going to save "Subverted Dominant and the Broken Mediant" for the times I need to insul... I mean, "Address a Friend".

[@tompw3141]

Re: (10) mathematically, the two versions of the diagram are (geometric) duals .

[@dominicellis1867]

All of these relationships in a jazz setting are examples of temporary tonicization which is a cool way to think about atonal harmony. Like going from G to Bb- could be the start of a ii V in Ab which actually very common in jazz. Another way to look at it is a sort of substitution: tritone and tonic are the standard types but you can have substitutions with any interval from half step to tritone in both direction over any type of functionality. For example, a minor third substitution of predominant in G would be A- > C- which is hella common or A- > F#- which is less common but a great way to temporarily tonicize E (relative major). You can even alter pairs of functions like a complete ii V or even the ii with one transformation and the V with another. bvi > VII7 > I is a tritone sub on ii and a major third sub on V7.

[@scottmatznick3140]

Because the world needs you to be like this.

[@tuomas_]

A M E N

[@bunnyThor]

This video needs made into an easy-to-refer-to one-page chart so that all these relationships can be seen side-by-side and also so that it can be shared more easily in image form, which will go a ways into cementing this terminology into the music theory vernacular.

[@poproporpo]

I will try to make one

[@HorrorMakesUsHappy]

@@poproporpo Please reply here when you do! I was hoping 12 was going to share one in the notes under the video.

[@maria.garavaglia]

I'm glad I read the comments after making a chart for myself... Here you go! docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1raW2qbUgoAiGCRNcbiWZencfQNItXgnWDKSQMcHaJfI/edit?usp=sharing For the sake of completeness, I also named the G G / Gm Gm congruent relationships, taking a nod from geometry. A bit useless imo, but now that has a name too!

[@HorrorMakesUsHappy]

@@maria.garavaglia Cool, thanks!

[@poproporpo]

@@maria.garavaglia thank you! The “congruent” relationship works well, as all three notes of the triad are held in static motion.

[@erinmoulding]

In math terms, when you choose to start everything on G but it still applies everywhere, we’d start a proof with WLOG for “without loss of generality”.

[@seth_piano]

This is exactly what music theory should be about :) It's not about memorizing every term and label in a textbook or class, it's about exploring the malleable relationships between notes in a way that is interesting and engaging. I'm not gonna remember a single one of these labels, but I'm going to think about triads a little more uniquely than I did before watching.

[@Codeseus]

So naturally we need a follow-up video re-examining four chord loops using this terminology

[@Moonless_Future]

Axis progression would be Dominant, Major Step, Parallel Mediant, Dominant. Things get interesting when you try to find what other chord progressions could have the same chord relationship.

[@osmium3691]

This video was certainly not a waste of my time, it has me thinking a lot about chord relationships in the absence of key, which is not something that my classically trained ear tends to do. Most "Traditional" music is deeply rooted in the concept of keys, and I find it very exciting to explore the idea of chords without that context.

[@TheAntiburglar]

The Gmaj to Dmaj balanced one reminds me of "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay" which, after your explanation of how it's balanced and doesn't move more in either direction, makes SO MUCH SENSE for someone sitting on a dock and contemplating their life!

[@AtomizedSound]

I don’t think that was the intended compositional structure of the song but it can certainly fit that narrative

[@AngelicDirt]

As an artist, can I call that we stop for a moment and appreciate how good this guy is getting at art just because of the premise of his channel? While not perfect, those Marges are an absolute masterpieces, and I'm jealous of that Stranger Things monster. GG, Mr Tone. :3 There's a lofi Lost Woods remix that is (probably) Gmaj for most of the song, I think, and almost every time you play the example chords, I keep thinking I'm gonna hear the rest of the counter melody from it. This is when you know you've had too much video game lofi in your life, smh. :S ... You're like this because you are. Life has handed your brain a fist full of weird lemons, and you have transformed those weird little lemons into... a video wiki-walk through chord relationships and a neat way of naming them. I'm not complaining. :P

[@Wind-nj5xz]

"Oh you're a music theorist? Name every chord relationship" 12tone: 3:08

[@Razalhague]

The broken mediant can be rearranged into two diminished chords. Following the logic of the augmented relationship, I think it'd make sense to call it the diminished relationship instead of broken mediant.

[@chrayez]

I’m fully expecting some music theorist somewhere to write a Gilbert & Sullivan-style song about a Major Modal Mediant.

[@arendleejessurun]

The G-Bbmi relationship is a chord pair that occurs naturally in the octatonic scale. I might then suggest the name octatonic mediant.

[@colbyforfun8028]

It feels somewhat unsatisfying that the exochord and the tritone are not the same chord relationship. Might need to do a complete retooling of music theory to resolve this.

[@rz2374]

why is nobody talking about "i'll leave that as an exercise for the jazz folks" 3:32

[@markop.1994]

There are sooooo many transformations 😭

[@rmdodsonbills]

I'm about to be ridiculously pedantic in a field that is, at best, tangent to what you're talking about, so before I do that I wanted to be sure I said a few nice things that also popped into my head as I was watching. 1. I heard once that the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. By that criterion, none of your videos would be considered a waste of my time as I enjoy all of them. 2. I like the connections you come up with for things to draw for words you're saying. If something is rare, we get the periodic table entry for technicium. If there's anything to do with the number six, we get to see the penny-farthing bicycle from the old TV show, The Prisoner. Lots of little things like that are part of why I always enjoy your videos. 3. I don't actually have any problems with the names you've chosen for all these relationships. I'm not much of a theorist, but I am a big fan of easy labels, so good on you. Okay, now for the pedantry. In the very first relationship, which you call Parallel, you specify chords that share a root. If they have a point in common, then that's an intersection. Parallel lines don't intersect. You called this relationship parallel. Okay, nonsense pedantry over. Hopefully I have that out of my system, because as I already mentioned, I don't actually have any problems with the names you've chosen. The Parallel chords sound parallel to my ears. So while my inner geometer... geometrist... mathematician wants to argue, my inner musician is fine with it and my inner musician gets out a lot more often that the mathematician does anyway. All that to say, thanks for another fine and interesting video!

[@Picksqueal]

Obviously your point is completely valid; but in case you're not aware, the term "Parallel" in music theory isn't something he coined but is already an existing term for the same scale/key relationship hence the use for the same relationship here. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_key

[@rmdodsonbills]

@@Picksqueal It's very kind and generous of you to declare my ridiculous pedantry "completely valid." :)

[@grayshadowglade]

Ha! Not at all a waste of my time there good sir! I have been working one voice leading between chords just this week and this general analysis of triad chord relationships was extremely helpful and informative. I especially appreciate the naming as this gives me a framework for working with each of them while I learn to apply them. Since you narrowed this to triads it is perfect for helping me retool the chord progressions from my older songs which lean too heavily on the Planing relationship. I'm simply not that good at playing so I got stuck in the chord shapes and this gives me ways to retool the chords more than just using inversions. Very much appreciated!

[@leaveitorsinkit242]

By combining these triad relationships… you can also create the vast majority of jazz chords.

[@FooFighter193]

Now the next step would be to use these chord-pairings in an actual progression. I think that context can totally change their relationship. For example; in this progression A works as a dominant resolution: Gm | A | Dm | Bb |. In my other example Gm is a modal interchange chord (parallel chord): D | Gm | A | Esus2 |. Anyways; you explained a lot of harmony, so it's definitely not a waste of time.

[@rohiogerv22]

Yeah, I was actually thinking about how the most common "exochord" is the iv V relationship in a harmonic minor key. What I think is interesting about the kind of analysis 12tone is talking about, though, is that you can also bring that sort of time-agnostic analysis forward into progression analysis as well. For example, i iv V i contains an incidental exochord, but the progression is ABOUT two different dominant relationships to the i chord-it's a dominant-focused progression. But my next thought was, what about making progressions where the signature sound IS the presence of these unusual intervals. Maybe two pairs of exochords bridged by a balanced mediant, and you could chain them, like Am, B, Eb, Dbm, Fm, G, E, Am. In that way, you have a progression that still loops around, but it does do with two chord relationships with a really unusual signature.

[@andrewtantzen559]

​@@rohiogerv22 I was about to say it's just a Phrygian Half Cadence if you invert it, iv6 to V

[@FooFighter193]

@@rohiogerv22 Non-functional harmony is indeed another example: Am | B | Em | F# |. Sounds very unnerving, no resolution and no chord-center.

[@rohiogerv22]

@@FooFighter193 ooh that's also very cool. I guess my thing is, nonfunctional harmony exists regardless of this process. But being able to tier chord relationships in music allows you to create "alternative function" in a way. I think Giant Steps kind of gets at this, where mediant chord relationships are just as functional to the piece as dominant chord relationships are, but that piece still keeps one foot in the door.

[@LesterBrunt]

@@FooFighter193 Isn’t Am B Em a vi V i?

[@kalebrhea5822]

In Neo-Reimannian Theory, all the thirds have cool names. My favorite is the leading tone exchange. This is what you called the traditional mediant. I love the name, because the note that moves becomes the leading tone! For example, the G in GM becomes an F# (the major key leading tone). With a Gm the D becomes a Eb (the minor key leading tone). I did a term paper on this subject this semester

[@loganstrong5426]

I actually wrote a score for a short film using the slide. The good guy's theme was in Eb and the bad guy's theme was in Em, so I kept flipping back and forth. I also leaned heavily on the i as a major-minor-7th chord, so the D# didn't move to the Eb, furthering that confusion.

[@JustforNow-ty5zt]

I’m going to be honest. This is actually really helpful, and I’m really glad you did this. It’s also really nice to just know all of the different relationships between chords.

[@danielmccready1501]

I have learned more about musical concepts from you and your elephants than most textbooks. Thank you. I love these deep dive videos!

[@adamgranger1514]

Observation: For the Diatonic Step relations, the names of the relationships seem to be based on assuming the "lower" of the two chords to be the tonic. While Gmaj and Amaj could either be in G Lydian or A Mixolydian, the naming convention seems to follow the treatment of Gmaj as the tonic since it is "lower" than Amaj so it got the name Lydian

[@dkerwood1]

Correct. You have to have some arbitrary rule for it to make sense. Otherwise, any time I see two neighboring major chords without any other context, I assume they're the IV and V chords in a major key. Lydian makes perfect sense.

[@jdeveloperw]

Wow, I thoroughly enjoyed this video. As both a music lover and songwriter, I find it immensely helpful to have names to associate with what I hear, as I can recognize chords and relationships more easily. It also helps me to build a bag of tricks for composing so I can try out sounds when I need creative inspiration. This is one of my fav videos of yours so far!

[@dbates314]

I *need* a PDF of all these relationships.

[@suomeaboo]

I've always loved the Slide relationship, and I actually called it the Slide for years, so I'm happy to see you also call it the Slide here. It's common enough that I've heard it enough times to get my attention due to the smooth blast of color it gives. I usually hear it sliding down from minor 7 to major 7 chords, like Dm7 to DbM7 (NSYNC's O Holy Night cover comes to mind, at 1:48), or Fm7 to EM7 (from the Sir Duke progression).

[@guyedwards22]

The Exochord is part of the characteristic sound in the iconic melody of Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite no. 1, "In the Hall of the Mountain King". B Minor to Db Major there. It's also the relationship between the first and second chords of Ukrainian Minor, the fourth mode of Harmonic Minor. When I use that chord motion, it's usually as a Major II in a Minor Scale, which I think has a kind of "dangerous uncertainty" quality to it. It's like a softer version of the drama behind a minor chord followed by its parallel full diminished chord. I reason it out in my head as the full diminished i chord being the upper structure of a dominant b9 rooted on the second scale degree. You're just replacing the super dark rootless b9 chord with its simpler base triad.

[@Expedient_Mensch]

30 seconds in, and I already have a smile on my face. Thank you. I needed it.

[@1feloniouspunk]

Love the way your mind works, gives affirmation to mine!

[@itsgoubie]

I have no idea what the problem is but I'm already invested, let's do this, i like the enthusiasm

[@ramonafrombarcelona]

As others mentioned, it's not a waste of time at all, and neither was it just giving names to chord relationships. At least for me, it was very thorough, digging deep into what do things mean to us and what are they made of, within a harmonic-movement context. I definitely compose naturally this way without ever understanding-or being able to explain theoretically-what is that I'm playing. Sure, I don't _really_ need to, but it's nice to know about my unconscious though process-if that even makes sense. Point being, I loved this exploration and I'm def going to rewatch it later, because it's lots of info to digest in one sitting. Thanks!

[@macalmy6750]

Unimportant problems are sometimes the most fascinating. Not a waste of my time at all.

[@gordonkennygordon]

Years ago I was taught Hava Nagila in the middle of a gig - someone shouted "It's C major and B flat minor, just go for it!" And now, low and behold...the Exochord! Shalom! Kenny

[@jonaswolfmusic1775]

I can understand the way you approach this very well, and your style of presenting it really kept me hooked throughout the entire video which is a difficult thing when going through a complete canon of chord relations. I fear since the labels while trying to bring meaning to the chord relations are still kind of technical and arbitrary, it will be hard for anyone to remember and apply when going at relations between all 24 major and minor chords. I've personally experienced this problem solved however by what Neo-Riemannian theory has come up with so far. There's two ways: 1. Deducing all chord relationships from the three main operators parallel (P), relative (R) and leading tone (L). It's basically the same process as described at 19:16, only now you give it that (very technical) abbreviation. Gm - D makes RLP. You then can go on and invent new abbreviations for certain letter chains, like S (slide) instead of LPR and so on. 2. Giving it even (!) fancier names derived from one famous instance of each respective chord progression. So Gm - Ebm is coined "Vader", Gm - Bbm "Palpatine", G - Bb "Fellowship" etc. (there's a certain tendency on film music since the distant chord relations are most prominent there). I love your content and look forward for every video! =)

[@unalive]

I saw one of my album titles on your thumbnail and had to watch, great video man very informative and I like that you made names your own.

[@OctatonicFlat13]

There's a pretty fundamental issue with Riemannian analysis, for example Cm to D might be "far" if you imagine each chord only has 3 notes. But allowing for doubling allows for pretty smooth voice leading, e.g. if we think of Cm as iv in the key of G, then iv6/4->V6 is smooth, e.g. from top to bottom G->F#,C->D,Eb->D,G->A with a max distance between notes being 2 half steps, which begs the question of how good a measure of distance the minimal number of Riemann steps really is. Just a thought!

[@almightyhydra]

Summarising in a table would be useful.

[@MusicOfLee]

It's nice to see transformational theory take a bit more focus! I've been a fan of that approach ever since studying it early in my doctoral studies. I do think it's a bit interesting that you mixed in some Neo-Riemannian labels but not others. For example, your "traditional mediant" and "relative mediant" are the Leading Tone and Relative transformations respectively. Aside from that trivial thing, my only "concern" is that you seem to be describing these all as self-reversing, but for relationships that share the same modality, it would be impossible to distinguish which direction the transformation was moving. For example, your Major Plane: If you start on G major, and performed that transformation/operation, it would be impossible to determine whether the next triad would be F# major or Ab major. Riemann got around this by having all of his transformations be mode-reversing, but I realize that stipulation also limits its ability to describe some relationships. Ultimately, I suppose it's a non-issue if this is purely being used analytically (since you can just consult the music), but I do think that one of the strengths of a transformational approach is the fact that you can often very accurately describe the events of the music without ever referencing specific pitches. I don't propose to have a solution for that. It's just food for thought, I guess.

[@1feloniouspunk]

Love this!!!!!!!!!!! Educational, necessary, entertaining! Thank you!

[@gilberth_]

I am no musician theorist (this is why most of the time I am lost half-way of your videos). Nevertheless, I am very surprised to hear that such basic "reasoned" naming did not exist.

[@PhosphorAlchemist]

As a musician and music-appreciator, I don't think this was a waste of time even though I'm not a theory nerd. It gives me an appreciation of how the construction/arrangement of music I enjoy works beyond "it just sounded good" and "I hadn't heard it done like that before." I'm not at all surprised that people gave you examples of tge less common relationships from Radiohead. I can hear how they were deeply exploring these kinds of songs in their Kid A/Amnesiac era and that experimentalism has carried through more recent work. Especially with the tone you used on the keyboard, I just kept wanting to queue up "everything in its right place."

[@garx0]

I had stumbled upon this Gm-A relationship when I was listing all the chord relationships by distances between notes (in the chromatic scale). I came to an interesting result (hope I got it right), that by moving each note in a triad no further than by a step, from Gm you can go to ANY major/minor triad except A and Dbm (and from G to any triad except Fm and Db). Although you can do such a transition even from Gm to A (and for other 2 chord pairs) if you consider them as G Bb D D -> A A C# E, so the voices can split or merge. It’s also interesting that although Gm-A sounds weird without context, it is found as iv-V in harmonic/melodic minor, which are two very common degrees in a very common scale.

[@eosborne6495]

Gm-A can imply a Dorian #4 or a Phrygian dominant scale depending on which one you hear as the tonic, and those scales are known as Misheberak and Freygish respectively in klezmer music, which I think is dope, so using the same nomenclature as the modal relationships, I think we should call that the Misheberak Step.

[@rohiogerv22]

my favorite subverted dominant is in Smashing Pumpkins' "By Starlight". It's real good.

[@oelarnes]

Hi, I’ve been thinking about this a lot since you posted it, which I hope says something in its favor. I just have a simple suggestion, which is to prepend “rising” or “falling” as needed based on the nearest root motion to indicate direction. That makes it possible to specify a snippet of a progression without referring to key. For example, I was just playing around with a “falling major modal mediant followed by a falling major balanced mediant”, which rolls right off the tongue. Maybe I should stick with C, A, F. But thanks for this anyway!

[@justjoeblow420]

This is something I've been thinking about for years as you don't hear a ton on how chords relate outside of the context of a key which even early on into getting into music I thought was a pretty damn odd over sight. Probably why my band teacher got this certain look any time he looked at any of the small sketches I did that where intentionally with out a key. It's just such a out of left field kind of thing to willing forgo a key entirely that it lead to some interesting conversations with him. But it's a technique I've slowly been figuring out for years now as I like a lot of the results it's tended to lead me towards musically. I've found working with out a key tends to make it easier to make my music more emotive by simply relying on the inter relationship between just the chords themselves.

[@karawethan]

Music theory is one of the few areas in which I would consider myself to be a true pragmatist. The simplest answer to "why isn't there a name/category for X" is most always "because naming/categorizing X has not been deemed useful or meaningful by some critical mass of people." That's not a value judgement of any sort, it's just a reflection of music being a socially mediated activity. You can tie yourself into knots trying to rationalize hypothetical scenarios, but even the most hypothetical of scenarios are still rooted in experience -- you can't formulate a hypothesis without some point of reference.

[@daneta.3227]

I can relate to the title but definitely not to the problem solving skills so that's...a thing

[@AtomizedSound]

Great video with concise and I believe pretty clear explanations on what you wanted to say with chord relationships

[@VenetinOfficial]

I personally would've called the "Subverted Dominant" a "Null Dominant" since its resolution is null despite being a dominant motion.

[@Alexander-oh8ry]

We need a followup video on the sound and use of these

[@elkeism]

Notes of the g- triad can be found in an E7altered chord, which resolves to A-, all that theory jargon is good for the class room, but has little bearing on inspiration: theory is also good for remembering something spontaneous FWIW

[@davidg5898]

I think you should publish this in the Journal of Music Theory with the title "Cory's Triad Convention" -- not only is that aptly descriptive but in an alternate interpretation it sounds like a pretty fun music nerd party! And then figure out how to put this all on a 1-sided page to sell laminated in music stores (like those guitar chord fingering pages).

[@zachheilman784]

My favorite example of the slide motion is in Jehan Alain's "Litanies". Near the end there is a huge Amin->Ab slide that is amazing.

[@oldgoat381]

I won't lie, I love your videos so much, and I think I've watched every video on your channel and at least half of them multiple times But once you explained the problem you were solving I just I'm gonna need to watch this in short bursts, I don't think I have the attention span for this one

[@Turbulator]

Exochord. If you use the fifth mode of D harmonic minor for the basis of a section of music that adheres only to the notes of that mode, then the G minor A major chord progression occurs "naturally" in that context and they don't necessarily feel that far apart. There are lots of interesting harmonic and melodic possibilities in this mode that aren't adequately explained by traditional theory.

[@Budjarn]

Please "waste my time" more often, I love this kind of thing!

[@EdisonDiBlasi]

No, this was definitely not a waste of time - it put into words a lot of the tricks a non-music-major like me already uses to make music. Please keep making these :)

[@craenor]

I'm a mostly homebound chronic pain sufferer, but I can't do what you do, so I'll just keep enjoying it here. :)

[@farfetchedtangmo7474]

Don't be so modest, O God of Music. I've been sitting here hammering out two chord vamps in my head from the relationships. All cool in their own way. It's actually pretty dang stimulating.

[@althealligator1467]

The exochord is incredibly common in music, consider it's just iv-V, which is everywhere. As for the broken mediant, I can think of a few songs which do that. The Beatles have In My Life, in which you have F#m-B-Dm-A, or vi-II-iv-I. Similar thing in Anna (Go To Him) also by them, though it's a cover, where you have G-Gm-E-A-D, or IV-iv-II-V-I, so the other way around. There's also Woodkid's Guns For Hire from Arcane, with Bbm-C-Ebm-F, or i-II-iv-V, so you also have two exochords. I also came up with a thing with the chords Am2-F#(#4)-B9-Dm7 essentially (it's kind of my own nomenclature but I think it's pretty self explanatory), where you have two broken mediants.

[@hcesarcastro]

Calling the Black Lotus "least common" is quite an euphemism. That thing is extremely rare.

[@amygreene9816]

Not sure what you mean by "the Black Lotus" but are you referring to 14:08? If so I loved the recent use of it in the opening titles for the TV show "Severance"! Bmin to F in that song, I think? Wanted to share!

[@hcesarcastro]

@@amygreene9816 Black Lotus is a playing card from the card game Magic: the Gathering, which had its first edition (core set) published in early 1993. This card was overwhelmingly powered, and given that it was reprinted in the game's second core set and no longer after that. In early 1994, the third core set was published and since then the Black Lotus playing card was no longer reprinted. Because it was overwhelmingly powered and the number of samples of this card was scarce, it became a sort of collectible item and its price skyrocketed due to the rarity and the hype. In 2019, one of those cards was sold for more than half a million dollars on eBay.

[@amygreene9816]

@@hcesarcastro woah that's sick. Thanks. Used to play Magic a bit but never knew this.

[@GBRen-xc2ow]

What’s funny to me is that the Subverted Dominant relationship is actually common. In fact, it’s used as a loop and it’s looped so often that you might recognize this as the Dorian Vamp.

[@chasependleton1161]

Interesting place where this chord relationship appears. Punch Brothers, The Blind Leaving The Blind Movement 1 around 8:42. Nice piece, you should check it out if you haven’t before!

[@fretlessdaysandy9961]

This covers the relationship of a chord but not the function, I think of a IV minor 6th chord as the reflected negative harmony of the V , the flat II altered as the tritone sub of the V most intervals are tension and release , other resolutions are flat VII7/13 #11 to I mirrored VI7 altered or augmented to I or # IV #5 #9 to I . I like VI9 to i or flat VII flat 9 flat 13 to I . The upper extensions, tensions ,glue the out chord to the Tonic not forgetting the 101 use of the dim a half step away and also off the major 3rd and #4th as a rootless V7 flat 9, the function,the chord of the moment is what counts.

[@aldeayeah]

this is the sort of obscure obsessive content that i clicked subscribe for, 10/10 Now do it for all twelve tones, with all inversions/voice leading combinations, and discerning ascendent and descendent root movement. Also root movement by semitone/major seventh. Would make a nice 20 hour video I reckon.

[@oscargill423]

It's a strange thing to single out but 4:46 is one of my more favourite 12tone illustrations. On a more serious note, it may have been a waste of my time, but it was a waste of time I was happy to go through... if that makes sense.

[@patrickhodson8715]

In "Let It Go" from Frozen, near the end of the chorus over the lyrics "let the storm rage on" there's a slide from Cm to B. I just wanted to point out that I knew an example of one of the ones you said was rare and that made me feel smart lmao

[@Armakk]

Watching this felt like having your job for 21 minutes so now you have to feel like an independent filmmaker in New Orleans as restitution.

[@tylerhackner9731]

Love your vids

[@ashermonsey]

4:27 that atom is a Lithium Isotope 8

[@garx0]

this is useful, because modern 4-chord loops don’t have an unambiguous root, so you need to ignore the key and think in relationship between triads

[@bricejohnson692]

Exochord is the prefect name. You nailed it

[@HipsterShiningArmor]

as far as diminished chords go, I think the relationships between I-vii0, i-ii0, and I-iii0 definitely deserve special names at the very least, as the first two are diatonic to the two most fundamental scales in western music and the third, on top of being diatonic to the third most common scale, is also basically the swirling primordial clouds of a dominant 7th chord

[@pesosgouda8223]

I have waited for this video my entire musical life

[@joshkeppeler3349]

I'll be the first to admit this one went a bit over my head as well explained as it is. All I came away with is "It is the very model of a major modal mediant." And really that makes the view worth it.

[@joshrose8753]

Newer viewer, was entertained by Understanding Welcome to the Black Parade first, then saw Bohemian Rhapsody, and now aiming to see more. As I was in choir in school, I am enjoying it, but I also never fully understood sheet music save "notes are higher, you sing higher, notes are lower, you sing lower", so with music theory, I'm baffled with the music explanation itself, but enjoying the EMOTIONAL side of it. Explaining how the chords and strings of notes are meant to make us feel. However, I have a dumb question for you, if you see this. This is a harder musical genre with a lot of looping, but are there any video game tracks you can think of you think you'd see as able to get the same analysis from music theory? Anything goes. Persona, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Sonic, ANY track from any series.

[@ericrakestraw664]

Debussy uses the "exochord" progression in the middle section of his piano piece "Reverie" (D min --> E maj chord).

[@markop.1994]

More like de-bussy! 🤣 Sorry idk whats wrong with me

[@ceilidh169]

The whole major/ionian tangent spoke to my soul

[@Rigel7WasAlreadyUsed]

4:35 How shall we worship you, oh God of Music?

[@ZipplyZane]

I literally was going to bring up the term chromatic mediant for your early on GMaj to BMaj example. It's a pretty well-established term. I'm glad your system builds on the established terms, as that will make it more likely they get adopted. They sound like what such a system should be.

[@craigstephenson7676]

Hey if you keep it up eventually the problems you fix will be important

[@nakoskyranos4080]

yo dude, I've always wanted to learn music thoery, but it just seemed like there are gaps in the traditional aproach. Ideas like these are exactly what I am looking for. Thank you!

[@DerekPower]

To be relevant to current news ... In the first part of Vangelis's Ignacio ends on a tasty chromatic mediant of G major with D major being the lead-in. The effect kind of reminds me of why the Picardy third is used in compositions in minor keys where it gives a different colour to a straightforward piece (the harmonic motion definitely points to G). Memory eternal - RIP Vangelis

[@stephanpalzkill5890]

I find the "slide" is used quite often. Artist "Nick Johnston" has that in almost every of his songs. John Petrucci referred to that in an interview as his favorite chord progression (so do I) ;-)

[@RafaelSCalsaverini]

I love that you are like this.

[@makelgrax]

I hope this becomes big, and some other people add to this and make it official!

[@bazzfromthebackground3696]

Every time you solve an unimportant problem I get a reteaching on all of the other stuff leading up to it.

[@dkerwood1]

Any chance of releasing an infographic naming and picturing all of these chord relationships? I would love to print a poster and hang it in my studio as a songwriting reference.

[@isaacweston6066]

You say it was a waste of my time, but this is one of the videos that has made me most inspired to make some music

[@Islander2112]

I'm not sure if you're aware of this, 12tone, but you just composed the greatest song, ever.

[@joshl4221]

This video was certainly not a waste of my time. I loved watching this man expand my musical knowledge at 3am.

[@CODDE117]

I honestly loved the first video. Really made sense, launching and landing tones.

[@guitarguy11695]

That Subverted dominant you got there? Pink Floyd does that a lot. Especially on DSOtM.

[@N4m43]

Nice Entrapta drawing!

[@zoehardee8636]

Just my opinion but I think calling it the "exochord" makes it sound like those two chords have a way stranger relationship than they actually do, and it alludes to a pretty obscure and technical quality about their relationship. Like, in the key of G minor it's just the tonic travelling to the V of V, which you hear in jazz all the time, or in the key of D major it's just a modal shift between iv and V, two chords that both really want to resolve to D, something you hear a lot in romantic era classical music per se

[@ericherde1]

16:13 I’m conflicted on this. On one side, I agree with you completely. On the other side, I think our theoretical franework of major and minor is lacking. In a sense, Ionian and Myxolydian are both major modes, while Aolian and Frigian are both minor modes. I (and I think anyone else whose musical sense developed through a mix of Common Practice Period and the jazz family) perceive Dorian as a minor mode too, but really it should be neutral.

[@JonHarris77]

I was hoping to see all of them in a nice list at the end. It would be great for someone to put one together and post in the comments.

[@RubyRoks]

"Feel free to invent your own" *DRAWS ENTRAPTA* :D :D :D :D :D

[@N4m43]

I felt that too.