Steely Dan's Harmonic Genius

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Adam Maness gets into the masterful uniqueness of Steely Dan.
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[@nickdryad]

Where would the world be without Fender Rhodes piano sounds?

[@johnayres2303]

Yes a classic, equal to the Hammond Organ.

[@briansherling5515]

I’ve been a performing, recording musician since 1989. Signed to a major label in 1999. I do solo gigs at least 4 nights a week and jingle work as vocalist since 2002. By LEAPS AND BOUNDS, no music both challenges and delights me like Steely Dan. I do the entire AJA album at least twice a month. It is like taking multi vitamins and stem cells to my soul, I retrack everything in my studio and use my backing tracks. It gives me a sense of pride and simultaneous a huge sense of Awe at just how incredible steely Dan was and stillbis(god rest Walter) Donald Fagan is without a doubt the most inimitable musician of the last 100 years.

[@mejsjalv]

There is something special about that album. It's about 40 minutes of food for thought for the rest of your life. I've been playing the chords and sometimes singing the whole thing on an acoustic guitar and my shit voice. Even if I make 100 mistakes or more trying to play and sing the stuff, in a simplified shitty manner... it is still the one thing that gives me a sense of accomplishment like nothing else. Even way above stuff I know by heart inside out and that I really love. For Stelly Dan, I usually have to brush up my reading skills and interpreting the wierdo chords.

[@blehoo1]

100% agree mate. When I see other so called 'artists' being lauded as rock n roll deities I just laugh. They will be holding Donald and Walter up as geniuses in all the top music schools 250 years from now while all the others will be forgotten.

[@Djoshi-]

Still playing Steely Dan? I started playing piano about 6 months ago, I’ve fallen in love with Donald Fagen’s music. My goal is to learn how to play this album front to back in the next 18 years haha, I’m not gonna have kids, this is gonna be my baby 🤣

[@xxczerxx]

How they managed to make something so complex so poppy/catchy is absolutely amazing. I try to put stuff like this into tunes but it never feels right.

[@wallacegrommet9343]

As someone who turned 18 in 1977, the Aja album was simply incredible. I played it hundreds of times in my car.

[@mejsjalv]

I got it when I was 18-19, late 90's. I used to get music magazines still back then (internet was not cheap to use in my country). Too many mentions of them to not check them out. Got a decent condition LP of "Aja" at a used record store, as cheap as a beer. As soon as possible, I got a lot of the chord charts. Best chord workout ever, still to this day. The only thing I knew before getting this record was "Reelin' in the years" and "Kid Charlemagne". For "Kid.." I called the radio station and requested it. HAd to wait for a couple of hours. "Black Cow" got me at the very first seconds. "This is the coolest sh1t I've ever listened to EVER !!!", and Black Cow was not even halfway. And then there was the rest. Got so into it, I've played a shitty version of the whole album on the guitar (and just trying to follow the changes) and even on the drums. To get it sort of right, I went to music school for a few years for electric guitar after high school, asking questions about the chords to my teacher. It's such a cool album, you get happy when you can play it shitty, and just barely getting the chord changes on time. Learning to play ONE song out of that record, you grow as a musician, even if you still suck.

[@abrarahmed1888]

Blown away when I bought it in 1977 at 17 years old. Still listening to it so many years later.

[@craigusselman546]

Aja is one incredible album its funky beautiful very jazzy and weird VERY 1970s and just good all around.

[@iggmeister4137]

Old school

[@dougiefresh9618]

Awesome, you had a turntable in your car !

[@craft-o-matic399]

Former band director here. I graduated from high school in 1977. Been a fan of Steely Dan since high school. Never tire of this sound. It's a very elegant sound in my opinion.

[@johnnytoobad7785]

AJA is STILL the modern gold standard for both pop and jazz albums EVER recorded in America.

[@winddealer1]

The "mu" chord. Great breakdown...favorite album of all time.

[@grantholland421]

1950s Brazilian Bossa Nova is replete with this technique. Consider Jobim's "One Note Samba" (Samba de Uma Nota So).

[@toughtenor]

yep. in quite a lot of Jobims compositions the melody stays sort of on the same note for a while while the chords change underneath.

[@ivolime]

​@@toughtenor yeah, jobim's ''brigas nunca mais'' and ''inutil paisagem'' have some interesting chords

[@xebio6]

Donald Fagen loves Jobim and bossa in general

[@milkgrapes6420]

There's a lot of movement when there actually isn't? somewhat paradoxical

[@ofdrumsandchords]

Yes, but AC Jobim also wrote themes like Desafinado, Wave, Chega de Saudade, Felicidad, another level.

[@Jackson-ms8zs]

You can’t do enough Harmonic Danalysis. Love this stuff, totally appreciate it.

[@cliffbacken]

This my favorite album of all time….I was 21 at the time… living in Los Angeles as a working drummer…. What great times..!!! And Gadd on this album was just incredible….He was the main man at the time… I heard he did this in one or 2 takes… and soloing over the vamp.. with that Latin feel… Just never to be forgotten…

[@musicgoodmusicgood]

I was so relieved when you called that chord Gadd9/B.

[@aa1979]

Walter also called it a mu major just like the regular add9. It doesn’t sound like a #5 chord at all to me.

[@harmonicparadox2055]

Same. I've never seen a real m#5 chord, unless the #5 is part of a longer ascending chromatic line.

[@musicgoodmusicgood]

@Jim Baker for me, m7#5 is like calling the notes EGC an Em #5... it’s kinda correct, but it feels so much more like a C major.

[@harmonicparadox2055]

@Jim Baker Because min7#5 just sounds like an inverted add9 chord to me. The perfect 4th between the m3rd and #5 ends up making the #5 sound like the new root to my ears.

[@nigelhaywood9753]

@@harmonicparadox2055 To your ears and everybody’s ears.

[@PJRII]

Ah yes, Steely Dan ... some of the best music ever made ...they "turned it on the world" and most people weren't even aware of what they were doing!

[@noah-gabel]

“…they turned the world around”. Wonder if they felt like Jesus ;)

[@TheEmperorOfTheWorld]

I hope Steely Dan knows that they were champions in our eyes

[@ChrisHaas1]

And Donald did it again over and over, such as "Babylon Sister" and "The Goodbye Look". Brilliant! The Deacon Blues changes also hark back to Giant Steps. Thanks for the vid!

[@iamdrumgod]

This would never happen today, but it was much easier when the palette of the world was based solely on FM radio. They existed at the perfect time for their sound. A time long since gone and sadly so. Thanks for the great video!

[@ephraimpinckney8209]

It's great voice leading. They took the rules of the common practice period and did their own thing with them. 🔥😏

[@JoseGarcia-yh4tu]

I love this video, no gimmicks no bullshit. Just straight up to the point and giving us a clear info how to practice. Perfect format

[@SolarMumuns]

This is EXACTLY the kind of video I love! Love Steely Dan, love Aja, and love exploring their harmony. Thanks so much and keep them coming!

[@dannuttle9005]

If my wheelhouse had a wheelhouse, and the inner wheelhouse had yet another, tiny wheelhouse, this video would be the micro wheelhouse inside the tiny wheelhouse. More Steely Dan stuff, please.

[@angelsrr]

what he said !

[@jackarmstrong8991]

@@angelsrr I couldn't have said it better, awesome video

[@jrm2fla]

And your favorite vocalist is… Amy Wheelhouse

[@leissMusic]

I love Steely Dan's harmonies and this is the kind of thing I've been hoping to see from Open Studio for a while. Thanks so much for doing this!

[@theWarriorUnknown]

After being a Steely Dan addict for nearly forty four years I noticed that kind of chord sequence from Peg can be found in the bridge of a tune called Merry go Round, just before Joe Sample takes his piano solo on the Crusaders album Images, check it out and you will hear it, after hearing Steely Dan I just got more and more addicted to Jazz and wanted to know where things came from, anyhow enjoying watching the video, great stuff big time Gracias and thank you amigo.

[@nycsongman9758]

@Uncle Creepy Stop it.

[@dylansmith3660]

Adam, if you really wanna breakdown some incredible jazz chords from the genius that is Donald Fagen, please do a practice video of his song 'Maxine' from his 1982 debut solo album, 'The Nightfly'. Some of the most incredible complex jazz harmonies I've ever heard.

[@Youman71463]

Donald Fagen ~ "nobody could change a chord like Walter"

[@ardnicholls]

This is great, it’s also worth taking a look at Aimee Nolte discussing Maxine kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXrNdYx6btR5qMk

[@jmarvins]

real heads know about the Pete Christlieb and Warne Marsh album if you're a superfan, check it out

[@peterdrachen7701]

@@Youman71463 In Walter’s solo work he does some really weird and cool stuff. On Surf And / Or Die he uses some really dissonant chord movements over a pedal tone G

[@peterdrachen7701]

Maxine is such an incredibly beautiful song, Aimee Nolte did a video on it and it was interesting to hear her analysis of a song I loved so much. The vocal harmonies and the parallel minor 11ths have so much character and soul to them

[@jamestaylor3595]

Adam this is incredible! Do more of this!!!

[@donbreithaupt4700]

Here's what Donald Fagen told me about that chromatic descending motif when I interviewed him for my 33⅓ book about Aja: “I had always thought chords going down in half-steps were corny sounding, but I think I just decided I was going to do it anyway. The way I was using it I kind of liked, and I realized the reason I liked it was it reminded me of that old swing tune ‘Whispering.’ And ‘Groovin’ High’ has that downward chromatic progression. So that’s similar to the introductions to ‘Peg’ and ‘Deacon Blues.’”

[@jcg9879]

I didn't just click the like button, I smashed it. One of my favorite bands and very hard for me to grasp how they do their harmony as beginner. Thanks for breaking this down!

[@cynthiastory8603]

About two years ago was trying to figure out how play "PEG". Thanks Adam for the tutorial. Its not really all that complicated, especially I understand what's going on. I believe I have it in me to be a good jazz piano/keyboard player. Your tutorials are helping me get there. Thank you for your help. You're and Peter are good teachers🎹🎶🎹🎶🎹🎶😀👏👏👏

[@douglasbradley7244]

Thank you, Adam! Love it!

[@jammerB23]

I bought the Aja album when it came out in the late 70s. I was 13 yrs old. I loved it then and it never gets old. Timeless music.

[@tomg669]

Fitting title. Outstanding analysis. Superb material for this exercise! Absolute mastery!

[@MelBearns]

Brilliant! It's like I just found the holy grail of Dan. Thank you!

[@onemoreguitarist2181]

thank you for making this and putting in the time. aja and royal scam are both insane masterpieces

[@flowmaka]

I love what you are teaching! Steely Dan is one of my favorite bands simply because of their harmonic structures. Those chord structures sound somewhat like some of Moe Koffman’s progressions! Awesome!!!

[@jimbob6th]

I love this channel! Thanks for making great videos

[@onlimi616]

I got the sheet music for Peg ages ago, never could quite figure it out. It always seemed so difficult for me to go through those chord changes. You broke it down brilliantly, much thanks!

[@strattwanger6397]

Great video,thank you.The Add2 (Mu) chord is indeed vital to their sound but altered chord chromaticism and tension/release parallelism are equally important-a real jazz technique/sensibility.As any long term students of Steely will know tho the hardest part is memorising the chords ;-)

[@tiluriso]

Thanks so much for the great music and everything else.

[@anthonysilva5312]

Yes. I’m really digging it. Best piano channel on KZbin. “Happy Practicing”

[@TomJosephOfficial]

hey man, thank you so much for this video. I love the album and it's really nice to be able to practise these changes in this fashion with you. Thanks and have a great day :)

[@KatherineUribe-1]

I never tire of Aja, one of my all-time favorites!

[@Globaljazzer500]

Tremendous stuff indeed!

[@TheReelPrescription]

Just bought a keyboard and this is the video I needed. I’ve been a steely Dan fan since I was 12. Greatest band ever

[@jimib3]

Thank you for making this!

[@derekwood91]

I just like the music. I've ben a Dan fan since "Reeling in the Years", and because I'm not a musician I really don't want people telling me why I like what I like. I just like it, OK?

[@jfkindenver]

Love this so much - thanks!

[@hugoapresname]

In the style of slow, explained step by step repetition with patience, you show your kind of „genius“ too ❤ After about half of the video I can feel something‘s changed. The notes start to sing. Our hearts start to sing along after some relaxed but concentrated curious repetitions. After playing the same scale in most of the whole songs😢, I‘d like to find out how other ‚colours‘ integrate into the composition. ❤❤❤❤❤

[@Caduceus88]

You know, when someone asks you what your “stranded on a desert island” album would be, it’s too hard, so many (single) albums, but if you asked me what groups anthology I’d want on that island, I could definitely stay happy with Steely Dan.

[@johnmcnichol8330]

Thanks...this type of content is great!

[@zacharygabriel5221]

This was great! Would love a follow up video featuring examples from all their other albums.

[@blueeyedsoulman]

I bought the record when it came out and was immediately mezmorized. I noticed "the spaces between the notes" right away. This was keyboard based music and not full of distortion guitar like Kiss and the rest. The album caught many by surprise but I had already been hearing The Royal Scam blasting out of my step brothers bedroom and I was asking "What the heck is that?!"

[@Btkamp]

This was extremely useful!

[@Godhumbledme]

Masterful! RIP Walter, carry on Donald!!!

[@demidrek-heyward]

Great content this is my favorite album of all time!!!

[@donbreithaupt4700]

Me too!

[@dennisangeloni2990]

nice breakdown of the SD genius - I still can't fathom how virtually every song they composed and produced were such classics. They were the most intriguing band in rock history, and they weren't even a rock band.

[@melvinrushii153]

Love Steely Dan.... Harmonic Genius.... Brilliant Stuff 🎼🎵🎶🎶🎹🎹🎹🎧

[@michaelfitzurka5659]

Really good stuff man. ty...

[@Gnurklesquimp2]

I remember doing stuff like this before I felt confident in my ability to create structure in more complex chords and relationships thereof... It felt like cheating, but for a few years now I've realized the potential that's there. A really cool trick to break it up is to continue a pattern but choose the bass notes and voicings in order to make it less obvious. Those in and of themselves can also follow another clear pattern, which is a cool effect for sure. The biggest trick up my sleeve is to take any full mode, say Dorian, and transpose that down an interval several times for maybe like 4 scales total, then choose bass notes and voicings, maybe a melody comes to mind before that. Maybe ommit intervals that aren't important (Depending on the context), bang, each chord in a new key. My favorite is descending in 4ths cause it's got the orderly aspect of 5ths with plenty of common tones but generally sounds cooler imo, but try all of them. A cool trick then is to imply yet another scale by carefully weaving it through the available notes across the scales over time, a blues scale can sound unusually stable over harmony when holding notes, for example. You can justify spicy scales very well this way for a climax in a solo etc., you can weave very simple scales throughout it that same way to ease people into the intervales the scales don't have in common, and most comfortably, you can lean on the more common tones to smooth it out further. That's not to mention slowly revealing your cards, or changing them out. Like with the descending 4ths example, if you strip away the notes these scales don't have in common, you can get some very nice diatonic stuff going, all in one key. Keep the chords minimal so they fit in either of these, and the freedom becomes crazy, this is then just yet another trick to go ''outside'' that applies.

[@jasonm4982]

Aja is still one of my personal top 10 albums, thank you

[@MikolaiStroinski]

What a great video and great channel you got! Subbed!

[@mark-ze4en]

Such great practice session ideas. I recommend your cast to my intermediate piano enthusiasts associates. Great organized influencing powers! keep it up!

[@austinm7801]

Love that Peg progression. On top of the root, 3rd, and 5th going down a half step each time and the top note going down a whole step every other chord (going from natural 9 to #9), the second note from the top is also moving a whole step every other chord (going from Major 7 to minor 7) on the chord the top note doesn't move. I feel like that makes the transition from the 7#9 chords to the Maj7 chords just a little bit more slick. The Deacon Blues progression has the same thing going on (except when the bassline jumps up a 4th). In Practice Set #1 the 7th is in the left hand, which buries the pitch a little to my ear (which is awful at hearing distinct middle voices) but still adds that same smoothness to the overall quality.

[@brucedillinger9448]

So, I was 20 years old when this was released. And yes...I was appropriately blown away. ✌ Still am.

[@voodoochili12]

Does anyone else's audio cut out at 4:08?

[@RobbieM72]

Yes

[@godfather3357]

Yes

[@williamhively3295]

It comes back at 4:32.

[@nigelhaywood9753]

Yes

[@CARLTONMOXLEYUnknownpianist]

Yeah I've been constantly listening to that in my headphones around the house for the last three weeks so I'm ready

[@itsabovemenow1016]

I first heard their technique of leaving the top voice the same in “Caves of Altamira” from the Royal Scam. This is the song that made me a Steely Dan fanatic.

[@LoJahn]

One of the greatest albums of all time…I’ve watched the documentary about the making of this album so many times

[@AndrewBoydMusic]

They really valued voice leading

[@stevenyoung6415]

❤❤🔥🎼🎶🎹🎸🎺🥁❤❤ an Epic group of their time!!! 🎶💕💕

[@fer18433]

Thanks

[@back2me225]

Wow this amazing 🥰👍🤩

[@knutskaarberg]

Thank you, this is really great stuff! If we can make requests I’d love to see your analysis of Maxine from Donald Fagen’s Nightfly album.

[@nigelhaywood9753]

The second chord of the Deacon Blue set is definitely Gmaj 9/B for me. I don’t think you can really sharpen fifths except in augmented chords. Also the relationship of the C down a fourth to G is stronger than the simple chromatic descent of the roots. I think they just don’t want to accept that inversions exist in jazz too. There are so many sheets that treat all the bass notes as roots, regardless.

[@donbreithaupt4700]

You don't mean Gmaj9/B - that would have an F# in it. It's an add9 over the third. I can tell you from firsthand experience that Jay Graydon calls it G2/B, and I find that's the most decodable way to name it on a chart, too.

[@nigelhaywood9753]

@@donbreithaupt4700 The F# can be assumed in a Gmaj 9 chord but it can also be omitted which is what I usually do. There also exists Gmaj7(9). I can't remember the video now but G2/B looks fine to me. Thanks for the inside information 🙂

[@claycorso137]

Is it just me or does the sound cut out around 4:10?

[@Jackson-ms8zs]

@Uncle Creepy I’m sorry. What?

[@xebio6]

Yep

[@fletcherward]

Inexplicably so. Like he was saying something copyrighted, top secret, or wrong and didn’t want to cop to it.

[@christophercoughlin9493]

Once you start playing the song I wish you would play it through. I know this is how you break a sing down but it's so grating to me to have to stop hearing the songs, which are so good!

[@kavalkid1]

EXCELLENT!! Just what I'm looking for! I work from stacked 4ths. Leaving those 3rds behind! I will CONSUME that pdf!

[@TheNoladrummer]

From the intro, you could also be describing Queen’s News Of The World lp. 1977 was a great year in Music!

[@justinfarrell9547]

Steely awesomeness.

[@roberthavard4219]

I think the analysis of this just being a series of plagal cadences works best. I see the first measure as a C to a G. IV to I in the key of G. Instead of a minor with a sharp five, think of it as being the tonic of the measure with the third in the bass. Fagen does this all of the time.

[@professorhamamoto]

Nice break-down. What do you make of that celeste-sounding (perhaps high-register Fender-Rhodes) arpeggio fairy-dust right @6.31 on "Deacon Blues"? The alternating maj/min walk-down fits nicely on the guitar fingerboard as well.

[@CWBella]

Lots of quartal harmonies!

[@patrickpowell5430]

It's probably my favourite album of all time, too. Ironically, in a fit of inverted snobbery throughout the 1970s I ignored Steely Dan because everyone else thought they were the coolest band to like. Then in late 1977, working in South Wales, UK, living in Crickhowell but based in Ebbw Vale, I went to a newsagent to buy some ciggies. There I saw a 'bargain bin' of albums, all at 50p each (that's half of £1 and about £2.57 with inflation). I looked through what was there and it was almost all shite, except for Aja and Abandoned Luncheonette. So I bought both. I suppose there was little call for sophisticated jazz/pop/jazz in Ebbw Vale, then a dying town with high unemployment after the steelworks was closed. Their loss, my gain.

[@blehoo1]

And this is just the harmonic genius - lyrically they are just as incredible and then there's the pioneering production techniques. All that before we even begin with the musicianship. They were/are the absolute best by a country mile.

[@JS_bass]

The BEST band ever...

[@gfy2979]

cool vid!

[@demidrek-heyward]

More steely dan content plzz!!!

[@mjsmcd]

Moving top note or other notes down or other single notes is something i heard mccartny say the beatles used to do wirh chords giving them as he put ot different "permutations"

[@abz124816]

Excellent analysis

[@OM-md6ki]

I love all of this and the stevie episode. Can you do a lesson on “free stuff” like sunra, herbie and Keith Jarrett we’re doing with miles, Coltrane and McCoy, It’s free but there’s chromatic patterns n deep stuff actually happening I’m tryna figure out. I’m tryna play in all 12 keys at once

[@SamSlotsky]

FWIW I have absolutely seen sheet music for Deacon Blues where the second chord is spelled as a G add 9 over B.

[@Panufo]

'Aja' is my fave record, but nobody ever dissected it for me in such a helpful way (esp. not DF & WB.) I will be parsing this stuff on gtr.

[@paxwallacejazz]

Hiatus kayote , Jacob Collier, Tigran Hymasian, Thundercat, Snarky Puppy.

[@SeanRainey]

All totally awesome, and skillful artists. Unfortunately they're not as popular as philistine acts like Billie Eilish and other vacuous garbage. Thundercat really is incredible tho. He's like Zappa R&B.

[@xebio6]

Almost all items in your list are declared Steely Dan fans

[@cesarecostanzo4683]

Thanks Man, groovy

[@cesarecostanzo8743]

@Uncle Creepy thank ya kindly. but I have a Job. Keep on Truckin.

[@cynthiastory8603]

Yes, I like the study and practice. Its very helpful. Thanks🎹🎶🎹🎶😀👋

[@timothyreynolds6255]

Yes. NIGHTFLY "RUBY" and "Maxine"

[@GuitarUniverse2013]

At nine minutes and 35 seconds you’re playing the famous ‘Mu” chord! One way I think about it is if you played a dominant seventh chord, it would have a flat 13 tension. Of course, you’re playing, in a sense, a major nine chord, with a third in the bass. Also, those downward sequences of the Mu chord followed by major seventh chord could, I think, be analyzed as a kind of constant structure, harmonic progression.

[@markjusticevipond6642]

Someday listeners will have evolved and grown to love more sophisticated music. Someday.

[@zackamania6534]

UPTOWN BABY UPTOWN BABY FOR THE CROWN BABY WE GETS DOWN BABY…

[@homerdus9668]

Thanks, great stuff, which sound have you in the synth?

[@jerrykroth]

If I ever give up trumpet and go back to piano, I'm going to have you as my teacher. Exactly what I need to see and hear, and beautifully chosen material. Jerry

[@geoffstockton]

I tend to think of the m7#5 as sus2/3. Dm7#5 = Bbsus2/D I find that thinking especially useful in terms of soloing on the changes. Edit: obviously, I commented a little too soon. Lol Hats off to Adam.

[@robbes7rh]

This is great, Adam. I agree with you that the second chord in the Deacon Blues sequence functions as a G inversion +9. Calling it bm7#5 is unnecessarily confusing.

[@robbes7rh]

@Jim Baker - I think because #5 implies an augmented chord which it is not.Take root position a minor triad and sharpen the 5th and you have F major 1st inversion. If you go up another half step to F#, then another to G, in that context it makes sense to call it add #5. But I agree that it’s not confusing to name it as you did. Poor choice of words on my part.

[@MaxGaming65]

The chromatic descending progression at the beginning of the videowith alternating dominant and major chords is actually seen in the interlude of “just the two of us” no?