Philip Glass - Hacking Surprise Chords - tips & tricks from Glass' music

#philipglass #pianotutorial #producer
Philip Glass uses surprise chords in interesting ways. Let's breakdown a few classic examples.
00:00 intro
00:35 basics
01:47 Metamorphosis 1surprise Dominant
03:21 Tales from the Loop surprising Majors
04:25 Knee Play 4 surprise structure & mediants
06:26 Etude 5 common tone modulation
08:19 The Hours modal surprises
10:24 conclusions
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#piano #pianotutorial #pianotricks #chords #chordprogression #harmony #songwriter #producer #cinematicmusic #epicmusic #musictheory

[@Jzh733]

Thank for the beautiful music and kindness.❤

[@dadatv1961]

Thank you for another wonderful video featuring genius Philip glass

[@ImpliedMusic]

Thanks again!

[@reverb.deluxe]

Your descriptions of how surprise chords "work" within the piece are illuminating.

[@ImpliedMusic]

thank you!

[@piggly-wiggly]

As a 50 year fan of his work, I always enjoy your analysis of Glass, even though I lack the musical knowledge to fully understand. That said, the piece of Glass's that includes the biggest surprise for me is Music in Twelve Parts, Part 12. I don't know chords or what's in what key, but in that piece there's the sort of wall of electronic sound common in early Glass, repeating and evolving, and then out of nowhere comes a vocal part that seems to be going off on its own thing. It's the repetition in the vocal line that nails it to the rest of the piece, as if to say "any two things can go together if you repeat them together often enough."

[@lfo2vco]

Thanks Chris.

[@RichardJNeo]

I love this channel so much ❤

[@WakadooPlaypen]

Great channel, excellent analysis.

[@iamprash]

I love learning from your videos. So inspiring

[@Warrow74]

I love your sense of humor: " .. the tyranny of the dominant chord". 😂

[@garygimmestad4272]

I was re-watching this video and thought of film composers who write surprising harmonies. Alexandre Desplat (a fave of mine) immediately came to mind. Most recently, his lovely score and songs for del Torro’s Pinocchio is full of beautifully surprising chords. It’s a great little film made with amazing stop-motion animation. His other scores are also full of harmonic surprises: The Shape of Water, The Imitation Game, The Grand Budapest Hotel and many others.

[@Jimmy.Williams]

Excellent video, love this stuff. My favorite music theory video content KZbin!

[@lxathu]

Who would have thought, when I was listening to my first heavy metal albums a 1-2 generations ago, that this kind of music videos would be my favourite in the far future?.

[@mikeycoogs105]

Thank you. Your videos are much appreciated.

[@ImpliedMusic]

You are very welcome

[@markyachnin1901]

Excellent! Clear and insightful. Thank you.

[@garygimmestad4272]

The C7 in the first Metamorphosis is the bVI of E minor. It’s an Italian augmented 6th chord which would normally resolve to the V before finally arriving at the tonic. But Glass doesn’t give us the V. He just moves directly to i. The bVI to V formula is very common in classical music, and this is essentially a classical piece. It’s a lot closer to Beethoven than it is to jazz or blues. Calling the bVI chord a sort of substitute dominant sounded right to me, and it might even be theoretically justified. One approach: The gravitational pull of bVI to V is so powerful that we accept the bVI as dominant even though the formula isn’t complete. We know where it’s going without the V. Or, more accurately, the path is ‘explained’ retroactively when we hear the tonic chord. Another angle: The Bb (A#) does resolve to B natural so there’s a linear resolution even if it isn’t to the tonic pitch. The tonic itself is already in the C7 chord - nothing to resolve. Instead of the contrary motion resolution of a tritone in a dominant 7th chord, it’s the resolution of a minor 7th. It’s a very similar move. The theoretical bit may or may not have played a role in Glass’s choice. His education would certainly have included thorough study of augmented VI chords. If it feels bluesy I think it’s because of our deeply entrenched association with dominant 7th chords as blues chords. The blues didn’t exist when Beethoven was playing so masterfully with bVI chords. But sometimes I can’t help but hear those classical moments as bluesy, but it is just projection. Glass obviously knows both historical contexts. Only he could tell us how he chose C7. Through tons of practice we learn to float through harmonic changes with all of the hard-learned theory buried in our subconscious (if we went that route; Glass did). The duality in Glass’s C7 makes it a really rich moment. You gotta love it.

[@ImpliedMusic]

In a word, yes

[@Jimmy.Williams]

At the end he changes from an Italian Sixth Chord to a pseudo French Sixth Chord (as he moves the 3rd to a #4 ). You can really hear the resolution/application of the Italian/French Sixth chords in the piece if after you play those chords, you add Em/B (2nd inversion of Em with B in the root) then B (major) which will resolve nicely to Em.

[@DarkSideofSynth]

Great insight. I remember that interview of Rick's. Well worth watching. Yes, voicing can make or break a piece. It's a bit like cooking, if you use your ingredients 'improperly', the end result might not be the one you were aiming for.

[@PeterJohnBailey]

Thank you Chris for your inspiration

[@ImpliedMusic]

My pleasure!

[@PeterJohnBailey]

@@ImpliedMusic My pleasure too, always a joy. I listen to your shorts first thing in the morning, it has become a routine with my coffee.

[@bricanylturbuhaler1912]

Thanx for video. I would like to ask what device exactly do you use to display the sheet music?

[@ImpliedMusic]

I’m playing from a big iPad

[@bricanylturbuhaler1912]

@@ImpliedMusic thx❤

[@TheRev142]

Can you include the chord progressions in a readable form on the screen when you discuss them? It would make it easier to follow what you’re talking about. Just a request, no complaint.

[@ImpliedMusic]

thanks jim. if you read music, all these pieces are available online. many of my tutorials are done at the computer, which i set up to show chords, individual notes, notation, etc. i happened to do this one at the piano, old school.

[@DocRossi]

I wonder whether there are any composers whose works you might examine besides Glass.

[@ImpliedMusic]

😆 you’ll find more on the channel.

[@DocRossi]

😉😅

[@ImpliedMusic]

i thought a bit more about this over coffee. we're kidding around, but the truth is KZbin does a great job of pushing my Glass videos, but not other composers. I did a month on Ellington... i've studied with Reich, and have spoken about his work a lot. There's videos about Bach, Handel, Pärt, Scandinavian contemporary etc.... and numerous material from how knows how many common practice classical composers on the channel. But I'm condemned by the algorithm to push out a Glass video every month to keep its silicone brain churning.@@DocRossi

[@DocRossi]

This whole algorithm thing is, in fact, rather frustrating. You've done some interesting looks into pop tunes - Hotel California, Smells Like Teen Spirit. In the context of surprise chords, I'd be very interested to hear what you'd have to say about the progression for Procol Harum's "A Salty Dog", which, if I'm not mistaken, starts on a - surprise! - flat V chord. I'd also be curious about a breakdown of your own piece "Hexachordia", which reminds me of a piece by lutenist Thomas Robinson, "24 Changes on Six Bells" - both are very cool pieces, and yours has some very pleasant surprises. Maybe you could slip that one by the algorithim as "Glass-like" 😅 (although I don't think it really sounds like Glass at all).@@ImpliedMusic

[@oystercatcher943]

At 2:20 this is the almost the same chord sequence for Radiohead, "The Bends". which is Em-G-C-C7 compared to Glass Em-G/D-Cmaj7-C7. To me the transition to C7 is a sound I think I'm hearing a lot with Radiohead who often have surprising chord sequences. Your tutorials are really the perfect level for me. Thanks

[@ImpliedMusic]

that's great info! and thanks.

[@AnnesYarak]

No piano roll any more? 😭

[@ImpliedMusic]

Not today, but not gone by any means.

[@andycordy5190]

Are these surprises instinctive or is he being arch? As an untrained musician, I would bumble around and find chords I like, chaining them together purely because they seemed to progress together, no theory of composition or harmony. Your first example is surely a sidestep into the blues. That sounds to me like a planned progression but some of the others give such an impression of freedom or even that he may have auditioned the obvious chords and thought...nah! I like THIS one. It took meeting and marrying an opera buff for me to get around to Einstein on the beach. I came to Glass through Koyanisqaatsi then someone played me his early string quartets.

[@ImpliedMusic]

Great question. My impression is that it’s calculated, though I wouldn’t say arch