Q+A #30 - What is negative harmony?

[@AdamNeely]

Since I wasn't being super clear on the matter - I know full well that protons are positive and electrons are negative. I was referencing their corresponding antimatter particles, the negatively charged antiproton and the positively charged positron as an analogy to the undertone series.

[@ramyswamy]

on the "matter"

[@HKragh]

You were quite clear. People didn't pay attention. Strictly speaking an electron is defined by its negative charge, and so it is a little like me calling you a male version of a female ;) But there really wasn't any doubt as to your point, or that you didn't confuse the... matter...

[@williamhigham4009]

Adam Neely as soon as you said that I knew people would be going on in the comments lol.

[@jamesmackay4529]

Ive just finished reading 'the Jazz of Physics' - by Stephen Alexander and I really enjoyed it

[@dangnabbit1379]

Thanks but that disclaimer is for people who only think of assassin's and atrocities when addressing the possibility of paying people for unimaginable acts.

[@beardyman]

I love you. Never stop.

[@jasper24601]

oh mr foreman, we love you 2!

[@lewigallant]

Beardy loves randoms

[@RickBeato]

First

[@AdamNeely]

touché

[@azz20103]

youre son is amazing

[@muffinchini]

good vid good vids good good

[@pinecone421]

Rick Beato LOL I love your videos btw they're amazing.

[@strawberryavalunch]

hey rick do you like chord scale theory memes

[@draziwthewizard]

I love how Adam gets so upset when somebody states that you don't need music theory

[@goldsrcorsource2551]

16:19 PROTIP: Make sure your cat and your bass are in the same key

[@mertatakan7591]

You deserve more replise

[@DiegoPerini]

That pause at 21:19 is amazing. It is intelligent, funny, respectful and an accurate, right on the spot metaphor of why he is doing all these videos. It was even music if you take it too far. Thank you good person (Adam) for everything. I hope I'll be able to support you when I earn more than enough money for my living.

[@danielmirandacastro7161]

Man, you're such an exceptional person. As a physicist, it's awesome to see all this talk about language/constructing meaning/fundamental nature of things from a musician, cause it's these kind of things that makes me enjoy music (and people generally don't talk very much about it).

[@qualia1123]

Holy crap, that was a pretty heavy question from a pretty heavy dude! I'm like "I know who Derek Bailey is, what's Adam's take on free jazz?" And you're like, "I don't know much about it", but then you lay down some interesting stuff I never heard about, and delivered some context and ponderables. Well done my man!

[@schneidercorn2813]

9:30 is the perfect explanation on why I love this channel so much.

[@ToniLeys]

TL;DW: At 5:45 he explains the meaning of life. Now for reals, I totally agree with all of that, Adam. It's fascinating that I usually permuted V with minor IV to spice up the shit and now I see this is one HECK of an explanation!

[@tyhoying85]

I don't think your transformation of the ii-V-I in C (Dm7-G7-CMaj7 to ) is quite the same "negative" as Jacob Collier refers to in the interview that's blowing the collective mind of music college studentdom. What you show is a negative inversion, arrived at by exchanging the chord tone intervals above the root note for their mirror below. But in the Collier interview, he gives the transformation of G7 resolving to C as an Fm6; that's because every note is reflected through the key "center" of C and G... so really (and this is where the Levy thing is quite convoluted) the note in between those two: Eb/E. If you mark out the intervals of a G7 chord as they relate to the Eb, then "copy" those intervals above the E, you get to the Fm6 chord. G-B-D-F to Eb -> +m6 +d4 +m2 -M2. From E then: +m6(C) +d4(Ab) +m2(F) and -M2(D). Why is it Fm6 and not D half diminished? I'd assume it's because we want to keep a similar bass movement; rather than resolving down a fifth as in G7-C, now we resolve up a fifth (or rather down a fourth) Fm6-C. Transforming Dm7 in the key of C in the same way gives Bb6, which keeps with the quartal bass movement arrived at by transforming the G7. We leave the C alone because I think the effect is all about arriving (as in a cadence like this one) in a similar way through the voice leading. So a negative harmony transformation of a standard jazz ii-V-I in C major would be Bb6-Fm6-CMaj7, which really is quite pleasing. Much more so than the inverted chords you showed in the video.

[@spectralchicken4067]

Agreed. There seems to be some confusion on this subject and I too think Adam and Jacob are talking about two different things here.

[@kylemandro1923]

Hey Ty, I agree with you I don't think Adam did the conversion correctly. Or at least not in the way Collier explained it. When I did this my conversion was Dm7 = G-7 (or Bb6) G7 = Dm7b5 (or F-6) and if you choose to do it to the Cmaj7 chord it will turn into Abmaj7. But I think I agree with you that the tonic chord is to be left alone, which was what Collier also did. I was also very confused why Collier chose to make it a -6 chord instead of m7b5 but I do like your thoughts on this question.

[@overjoyedmatcha]

@@kylemandro1923 absolutely right. Thank you for making this distinction for everyone, it really affects how they will utilize real negative harmony going forward. @Adam Neely please edit this video so that further confusion isn't created

[@TurnedOverGravy]

Yo I just learned so much

[@samuelcarter2624]

This isn’t english

[@thegreatgambeeno]

Most of the local guys slack off on their theory. Consequently, they have a hard time explaining their song ideas, communicating new parts to each other, and it takes longer for them to learn songs. I'm not the best by any means, but I can learn a band's whole set in a matter of hours and be onstage, a big part of it is that I can break down the patterns and parts into basic concepts and write them out, memorize progressions and chord tones, and prepare myself in an organized and thorough manner. It's just how it is. You wouldn't hire a guy who can't read a measuring tape to build your house, why hire musicians who don't know what they're playing?

[@aitch9053]

Why hire them? Because they sound good - *if* they sound good, and perform well. It's rare, and there's more people that think they can than actually can, but what matters in the end is if they sound good and function well in the setting or with the other people. You're right about all you had to say, don't get me wrong. But I ran into the opposite problem, where guys would lean on theory to slack off on creativity and technique. Either way, it ends up lame and frustrating. Like reading a measuring tape is really useful for building a house, but near pointless if the dude hammers every other nail bent, or spends the whole time deciding on the angle of the roof instead of actually building the thing. What I mean to say is, you need it all - Theory, technique, creativity, motivation, etc. And as for the people you're gigging with... there's always the possibility that they just suck at music, and there's a lot of ways to try and mask that sort of thing, whether through ignorance or pedantry or lack of experience or ego bluster or any other hundred things.

[@thegreatgambeeno]

I agree wholeheartedly. But as with most jobs, you've gotta pass the application process first. Believe me, I see plenty of guys who can play like machines, and their music sounds like, well, machines.

[@ryanperson6307]

Andrew Peterson Jimi Hendrix knew theory...

[@bryanleigh6497]

@@ryanperson6307 Did he though?

[@lucyf9034]

@@bryanleigh6497 Well, he did start his career as a backing musician for some big names, so...

[@brandongreene2189]

Hey Adam! I'm marching Drum Corps this summer! It's my first year marching, and I feel I learned the most about DCI culture from watching old Cadets videos on Youtheducation. Everyone's taste in Drum Corps are different, but I really enjoy listening to Blue Devils 2010, 11, 12, 14, Bluecoats 2014, and Cadets 2016. Hope you enjoy listening to Drum Corps music! Love all your videos! My first instrument is guitar and I find your videos very helpful for music theory!

[@ElectricHamSteak]

Cadets '11 is one of my favorite shows. What corps are you playing with and what do you play?

[@brandongreene2189]

I play snare with Southwind! I plan on auditioning for Boston Crusaders and The Cadets next season. I do also enjoy Cadets '11 :)

[@brandongreene2189]

I agree. The Cadets in general are very tasty

[@Herohunterhuntman]

I'm auditioning for Spirit of Atlanta on snare next year 🤙 I like this little DCI cult going on here lol

[@brandongreene2189]

I hope you do well on your audition! I hope to march Boston Crusaders after my season with Southwind.

[@jcf1963]

The last segment brought this quote to mind. The Bartron Tyler Group (13 years of my life) included it in the liner notes of “Just About Almost There”. “I’d take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.” -Douglas Adams

[@DominicSewellMusic]

re: negative harmony - classical theorists/musicologists in the UK understand this as serial inversion of chords - if you count 'up' a major third then the 'negative' (actually better called a 'serial inversion') is a major 3rd 'down'..e.g. counting from a C up to E (M3) would be the same as counting C down to Ab (also a M3) and you always use the root note as the starting pitch before carrying on - it's an integral part of 12-tone theory. The discrepancy would be, whether in a negative harmonic chord progression the end result is the same (if there's a ii-V-I progression do we have as our goal - chord I tonic? If it does then one way (there are others) would use the final I chord (if major) as the starting pitch and work backwards so the previous V of ii-V-I becomes a Bbm chord bvii (a serial inversion of V) etc...interestingly vii is the secondary chord of V in any case - bvii isn't though - a borrowed chord form the parallel minor of I...bit of a rabbit hole...

[@blazbohinc5735]

Man.. you deserve money. You need to be supported. Your channel is gold quality. I'm glad that I found you.. man a pleasure to listen to you. I've listened to everything from Jacob and just can't get my mind around it, even after looking through transcriptions and everything.. And I've got like.. 14 years of musical education behind me.. It's crazy

[@chaseorion1326]

You defeated duality twice in this video. Positive/Negative Orange/Red It's awesome how the channel integrates big ideas and philosophical concepts, especially since music itself does the same. Never a dull video, man. Awesome stuff.

[@GawrshDarn]

The ending was so awesome. You get em, Adam! I don't know a ton of music theory, but I really do love it. When I met Victor Wooten he told me music is like driving a car and theory is like having a tool kit in your trunk. When his "car" gets stuck in a "jam" then he can pull out his tools whenever he needs it.

[@Acitty200]

Although I am now seeing that it wasn't my specific comment that inspired this video, I still asked about negative harmony on your last Q+A and am very excited to hear what you have to say about it.

[@Jimt0n]

This last section was wonderful and is exactly how I feel about our methods of exchanging things we appreciate. Being able to explain WHY you like something communicates your passion significantly more than just being enthusiastic without specifics

[@TheBassMan533]

I actually understood Jacob's idea of negative harmony a little differently! The way I got it was that, in the key of C, he had a mirroring line between C and G, where the midpoint tone of that line is between Eb and E. He then inverted every note in a chord to portrait a new one while maintaining the same distance from the midpoint, just in a different direction. Thus the G7 chord turned into an Fm6 chord. G->C B-Ab D->F F->D Maybe those two concepts are the same and I just misinterpreted... This way of visualizing it is interesting to me since you can get different negative-chord subs when you choose different mirroring lines. The questions I have now are - why choose a certain tonic specifically regarding any chord? is it because of it's function in the key center? what kind of sounds do you get when choosing different tonics for subing every chord? what happens if you take different midpoints? that is, different that between the root and the fifth? Tell me what you think Adam.

[@ar-bg2fi]

I got this understanding as well. The harmony in this video seems more akin to Riemannian analysis.

[@siavashdarmani1190]

Finally someone talked about this! Exactly. Adam got the idea compeletly wrong because you have to reflect the intervals through the axis of C and G not through the note C.

[@RicarboJosp]

Ben H.G I'm going to try to answer with what I know, sorry for my English: -It is because its function on the key. if you change the tonic without modulating in the music, you wouldn't be flipping the music, it just will be like solving a math problem without caring about the order of operations. I would like to relate this with how Schoenberg suggest how harmony works (to answer your question of why is the mid point E half flat): so let's think of just one note, one tonic: Schoenberg suggests that a major scale is the horizontal synthesis of the overtone series of a tonic and a tonic chord is the vertical synthesis. So why the Dominant and the subdominant are the most important functions? Because in the overtone series, the nearest different tone is the dominant, and he (Schoenberg) concludes that the theoretical nearest is the sub dominant just below the C: the F. The idea of this "shadowy harmony" is flipping all the music to its shadows (the overtones flipping to the "subtones") , so the Dominant becomes the opposite: the Subdominant (as what Jacob said: "turning everything Dominant to plagal"). It is the same with the tonic, it becomes the opposite, but because if you flip the overtones with the fundamental as the axis the tonic wouldn't change, it is the same, if you flip a C major with the half flated third as the axis it will be the same, a C major with a half flated E. So that's why changing the tonic wouldn't apply to this concept. I tried to sound coherent... im sorry English isn't my strongest language. :P what do you think?

[@RicarboJosp]

Siavash Darmani I don't think the idea is wrong, check what I explained earlier...

[@RIOTedm]

Yea Adam's talking about Harmonic Dualism/Riemann Theory, which is also equally mind blowing and philosophical

[@jbboynton0]

I appreciate so much how dense and fast your videos are. Learning so much from your channel, thank you!

[@ChIzasum]

Levy and Partch were far from the first to think about harmony in this way. Theorists were thinking about major and minor triads/keys as reflections of each other as far back as the mid-1700s. Euler included this relationship as part of his "Tonnetz", a graphical visualization of harmony (which is another fascinating hole to jump into. Check out Neo-Riemannian theory). Hugo Riemann included this way of thinking in his theory of "harmonic dualism", similar to utonality.

[@kostazarikos3383]

I love your excitement when you talk about negative harmony

[@IdentifiantDeCatacombe]

18:49 Its funny how he skips the last part where she says that hes fantastic in everything and stimulating and addicting lol

[@Nick-df1pv]

Interesting take on the vinyl vs cd nostalgia topic. It is mostly irrelevant now besides for the most basic consumer level products, which the answer for them is that it is almost exactly the same. The placement and materials of the furniture in your listening space matter more.

[@beyshore_]

Diminished Fifth

[@27duuude1]

them stacked minor thirds...

[@AChadWardenProduction]

alexanderswisher i lol'd, btw you dropped your deal with it shades bro

[@baconbitz7937]

Augmented Fourth

[@hiqwertyhi]

stretto?

[@kozihoppy]

Diabolus in musica

[@The_Tarmaster]

You and Rick are among my favorite teachers. Steve Stine is my favorite guitar teacher.

[@owenziegler307]

For drumline, the WGI finals were last weekend on the 22nd, so watching Music City Mystique's/Pulse Percussion's shows would be a totally good introduction to drumline. For drum corps as a whole, just wait for this summer and watch some shows.

[@Jimmy2e_]

Honestly, any finalist show was incredible. There was some tight competition in there.

[@owenziegler307]

Couldn't be more true, man. I'm a freshman and I just watched it because I was curious, and I'm definitely going to be doing indoor next year.

[@Jimmy2e_]

United stayed in the same hotel as Ayala so I got to hear some of Ike Jackson's explanations of the show. Super creative and well thought out show.

[@owenziegler307]

My favorite show was Infinity's, our school had stick tosses in our show so it was so cool to see that the concept could be expanded to include cymbal tosses (albeit using prop cymbals), and a stick toss that's basically the length of the mat.

[@Jimmy2e_]

There are audible breaths on some of the recordings I could find, I'd assume that's what they're doing. That's how pits communicate sometimes instead of visual preps

[@asapeters9329]

yo adam this Q+A is one of the greatest of all time. you really knocked it out of the park man

[@asapeters9329]

it's got me excited for my theory class tomorrow

[@jamescole7197]

I'm a huge fan of your cat.

[@th_sht_mkr]

One of the best videos I've seen on this channel! Thanks!) Love you!))

[@BlackWhiteCloud]

I love your videos Adam! Greetings from México. :D

[@azimovwatts6425]

Great analogy! (overtone/undertone) 6:15 very cool!

[@LukeZuniga]

Thank you for the drumline shoutout!

[@Viewsk8]

Hearing the answer to that last question was pretty mind bending for me as someone who hasn't looked at music theory a lot.

[@ThomAvella]

Look at this n00b pronouncing the "O)))" in Sunn O))) like that's a thing (just kidding ily)

[@AdamNeely]

like i said, i really don't know what i'm talking about.

[@luioef7831]

ay thom

[@rithikhemanth205]

Ayyyy thom

[@ryanyoung2421]

Hey Thom

[@magicianNevar]

I think everyone does that.

[@mib6002]

If you'd like to learn more about Drum Corps I'd recommend checking out any of the 'Vic Firth - Learn The Music' episodes. They show the battery sheet music to read along while they play it. It's quite admirable how difficult the music is and considering they all have to learn it to such a consistent degree and play super clean.

[@hbade]

The question referencing Deftones, Polytonality, and being able to verbally express what you "like" about a song or what's going on within a song really hit home, because I couldn't think of how to describe music verbally with my lack of music theory. Do you have any resources that maybe channel a similar charisma exhibited by Collier as an introduction to theory? I'm pretty well versed with rhythmic concepts, note subdivisions, and time signatures, but it's all the tonal stuff that I need to learn now!

[@entropic9456]

On the topic of drum corps, Bluecoats, Carolina Crown, and Cadets all have some amazing stuff around that I would definitely recommend for a music lover looking to get to know what the activity is all about. The Blue Devils also have some incredible things out there, but in general their writing tends to be more traditional and less progressive than some of the other corps right now, especially Bluecoats and Cadets. As far as bass drum/ drum line splits go, I would recommend watching the videos from the Infinity bassline's warmup routines. They pull off things that seem literally impossible for just 5 people each playing a single drum each. They're probably among the best examples of drum splits out there.

[@alexschuster1618]

13:06 Leaving this channel to check out Sunn O)))/Coltrane. Thanks. Definitely check out the Kilimanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble.

[@Norex25]

My new favorite channel! So much so, that I even clicked the bell to get notified of your new videos...something I would NEVER do with other channels I'm subscribed to. 😉

[@ChrisBandyJazz]

3:05 *Super-ULTRA-hyper-mega-meta lydian scale

[@jasonallen4659]

your vids never let me down. so much information to check out. thank you.

[@milesvinson1028]

Have you thought about doing a podcast with Ben Levin? I was watching your 3 part youtube conversation on Ben's channel and I would love to listen to more Another question: What do you think about classical music in the present day? A lot of people have the impression that it's snobby or too 'intellectual" which is disappointing as an aspiring classical musician.

[@marcovalentini5741]

Wow, one of the my favorite Jazz Legends, Eric Dolphy, from the grave. I have to say, that as a Jazz musician, from the the tradition but on the avant-garde side of things, I really appreciated your answer on the question from Mr. Dolphy. You capture the reality of the Jazz avant-garde approach to the music. I love Inter-stellar space. I read an article which gives a detailed theoretical analyses of that improvisation, if I find it I would link it. It sounds like that is something up your ally.

[@tommyellis7728]

Look up Carolina Crown, Madison Scouts from the 80s, Blue Coats, or the Phantom Regiment. Those guys give you chills more than a paranormal experience. Also, can you explain to me why the inversion of a fourth, is a fifth? My band director can't nor can my theory teacher.

[@buckyjames1898]

C to F is a fourth. If you flip that and go F to C, that's a fifth. That's how inversions of intervals work basically

[@ThePhobophile]

Buddy if neither your band director nor your theory teacher can explain that to you then you probably need to find new teachers. The concept of intervals is literally something you learn about in your first semester of college as a music major. If they can't explain something as simple as that then I honestly don't understand how they can do anything that their job requires, the theory teacher especially.

[@DanNobles]

Toward the end of the video, the case you made in favor of learning music theory was fantastic. I just wanted to say thanks for that!

[@StevenRosario2025]

You've mentioned drum corps twice in this video. Automatic like. Okay, okay. Done. Your other stuff is pretty awesome, too.. As far as what to listen to, some old school Drum Corps can feel like well, just that. Old school. I would probably start with 1991 or 1993 Star of Indiana. From there I would definitely implore watching 2002 Cavaliers. Everything about that show is original, from the music, to all of the color guard elements, so on and so forth. It's also worth noting 2003 Blue Devils because of the type of music and elements that you're into as a bass player. The show is called The Phenomenon of Cool!! I'm pretty partial to Bluecoats 2010 because I was in that show. From there I would look at stuff such as Bluecoats 2016 and onward. There's so, so much more, and so many other corps, but I wanted to give you a somewhat comprehensive list as to the direction of the activity. That list definitely does not give Justice to the activity as a whole. For drumline stuff, it's definitely worth looking at Santa Clara Vanguard from this year. They just won their first title in almost 20 years but this is the third year in a row that they won drums.

Thank you very much for your videos Adam!! They make me love music even more :) Cheers!

[@luioef7831]

Come on harmonic, cheer up

[@jojo-fj7lw]

This comment is 4 yo and i still manage to laugh

[@skypup03]

Absolutely spot on with the answer to the first question! Better headphones and/or speakers ftw!

[@AudaxTempus]

7:46 Adam, you have no idea what you've just done...

[@dinomacoroli]

Throw Your Toaster 😂😂😂

[@reidgowan2670]

Marching band kids are rabid lol

[@SpiderShlongGaming]

@Adam Neely Your key misunderstanding is that youre inverting chords based on a fixed pitch. The idea of functional negative harmonization is that we invert based on the relationship of a fifth. So instead of inverting a C maj to a F min by inverting on a 'C', we invert based on the interval of C->G, so in theory the invertion of C maj is C->G, E->Eb, G->C, so we just get a C min chord since both major and minor thirds have the same pull in relation to the C->G fifth. The difference is small but necessary since we're applying these chords to a harmonic spectrum and not simply their pull in relation to 1 note.

[@katetranscribes]

drum corps is a deep rabbit hole; you be careful

[@buckyjames1898]

currently having flashbacks to 2013

[@dinomacoroli]

Connor Buckley It all started with E=MC2....

[@onesyphorus]

Scatman and Antoine Dodson

[@FabioEloi]

Man, I really appreciate ALL of your videos, even without a solid understanding of a dumb circle of fifths (for someone weird like me, playing for 20 years just by ear and some concepts here and there like polyrhythms and not so dumb stuff). But your last statement, WHY, for sure, IT'S THE GRANDFUCKING BEST EXPLANATION EVER about learning music theory. PERIOD.

[@MusicDig]

Hey Adam, you often stretch the importance of building a network of connections as a musician. In case you wanted to move to a LA or any other city (because of a relationship, a PhD program, etc.) - how long do you think it would have take you to regain what you have now in New York? Do you think it would be like starting everything from scratch?

[@Codemarla]

Speaking of alternate tuning, have you heard the music of Jon Gomm? If not, look up the video for "Passionflower", Im sure youll be both impressed and entertained. Anyway, I met him a few years back and was asking why he appeared to have tuning problems between songs, he explained that he wasnt having problems, he was taking so long to tune as he uses a completely different tuning for each song he writes. He said he does this so that he doesnt get stuck playing the same way over and over. Different tunings force him to learn to play differently everytime. That is some dedication.

[@raffaelw.2767]

Hey Adam :) Do you have an idea about what makes russian music sound so... well ... russian??? I really do like this kind of sound, but can't quite figure out what exactly is different.

[@cameronleesimpson5742]

Russian music is actually marches but in a minor key that speed up

[@rsspartanz]

few things make me happy on a Monday. thank u dude

[@tannerwallace4838]

Hey Adam! When we talk about tension and release in music we're usually referring to harmony. Are there examples of the concept being applied to rhythm? My instinct is to say that syncopation is a basic practice of this but I'm not sure.

[@segmentsAndCurves]

7:11

[@squidcaps4308]

NIN - March of the Pigs could be called one. It uses 7/8 and 4/4, and the 4/4 always feels like the release from the 7/8.

[@Lantanana]

It takes awhile to watch your videos, cos every time you reference another video, I go watch them!

[@deadasfak]

20:40 Anyway, here's wonderwall

[@0ptimus]

i cant thank you enough man... you and rick beato.. thanks for everything you do...

[@EmptyKingdoms]

Adam Neely: if you keep thinking in 12-EDO you'll never understand the wonderful world of microtonal music, dividing a m3 in 4 parts (or as many as you want) and even over/undertone series, because they all rely on concepts developed over just intonation and acoustics.

[@oliverhoare6779]

WHAT?

[@mosesramirez6330]

The first analogy is actually pretty good. Listening to vinyl is like watching a movie shot on film stock. There's inherent are grain and resolution issues that are "corrected" with newer technology but some people just prefer as it seems warmer, nostalgic, artistic, etc.

[@christopherbramel3770]

"...positively charged electron, or the negatively charged proton."

[@falpsdsqglthnsac]

Christopher Bramel he’s already living in an antimatter world

[@darylldumo75]

basically the opposites of proton and electron (non-existent in theory)

[@fonzyfermin8896]

@@darylldumo75 No? In both theory and practice, they exist, as part of antimatter

[@darylldumo75]

@@fonzyfermin8896 oh? Guess i need more research then hahaha

[@fonzyfermin8896]

@@Amanda-dg9zj Antimatter was first proven mathematically and through CERN we have since been able to produce antiprotons and even antihydrogen.

[@Meganopteryx]

I love hearing you try to pronounce all the names, almost as much as I like all the interesting content.

[@theofficialdrumcovers]

Thank god Eric Dolphy phoned one in...

[@DonyaLane]

Loved how you asked, "what sounds good to you?" @22:22. Nuff said! And then you took it even further, by just referencing common items. Well played! I love music theory so much... an endless subject that I'll never tire of. I'm a Berklee nerd from WAAY back ('86). Loved talkin' shop then; diggin' it still. Also, I LOVE that cat throughout the vid! I was so glad when you held kitty up to the bass. Gorgeous! What's his name?

[@musicman7592]

Check out "As One" by Gene Koshinski, for some serious percussion Hocket/splits.

[@hiphophippy2439]

THANK YOU, that's just brilliant.

[@socalboomer]

Thanks for the music theory discussion at the end. I brew beer and it brought to mind how a lot of people think that putting STYLES to beer is irrelevant - make the beer whatever you want, who cares what style it is; or make up new styles to describe a beer that already exists (golden stout, which is actually not a stout but is really just a cream ale with vanilla and coffee added to mimic malt backbone). Beer styles give a handle and a context within which and outside of which we can play and create complexity and dissonance and harmony. If I call something an IPA, another brewer or consumers can have a context of what I mean and realize it's not going to be a Belgian Quad. . . Anyway - thanks! Really good as always. (and yes, I know I'm 2 years out of date - I just let you run randomly when I'm working on other stuff. ;) )

[@joewebb8446]

PROTIP: Make sure the cat and the bass are in the SAME KEY!

[@bobjob7924]

To me, wanting to get an answer on knowing theory vs just experimenting is just a musician's self-validation issue. If you can play or create fantastic music, regardless of whether or not you use theory to help, is great. Whether or not the using theory matters is a separate issue.

[@PatrickHogan]

Hey, Adam, I posted the Sungazer album on my channel a month or so ago and just realized it's monetized to me, so if you want to go monetize it to you, please do!

[@AdamNeely]

Hey man, I'd appreciate it if you just demonetized it. I totally don't mind you having uploaded it, but I don't have any digital distribution deals right now, so KZbin won't let me request monetization. Thanks!

[@PatrickHogan]

Adam Neely You got it! Let me know if that changes!

[@AdamNeely]

You the man, thanks!

[@cheemo48]

yeeeeaaaah... that isn't how the version of negative harmony that Collier posits works. You are describing something more like what I would call inverted harmony. It took me some pretty intense research and effort to get past that to figure out what Collier is talking about. I bow down to your musical mind and abilities, but this is one where you didn't quite hit the nail on the head. I would love for you to do a video explaining negative harmony "for real" bc you could explain it better than anyone. Cheers!

[@shimtest]

Derek Bailey's stuff is great but you must approach with a really open mind

[@michaelpdawson]

Back in the '70s, I played some Derek Bailey for a friend, who said, "But he's just fooling around!" So I handed him a guitar. My friend was astute enough to realize that the sounds he made by "fooling around" with my guitar didn't match what Derek Bailey was doing.

[@cheemo48]

I'm so glad you did your video on Sweet Home Alabama. As a working musician from AL, I have played this song even more than other musicians around the world, and have had the conversation about the tonal center with MANY professional musicians. We all came to the same conclusion as you, finally, around the same time you dropped your video. That being said... I recently brought up a similar situation with the song "I Love It" by Iconapop. Not a single one of my colleagues was on fully board with my hot take analysis, and I feel more strongly about this than I ever did about either proposed key for S-H-A. I believe the one and only logical interpretation (upon really letting my ear take it in and feel the implied resolution of the melody etc) of the progression, is 5 to 1, while others perceive it as 1 to 4. The bridge reinforces this, but everyone around me chalks this up to key change or modal interplay. Am I taking crazy pills?? If you disagree I think it is time to admit myself to a psych ward.

[@Dan-pi6bd]

Hey, I know this is very dumb but you're not actually supposed to pronounce the o))) in sunn o))) don't worry, nobody says it right the first time.

[@rsspartanz]

Astrohfic 2 ok, we get it, You're better than us.

[@DevinDTV]

why is it impossible for people to offer information freely without getting attacked by insecure morons? he never said anything that would imply anything REMOTELY similar to "i'm better than you". he clearly demonstrated that he knows it's not an important piece of information and that it's an easy mistake to make. how fucking insecure do you have to be to find that offensive?

[@tasluna7763]

DevinDTV i think it was a joke

[@random11stuff]

Thanks for the insight. Paticularly on the marketing vs personal aspect of it. Sidenote: People normally get my first name wrong and my surname right, not the other way around!

[@quackman500]

I love that you used the hobbit as an example. Lord of the rings looked great, hobbit looked garbage because it was too hdish.

[@loejewis]

I enjoyed your passionate response to the last question, I think it's such an interesting debate.

[@timoonn]

Ho hai :) What do you think about european (latin) versus international (or english) music notations, using "La Si Do..." instead of "A B C... ABC notation is a far more logical one, because its just, you know... alphabet, its printed into our brain. "La si do re mi fa sol" are not really brain-friendly, in comparaison. Have you learned or used both of them? French musicians for example tend to historicayl use latin notation, but should they migrate to international notation because its just... better? faster?stronger? Thanks

[@rebeccafossmusic]

i think solfege and alphabet notation are separated for the most part and have their own uses. solfege is generally used for aural skills and vocal exercises, whereas alphabet notation is (usually) strictly theory based. That being said, when I was in university for music my theory teacher did use solfege to describe chord progressions and scale degrees instead of numbers or "ABC notation" which was infinitely more complicated seeing as it was being used in moveable do and changed depending on the key you were in. ABC notation doesn't change and solfege can change if you're using the movable do method which is why I believe it makes it more complicated.

[@KoenZyxYssel]

Dutch person reporting in. We use the English notation but I think ABCDEFG has problems too, like the fact that going from G to A makes no sense, where is H? The German notation actually has H instead of B and A flat turns into B. This kind of strings the whole thing together but it's not elegant. Notes are abstracted fractions and/or formulas so when writing music it might be more "brain-friendly" to use a set without a clear beginnning or end (do re mi) or just to write the actual fractions. At the end of the day the naming is arbitrary and musical notation is imperfect.

[@rebeccafossmusic]

Well if we're using that logic what comes after H? lol

[@TroggacomCactus]

timoonn It's actually Bb that gets called B, so H doesn't even come after G.

[@lumigpictures]

It's not better, to me it's confusing calling dó C, but I understand that's because of the musical culture I was raised with. Just take the metric system, for example, one could argue it's a far more efficient measurement, but americans learn miles and they do just fine. People get used to whichever environment they grow in.

[@TheMaykarLocomotive]

The childlike pride on your face holding your cat and matching bass is adorable

[@Matheus-ly6eu]

Holy shit. It's so weird how people just assume that you don't give a shit about the possibility of being wrong, or that you simply don't watch your own video a fuckton of times before you upload it.

[@630171official]

Editing something automatically comes with watching/listening a fuckton of times, that doesn't save one from making mistakes, though.

[@Matheus-ly6eu]

Oh, definitely not... but I think it's kinda funny how people hesitate to believe that he means exactly what he is saying, even when he's proven himself to be super cautious with that - always making sure to say explicitly when he isn't quite certain about something. And, also, people seem to not make any kind of effort to try and understand why he is saying such a thing.

[@henriksolvik337]

Doesn't matter how many time he watches them if he's wrong. He was wrong about the particles he mentioned, for one. Maybe he is wrong about much more. It's an interesting video anyhow.

[@AdamNeely]

PLEASE read the pinned comment.

[@henriksolvik337]

Well shit. You were talking above my head. Boy do I feel like a piece of shit now. Sorry about that. I like your videos because they actually make me understand some music theory. Cheers.

[@wendbnew]

Could you please make a complete video on negative harmony? Your understanding of it is different that what I got from that interview. Jacob explains reflecting chords across an axis which would yield different results than what you're saying the 2-5-1 turns into. Thanks man, I appreciate all of the videos!

[@jakedemolisher5032]

Hail Sunn O)))

[@YmirVEVO]

Holy shit, I was absent-mindedly strumming Wonderwall on my electric while watching this. Then you started talking about soprano pedal notes, I was like "hey that's kinda like Wonderwall I guess" and then you said Wonderwall. Duuuuude! Trust me it was completely bananas! ...You probably should have been there.

[@gergelyszabo4802]

The "CD has more information encoded tan vinyl" is absolutely not true (well, at least mathematically). The thing is, that vinyl is an analog (continous time) recording technique, so at least in theory, it can be infinitely accurate. While CD is a digital recording system, so it just can not have that much information in it. Of course the type of information is an other thing (CD can store multiple chanels, and vinyl can be noisy, etc.), but if we only consider the best representation of the wavefunction hitting the sensor, the vinyl is just unbeatable by any digital system ever made (and ever will be made), because vinyl is analog. (Sry for my english)

[@Drumwannabe17]

Heard the CSO play The Unanswered Question live. It was awesome.

[@j.masonbrown6216]

"harm-y"

[@guitarpaintings9319]

Hey about treble pedal tones, that's one of the main reasons for the sound of flamenco guitar. So when playing flamenco in A (kind of frigian mode in A), the high E string is left to ring and the Bb and D on the 3rd and 2nd string are sustained throught the typical chord progression (combinations of Bb, C7(9), Gm always resolving in A(b9) ).

[@MostlyLoveOfMusic]

What do you mean that some sounds "exist in nature"? - you say that overtones exist in nature but undertones do not? Surely all sounds are intrinsically a part of nature so surely any notes in any horizontal or vertical combination are a part of nature?

[@alexshih3747]

The overtone series naturally occurs in nature; that is, any natural vibrations that produce definite frequencies produce overtones. Natural vibrations don't create undertones.

[@the1trueporkchop]

I would love to see an entire video on Negative Harmony. That topic intrigues me.

[@jsdsps01]

Loved the video! However electrons are negative... Didn't really detract from the point tho...

[@AdamNeely]

+Snitzmusic that was the point - a positive electron is antimatter

[@wingracer1614]

aka anti-electron or positron or most correctly positon.

[@insanerotta5332]

@20:32 Thanks Adam. You've now given me the name to one of my favorite things in one of my favorite songs. In the song Go with the Flow by QOTSA there's a constant 1/8 note of a high E played over everything else all throughout the song. It really works well to give this sense of urgency to the song. Check it out if you haven't noticed it before. EDIT: Just listened to the song again and realized the high E note actually changes in the chorus to a C-D-E-E progression.

[@louisfronda]

I keep hearing negative "harmy" 😂😂

[@IuliusCurt]

Worth mentioning for Vinyl vs. CD: vinyls are analog (or continuous), CDs are digital (or discrete). Could view it as vinyl being a series of slopes, while CD is a series of stairs approximating those slopes. That is pure theory. In practice it really depends on the resolution of the vinyl printer (how continuous it really is) and the number of steps in the stair approximation.

[@Lampyboi]

"positively charged electron". You were close bud

[@DustyKun123]

i think he was talking about "positively charged electron" in context of his comment on antimatter- meaning he was actually talking about the positron but w/e

[@axoltlmascot868]

Angus Blaney he's talking about antimatter ie inverted charged atomic particles positive electrons as negative protons.

[@Lampyboi]

DustyKun123 Oh yeah you're right

[@themodernshoe2466]

Yep, he's a fraud. Send the hate mail

[@davidrahn9903]

Actually he said that correctly. Yes electrons are negatively charged under normal circumstances, but there are also Positrons, particles that behave the same, have the same mass, and have the same magnitude of charge as an electron, but are positive. It's a form of anti-matter, which he mentioned when he was talking about the positively charged electron. Link: www.thefreedictionary.com/positive+electron Have a great day!

[@martinzamoranomusic]

I really appreciated that you tuned the negative third naturally :P