Stuck Writing 4 Chords? How To Write Better Harmony

[@Pedro_Larroza]

The real harmony was the voices we led along the way.

[@Astrothunder_]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@harrybenoit9033]

Love that pun--reminds me of doctor Forrest Van riper--in theory class-- watch your voice leading people!

[@marshallgrey2159]

annoying joke, but in this context kinda genius

[@Roxanneredpanda]

I see what you did there

[@myname-mz3lo]

choir harmony vs instrumental harmony

[@AlvaroALorite]

I like the term of "tactical leap" for an expressive wide interval hahaha

[@Ale-qf1pm]

Never seen ur face before, you look like a rly friendly dude I'd have a beer with

[@luisbreva6122]

A beer after a concert, talking about how it was

[@ieaiaio9]

The first time I saw his face I was like, "Wow! He is better looking than his voice led me to believe." Haha!

[@miguelisaurusbruh1158]

For me is like those handsome serial killers

[@heydadi1]

Yes! More please. As a non-professional music enthusiast, with many years of playing and composing but with only basic level of formal musical education, I find these kind of "tips & tricks" very interesting and helpful. And the "homework" here is much less daunting to me than the composing month earlier this year.

[@spellviz8409]

I really want to emphasize this! It would be incredably valuable to get more insight like that.

[@johannpetersen3637]

I am using Tchaikovsky’s “guide to the practical study of harmony” to study harmony, and up to this point, I wasn’t really being able to understand the book, because it is all about proper voice leading, but now that I saw this video, I begin to understand it

[@davidhoffman6980]

Is that book available online?

[@johannpetersen3637]

@@davidhoffman6980 yes, the pdf is available for free

[@davidhoffman6980]

@@johannpetersen3637 Awesome. Thanks for the answer. :-)

[@jojo-fj7lw]

Oh wow where do you get that pdf?

[@johannpetersen3637]

@@jojo-fj7lw ks.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/2/2e/IMSLP309633-PMLP61198-Tchaikovsky_HarmonyTextbook_Eng_Optimized.pdf

[@stephthealmighty268]

FINALLY SOMEONE GETS IT. I shared one of my compositions with a fellow composer and he said my music was 'better' that what he has ever wrote and he wanted me to teach him. BUT I DIDN'T LEARN HARMONY! I wanted to have each voice on its journey and path which would help me to paint the picture or tell the story as intended, that's all I did and it led to absolute beauty.

[@janefaceinthewind6260]

Amazing!

[@JohannnesBrahms]

In the evolution of Western music, chord consciousness evolved from voice leading. The best way to learn harmony is to follow this historical development and have a balanced view of voice leading and how this technique evolved into the consciousness of chord units. Some of the most beautifully expressive music derives from this balanced perspective of harmony. The blatant chords in the Prelude of Chopin are a perfect example of this perspective. Oscar knows his stuff!! And the puzzle of the Tristan chord is resolved by realizing that it is not a "chord" at all.

[@forbiddenfursona]

thanks brahms, very cool

[@RobTi]

@Johannes Brahms big fan of your work. keep it up.

[@suzyserling277]

Johannes; your comment is excellent; well, with a name like yours!...thanks.

[@SadisticKillerXx]

Come to Brazil !

[@emteeelcee3719]

For those of you who are interested in listening to some famous examples of good voice leading, here are some pieces you might consider! (I wrote down the full name so that it’s easier for you to find) - Piano Sonata No. 14 in C# minor, Op. 27/2 • "Moonlight" - 1. Adagio sostenuto | Beethoven - Prelude No.4 in E minor, Op. 28 No. 4 | Chopin - Symphony No.3 in F major, Op. 90 - 3. Poco allegretto | Brahms - Symphony No.6 in F major, Op. 68 - 2. Szene am Bach. Andante molto mosso | Beethoven - Prelude No.6 in B minor, Op. 28 No. 6 | Chopin - Prelude No.20 in C minor, Op. 28 No. 20 | Chopin - Prelude No.1 in C major, BWV846 (from the Well-Tempered Clavier) | JS Bach - Étude in C minor, Op. 25 No. 12, "Ocean" | Chopin - Symphony No.4 in E minor, Op. 98 - 1. Allegro energico e passionato | Brahms - Étude Op.10 No. 3 in E major, "Tristesse" | Chopin Feel free to add your own examples!

[@Lashoun]

Thanks, that's very nice of you to list them here for us.

[@MrWide-ht9rp]

How well do you think Magnetic Rag by Joplin would hold up in this list?

[@user-wy2gl1xw8k]

really nice suggestions!

[@jaiofficialmusic]

Ladies and gentlemen, the future of music education. (A bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea). I also agree with Inside the Score, whenever I compose music, I try not to think too much on the chords but the voice leading. And that has helped me create more complex harmonies than what I usually perceive. Also yo Inside the Score, you better make a 2nd account and post your music. I love your choral piece!

[@musicamaxima]

I feel so lucky that at conservatory, my teachers insisted on teaching counterpoint before common practice. Great video!

[@Tracotel]

Composition is a mix of voice leading and what we name "harmony". In the beginning of the first complex polyphonies (for instance Perotin, Machaut), the composers already had the knowledge and awareness about the modal territory, or "galaxy of intervals" they used to create a consistent tissue of lines. Verticality and horizontality are closely linked.

[@axxeved2036]

True

[@BigParadox]

I am a melody man. I always found it unsatisfying to learn how chords work. I do love the harmonies of course, but I never really felt I had a way to create them in a way I could clearly understand. When I added harmony to compositions it always happened by voice leading. It was the only way it made clear sense to me. Your explanation of this in this video has very much inspired me and made me feel enthusiastic about the voice leading method of creating harmony. It has confirmed that the only method that felt natural for me is indeed a good method and perhaps the preferred method. Big thanks!

[@lucboellinger7733]

Gosh I'm not good enough in english to express myself on this but there's three things I wil try to say : - Firstly first, good job for your choir song. I love composing for choir and I can see the craft and the amount of work behind this score, that must have been fun and exhausting. If your choir sings it please share in a video ! Also it's fun how we don't have the same way of resolving things at all. Like you act like it was obvious to go there from there but I was like "IIII'm sorrrry whaaat ?" Ahah So it feels really personnal (but not completly in an introspectionnal way, it's open really, (well I don't know if I'm clear ahah)) - Secondly, THANK YOU. I have hard time to understand why I disagree with how people talks about music, I never understood why but it felt off to talk just about chords, and even scales. I mean, there are tools to guide us, mostly to help us in our training and in our music sheet reading. I had a discussion about "playing with _feels_ ". The video was a guy who made fun of beginner musician (it wasn't mean or else, he made fun of himself as I understood) who just plays a solo quite randomly, without knowing his scales, but with eyes closed and bite lips, ajusting along the way. I was confused, this solo wasn't really good but is it the point of music ? I mean, the character he portrayed just wanted to play with the limited skills he had, isn't it a good thing ? Someone said to me that music is a language and we must learn the vocabulary blablabla ; I fundamentaly disagree with this. For me, all the things I've learn helped me to note and to learn music faster, but to understand it we must listen to it. The point isn't to write a "music sentence", it's to breath in another space. - Thirdly, this said I would like to differ a bit. Maybe this is your vision of composing because you write for choir ? When I am a former guitarist and I can see that's it's widely different than to compose on piano or voice. The constraints vastly guides the way of thinking the composition, aswell as the genre. I mean, guitarists firstly see chords and more important, the shape of a chord. It happens that someone say "A major in five" when he does an D major with the "shape of an A" on the fifth fret. Every shape has its own color and the voice composing won't be between the notes themselves, but between the shapes for exemple : going from D to C in the C shape has style, it can be played openly or not, the notes added doesn't really matter. If you playing it openly it will feel more spacy and I'll stop there because I'm really not sure I can explain myself in english but I think you get the point ahah. And if you play in a band, thinking about chords in you composition could be really important (depending heavily on the genre I think). I already heard musician talking like "We could go from five to one but half step going on two augmented sixth multiplied by one million divided by square Pi to finaly resolve on the Thales laws, or C, whatever" Ahah. It's about how we learned music, composition, how to communicate it etc. Maybe thinking in voices leading is mostly a point of view (That I agree with as I said) than the way we should see, I don't know. If you look at improvisation, people doesn't care at all about their altos voices ahah. Well with all that said with the less broken english I could produce, I wanted to say congrats for your video ! I suscribed :) Have a nice day ! Musically Luc PS : I love writing comments like it's e-mail. PPS : I don't know, always did, and always will did do does done do do do and da da da PPPS : Yeah I should get back to work ahah

[@sadrabanisefid4228]

This is the most useful channel I've subscribed to for the last few years. I was so done with KZbin's superficial content. Thank you.

[@wolfie8748]

This changed my life. Not kidding lol , I knew this but I guess I just needed someone to told me all this.

[@scientificuniversalcommuni3080]

I could recommend the books of Schoenberg (Schönberg) on harmony and general theory. They explain it very well, from the basics to highly advanced. Also, I could recommend to study the music of Shostakovich. One of the greatest composers. There you can find much harmony that includes material from before his time and even till now. He was ahead of his time.

[@padraicfanning7055]

Have you heard of Hindemith? I find that his music can be very pedagogical at times.

[@The8BitPianist]

My composition teacher in his first lesson said to me. "Here's some wisdom: A composer's life is all dominants. The rest is voice leading."

[@fullmoonofus2683]

Nice

[@iamnaudar]

By dominants you mean dominants chords ?

[@The8BitPianist]

@@iamnaudar Yes

[@iamnaudar]

@@The8BitPianist Thank you for replying. I just wanted to be sure to understand things in right way.

[@dotka95]

I have no slightest idea about composition and I can't even imagine the process of writing music and coming up with new musical ideas, but this video is brilliant and extremely helpful for me as a listener and music lover! Looking forward to seeing more!

[@slubert]

This starts like one of those YT comercials that tell you "im gonna tell you a secret, Hi! im John!" and never tell you anything. But you did!

[@Herfinnur]

Now I'm annoyed at myself for not watching this right away. I almost forgot to watch it, and that would have been a catastrophe; this was so inspiring, and something you played in your composition unlocked a problem I've been having with a piece of mine for several months!

[@vegrl]

I’ve been studying at a lot of rachmaninoff’s music and I think he understood harmony in a really unique way. His prelude in b flat minor is an excellent example of exactly what you’re talking about in this video and has tons of awesome harmonic ideas

[@maxalain9948]

10:29 I'm making breakfast, perhaps not paying as much attention I could and then out of nowhere I hear "sexual energy." That's a head turner lmao

[@segmentsAndCurves]

That is a summary of programmatic music for you.

[@maxalain9948]

@@segmentsAndCurves those Germans could never stop being kinky

[@f.p.2010]

@@segmentsAndCurves what?

[@segmentsAndCurves]

@@f.p.2010 You heard it right.

[@f.p.2010]

@@segmentsAndCurves lmao no, stop projecting your disgusting, mindless concepts onto other concepts

[@iamyankchannel]

A couple of years ago I had the chance to write for small orchestra (18 instruments). Without any formal education, knowledge on chords, harmonies, voiceleading etc. I was just a drummer with heavy sound design skills in production and some taste about melodies. This project turned out to be a real nightmare, but one point something clicked: what if I try to write melodies like drawing a line (in a chosen scale) and drawing other lines following it and if it feels wrong, change up or down. This was like an explosion to me and since that day (3-4 years ago) I am still so excited to write things like this I literally can't stop doing it. Later turned out - as you tell it in the video as well - I just discovered one of the most basic things in music, but damn, it works so well for me :D Great and freakin' important thing in these days when you start to make music on your own, you will be bombed with tonns of chord progression MIDI files and "secret" recipes for chords. I think these things are dangerous: fun for the first time, but lock you in a really small cage where you find hard to express exactly what you feel. thanks again!! much love

[@SashaNox]

this video is such a relief for me as a beginner composer. yes, I know chords but sometimes I write my sketches and just don't care about them and then think oh no, that's not right, what chord is that? now I can tell myself: nevermind. harmony comes from the heart.

[@andhaiden]

Thank goodness. I get so tired of, from a “layperson” in terms of music perspective, of people explaining composition as a bunch of scientific technical data that’s not helpful. This was very refreshing to hear

[@carpenterhillstudios8327]

Just came across this. What a breath of fresh air. When you mention choral writing, it can't be about anything else but voicing- singing from one note to another and "listening" to how the voicings fit. That's how the best choirs function- a listening trusting community. Nothing fancy or technically splashy. (Such an old idea whose time has come)

[@ToastedCigar]

This is one of the best vids on KZbin. I've composed only for a couple of years, but I'm really glad that I discovered this from quite early on, the fact that chord labels don't tell everything. Composing while thinking only of chords is very hard and the music ends up sounding like the composer just took a bunch of chords and composed with them without intention. Instead, thinking of active lines from where the harmony unfolds is a much more fruitful way of thinking about composition.

[@pogeman2345]

I think a way to have a compromise between chordal thinking and this is to think not of what chord to use, but where to go with. Like you can have a baseline chord, perhaps the starting one of the piece to establish the key center. Then you think, "Do I want to lift up or go down next?". Afterwards you think and experiment and start thinking "Okay, if I want to go down, which ones do ( want to go down? Which ones do I want to stay put? Which ones do I want to go up instead?" and after experimenting you start to hit that right combination of notes that you fully expresses the full emotion that you want at that moment. I agree that knowing more chords is definitely not the be-all solution, but rather knowing where it will lead you to, where you want the notes to guide the listener towards, is a more expressive way.

[@parniyankarimi9952]

Wowww!!! This is the firsy time i see you! I have always been wondering the visuals for this lovely sweet voice! Haha...So happy to see you and so so so thankful for sharing your knowledge with us...lots of love from Iran 🇮🇷

[@briancollins1475]

This was a very helpful video. I've just finished an online course with Oscar (highly recommended when it comes back over the summer). But it never reached this sort of topic. He obviously has so much more to teach us.

[@parsa.noroozian.counselling]

Your videos have become much more immersive and cinematic in a purposeful way, its nice to see you developing such a great cause!

[@jakebickham123]

dude I really wanted to hear that whole choir piece you composed. It sounded so etheric. It sounded oddly like the way sunlight naturally illuminates a churchs colored glass windows. It resonates deeply with what I'd imagine advanced choir music would sound like. Thank you for sharing even just a smidge of that masterpiece.

[@pablom.5698]

"Harmony is a fairy tale told about counterpoint." -Robert Gjerdigen

[@MiloPaulus]

This is a great video, and your observations about harmony are spot on. As soon as I started to divert from "chord/chord progressions" and that line of thinking, my music became a lot better and more interesting to me. Btw, I loved your choral piece at the end. It was already really beautiful on piano, and I know it will be even more of an emotional journey when sung by a choir. Great work. Please share more!

[@existentialcrisisactor]

This was amazing and very helpful! Thank you for this!

[@sveinungnygaard1505]

That choral piece you wrote is absolutely gorgeous

[@N-JKoordt]

Well said - so called analysis of music is most often just listing of chords.

[@arptu6792]

I would love it if you made more videos on choral music. And your piece is beautiful. Thanks for what you do, Oscar!

[@zugrath16]

This is a great point. My only objection would be that "smooth" voice leading doesn't always equal "better" voice leading. Sometimes I think the harmony can sound richer if you have a lot of leaps in the voices. You mentioned that leaps can be useful for dramatic effects, but I don't think you have to reserve it for only the dramatic moments. As long as the line of the voice sounds musical when you sing it on it's own then you shouldn't be afraid to use a lot of leaps (like 3rds and 4ths). In some types of music I think smooth voice leading is more preferable, like in choral music. But I just wanted to point out that smooth voice leading doesn't always have to be the goal.

[@dsanj4745]

Your composition is beautiful, simple and beautiful in its simplicity. Sometimes less is indeed more. Such is the power of good harmony.

[@mohammadreza5558]

Dude, that was really the best harmony class I've ever had, thanks a lot 💙

[@seancloser]

I have been stuck for ages n I feel so enlightened today. I have always considered myself good at writing melody but bad at writing accompany. Now I just need to think of all of them as melody(or voice leading). Thanks dude. I love your music.. Please share them or with me privately. N I ll share mine too.

[@LuckyLootCrate]

Seriously great video, thank you!

[@percussionboy4357]

Thanks for sharing the specific examples from your choral composition. Talking about music in words is always a little vague to me, though necessary ... but when you demonstrated what you were talking about with your piece I got it ... a good inspiration to go and experiment, thanks.

[@luisbreva6122]

In other words; good counterpoint >> good harmony

[@maxalain9948]

Aw man, all the parts of class I didn't pay attention too lol

[@pablom.5698]

"Harmony is a fairy tale told about counterpoint." -Robert Gjerdigen

[@koob_]

Voice leading isn’t harmony though? Just because they’re independent lines doesn’t mean it’s necessarily counterpoint.

[@hazielmunoz7342]

@@koob_ I think harmony is more about the vertical part of music and counterpoint is more about voices and their horizontal movement. They can't be isolated because a good harmony is the product of a good counterpoint; a good counterpoint is the product of good harmonies.

[@frannyp46]

First time visitor here. Good stuff thanks. I used to be a massive chord head until I once read that chords and stacking of thirds were not even discovered back in the classical composers days.

[@user-cx8qf1lb8n]

Thank you brother your channel is actually enjoyable while learning music

[@robertwisden7202]

I was wondering how to start a woodwind quartet. This just solved it. Wow. Thank you!

[@claytonr.young-music912]

15:00 Dø9 to Dø7 if anyone cares. The ninth is an apoggiatura that creates tension against the third and then resolves. 15:14 G#Δ(b6) This chord sound augmented and major at the same time and contains a semitone, making it quite tense.

[@peekpen]

How did you get your groovy chord symbols?

[@claytonr.young-music912]

@@peekpen To get the ø is easy on a phone: hold down on the O key. To get the Δ, install the Greek keyboard, then set up a shortcut so whenever you type "delta" it substitutes "Δ".

[@jvk86]

@@peekpen if you're on a Mac, you can use the keyboard command: option J to print a ∆ (delta) character

[@oriolpujolmartinez7268]

As a non scholar musician you put words to something I've always thought and that I considered an advantadge over many classically trained musicians: I just play with melodies. Most play with chords as lego pieces.

[@els1f]

The opening conversation about chords is 100% true! It's like there's an endless industry trying to sell you on the idea that you have to collect every chord before you can "get it, bro" or whatever. It's like if someone told you you need to memorize a dictionary before you started talking. I started talking music seriously on guitar and I kinda regret that for this reason lol. The entire culture around guitar is just that

[@Sannahmusic]

I fully agree! If I write a little song with text and tabs, I can be content with a couple of chords - and a rhythm, that's why in this case I write the lyrics first in form of a poem, or, a lttle advanced, I take a psalm, which, however, I have to put in a certain rhythmic shape first. But if I go further and add another voice or instrument, I need more than just guitar chords. And I need to make my mind up for inversions and all that kind of stuff. I wrote and published a little instrumental piece yesterday (30.7.23) and my strategy was to find a scale and a certain choice of instruments first. Then I decided to make it 4/4, and set the root so that the harp one of my friends is using and which is tuned in D can play the harp part. Next step was to give the harp a rhythm and a draft chord progression. As I wanted to go phrygian, I gave the harp f#minor all through and decided to do all the rest with the other participants. I supported the chords played by the harp with the fine sound of a triangle fitting well into the subject of thirst, water evaporating on a hot piece of rock. With the oboe theme I shot myself a bit playing it rather low, so that I had a little trouble to fit the violin in as a second voice later. Only with the violin part, the chords of each note above and below became important. I have a certain sound in my head. A heavy animal or human walking through rough ground, the sun is hot and there are tiny water drops the animals lick up while they are already half evaporated by the heat. Humans to go a Biergarten and drink alcohol which makes them even more thirsty and finally knocks them out. A last drop escapes the bottle and evaporates on the ground. I think that chord progressions and inversions and variations are only a tool, like colors and other materials for a painter. For example, if you use perfect chord progressions, but your rhythm is a pain in the a... or boring, you give away your satisfaction and your success. Further, at the beginning I thought I would need lots and lots of chords, but when I look at the most famous songs, I find 2-5 of them and they do not permanently change at all. The more plain my harmonic basis is, the more delightful a special outstanding chord or modulation will be. Most listeners want to be entertained and not challenged, after all.

[@cameronpeterson1175]

I've been playing/arranging for decades. This opened a door and led me into another room of the universe of music. Thank you. Oh, and most importantly "PLEASE POST THAT CHORAL HYMN!" I'd love to use that in church!

[@joejtunes]

I definitely agree with the idea that the chord names aren't important to musical expression, but they're still important in learning how the song works from the inside out. When you say "who cares what the chords are called?", I would say plenty of people do. Knowing the chords helps people not only have a guide on how to play the song in a simplified way, but it also shows us a lot about harmony's function in a piece. Also, I just like figuring them out 🤷‍♂️ Using chord progressions is a quick way to start writing when you don't know much about theory!

[@suicidalloafofbread2009]

The most valuable thing my Music Theory professor taught me is that music theory is just a way to understand what you're looking at on a page. Analysis is useful when you want to understand why certain moments in music have such an affect on how we hear them, but I don't think our understanding of traditional music theory concepts should ever really be used when composing. It's like you said: the "chords" don't really matter when we're composing. It's all about the voice leading. Music theory analysis is for after we're done and we want to know what it is we just did and why it works. To quote my professor, "there are no rules. Only conventions."

[@tsmiguel]

Is called Linear writing. Chords if any will be the result of the movement of the independent voices. Diferent than counterpoint and all its rules. Yes to me the real magic in music happens where we face ambiguity instead of preplaned harmonic progresions…. I love the passion you put in your videos 😊

[@SpiralFlip]

Really interesting way of approaching songwriter, looking forward to adopting this emphasis on voices thank you for this video

[@coloaten6682]

Fascinating. I didn't want this video to end! A few months ago I wrote some lyrics for a song and have started to write the music for it. I started with a melody which I'm really happy with and have moved onto the harmony. I'm really struggling with the harmony. The piece is in E minor and I got really hung up on which chords I should use and the journey from the 1 chord to the V7 chord and back to the 1 chord. Nothing seemed to fit the emotion of the piece and it was frustrating me, to the point where I stopped working on it. I'm going to take another look at it and focus purely on the voice leading and expressing the emotion I want the listener to experience. The chords will be what the chords will be. It's too easy to focus on a chord progression and not the emotion of the piece!

[@NinetyRalph]

You are absolutely right, earned a subscriber there, thanks!

[@jejunemoon]

I adore the tiny bit of the choral piece you shared. I’d love to hear the whole thing.

[@briancase6180]

Yup. I rarely think about chords when I'm making music. I start with any idea, then find interesting counterpoint. Then I go where this leads me. Later, I can extract the chords if I want to.... I did this even as a kid when I was writing music on the piano. I knew about chords, but I rarely started there. The chords will make themselves known in good time.

[@changwilliamwang]

At some point, this video teared me up somehow lol Thank you for sharing this perspective of looking at chords!! It’s eye opening for me!

[@Failed_Tenor]

Lovely video. I'm now inspired and want to write choral music of my own.

[@anti64]

This helped me so much understand what was bothering me with my music, thank you!

[@LenVrijhof]

I've been doing this to in my music without me even realizing it, haha. The name of chords usually sounds like jargon to me. I get what it means if i think about it, but it's never apparent what those names actually do with your sense of tonality. When I write I usually do it on guitar and voice, and then mainly try to let the melody I sing lead what chords I'm going to put under them. It takes some time figuring out how to play the just improvised piece, but this method always surprises me in how good it works harmonically.

[@michaelguenot6177]

1) I love the little you shared about your music and would love to hear more. 2) I had no idea people were this obsessed with chords.

[@AugustChamplin]

A topic worth talking about! Conceiving of music as an expressive journey trumps considering it as a form of technical or harmonic innovation.

[@Marlestor]

So, for better harmony writing just do counterpoint! I say this in the best possible way, I love your videos. Good to see you finally Salut!

[@johnmac8084]

This is good advice in this context, for composing. For improvising, I think you need to agree a framework with the other musicians, including a chord progression.

[@davec1]

nice choral music, I'd definitely check it out if it was possible to hear it somewhere!

[@adkh2112]

This was great! Really helped solidify some things in my mind, i much prefer this way of thinking about harmony!

[@porridgeandprunes]

If you do exercises in strict counterpoint using as many parts as you like (as in Joseph Fux's textbook) you can produce perfect harmony without worrying about chord progressions at all, as long as you follow the rules of counterpoint. Composers no less that Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven studied this book.

[@joaocorbett8356]

Loving the new editing!

[@nitrobw1]

So the key to writing better harmony is to not think harmony, it's to think melody

[@rjwusher]

This is very helpful. Thank you!

[@killex159159]

Really appreciate this video mate! Thanks for sharing, wishing you well during Covid. Please share more of your insight!

[@dexiomine1232]

So the real harmony was the voice leading we did along the way

[@jayagopi1]

Absolutely great video. More of this please. Bravo. Will try out on the piano.

[@user-cx8qf1lb8n]

I felt stuck learning harmony with chords now I understand what is harmony actually

[@willymusic1456]

I agree with you some what. Voice leading is def more important than chords but I think that chords can be used as an expressive tool. You just have to use good voice leading with those fire chords.

[@surr3al756]

Ive been searching forever for how to improve harmony. I thought it had to be some chords i didnt know, or some other principle. But its simply voice leading (I kind of started doing this on my own in an attempt to figure out what to do), I really cant believe that. I was looking too much from a music theory standpoint, and I forgot the expressive part. This really just opened my eyes. Thank you.

[@juangconsuegra8125]

oooohh... Interesting! Very interesting! I think I was needing that! Thanks a lot!

[@mattwilliams5546]

This was an incredibly insightful video as someone who’s just getting into composition

[@ganazby]

A valuable lesson! As a guitar player/composer, who gets absolutely bogged down by chord progressions (jazz orientated), this brings what’s important back into focus. Music. And not allowing tired old chord progressions to hamstring creativity. Your piece is beautiful, btw. Thank you.

[@peenanoman]

The production quality of this video is unbelievable

[@christianeKastanie]

Lieber Oscar, nun warte ich auf Deinen ganzen Choral! Am Besten von Deinem Lieblings-chor gesungen! Bitte teile ihn ganz mit Deinen aufmerksamen Hörern

[@soloriyeovin5011]

Just yesterday I tried writing a little chord progression and got stuck after two very beautiful chords that honestly sound amazing together. However, I was struggling to notate them, and after that didn’t find a suitable chord to follow them. So now I think I will focus on the melody and feeling that I want, instead of forcing a complicated chord progression. Great video!

[@dbp_pc3500]

Dude, that opened my eyes big time on composing. What a great video! I subscribed immediately!

[@johnchessant3012]

As someone with perfect pitch, this is how I've been thinking of harmony all along. I always felt like I was missing something because naming chords never clicked for me; I instantly know what notes are in the chord but I have to sit there calculating what the chord actually is and once I do, the name doesn't tell me anything. Like, okay I found out it's a "i(dim)b6 -> IV -> iv7#11 -> I7 -> I" cadence but what does that sound like? This video feels like vindication.

[@swartzta]

Not entirely sure I've seen any of your videos before, but your enthusiasm is contagious!

[@uumlau]

Exactly. All these other videos with a plethora of other famous music youtubers puzzling about that "mysterious second chord" in Stairway to Heaven. It's just voice leading. I would say that what is really happening in terms of chords is that voice leading ideally causes smooth transitions at times via playing two chords on top of each other, typically the chord where you were and the chord where you are going to, plus the "dissonance that you want to keep". All the chord analyzers get confused I think because they focus on calling a chord by a single designation, when the composer is really thinking in terms of "that sounds good" and "Yeah, let's play a bit of Emaj dominant on top of a bit of the Amin root." Think of it as "a chord" doesn't work too well for analysis, but thinking of it as voice leading where part of the harmony stays in Amin, while passing through Emaj, makes sense in terms of both chord progression and voice leading.

[@Nienpet]

You’ve made my day. On so many levels. I have so much music in my head. I was a chorister for many years but never had formal music training and have tried teaching myself chords and chord progressions. It gets me nowhere. This approach makes total sense to me and tomorrow I’m sitting at my piano and I’m going to write down some voicing that work together, make sense and sound good. Sod the bloody chord progression.

[@jurangenent]

Thank you so much. I've been composing for a long time. In the beginning I never thought about chords. Until I went to music school.. That ruined my whole way of composing by thinking about chords and chords and chords. This video helped me get back to my roots.🙏

[@mauriciosanchez7598]

This video changed my whole perspective on music and took away so much frustration on analyzing it

[@kappabravomusic2101]

Great points in this video. Thank you. Music is about music first and foremost and then everything else scientific in a way.

[@colda.4408]

This is AWESOME ! This is a huge revelation for me in terms of viewing Harmony as a Journey or an adventure with smooth voice leading without any care of chords and technicality ! Thanks for the video !!

[@mrpedrobraga]

At 5:18, it rememberee me of when I just got into making music and didn't know any music theory yet. To this day some of my music has unnamed 'chords'. I would, however, have liked to see other types of music approached by that. Maybe it can work for some people who want to just randomly expressing themselves on paper or making music that accompanies a play or something. But I'm still skeptical as for other situations. I, for example, am a game developer and my music is as far from choirs and classical music in tone as I can picture it, and labeling chords and studying how different transitions make me feel was very useful to me. It feels more grounded this way, especially since I REALLY like structure (motifs, leitmotifs). I like my music to sound intelligible, like someone who says words and punctuates ideas, rather than just sounds that make you feel in certain ways. I think this may be a useful tool for a less structured and more logical way of building music, with the flow... But I wouldn't forget my knowledge of chords for this. Id like to see an approach to this, though. Maybe you could attempt writing some game musicM

[@MusicalVenture]

Unbelievable! I was thinking just recently about the same thing! And the Em prelude was the first thing came to my mind about the subject! KZbin reads thoughts…

[@alessandropalazzani]

In two words: study counterpoint😉 nice video.

[@enobongthomas1138]

I like more please keep it coming. Counterpoint and more. This is very informative and helpful. Thank you