Where to Begin - Epic chord progressions - The Rule of the Octave

#musictheory #chords #composer
Non-Diatonic chord progressions work best with support and preparation. The Rule of the Octave is a fundamental arranging tool that we can leverage to make surprising chords sound great.
00:00 intro
00:48 basics
02:03 traditional Rule of the Octave
03:37 Diatonic Chords
04:02 step by step
06:37 Non-Diatonic chords ascending
07:38 Non-Diatonic chords descending
09:42 conclusions
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#piano #pianotutorial #chords #chordprogression #harmony #songwriter #producer #cinematicmusic #epicmusic #musictheory

[@calebpaxton972]

Man! Every video you make feels like a therapy session for me. I’m learning lots but also your calm presence is so good for my well being, sir 💛

[@marcgrauss3425]

I stop during watching : I love your speak during your subscribing promotion about the community "expanding their understanding of their own music by becoming their own theorist". THIS IS WHAT I BELONG TO, thanks to you and your always interesting and well done videos. Thank you again for that.

[@desoconnor7445]

Five years of quality flows, information and calm wisdom ….so here it is …you get the much coveted Blade Lunner award .🙏🙏🏿🎩✨✨✨🎵🏅🦄

[@ImpliedMusic]

thank you. i'm honored.

[@mikefranz5354]

👂🌟 💫

[@lighterwaves5659]

this channel is a songwriting platinum mine 🔥🔥🔥🔥🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

[@michaelgoikhberg3107]

one of the most useful videos on theory and composition i've seen in a long time. i've been trying to find some way to link the classical teachings to music i'm more closely familiar with, with billy joel being an excellent choice of example!

[@ImpliedMusic]

Awesome, thank you!

[@timflatus]

The rule of the octave (I didn't know it was called that, thanks) was the first step in understanding functional harmony for me. The choice of "which chord next" is often about how you want to make the listener feel at that point.

[@DarkSideofSynth]

Absolutely splendid. That Elton John reference was spot on.

[@paulrhodesquinn]

The chord over E is not an Am7 but an inversion of C major, dominant to tonic function after the G7 on the D. Over the A the F 3/6 chord has a subdominant function, creating a IV V I cadence. Might make it easier to memorise by looking at this way.

[@ImpliedMusic]

Good points!

[@BellXllebMusic]

I was just googling this like two days ago and couldn't understand what I read but the video explains it nicely

[@ImpliedMusic]

Thanks. To be fair this is a BASIC explanation. Glad it was useful!

[@BellXllebMusic]

@@ImpliedMusic Yeah well elsewhere I just saw numbers and notes with zero explanation at all

[@fraso2000]

Wow! This is your best video ever! I recognize tons of great songs from the rock/pop history. Thank you!

[@ImpliedMusic]

thank you!

[@andycordy5190]

My brain won't work fast enough to think of the next chord as you do but this idea can give me direction towards what that might be as I feel my way into the progression. Thank you

[@macronencer]

Thank you, this is really interesting. I think I can see why "octave" appears in the name, but really there's no requirement to take it all the way to the other end of the scale - as you ably demonstrated in your "Elton John" example. And I'd really call this the "rule of the bass scale", I think. Just a fragment of a scale arranged this way would often be very effective, even if the bass jumps significantly before and/or after it. I guess it's all about context.

[@ImpliedMusic]

Excellent point

[@trobinsun9851]

J'adore vos vidéos, je suis compositeur amateur, et j'apprends éééénormément ! Thanks !!!!

[@ImpliedMusic]

Merci!

[@_officerK]

Hello sir, I discovered your channel because of your Glass videos, I love the channel, thank you for the magnificent content!

[@ImpliedMusic]

Awesome, thank you!

[@PreferComposingtoDecomposing]

Hi. I wanted to thank you for the lessons on your channel. Through them, I've learned how to incorporate polyrhythms in my compositions, and now have gated modulation in the toolkit. Cheers!

[@ImpliedMusic]

Super. You’re welcome! Excellent tools

[@Jose_sacramento]

Great channel here, loving the content. Funny I was watching Dominic miller talking about the riff from shape of my heart and he was asked why he thought it might be so popular, kind of at a loss to explain he said it could be because it’s descending. I’ve often thought about the popularity of descending progressions like the Andalusian. It’s funny as you played the ascending one I didn’t feel much, but both the examples of descending progressions sounded to me more emotional and satisfying. I guess people have studied and talked about this, I don’t know, I just thought it might be an interesting thing to look at though! Another idea I had was that of ascending melodies over descending progressions or something along those lines. So just wanted to say thanks for putting this out there, never heard of it before now and it’s given me a lot of ideas ❤

[@garygimmestad4272]

The octave rule wasn’t included in the music theory curriculum at my university. Well, more accurately, it was there but it wasn’t identified - Bach’s descending scale bass lines for example. I think it’s because it was all about explanation as opposed to presenting practical tools for exploring composition possibilities. You’re all about the latter and I really appreciate what your doing in your videos. Thank you!

[@ImpliedMusic]

Yes. I think your experience is fairly common. And honestly it’s a pretty deep topic we’ve just touched on here.

[@Nimrad780]

I'm working on generative music and this video was exactly what I needed. It's easy to evaluate how good a chord sounds with some simple math, but that evaluation is always relative to a root. The rule of the octave demonstrates a simple formula for moving the root around in a pleasing way. Thanks for the great content!

[@ImpliedMusic]

that's so great to hear.

[@seanonel]

Very interesting. Thank you sir! Definitely going to be researching this as it seems to have huge potential. Been teaching myself music since I was about 10 years old (48 now), but the problem with that is that so much knowledge slips through the cracks compared to formal music education. Am grateful for people like yourself who pass these things on. I really mean that.

[@ImpliedMusic]

Excellent!

[@Jimmy.Williams]

Great video, love the modern applications of the "traditional" music theory.

[@ImpliedMusic]

More to come!

[@Jimmy.Williams]

Fantastic, I think you're my new favorite KZbin channel. Please keep it coming. I really love the application of the older music theory (Classical, Baroque and even earlier) to modern minimalist applications. I think that's what's so fascinating with Phillip Glass, is he incredible foundation in traditional music theory, but how he applied and modified those voice leading, chord progressions and ideas to the minimalism style. Cheers~~~@@ImpliedMusic

[@redguitar6062]

Excellent post. Love your presentation style. So relatable. Many thanks again.

[@ImpliedMusic]

My pleasure!

[@danielo174]

Please tell us other songs apart from "Piano Man" that use this. I can't find anything on google about that? Great lesson BTW. Merci

[@poobens]

Absolute gold! Inspired again!

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

I would like to take credit for inspiring this video, and to thank you for this deep dive. I think I made a comment on your channel about the ROTO since I first heard about it 3 months ago. You have impressed me with your lessons, and I had subbed earlier this summer. I'd been playing for only about 15 months, and really didn't have a grasp of musicality. Since August, I started using it, and studying a fundamentals book by CPE Bach, and learrning about cadences. I'm still working on it, and my music teacher is very positive for this path. I have a friend in a band that wanted to show me some jazz chords, and I refused. I explained that I haven't mastered triads yet, and he understood. Baby steps.

[@KelvinDominick-cl2xq]

Awesome definitely try and start using this if I remember it 😂

[@jondellar]

Fascinating! Thank you 😊

[@159awi]

Interesting concept. Inversions are cool. Great content!

[@themindasmusic]

Excellent video, thank you.

[@ImpliedMusic]

Glad you liked it!

[@Nate_Makes_Noise]

I've heard of this concept before in an AP music theory class from high school but I never knew it had a name and so many possibilities! Thank you for shedding an enormous amount of light on what I thought was just a funny quirk of harmony!!

[@rickb_NYC]

Thanks; interesting but a little far for me to totally grasp. Can I suggest that when you do videos on more advanced topics (which this seems to be to me) you put links in to other videos you've done that would serve as perquisites to it? No one seems to do that sort of thing, but you are already building up a base that can be applied as you move on to more advanced things.

[@ImpliedMusic]

Noted!

[@jeffshirkey3085]

Agreed. I'm certainly literate in theory/harmony, but I just didn't follow what you were doing, aside from making the root note of the next chord ascend diatonically. What about the other notes? You just pick them arbitrarily from the remaining notes of the scale?

[@mdekuijper75]

Love your videos! You make it al sound so simple 🙂 Looking forward to more videos!!

[@harryleblanc4939]

This is a super useful conceptual too. I think I've been using it for years without ever being able to articulate it. Thanks for providing a handy framework!

[@whispereddusk]

congrats on 20k! 🎉

[@FeralMess]

Thank you for that video! Very useful! :)

[@ImpliedMusic]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

👍🏻 sounds great, thanks very much

[@ImpliedMusic]

Thanks for listening

[@kunzangrangdrol]

I do not get how the "octave" comes in to play with this. It is called the "rule of the octave," but I do not see the relevance of octaves in the use of it. What does the actual "rule" say if it is written as a statement? The rule of "inversion" makes more sense to me. Anyway, whatever you call it, it is quite useful. thanks.

[@ImpliedMusic]

yeah, it's a weird 'conventional' name for this. it's always taught as a progression up and down through a full octave scale, hence the name.

[@kunzangrangdrol]

ok. I can get my head around that. Thanks for the reply.@@ImpliedMusic

[@rasheedcampbell3211]

​@@ImpliedMusic you can look at it as a harmonization of the octave

[@rasheedcampbell3211]

​@@ImpliedMusicThe rule of the octave is a framework for the harmonization of the music of the time, I dont see the reason why we can't use modern harmonies and keep the framework

[@mer1red]

What puzzles, or should I say disturbs, me in the rule of the octave is the use of D7 before G while descending. It appears like this in many texts, including old ones. It comes awfully close to a modulation to G major. At least it establishes G (the triad) as a point of stability which isn't its function in C major. Yes, it must be marked as an essential pillar of the tonality, so using its root position is OK, but at the same time it should give feeling that there is more to follow, not coming to rest.

[@danielleohallisey4218]

Always enjoy your videos. Speaking of “rules,” what do you think of the Z-Clef rule in orchestration? It’s new to me and I’m suddenly finding my work to be a bit better balanced, but occasionally feel like I’m wandering into a more cliche harmony because of it…

[@jameserenberger3425]

I'm curious how you would approach the rule of the octave in minor. Was it commonplace in the baroque period to alternate between relative major and minor Harmonized octaves like this? Or even parallel major and minor Harmonized octave scales?

[@ImpliedMusic]

academically, there are some standard solutions for minor harmonizations with the rule of the octave. they're perhaps less common. that said, Billy Joel's 'piano man' uses a descending scale bass from the major and its relative minor key... so yeah.

[@themindasmusic]

Just struck me, is this related to the 'Chromatic Fourth'?

[@ImpliedMusic]

Not directly, no.