This is why the Beatles wrote such great music

[@zombieguitar]

I made a mistake around 12:07 when I said "there's no F chord in the key of G minor". This was a mistake. Yes, there is an F major chord in the key of G minor. Sorry about that!

[@azcardinalsletsgoteam6537]

Hey brian- not sure if youve heard this yet but the beatles suck and are overrated

[@zombieguitar]

@@azcardinalsletsgoteam6537 spoken like someone that just received the email I sent out today 🤣

[@azcardinalsletsgoteam6537]

Hahahah ya caught me

[@lamper2]

We hear it all the time from DUMBASSES!@@azcardinalsletsgoteam6537

[@Redwane-Music]

@@azcardinalsletsgoteam6537 Oh really ? says who? AI ?

[@dennmillsch]

I think the Beatles probably combined their knowledge of existing music from playing a lot of standard songs with a willingness, even a drive, to experiment with other possible chords, harmonies, rhythms, time signatures, etc, but my impression is that they didn't understand theory enough to think "Let's do the mixolydian mode here." I think it was more "what sounds cool?" without knowing fully what they did, just that they liked it.

[@petercontarino646]

Agreed. All the more remarkable!

[@DanielByers-qf9qi]

Yes. They were not especially knowledgeable about theory or production (George Martin's domain); they made music. As you say, they listened to a wide variety, and had good instincts. Lennon & McCartney aspired to be like the brilliant Brill Building duo, Goffin & King; they were not aspiring to be academic sophisticates. (Nota bene: I love Goffin & King.)

[@bryanslepicka3541]

I agree. In my humble opinion, I would have to say that the professor is totally overanalyzing a relatively simple song. We're simply dealing with chord substitutions, borrowed chords and pivot chords. "Modal interchange" is making this analysis much too complicated. BTW the augmented chord is borrowed from the Harmonic Minor scale.

[@williamhooper1219]

Yes, but what's so great about this video is, for the rest of us who don't have their ear and musical genius, we can imitate their process with a fairly simple understanding of music theory. We can quickly find what's cool without being the Beatles. Thanks, Bryan for a truly eye-opening post.

[@rhatid]

I learnt to play guitar in the 1960s in London in my bedroom with my mate from school who also want to learn and other random guys we meet. We struggled through formed a band and played around place. The talk was always about the sound, we knew nothing about music theory. We were never interested in scales. It was always about the sound we could get and how to fit them together. A few went on to be lifelong professionals. I went to university and music became a hobby. Fast Forward to nowadays, 2024 and the theoretical music knowledge is amazing not to mention the equally amazing techinical skill people have. Everyone seems so technical and able to relate notes and chords and scales. Bass playing was always mysterious to me, so four years ago I went to evening classes Morley College, for the bass guitar (although I played regular guitar) and learnt what dominant 7th and flattened third was about. Amazing!

[@outtathyme5679]

Probably they used a a popular song of the time as a template. They were very conversant in Phil Spector/Motown

[@colindayo]

I think that’s likely. We all do that all the time. Ain’t nothing new in pop.

[@sergiorodriguez6889]

Hi, great video! I think the C7 to Gm is a classic ii V I progression. I've been studying ii V I lately and its use as a key changing device around the circle of fifths. I think they change from the key of Cmaj to F in a very natural way. Step 1 change the C chord to C7 and that points you to expect an F. Next go to the ii chord of F wich is Gm, then the V, wich is C7 and resolve to F maj. ii V I

[@zombieguitar]

Yup for sure! My whole thing was WHY did they choose to switch to the key of F major? I chalked it up to modal interchange...this is something I've noticed in a few other Beatles songs too 😁

[@michaelwest9840]

Instead of C mixolydian, i think the song modulates to the key of F major (same notes) because it ends up being a standard jazz progression of ii, V, I (Gm, C, F)

[@mikejames293]

Thats a good way to look at it, as it shifts the tonal cener to Fmaj in the bridge. You could also take it a step futher as in the bridge as it then afterwards shifts the tonal center up a step to Gmaj key when we go to D7 dominant chord. We are now in Gmaj and need to find our way back home to Cmaj, thus the G+ chord--taking us home to Cmaj. Modes are cool but can get lost when we have major key changes--much like changing a chord you can change a key. Hahah the key changes much like 1 4 5 chords ( C key to F key to G key).

[@fredhughes4115]

Aren't C mixolydian and F major the same thing? Or do they just have the same notes?

[@Black1ce8]

Something else that probably George knew well. Is that if you are playing with the 1 chord, you can vamp around on the 6 and 9 chords pretty easily. You will notice in guitar that the C9 chord can basically be played with a Dminor chord shape using the G as the root position on the 2nd string. What’s funny about this is that you’re playing a G minor but with a C in the bass we’d think of it as C9. Another way to think of the 9 chord is to count up to 5 from the 1 chord…. C, D , E , F, G and use the minor of that chord for the C9 sound……but its the Gminor chord really just with a C in the bass. I wonder if this would help explain why using the Minor V chord here sounds good….We’ve really been playing around with the 1 by making it dominant and somewhat ‘bluesy’ in this way, so it’d only be natural to use the 9 chord to spice things up a bit.

[@dennmillsch]

Interesting perspective. Although when I think about it, a C9 has C,E,G,Bb,D whereas Gm/C has C,G,Bb,D but doesn't have the E, unless maybe a Gm6 chord. But indeed, many chords have multiple names depending on how it is being used. C6 or Am7 is just one example.

[@gtrdoc911]

Hi Brian. Great video. I've learnt a lot from you over the years. I remember reading that a music critic wrote reviewing "All I've Got to Do" at the time it was released that it had an interesting "Aeolian cadence". In an interview around that period the Beatles said they had a good laugh over that as they had no idea what that meant. So it is very likely they were not aware of the modal terms. But they were obviously aware of borrowing from parallel minors and the concept of secondary dominants. These concepts were well established from the great song writers of the 30's and 40's of which Paul would have been greatly exposed to from his piano playing dad. What Beatles really did was bring those concepts into rock music which in its early forms was very simple 1, 4, 5 chords. This is one of the reasons their songs are so memorable to this day.

[@lamper2]

Lennon, when asked about Aeolian Cadences said "To this day I have no idea what he was talking about, they sound like tropical birds" (not a word for word quote but essentially accurate)

[@ErikOosterwal]

4:01 - This is the first time I've been shown the relationships of the modes (perspectives) on a circle of fifths. Thanks for that. 😁👍

[@ErnieLeblanc]

This KZbin Channel Needs More Subscribers to Learn this ''Highly Informative Perspective.''🎯💯💥💯🎯

[@skullstjohn]

Fine analysis but honestly, I think it was intuitive for those guys. Watch the interview with Rick Rubin. Paul still doesn't know the name of the chord in Michelle. In Elenor Rigby, he's using a Dorian scale but I don't think he's knows that, it's just instinctive. The augmented chord in From Me To You (V-V+) is a Mersey Beat thing that as lot of bands did in Liverpool at the time. I doubt Paul and John thought about modal interchange, they went with their gut. Remember, Paul took over the piano duties from his father for family gathering sing-alongs and knew a lot of standards. That helps. Again, great analysis.

[@jackmchammocklashing224]

The beatles were either a group of teenagers who bungled along and found tunes the Public liked, OR Were intellignet poets with a demi God Musical genious from a different planet to us, they will never me matched here on Earth

[@TheForce_Productions]

Spectacular video Brian! Would be great if this kind of deep dive into the hows and whys our gods created our musical universe becomes a stable part of your content; I've always made myself these questions regarding those oldies-goldies. Cheers master!

[@zombieguitar]

Definitely! I just did one on "Time" today by Pink Floyd: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqKWZ315pMdqnaM

[@TheForce_Productions]

@@zombieguitar You're always on the spot man! Cheers and thank you!

[@pierre-alussier7334]

Many thanks for the "harmonic analysis". Greatly appreciated. I can also see in the use of the G+ chord leading to the Key changes... A chromatic "voice leading" where the 5th of G (D) is sharpen to D# and sharpen again to E which is the third in C chord. Thus smoothing the Key changes. Thanks again for this analysis 🤓👍

[@robertgumpi7235]

Generally a good video. But it misses some important details. 1) The F7 between G and Am is a common transition between the both because you walk halftones from D (in G) to D# (in F7) to E (in Am). A F7 is simply a G#o (diminished) in disguise. 2) now follows a common ii V I pattern in the new key of F (transitioned by C7) 3) D7 is just a secondary dominant bringing us back to C 4) G+ has simple dominant function. Like G7 leads by a halftone down from F to E, G+ leads up (coming from D in D7) via D# (in G+) to the E of C ionian. It’s in fact the same movement (D D# E) they had using the F7 chord.

[@zombieguitar]

Nice analysis!

[@Pwecko]

Some people question whether the Beatles wrote their own songs or not, simply because they didn't study music theory. This is a silly argument. The Beatles spent two years in Hamburg playing for up to eight hours a day. They played a wide variety of songs, from rock and roll to show tunes and standards. They learned a lot through practice about how songs were put together, melody, and harmony. My guess is that, when it came to writing songs, they just thought, "What would sound good here?" They would try a few different chords and choose the one they liked best. Many great things are discovered or created in this way by either breaking or ignoring the rules or simply being unaware of them.

[@zombieguitar]

I do believe that this is the best way to write music...make the music first, analyze the theory later 😁

[@davidjordan2336]

I seriously doubt that Lennon and McCartney's writing process was anything like this. I really think they just banged around until they found something that sounded good. Now they obviously had lots of musical knowledge and fantastic musical intuition to guide them, but they made it clear in interviews that they didn't know any of this kind of music theory. I believe that this particular song was written in the back of the van on the way to a gig. There wasn't a lot of thought that went into it. But I do think that this kind of analysis is useful for understanding why the songs sound good.

[@triggerhappydad65]

Yeah, I doubt it too. Their main style was "fun" music and love songs, but they also had some pretty deep, intricate stuff. I still like the Sergeant Pepper album. I'll save this for the future, but for references only, because I really don't think I'll ever need to know or bother to learn all of the info in this video! 😁 I'm in my 50's and have been "goofing around" with acoustic guitars off and on since my mid 20's. Mostly back yard playing during cook outs, and couch strumming. Through the years, I've learned loads of random songs in Rock, Country, and Blues genre. But in the last few years, I've managed to advance enough to pull off some really good, somewhat intricate songs like, "Can't Find My Way Home", some REM stuff, and a pretty big catalogue of Neil Young's acoustic live performances. I've got'm all on DVD, and saw him live once in Charlotte NC with CSNY, back in 2,000🤘👍 *I'm not a great singer or anything but, I've always had this "gift" of mimicking most anything, so when I do Neil Young's songs for family and friends, I actually sound allot like him* 🤔 It's fun. As for now, I'm working on getting the balls to actually play live for strangers😂😂 Have a good one

[@lawrencehoagland2321]

Regarding the F7, the dominant 7th is Eb, which matches the melody when they sing "call on me", which raises to E on the next line "send it along" which is over Am. Another case of chromatic leading just like the G+.

[@zombieguitar]

Nice! I did not realize that. Thanks for pointing that out 😁

[@bryanslepicka3541]

Now we're dealing with enharmonic equivalents. Is it an Eb in the F7 or a D# in the G+? "This is confusing things, I want to tell you." I use chromatic sharps when ascending and chromatic flats when descending, so my blue note is a #4 ascending and a b5 when descending. Most literature just calls it a minor pentatonic with a b5. I hope I'm not a rule breaking rebel. What I don't understand, is when a song is in G Lydian, why is the score written with the G Major key signature and a C# instead of a D Major key signature. It would create more tension and release to resolve the G Lydian on a Gmaj7#11(IVmaj7#11) instead of expecting to resolve on the D(I). Maybe I just answered my own question. I just think it's an easier read when it's written in the relative key signature instead of the parallel signature.

[@zombieguitar]

@@bryanslepicka3541 that is because "classical theory" tends to only treat major and minor as "keys", despite the fact that "minor" is just one of the 7 modes. In "modern theory", which is based off the 12-key model (the one I teach), then all 7 modes are treated equally (possibly with the exception of Locrian). In that case, a piece written in G Lydian would contain 2 sharps on the staff because it is the same key signature as D major. What you are talking about right here is what I consider to be "The Fundamental Misunderstanding in Music Theory". I did a video about it here if you are interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g3i9i6SgaKhjbdU

[@dottiegillespie8067]

They are geniuses. Plain and simple. How lucky we are they met.

[@colindayo]

Yeah. That’s the utterly incredible random accident. Lucky ineeed!

[@mikestroud9969]

Hey Big B. Im not a Beatles fan. Never have been. Seen them on the Ed Sullivan show as a kid. Thought it was silly. Bubble gum stuff. Just my opinion. Not being hateful. Great channel buddy and guitar instruction. 😊💯🎸🎸. Yes i know im one of the few that are not a Beatles fan. Take care ✌️✌️

[@johnsee7269]

There's two of us! Beatles are great musicians, songwriters, etc. They went way beyond what they actually were in a lot of respects... People revere them; good for them!

[@frankm2588]

I'm also old enough to have seen them live every time they were on Ed Sullivan and was a fan. Was a fan of the pop stuff up until like '65. They were musically brilliant and innovative, and I liked Sgt Pepper when it came out, but the later stuff I just don't like. I think their lyrics are pretty weak, Bob Dylan they ain't. Also all those later silly ones like I am the Walrus, Rocky Racoon, Oh Blah Dee, Yellow Submarine, just can't listen to it. I also think Lennon was the brains and talent of the operation. "Sir Paul" did squat after he left, you could not pay me to see him. Just my opinion. But those early ones I can still listen to and so catchy, From Me to You, The Night Before, Saw her Standing, Ticket to Ride, Please Please Me, even the real early She Loves You and Wanna Hold Your Hand they bring back such fond memories.

[@waynegram8907]

BRIAN, make more lessons on how the beatles use modal interchange and pivot chords to modulate to different keys

[@sat1241]

McCartney knew little theory and especially in 1963. It is highly unlikely he was using the circle of 5ths charts or knew about modes although he knew a lot by ear. McCartney said this: " That middle eight was a very big departure for us. Say you’re in C then go to A minor, fairly ordinary, C, change it to G. And then F, pretty ordinary. But then it goes, ‘I got arms…’ and that’s a G minor. Going to G minor and a C takes you to a whole new world. It was exciting." (source: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn) Paul said: “The song itself is in the key of C Major, but then it goes to a G Minor 7th for that middle, and that was kind of one of those ‘Ooh, yeah’ moments,” he said. “A lot of what we wrote, because we didn’t read or write music, was instinctive. So we’d try a chord and say, ‘Ooh, that’s nice.'” Pivot chords. The g-minor itself is typical for the Beatles' usage of "co-tonics". Here, however, it also gives way to a modulation, which means the listener has to reorient to the new key after-the-event. The chord on which this reorientation happens to take place, is called a "pivot chord". Here Pollack identifies the C Major seventh in measure 22 as the pivot chord in question. First the C-Major chord undoubtedly is heard as the tonic. "But", as Pollack says, "once the bridge begins, the ear retrospectively reinterprets it as though it were the V of the key of F." In short the modulation turns the F chord into the tonic, while transforming the original tonic C into its dominant. Indeed, it is a whole new world, as we arrive from the world of C Major into the world of F Major. Here, as an extra to Pollack's analysis, we can add the observation that this pivot modulation also implies an enharmonic change (figure 3; see also the study of Volkert Kramarz, page 51-53). The g-minor of the middle eight really belongs to another musical continent, because in its role as the relative minor of B-flat the g-minor chord sounds slightly different from the g-minor that is the parallel minor of G. Though on instruments of even temperament both g-minors are played with exactly the same finger settings, one's ears have to adjust to the shift by bringing the chord in relation to the new key.

[@zombieguitar]

Yes, so exactly what I said. Except they just called the new key by it's parent major name "F major". Whereas I called the new key by one of it's possible "modal" names instead...exact same analysis though 😁

[@sat1241]

@@zombieguitar The reason that the bridge is perceived as in F major is because it has a 2-5-1 progression to F right at the beginning of the bridge Gm, C7, F. Because the first chord in the bridge is Gm Paul thinks the bridge is in G minor but in a G minor harmony it would be Dm to Gm but the Dm would be changed to D7 which has the F# not in G minor but has better gravity (although the next chord is D7 !! ) but it was too late, there was already that 2-5-1 suggesting F major. But even before the bridge there was an F7. That is unrelated. That is just flavoring. The dominant chord, so integral to common-practice functional tonality and classical harmony, is really not that important in Beatles' songs structurally. Far more significant are chords rooted on the fourth and sixth scale degrees. In a C major blues C E are usually made dominant in addition to G. That breaks the rules of classical harmony. If the key was F Major the 1 would be changed to F7. So that could explain why the F7 was used before the bridge but Paul in 63 would not have known most of this theory. "The style of the song, according to McCartney back in 1964, came from "an old Ragtime tune...especially the middle-eight." Lennon had a different opinion. "It was far bluesier than that when we wrote it," John explained. "The notes today - you could re-arrange it pretty funky...we nearly didn't record it because we thought it was too bluesy at first, but when we'd finished it and George Martin had scored it with harmonica, it was alright." So the F7 in the beginning is just blues spice, not harmonic theory. But the F in the bridge and the 2-5-1 is suggesting F major although the G minor in is what Paul was thinking about To make it all seem sensible a lot of theory is involved. The Beatles wanted to do something different here than their more predictable harmony and they did but I think if George Martin has said "try something different use some theory to do it" they would not have come up with this unless maybe they studied theory for a month. I think this was intuited and had a random element that just sounded good to them and now we come back later trying to make sense of it in theory. Take any band that plays simple cliched predictable harmony (much of todays music) and tell them "throw in two random chords that don't make any sense ]' So they do that and sing a vocal adapted to this so it sounds intentional. It may sound bad or good, it was random. If it happened to sound good not matter what the change was they could justify in some way with theory. It would be a modulation of some sort that could be "explained" It could make an interesting video to write down the most commonly used chords on little pieces of paper and for every key, put them all in a hat, pull put maybe 6 blindly at random and then make a song. There would probably be some sequence of them and voiced right, with rhythmic accents that would sound good. That would be the challenge. And a melody or vocal on top further justifies the whole thing, strings it all together making it all sound intentional. There will be common tones in a set of random chords and that can be voice led

[@matrixstar2767]

Hey, great video, the Beatles skit really helped and funny! I'm understanding quite a lot of this stuff now, I guess I need to check how to do triads with all modes. Currently just doing the various forms of major, minor & diminished triads.

[@zombieguitar]

The chords are EXACTLY the same for a mode of a key as they are for the parent key. For example you will find the exact same 7 chords in C Ionian, D Dorian, E Phrygian, etc... A mode is just a different "perspective" of the key 😁

[@MustafaBaabad]

I suggest that at the beginning, instead of directly dive into theoretical aspect, just play the song and if you do not want to sing the lyrcs just humming will be good. After that you can analyze and dive to deep theoretical aspect. It will be better if you play part of the song with strumming in between the theroretical parts. I assume the younger guys will not stand to long to listen the theory. Anyway it is a very good lesson. Thanks Brian. Cheers from Indonesia.

[@JP5466]

Beatles knew very little or even nothing about modes in 1963, they just knew what sounded good.

[@zombieguitar]

I never actually met one of them, so I can only guess what they knew or didn't know 🤷

[@JP5466]

@@zombieguitar I have heard Paul comment on the Gm in 'From Me To You' and he said: "That middle eight key change was the first time we did anything like that, we were all like ooh... that sounds pretty good"

[@zombieguitar]

@@JP5466 it is definitely amazing then, because when you analyze the music theory behind their songs, they did so many very impressive things...which are almost impossible to stumble upon by chance. No wonder so many people have become obsessed trying to "figure them out" 😁

[@karlbrown4635]

The sarcastic beatles jokes were great. Love the bits of humor added into the lessons dude was eye opening on modes! IDK why other guitar teachers over the years couldnt explain what modes where like that. Ya got a gift. Idk maybe make a puke video for the algorythm occasionally roasting it with hypocrisy in a short song?? Hope the website buildings enjoyable and Guitar Zombie site picks up a lot. I love your music lesson videos the algorithms suck! FB jail again myself another few weeks lol. Curious after watching the rhythm section again last night in the portal. Can I skip the whole foot tapping with guitar and just keep count with the ez drum tracks??🧐 Got the white keys to committed to memory and moving on with piano for all lessons today. As well as moving fwd in gz lessons portal. Picked up a metal techniques class too, on top of reaper and toontracks lessons lots to learn, having a blast! Chord tones are magic for mental health. Hope your Sundays rocking and we don't get hit with an emp anytime soon. I love this home studio ya turned me onto setting up and it needs electricity.🧟‍♂🧟‍♀ Much love B!

[@Guitar6ty]

There was virtually no music tuition in the schools the Beatles went to during the 1950s up to the 1960s. The best you got was half an hour a week with a descant recorder and some plonker smashing the piano. Paul and John actually got on a Tram to north Liverpool to learn how to play Bb from some jazz guitar dude. Hamburg honed the Beatles to perfection they had to play good to avoid the bouncers beating them up. Music theory was for rich posh kids.

[@johnanthonycafe2993]

Linking The Beatles songwriting back to a formal construct explains everything after the fact. McArtney had a more formalized approach but Lennon was an instinctive musician. He knew what sounded good and would find the chord to support that. The Beatles music was full of surprises and quirky changes because it was a playful collaboration. They also avoided repeating exactly the same thing just because it worked in one part of a song.

[@SmileyMikey]

"Because it sounds cool." Yes! They wrote intuitively -- the way artists do, trusting their ears.

[@Redwane-Music]

Great video, thank you so actually you can look at it either saying 1/ "there is an F in the key of G min" or 2/ "The C Mixolydian mode takes you to the F Major Scale witch has the G min" so they moved to the F major scale, and 3/ we can also say now that we are in the G Dorian mode : ) am I the only one always who gets dizzy when trying to analye what is going on?. Anyway, I think of music sometimes like quantum physics to the ear. and that is why music is so intriguing sometimes when you have the right person making it, like The Beatles and especially George Harrison. I wouldn't be surprise that John and Paul were taking all the credits, because many times you see the ideas of George in many on the songs that only John and Paul took credit for, who knows why, unless maybe if George was called instead Peter, Mark or Luke, only then they would have included him maybe.

[@Slydeil]

Very interesting perspective but none of The Beatles could read music let alone know anything of modes. They just absorbed their influences and were creative. George Martin may have had an influence on chord choices as a producer and experienced classically trained musician. But I think it was sheer intuition and a desire to be different.

[@newpathway]

The Beatles not only changed their sound with each al bum but each single. Not like everyone else who make a career out of one album sound! Led zep great the Beatles are on a different league pal...

[@michaeldematteis3409]

Love this shit,lol.this would have made my head hurt before.i actually understood everything you were talking about.utube is great..great teacher we have here..ty..sir

[@patrickdarby-sheehan5368]

Loved this tutorial, thank you, but I don't think Paul and John spoke like that...😂😂😂

[@martindubreuil7751]

love the commentary by john and paul in their voice !

[@jonsmith3945]

Most likely, the Beatles did not write all those songs. The Beatles were a Tavistock project.

[@billyjoechurchwell9988]

Now I'm rethinking everything. My cords are chosen from a key, yes, but whether I choose a minor, major, or dominant cord is decided by what my fingers can do, lol. You make the best videos, Brian.

[@craighendrickson7938]

Your fingers can do anything

[@scottjones6624]

I love how when discussing a new chord here you would postulate a reason and then show why this wasn't right. Then you did this over and over. Great teaching technique.

[@timwhite7127]

They employeed this more than once, for instance in I Wanna Hold Your Hand the bridge goes to a Dm chord while verses are originally in G which is right along the lines of what you're demonstrating here.

[@zombieguitar]

Yup! Also check out "We can work it out". That starts out in D Mixolydian then switches to "B minor" (relative minor of D major) 😁

[@BlueSamMusic]

Hi Brian. Excellent video. I think the bridge is in the key of F for 4 bars (2 - 5 - 1) then G for 4 bars (5 - 1). I remember Howard Goodall saying that 'Penny Lane' changed key 13 times.

[@zombieguitar]

Yup that was my analysis as well, except with a modal interchange twist 😁

[@maxine-x4x]

Why has this dude got a guitar propped up on his leg for the duration ?

[@yakovest]

It changes to F, so 251 will be GmC7Fmaj

[@doctorestefanowitsch5162]

Thank you Brain, wow I learned from it.

[@peppyharley6901]

George Martin had a lot to do with their choices as well!

[@jamesBrian-lu4kj]

Dude you just cracked the code...the Beatle code...

[@Newfoundmike]

??D7 is called a pssing chkrd roght ??

[@jennyroberts5370]

I love that you can break down the music theory here!! 🤩☺️ I’m not great at music theory myself. Your graphics with John and Paul working things out are adorable!! Personally, I don’t think they knew beyond thinking that what they did sounded good. I appreciate how this video has expanded my education of all things Beatles. Thank you! And I’ll never believe it was all George Martin’s doing either.

[@zombieguitar]

Thank you! Glad you like the vid. I appreciate you checking it out 😀

[@Better_Call_Raul]

16:10 "We are in a new key. C Mixolydian. But it is hard to pin down a tonal center chord of C Mixolydian". I thought every key has a tonal center, e.g., C Ionian has a tonal center of C Major. Why wouldn't C Mixolydian have a tonal center chord as well? 🤔

[@zombieguitar]

Tonal center is the F major chord in the new key, but we are just naming this "the key of C Mixolydian" for the purpose of trying to explain why this particular key was chosen to change to.

[@robking1240]

You lost me after "Hey, what's up guys?"... way too technical for me. It sounds like two songs spliced together, i.e. the verse could be John and the bridge could be Paul. At "I've got lips..." they steer it back to the root key in preparation for the next verse. Those guys were magicians, so I don't think what they did can be explained in technical terms. I think they rewrote musical theory.

[@zombieguitar]

This is what my entire channel is about, so if you are interested in learning more about guitar and music theory, this channel is the place. It's not for everyone though 😀

[@dhulbert855]

An interesting but tedious over-analysis. ALL of it can be spun from the melody and it's movement. It wasn't just a mere cool Beatle effect. It was how it moved to a blues note with "just call on me..". And then the bridge is mirroring the first three notes, but starting lower in the mellower Gm. The same figure is stepped up to "lips that long to kiss you". Then going into the "keep you satisfied" with the harmony and ratcheting it up to the augmented where they rivet the listener with the warbled harmonic "wooo"s! Checkmate! Just the most exciting thing ever!

[@zombieguitar]

Good stuff

[@michaeldelucia7352]

Great stuff! Do more Beatles analysis.

[@fritsvanzanten3573]

When you say "Lennon or McCartney, or whoever wrote this song.." it becomes hard to grant you any authority about what you are going to say next given the title of the video. Certainly in the early years Lennon and McCartney wrote their songs together, or put individual pieces together in a joint effort. You might want to read the Playboy interview with Lennon from 1980 where he mentions of many Beatles-songs who did what.

[@zombieguitar]

Apparently it wasn't even the Beatles who wrote the song according to the comments 🤷

[@floridabackyarddolphins4168]

Hey Brian I saw you might be getting into website development. How can I contact you directly to discuss my project thanks man

[@zombieguitar]

Hey I'm just now seeing this. This video kinda blew up with comments! You can always contact me at [e-mail] for now. Thank you!

[@michaelnicholas2417]

Would of been nice if he played some examples or progressions at the beginning of the lesson. Instead, he went all music degree from the onset. Snoozers!

[@zombieguitar]

Yup that's what I teach. It's not for everyone.

[@mns8732]

Roof top concert. End of argument.

[@leomuzzy6554]

Dude needs to listen to a blues record.

[@Youreout]

Wait, I need my sunglasses! lol

[@asaskald]

What if i learn the concepts of this video and it turns out later on that The Beatles didn't write the song? Can i still use the information that you spent time producing? 🤔

[@zombieguitar]

Nope you then have to give all the info back and forget you ever learned it 🤷

[@garyeggleton1142]

I believe they chose chords around what the vocals were doing

[@zombieguitar]

Definitely was a huge part of it for sure!

[@WysteriaGuitar]

Funny thing about it is the Beatles did not know the theory behind the music most of the time...just pure brilliance...

[@johndelconte9915]

If it sounded good they did it. They weren’t concerned about secondary dominant or borrowed chords or major 3 chords being in key. They just did it. then 60 years later we’re still analyzing it. It is fun to analyze though.

[@WysteriaGuitar]

@@johndelconte9915 For sure...

[@erniewilliams2790]

Brian knows that he doesn’t know what the Beatles were thinking. You two guys don’t know what the Beatles were thinking but you think you do. Like Socrates Brian wins.

[@johndelconte9915]

@@erniewilliams2790 wasn’t giving my “opinion “. They’re facts I heard from other videos of interviews of George Harrison and Paul McCartney. I always thought they were educated in music theory and was surprised to find out they weren’t. In fact Paul himself said he knew very few chords and learned as he went. I watched a video of John Lennon noodling on piano writing a song and Yoko Ono had to look up the chord he was playing in a chord book. It was a C diminished. He just liked the way it sounded. Not my opinion. Look them up yourself. Anytime I give an “opinion “ I always state it in the comment. I’m a big fan of the Beatles and like the work Brian is doing. I learned some good things from him. He’s doing a great job. Don’t spoil his channel with your negative argumentative trolling.

[@erniewilliams2790]

@@johndelconte9915 point taken.

[@craighendrickson7938]

It really doesn’t make sense any way without hearing the melody change along with it

[@zombieguitar]

If you listen to the melody in the verse, and then in the bridge section, it further confirms this modal interchange theory 😁

[@alanbelancik2207]

I took a drink every time he said "threee major chords... three minor chords."

[@zombieguitar]

I try to say that at least 6 times per video, and I have hundreds of videos.

[@khgblast203]

Whoever sang the song was normally the one who was the originator of the song

[@zombieguitar]

Apparently the Beatles didn't even write this song according to the comments 🤣

[@willemjacobs1651]

GOOD EXPLANATION NICE.

[@user-pi9dc8qr1j]

Hi Brian, the following is not a criticism, just some thoughts on the subject... The modal analysis is perfectly fine and valid, but the middle eight is also 'just' a modulation to F for four bars with a standard ii-V7-I (Gmin-C7-F), followed by a primer for the modulation back to C/Am of the verse with a D7 acting as a secondary dominant of G and G augmented adding some flavour (probably suggested by Paul). I don't know whether or not John and Paul would have technically known what a 'secondary dominant' was or whether they just thought 'hey let's spice up a ii-V-I by making the ii a bluesy II7 and the V a jazzy augmented G... In other words, I think you're right in the analysis of the second half of the middle eight - they were probably thinking, 'okay, now how do we get back to the C key for the verse...?' and working backwards. John and Paul were writing together at this stage and keen to impress each other with new ideas. I have a written note in my Beatles Complete Songbook that the II7-V-I was 'very rare in 1963' - I must have read this from some analysis - don't know how correct that is. The D7 is the crucial 'pivot' chord being both a VI in F and a II in C as well as the V7 of the V (G). It's still genius, regardless of what they were thinking. As another comment below notes, Paul and John were probably not fluent in modal terms (in a technical sense) during this period (openly bemused by and mocking terms such as 'aeolian cadence' in an interview around the time), but would be very familiar with the common ii-V7-I progression. I think the idea of modulating to a different key (in one of their own compositions) would have been quite revolutionary for the Beatles at this time, but they were learning new things at a rapid pace and keen to experiment. They were also well known for taking ideas from other songwriters and making them their own. For anyone interested in which Beatle wrote which song and suggestions for what they were influenced by, 'Revolution in the Head' is a great read.

[@zombieguitar]

Your analysis is much more likely as to how it went down! I just happened to notice this specific type of key change trend in a few other Beatles songs as well 😁

[@user-pi9dc8qr1j]

Yes, they pulled off a similar trick in the middle 8 of 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' (also 1963) where it modulates from the G key of the verse/chorus to C/Am for four bars then using the C to pivot back to G. 'Revolution in the Head' delves into all their songs chronologically and points out a lot of this stuff and includes a lot of detail about the musical inspirations, it really is worth reading if you're interested - so I can't credit myself for working any of this out! As I said, the modal way of thinking about it is just as relevant to contemporary songwriters and just as useful. There's been endless analysis over the years of how the Beatles came up with their ideas. When you watch something like the recent Let It Be documentary you realise a lot of it was just working for hours and hours and trying different stuff - the 99% perspiration theory of genius - although the genius is knowing which bit really works!

[@Newfoundmike]

You teach Well Man

[@lex3729]

don't effing say "ex-pecially".

[@zombieguitar]

Da fuk you talkin about kid?

[@jspic4907]

Brilliant, Brian, thanks. Could you do more of these song analysis videos? Some other channels do it, but they choose unnecessarily complex songs. Those are bragging, not lessos. Cheers

[@tbasshandyman7610]

them being able to sing in all these keys allowed them to explore outside the box. i think

[@annemarie1507]

Thank you. This sort of thing has been a blur to me for years. Finally the fog clears.

[@jackmchammocklashing224]

Ennoy your explantions, reason not so many likes and subscribers, is too many people hope to play but have no idea of the technicalities and find it over their heads Well done man

[@Steven-ff4wl]

If KZbin would have existed in 1964, the Beatles would have loved this. Just for a giggle. Going to Gm just sounded good, and you would then be in the key of F.. That's all.

[@zombieguitar]

Yup but why not at least ask yourself why they chose to switch to that particular key 😀

[@Steven-ff4wl]

@@zombieguitar I did, and I told you. It sounded good. All respect for musical theory. I study it. But in many cases you can do without it..

[@zombieguitar]

@@Steven-ff4wl modal interchange is a pretty interesting concept, and I felt that this was a good song to introduce the concept. Thanks for watching 😀

[@toddschultz2182]

Great Video Brain. Finally clicked for me related to the whole "modes thing" in this video with your style of teaching and use of the circle of fifths along with the perspective of the tonal center within a key. Also loved the explanation of the dominate 7th to a 5th below transition too. Thanks - much appreciated.

[@dougcrowe1226]

I managed to not lose my mind trying to follow theory this time - really great job there

[@youngmeldrew]

This video gives us a valuable lesson in the practical application on music theory and how it works. Great idea in choosing a song to analyse. More please!

[@__bam]

As always great work Brian. Love the Beatles. Those guys were no slouches.

[@jamesBrian-lu4kj]

It's the key of the 4th, maintains tension till resolved..

[@hmausolf]

Thanks, Brian. I learned a lot in these 23 minutes. Excellent video.

[@RedBricksTraffic]

Pretty cool to see that you have the same guitar as me. I love my 114ce so much! Great lesson!

[@johncrookston6111]

Don't you just hate it when someone comes along and burst your bubbles The Beatles were a "boy band" they didn't write their own music Do a little research and you're going to find out that it ain't at all like you thought

[@zombieguitar]

This lesson is about modal interchange.

[@johncrookston6111]

@@zombieguitar and they didn't know squat about it they didn't write that music

[@zombieguitar]

@@johncrookston6111 not my concern. This lesson is about modal interchange.

[@godfreytan1001]

Love your analysis. Just like an engineer would.😀

[@CFLDumpsters]

Anyone else lost af

[@zombieguitar]

What point in the vid did you get lost? I'll link you to another vid that elaborates 😀

[@CFLDumpsters]

@@zombieguitar I have your course, a lot of the clockwise, counterclockwise, etc gets confusing. It just seemed convoluted. Now everyone processes differently and thinks differently. You are very logical and methodical but it’s trying to step into an “engineers” mindset and mind organization while trying to learn theory and the fretboard.

[@zombieguitar]

@@CFLDumpsters I hear ya! So there are really 3 main concepts going on here: 1.) Understanding what a "key" is - This is the most basic and most fundamental of all the concepts. This is as simple as just looking for the "grouping of 6" that chords fall into. 2.) Dominant 7th chords - These are "7" chords (not to be confused with "maj7"). Dominant 7th chords can be used to smoothly change keys, to smoothly "move" to another chord....or they can just be randomly thrown into a song to add a bit of bluesy effect. 3.) Key changes - This song takes place in more than just 1 key. If it was just the verses the whole time, then the song would simply be in the key of C major/A minor (with one random "outside" chord thrown in for a cool, bluesy effect). However, they didn't just remain in this one key. Instead, they moved from the "key of C major" to the "key of F major" to the "key of G major"...the rest of the video was just my attempt to figure out WHY they chose to change to these specific keys. "Modes" and "modal interchange" are more advanced concepts, so if you don't fully get it than no worries. The more important thing to understand is the fact that key changes did occur! Hope that helps to elaborate a bit!

[@imannonymous7707]

I doubt you are even a beatles fan.

[@zombieguitar]

I doubt you are a human

[@crashdaddy261]

That's the music theory goodness I signed up for!

[@chazzer56]

A brilliant analysis.mistakes forgiven.

[@leftofcenter4]

That’s some interesting stuff…I now feel like studying the circle of 5ths like never before…wow great thing to add to my Arsenal of songwriting tricks

[@zombieguitar]

Thanks! If you want to dive into the Co5 some more, check this one out 😁 kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZXGZIh5br2ae7Msi=qj-q2Bs37VgXlovk

[@craigbachman5765]

Nice analysis - good work - thanks

[@Dex619]

Show us the evidence.

[@zombieguitar]

In zee video

[@theblkknight7695]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@paddylandreville8501]

Nice work, you know your stuff, thanks for posting.

[@troypender6692]

Great video, and great analysis! But counterclockwise on the circle is moving in 4ths.

[@djforrow]

Just to be clear, you are correct but it is only moving in 4ths going up - Brian was talking about finding the fourth chord by going down 5: 4 up (C to F) is the same as 5 down (C to F)

[@edyu1977]

Great stuff Brian!! The fab four have always been one of my favourites, and John and Paul were masters of creating great melodic lines using very basic chords.

[@dennmillsch]

True, and they also came up with many great melodies or interesting songs using unusual chords. "Because", the middle part of "Day in the Life" "Michelle" "Polythene Pam" "Strawberry Fields Forever" "Blue Jay Way"...

[@user-ep6du2zy2g]

You are awesome Brian. Keep rocking!

[@THIRSTYGUMS]

My eyes!!!!!! Nice video mate thanks

[@DJCJ999]

I still get confused by the CO5th's..... I figure I should be able to look at a grouping of 6 "chords" and be able to play them in a way that makes sense but I can't because there's a bit more to it than that :/

[@zombieguitar]

The chords in the grouping of 6 can be played in ANY order, and they will sound good together because they are all in the same key. Try it out and you'll see what I mean 😁

[@DJCJ999]

I like these song breakdown videos Brian.. Rick Beato does something similar but you are easier to follow :D@@zombieguitar

[@francasfran]

What a great video Brian.

[@rishimishra123]

What a fantastic video!

[@ozman6602]

Brian i don't usually disagree with you but with the title of the video really lol needless to say not a huge Beatles fan but I have to say they were good at writing lyrics they were great song writers just weren't good playing them songs they wrote lol my opinion obviously because they were hugely successful.

[@jerryrn62]

The Beatles didn't write any songs between 1962-1966, see the research done on Sage of Quay by Mike Williams. They just did the vocal and learned to perform a few live. Their last concert performances at Candle Stick SF, 1 week after the great Revolver album, never played a single song off the record that day! Amazing! See the play list on line. Tavistock scam on us!

[@Slydeil]

What utter nonsense.

[@Hitori_FtoL]

The video is a bit embarrassing considering they didn't know music theory

[@zombieguitar]

It's never embarrassing to analyze a great song to try and discover why it sounds cool 😎

[@sethforesi307]

It’s almost like music theory is used to understand what makes a song work regardless if the creator used it or not, only thing embarrassing here is your lack of critical thinking skills

[@sethforesi307]

Also if you did research you’d find their main producer George Martin used music theory to bring the beatles ideas to life into a full song and not just a idea so even if they themselves didn’t use music theory, theory was still used to make their songs🤣🤣 tired of these pretentious ass comments when you don’t know shit

[@zombieguitar]

@@sethforesi307 you are a big meanie head

[@sethforesi307]

@@zombieguitarlol definitely a little, just don’t like the disrespect coming your way! Amazing video btw