Want more free music tips? Check out my 5-step film scoring guide here! bit.ly/zhfreebie

Small addition, but suspended chords can also add a bit more interest to a chord progression, I often think too much in minor and major and forget I can use suspended chords as well. Great video though!

@s3thtripp

Жыл бұрын

i agree! my favorite show of all time Next to Normal uses a lottt of sus chords. it allows for variation, and key changes if needed

@BenBerkenboschMusic

Жыл бұрын

Love suspended chords 😍

@hahhey1372

Жыл бұрын

Can’t forget diminished and augmented ❤️

@DawphinOfficial

Жыл бұрын

I know you! Good add btw. I forget about suspended chords

@thegreengoblin3603

Жыл бұрын

That's sus bro

Holy heck dude the substitution with relative chords is a huge game changer! For being a fairly simple concept it sure has a huge impact! Didn't realize you could swap out chords like that

That first example of inversion you gave was straight up John Powell's How to Train Your Dragon. And I love how simple it is

This was more a lesson in substitutions than in escaping circular chord progressions. Escaping chord progressions is more the practice of using your existing harmonic motion to create tension in the last repetition of the form, then moving to a new harmonic center. For your example, a great new harmonic center would be Bb, which I would reinforce using a backdoor progression of Db-Ab-Eb-Bb. Melodically you could easily get to the Bb by replacing the 4th rep of your chord progression with Cm Cm Bb Bb. Following with the Db to start the backdoor creates a strong tangential motion to break the sound of the Cm key: a successful escape. And you have an easy path back to the original chord progression by stalling the backdoor on the Eb.

@jasonfanclub4267

Жыл бұрын

True

@Andrew-ei4pz

Жыл бұрын

That’s not a backdoor progression. That’s just a circle progression going up by 5ths rather than down. Backdoor refers to approaching the 1 chord from the flat 7 instead of from the 5

@dansteinbok7955

Жыл бұрын

@@Andrew-ei4pz Ah you got me. I always thought it was bVII-IV-I, but now I see a backdoor is only IV-bVII-I. Regardless, my circle of fourths is a great way to enforce the Bb as the new harmonic center.

@zoundbiestudio4021

Жыл бұрын

@@Andrew-ei4pz would you recommend any videos or material on this? I've been analyszing some OCtopath traveller music and think this is used a lot but would love to get a better grasp on it.

@andrew_nayes

Жыл бұрын

I also wonder if you can recommend any videos on this backdoor progression?

Stay on a cord longer than usual to break the loop, press on a cord twice to start a different progression from that joining cord, screw the rules and go on your own path, find out how un-living your grandfather with a time-machine doesn't make a paradox, etc.

@JJ-zo7jv

Жыл бұрын

This is brilliant and I’ve recently discovered this as well. Another good one is just use an inversion of said chord after you’ve played it in root or whatever. So Dmin (D F A) then play (F A D) after. Game changer for me personally.

"Not something that you want to overdo" Jazz has entered the chat

this is far more relevant than one would think, as a fellow musician I run into this issue all the time, thank you for this!

You're one of the only music tips KZreadrs that actually gives some good useful tips and explains them well

God I needed to watch this, my songs can be so repetitive, which I personally like, but it is very easy to get "stuck" in the same progressions.

This is a great video, Zach! I hear your love of John Powell in the chords

@johnzachariahg

Жыл бұрын

1 second in and I can already hear it

Love this Zach, especially the extended harmony section!

Amazing video! This is exactly what ive been looking for when it comes to expanding my improv! Thanks yo

Great video Zach! your content is so thoughtful and to the point.

Amazinggg video that simplifies techniques we could use, love it

YES!!! I needed this! This is such a perfect example/explanation!

The relative chords thing was awesome to learn about. Thanks for the video, as always!!

Your videos are so helpful. Greatly appreciated. Thank you!

One of your best videos! Especially loved the improv at the end. Thanks for taking the time to put all of this together.☺

Love it! Thank you for the free knowledge

This is awesome. Just what I needed. Thank you for this. I’m excited to get back to some of my more stale dead end progressions.

This is so fun! Love your simple explanation and demonstrations!

Nicely explained and a great progression to demonstrate the concepts - thanks !

Very good video! Some lovely concepts there and great ideas to get off the beaten path! Thanks!

1:10 you got the "test ride" chord progression from how to train your dragon there. Nice!

one thing going off of the borrowed chords and chord extensions is you could skip a chord replacing it with the secondary dominant 7 leading to the next chord. This could also precede you using 2-5s which will not only make the sound jazzier, but make good openings for modulations/key changes. You could also consider using a tritone substitution

Very comprehensive. Takes time and experience. Thank you for creating this

Beautiful improvisation at the end. Thank you.

This was awesome, Zach! I definitely needed something like this to help understand what to do with my chord progressions! Please make more of these, or do you know of any other kinds of videos formatted like this?

Very useful info in an understandable format. Well done!

This is a very good video. Better than more than one of the music classes I've struggled through in college.

Had the issue today when composing, and this video gets recommended, perfect timing for me ❤

I can't stress enough how useful your videos are ! Really great job

This is an amazing video! I'm a guitar player and for some reason this was in my suggested video column. I'm so glad! I'm going to use these concepts for writing on the guitar. the idea of substituting chords by taking a melody note and finding other chords outside of the key that contain that note is the biggest aha moment I've had in a while. You've just created a creative mad musical scientist! I'll be experimenting with this forever now! Thank you!

This was phenomenally inspiring! I live the idea of building a substitution around the note in the main voice -- it’s not an unintuitive concept, and be just never heard it so plainly articulated the way it was in this video. Wonderful work!

Really excellent lesson. Thankyou Zach

Zach..you're a genious!!! thank you for teaching us

I missed this video in my feed for some reason. I'm so glad I went to your channel and found this. This is exactly what I needed to get me out of my block for an assignment for a friend of mine. Thanks for saving my butt man.

Exelente tutorial Zach, thank you very much.

Concise and perfectly presented content! Thank you good sir 🙏 Fantasztikus!

Golden video, this was so helpful thanks, Zach!

This is such an excellent video, and just what I needed to see. I couldn't figure out why my songs were so boring when I changed timbres and melody lines so drastically. This will definitely help my productions.

Great job! Learned a lot

I watched a lot of vids regarding inversions, borrowed chord, and so on, but yours was by far the simplest to grasp. Not because you dumb it down but you explain it in such a wonderful coherent way. You got a new sub 👍.

This are all pure gold tutorials, sir. .. while step by step and very transparant upgraded" to new musical "stuff"... Well done 👌

Great job explaining these "often intimidating" concepts in a really accessible way. I especially loved the final segment about Chord Extensions. I'm quite adventurous with my playing, but I had never really thought of borrowing notes as extensions of other chords in the way you illustrated. Thanks for the eye-opener! 🙂

That was good! Thank you!

Good teacher. Thanks

Thank you very much Zach

Not seen it explained this way before, nice work.

Awesome and understandable, not too wild. Definitely inspiring. Instant Sub - thanks!

This a fantastic tutorial! Cheers!

Amazing video, super useful! 💙

You did a killer job with explanations here.

just a normal day on youtube until I stumble upon this video which solve a problem I wanted to solve for so long. Thank you so much !

Wow.. perfectly explained..I want to learn more❤❤

Excellent lesson! The *Chord Extensions* part of the lesson made me think of not so much jazz but the "easy" listening era -- can't put my finger on specific examples, but there was a time when more clever harmonies seemed to make songs more magical.

Great video, thank you❤

Goated. I would to see more on screen displays of info while your playing these different techniques. Great Video

Thanks for this informative video ❤️❤️

Hey, I really love your channel and your approach to explaining ideas of music. Thanks, Zach!

@ZachHeyde

6 ай бұрын

Thank you!

thanks for posting! espetacular video!

don't know how I found you. But I am grateful. Thank You. Simple, but GOLD!!👍✊

Great video, Zach. Man!!! I have MISSED you. I'm so used to seeing new videos all the time. I assume that you are busy as I'll get out 😅. It's great to see that you're clearly exploding with opportunities. Anyway... As always... I love and am so grateful for your time and input. You Rock! 😁

I think your way of explaining things is on top in youtube☺

This was such a thoughtfully explained and practical lesson. Thanks a ton man! This is a super useful way to kickstart more interesting progressions

@ZachHeyde

5 ай бұрын

Thank you Stefan!

As a man who plays pop covers, I can't even tell you how much I appreciate a video like this.

I totally loved this!

Awesome video once again!

Very useful video! Thanks

If you have a good melody and bass, you don’t always need chords. I like to use chords when i make the production and then take them out after I’m done. It clears up space on your mix and relieves the problem of predictable chord progressions

Great video. I found value even as a self taught no music theory guy that looks at this as an alien language. This helps me define what I do by feel.

this is gold!

Really good video, thanks

Hey there! If you want to learn how to make a career out of writing media music, check out my 6-week Composing Career Bootcamp: zachheyde.com/composing-career-bootcamp

Excellent video.

Thanks A LOT!

i have an overarching love for weird chords personally, don't be afraid to use things like accidentals, diminished, sus2/sus4, and weird extensions like the 6th! i've found a trick personally that i love which is using things like diminished chords which are tritones of the home key, or use a note one semitone below the minor tonic (e.g. a g#dim chord leading to an A minor chord in c major or a minor.) hope this helps! great video by the way!!

A nice example of the relative major/minor is with the chord progression, IV-V-vi-V-IV-I-IV-V. For this case, let's say we're in the key of C major, so these chords would be F, G, Am, G, F, C, F, G Instead of repeatedly doing F, G, Am, G, you can do F, G, Am, Em, F, C, Dm, G (which is IV-V-vi-iii-IV-I-ii-V) Just this simple change adds so much more interest and drama to the chord progression. It's amazing how it works

Absolute 💎

Ending was a massive harmonic flex 🔥🔥 amazing

This was so insightful and helpful. I learned the keys by myself and I've always been a HUGE fan of movie soundtracks, but never truly understood how their progressions were so lively and in constant movement. Fantastic! Great example of the things you showed on this video is "He's a Pirate" by Hans Zimmer for Pirates of the Carribbean! :)

@maplefoxx6285

Жыл бұрын

one of the best videos I have found in the last year is Hanz Zimmer chords by Composing Academy, i bet him and Zach know each other. Pretty much my 2 favorite channels for this stuff

@ZuhexEntertainment

Жыл бұрын

@@maplefoxx6285 Tks for the recommendation, ill look into it right now!

Very inspiring

oh right on I honestly wasn't sure if I could use arcade for the production music I write even though I believe I saw in the fine print it said was fine. great informative video too btw!

I need to sit at the keyboard and practice inversions. Thanks for the tips!

Thank you for this video i play guitar but this was extremely helpful already

Two ways that are useful for me are composing only melody, then harmonizing after. Another is that you can use any chord, as long as the melody note is included in the chord or its extensions - enabling you to go "anywhere".

thanks steve!

Muito bom Zach.

Bedankt

Awesome video

This is awesome. I have a music degree and I’ve found the more knowledge we have, the more limiting it can be. Sometimes (most times, actually), breaking things down back to basics Can open up even greater possibilities! Thanks again for the great content!

This was helpful

Thanks

wow, thanks!

Okay the whole “borrowed chords” thing just unlocked a whole lot for me I think, might try a few things out later today.

The way the chords move at 2:20 reminds me of Toby Fox - My Castle Town, and I love it

Man! It was extremely useful. Thanks. Not even joking man! Thanks.❤

Great video lesson. I've learned more about music in 12 minutes than for some time. It also allows me to see the 'tricks' that classical composers got up to which always interested me but I thought I would never understand. BTW The melody you use is somehow familiar, but I can't trace it. Any idea what piece I am thinking off?

loving all the sus chords at the end :D Also borrowing the 1 chord like you did is always great thank you for the video !