Can't say it enough: these videos are among the best music theory videos on youtube and should get 1000x more views!

@SethMonahan

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much! Because I use these in my teaching, I don't worry *too* much about the number of views. But it does amaze me sometimes that my competitors can have twenty, thirty, or a hundred *times* as many views as me. I wonder what their secret is...

Many thanks for all this hard work.

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

You're very welcome!

this is the best music theory lesson video i've ever seen. thank you.

@SethMonahan

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much-glad you like it!

Such a good teacher, thank you. I will be trying to check out the rest of your videos in the near future!

These are great lessons...love the musical illustration pieces!

These are great so far!

This was the best music lesson that I've ever listened to, learning concepts as well as enjoying the pieces and also analysing different composing styles! Huge thanks and shoutout to Seth for making this :D

Thank you very much for the videos! it's the best music theory lessons, presented in a very logical and easier to understand way.

your video is so great! it is super easy to understand, the example is good. thank you for making such an easy to learn clip.

Thanks Bach you exist!!!

Thank you very much Seth, well done! Please continue to use the practical examples, analyzing the scores of the various pieces

@SethMonahan

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Nicola-glad you like them! More coming this summer, as always...

These video are brilliant. thank you

I'm following these courses but I see that I really have to develop my ear training. I'll plough through anyway and won't be too worried if I'm breathless.

Thank you for all the efforts and work you've put into making these video lessons. Very helpful and in-depth. Love from India 💌

Great series so far. Really glad i came across this. Keep up the good work!

@SethMonahan

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks, speedy!

@mrLamma

4 жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan No, thank you :) and pay no mind that the view count is small - it will pick up fast once youtube algorithm gives you some love, because the content is great. You cleared up a lot of confusion that i had from watching other courses on youtube that had really convoluted explanations in comparison to yours.

Excellent stuff nice and condensed

You are such a good teacher and all your music examples do make learning music theory fun... Keep up the wonderful work... Many Blessings, Max T.

@SethMonahan

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Max! I'm surprised that other music theory KZreadrs don't tend to use musical examples. But I work hard to find ones that help clarify the lessons while also being great music. I'm glad to hear that it helps!

@maxtofone

4 жыл бұрын

​@@SethMonahan Your videos are a great resource and I am surprised that you don't have much more views... I'd love to see a modal harmony video series at some point from you, I sense it will be very popular and appreciated... Kind regards, Max T.

really good content. Thank you very much

Thank you so much for this class. I don´t have the oportunity of going to formal msuic education so these videos will help me a lot for studing music topics. Thank you so mucho for that.

hi seth, great video. can i ask about NCT that are by leap? instead of stepwise passing and neighbour tones, i can't find any common vernacular. thanks!

Great work Seth! I’ve watched a few other in-depth videos on non-chord tones and chromatic NCTs however in your video you have explained it ‘crystal clear’. Thank you! At 24:49 you said, “I haven’t given a complete inventory of non-chord tone types. There are other combinations, other possibilities I haven’t had time to talk about here …” Can you please tell me where I can find information on these other types of non-chord tones and chromatic NCTs i.e websites, videos or books? Thank you Seth. Appreciate your efforts.

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

Glad to know you're finding the videos helpful! For better or worse, I can't think of any print source that even tries to account exhaustively for all the varieties of NCTs. Experienced analysts know this to be something of a fool's errand: you always THINK you've got them all, but then some quirky exception turns up that doesn't quite fit into the established categories. But here's the thing: anything not discussed here can be UNDERSTOOD using the principles/terminology laid out in the video. This is because most of the NCTs that fall "in the cracks" can be explained as hybrids of one sort or another. One that comes to mind is the neighbor note that becomes a suspension because the chord changes underneath it. There's no "separate name" for that one, no official jargon-at least in English. It's just "the neighbor note that becomes a suspension." Most importantly, none of the NCTs omitted here violate the most basic rule in this style, which is that all NCTs must be "anchored" to some chord tone a step away. In other words, before the 20th century, you'll never find an NCT approached AND left by leap. (Alas, there are very rare exceptions even to this...but let's not go there.)

Thanks for the video and it is super helpful! Just a quick question, for the ones in the "Out by Leap" category, do they have to be "in by step"? Since you mentioned earlier all NCTs all involve step-wise motion and both of the examples on Double Neighbor and Escape are in by step.

@SethMonahan

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you like the video! With the escape tone, the answer is easy: in by step, out by leap. The double neighbor is slightly more complicated, since it's actually two notes: the first is in by step, out by leap (of a third); the second is in by leap (of a third), out by step.

@kaiyichen1700

2 жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan That makes sense. Thanks for explaining!

So I've been writing a music theory book since August and I'm in the harmony section right now talking about non-chord tones. I so far have these in general concept: Passing Tone Neighbor Tone Double Passing Tone Double Neighbor Tone Appoggiatura Escape Tone Leaping non-chord tones without a standard name(I call them the Incomplete Passing tone(moving by leap then by step or vice versa, in the same direction) and the Incomplete Neighbor Tone(Moving in and out by leap in opposite directions) and can find both in the First Theme of Mozart's Piano Sonata no. 1 in C major First Movement) And these in Musical Examples: All except the Escape Tone And I still have yet to cover these: Anticipation Suspension Pedal Tone The Escape Tone is being very elusive, I haven't found a single one yet. And I've looked through many of Mozart's piano sonatas, some by Beethoven, and I've even looked for it in Haydn. It's nowhere in sight, not even at cadences which is where I check first. Am I going to have to start looking at Romantic Era composers like Chopin to find the Escape Tone or am I just not looking hard enough at the works of Classical Era composers? I would like to find a musical example to pair with the general concept, which is what I have been doing for the other non-chord tones.

@SethMonahan

2 жыл бұрын

Off the top of my head, here are two themes that have chains of escape tones: the finale of Mozart's K. 576 piano sonata and the slow movement of Haydn's "Clock" Symphony, no. 101.

@caterscarrots3407

2 жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan Alright, thank you. I think I might use the "Clock" Symphony to show how the Escape Tone is used and save the Mozart sonata finale for when I talk about the contrasting period or something, just to use an example of a different composer before someone could get bored with me using Mozart example after Mozart example. Or maybe I'll use both and use the Mozart sonata example twice, once for the Escape Tone and then a second longer excerpt for the phrase structure?

Brilliant videos, thanks so much! - Quick question, what is the difference between an accented passing note and an appoggiatura? Also, can an appoggiatura be preceded by an anticipatory note? Thanks again!

@SethMonahan

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the kind words, Peter! The difference between an accented passing tone and an appoggiatura is how you move into them: you leap into an appoggiatura, but move into a passing tone (accented or not) by step-and keep going in the same direction to resolve it. What do you mean by "anticipatory note"?

@redhandedband123

2 жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan thanks for the quick reply! By anticipatory note, I was considering Albinoni (Giazotto) Adagio in G minor, where the G that resolves to an F# in bar 10 is anticipated by a G in bar 9. Another slightly different example would be the A resolving to a B (again, the A anticipated in the previous bar) - second bar of How High the Moon. Sorry for the rather random examples, but the consonant anticipatory note followed by a dissonant accented note has been puzzling me for a while. There is also a reference to a similar kind of appoggiatura mentioned in part two of the AB guide to Music Theory, again equally puzzling! If I could attach a picture to this it would be helpful, unfortunately I can’t - thanks in advance for solutions!

Can you have two or more non-chord tones at the same time in music from classical and romantic period? And is it allowed to have a non-chord tone that hasn't resolved yet together with the resolved tone? For instance a melody that goes like this: G-F-E together with a C-Major chord. I have seen such in scores, but doesn't it break with the rules? Or is it okay as long as it sounds good, like in a big orchestra with many instruments?

@SethMonahan

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Tobias! You can *definitely* have more than one non-chord tone simultaneously in common-practice music. I can think of cases where there are even three or four at the same time. Videos 23 and 24 in this series talk about this. As for NCTs sounding simultaneously with their resolution: sure-it happens all the time. There really isn't a "rule" about this, so much as a stylistic preference. I think that composers generally avoid it if it sounds too harsh, but if the NCT is in fast-moving passage work, it can go unnoticed. And of course these preferences change over time. Barber's "Adagio for Strings" starts with an Ebm7 chord whose top voice, Bb, is then suspended over an F-major triad. But Barber has the Bb suspended right over the A, making for a dissonance that would've been totally out of place 150 years earlier. (Which is curious, because in many ways that piece seems to be a kind of tribute to austere Renaissance polyphony.)

@SethMonahan

2 жыл бұрын

Addendum: for a gorgeous Mozart theme with a chain of suspensions two at a time, see the slow movement of the wind serenade K. 388: kzread.info/dash/bejne/d5WG0qiglNXUfdo.html

@tobiasolai6035

2 жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan Okay, that's very helpful! Thanks a lot for your answers! I will definitely check out these other videos too.

Wonderful explanations. Could you please tell me how Pedal tones can be classified?

@SethMonahan

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Karthik. Pedal tones are tricky, because (as I see it) sometimes they are chord tones and sometimes not. I deal with this in some videos later in the series: Videos 23 and 24 discuss situations where a pedal tone *is* a chord tone from start to finish, while Video 29 looks at situations where pedal tones are *not* always part of the prevailing harmony. Good luck!

@karsaai

3 жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan Thanks Seth. Much appreciated.

I once studied music at university, but we’re only at lesson 10 and already I’m learning lots of things that I didn’t know or only half understood! One question: would it be right to say that a diatonic passing tone always connects notes which are a third apart, while a chromatic passing tone always connects notes which are a second apart?

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

I'm wracking my brain to think of any weird exceptions, but my gut says "yes" on both accounts!

@hippotropikas5374

3 ай бұрын

Chromatic passing tones can connect notes which are more than a second apart. This happens when you use several passing tones in a row. For example, in Haydn's Op. 33 No. 3, first movement, measure 41, two chords are played : Am and D7. The 1st violin plays the chord tone A in the first chord then the chord tone D (down a 5th) in the second one. Between them, he/she plays four passing tones: G#, G, F#, E. So the complete melodic line is : [A], G#, G, F#, E, [D]. The G# is a chromatic passing tone and serves as a connection between chord tones which are a 5th apart!

This reminds me of celtic music ornamentation. Of course, different style and approach, but there's a lot of overlap.

Is it possible to have a consonant non-chord tone? Or would that mean a harmonic change?

@SethMonahan

4 жыл бұрын

Sure: if the chordal fifth of a root-position triad moves up by step, it's consonant against the remaining two chord tones. Technically, one could see this as a chord change, since it produces a 6/3 chord, one whose root is the new note. (E.g.,: C-E-G becomes C-E-A, which is a first-inversion A-minor triad.) But when this happens, one has to ask whether this is a "real" chord change. Often, it's not the best interpretation.

@thetoothlesssage6763

3 жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan Gotta Necro this question - related: Been studying harmonizing in counterpoint and I was actually surprised to see 6th being seen as consonant. My question is - lets say we are free form 4 voice (say a string section) against the rest of the orchestra sustaining a chord - is the 6th in counterpoint harmonization still consonant? Or should the underlying chord tone be adjusted to account for the 6th being used in the harmony instead of the 5th? I know the right answer is "if it sounds right!". But on a technically/ruleset standpoint?

@SethMonahan

3 жыл бұрын

@@thetoothlesssage6763 I'd need a little more context to give a really robust answer here. (Is the sustained chord a root-position triad? Something else?) Assuming that the sustained chord *is* a root-position triad, then the sixth above the bass would only be dissonant against the fifth above the bass, meaning that you'd get more acoustic dissonance having them both there, obviously. (I get the sense that you know this!) But in terms of "rules," you'd need to specify the style. In the classical style, you'd probably adjust that chordal fifth to avoid the clash-particularly if the sixth above the bass was understood as a melodic displacement of the fifth. But in more modern styles, anything goes, really-especially because the "triad with added sixth" itself becomes a thing in the mid 1880s or so, with a special shimmer *because of* that internal dissonance.

@thetoothlesssage6763

3 жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan Thanks for the quick reply! Context would be in classical style and the 6th above would be come from harmonization of a multivocal (instrument) counterpoint (particularly working to avoid parallel 5th movement) within a larger scope. There could be, say, some rhythm going on in the background on top of half/whole notes in chords while the melodic lines are moving.

@thetoothlesssage6763

3 жыл бұрын

I guess to further my question, or my own answer, I presume leaving out the 5th altogether from the underlaying chords wouldn't necessarily hurt since overtones for the 5th and chord quality is already established with the root and 3rd. I seriously appreciate your style and the leveling of detail you provide. Most just touches on subjects, and you provide just that little bit extra that makes one go - AH! SO THAT! I GET IT!

Some textbooks define appogiaturas as any non-chord tone that lands on a point of rhythmic stress, and it is *defined* as the only type of NCT that does so. So according to that definition every accented non-chord tone *is* an appogiatura. What do you think about that definition? Is there some way it's deficient? My impression is that it's better and more clear, but I'm not an expert. Thanks!

@SethMonahan

11 ай бұрын

This is a great question, and a thorny one. I found it frustrating when trying to teach out of textbooks that attempt to classify NCTs using both rhythm and melodic shape; students get overwhelmed quickly with fussy distinctions. (How different, really, is a neighbor note from an accented neighbor note for the average freshman?) I haven't encountered what you're describing, but it sounds to me like it offers simplicity at the expense of making valuable distinctions about melodic shape. (I happen to think an accented NCT is really quite different whether it's approached by leap or by step.) All this being said, though: I've actually stopped teaching the classification of NCTs altogether. It's time-consuming and conservatory students don't see the value in it. They inevitably adopt one term ("passing" is a favorite) and apply it to ALL non-chord tones anyway. It would be different if I were teaching model composition. But in analysis classes, I just want students to notice NCTs that have some expressive value-which (to bring us back to your question) is usually the accented ones anyway!

@karolakkolo123

11 ай бұрын

@@SethMonahan Alright, thanks for your thoughtful answer. If you're wondering, the definition I provided is from Walter Piston (1944 revised edition), so a very old textbook. I noticed that there is so much variation in how NCTs are classified and there are so many disagreements that it's hard to classify them in a way that satisfies everyone. Personally, this motivates me to make my own terminology to use during analysis. As to the difference in quality when approached by a step and a leap, I agree. I just thought that the etymology of appoggiatura (meaning to lean on) in its original use probably more accurately describes any accented NCT that falls by a tone, and then you could break it down further into passing tone appogiatura, suspended appoggiatura, neighbor, leap, etc.. but at the end of the day it's just semantics, and I totally understand you when you say you stopped teaching the classification to your students haha

How do you identify accented notes ? Thank u

At 11:27 it is clear to me that you did not want to label the second chord of the Ave Maria fragment :) I have thought about it and still cannot come with any "functional" explanation for the E (instead of Eb), is it like a borrowed #iv (half diminished) from the parallel lydian? Does not satisfy me for an explanation that much. I tried playing it Eb and it makes indeed a difference. It could be borrowed from the dominant region of F, since there E is not flat?

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

Good question, Carlos. The chord on beat 2 of that bar (with the E-natural) is called "viiø6/5 of V." It's a chord borrowed from the key of the dominant, F major, in order to heighten the arrival on the dominant chord in the second half of the bar. Later in the series, you'll learn why-despite my labeling here-the apparent "I6/4" chord on beat 3 is actually a V chord decorated by non-chord tones (Lesson 24). Not long after, in Lesson 26, I explain the principle of "applied" or "secondary" dominants, a broad family that includes the viiø6/5 of V Schubert uses here.

how did the tonal center switch to G second line when there isn't a G at all in the first bar of the second line. would so appreciate some further explanation of this. totally confused here....

@SethMonahan

Жыл бұрын

Great question! It's true that the G-major triad doesn't turn up until m. 7. But the chord in m. 5 is a signal that we're about to change keys. In the original key of C, that chord is a "vi6." But as I'll explain later in the series, vi6 just isn't a chord that composers use freely in this style. It's "not a thing," as the kids say. When we run into an apparent "vi6," it's usually going to turn out to be ii6 (a VERY common chord) in the key of the dominant. That's exactly what happens here: mm. 5-7 give us a full ii-V7-I progression in the key of G, where (if memory serves) we cadence a few bars later.

i don't understand, why is bb in ii6 chord? it is Cm/Eb, right? so, did you consider this chord as Eb6 or smth... how's bb in there?..

@SethMonahan

3 жыл бұрын

To answer that, I'll need you to tell me which example you're talking about.

First of all, thank you for all your videos, I'm learning a lot from them. There is something I can't figure out and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind explaining it. At minute 20 (Mozart String Quartet G) you notate under the first chord in the last measure a V 6/5. I understand 6 over 5 implies it is a 7th chord in first inversion...the problem is I don't see a 4th note. I understand sometimes a 5th note in a chord can be omitted, but here, if I understand correctly, the 7th note should be a C and it's not there. Could you explain what I'm missing? Thank you!

@SethMonahan

2 жыл бұрын

Great question, Flora. I'm actually counting the C-natural in the melody, which appears later than the rest of the chord. With V7 chords, you often find one of the notes (1) in the melody and (2) omitted from the accompaniment. This is because two notes in V7 are "tendency tones"-i.e., they are obliged to move in a specific way when the chord resolves. Because of this, composers avoid doubling them, since parallel octaves would result. So you often find the melody complementing-and completing-the chord as it appears in the accompaniment. But it also happens that that "missing" note appears at some delay, to accommodate whatever the melody happens to be doing.

@flopondia

2 жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan Thank you so much for your answer! So I guess it takes practice, then, to learn to find/identify these "missing" notes, and one really has to look at an entire phrase in order to see how the notes across the phrase are connected, right? Again, thank you very much for your help.

@SethMonahan

2 жыл бұрын

@@flopondia That's right-though one also develops intuitions about these things that help with quick/accurate assessments. The Mozart you mentioned is a perfect instance. Once one realizes that V7s are way more common than Vs (apart from half cadences, that is), then one almost comes to *expect* that certain notes omitted from the accompaniment will turn up in the melody.

@flopondia

2 жыл бұрын

@@SethMonahan Actually, in the following example (Beethoven Violin Sonata in F, minute 21:14) I have the opposite question...why is the E in the first measure considered a neighbor/passing note? Couldn't it the fourth note of a 7th chord of the root position of F?...Do I have to go back to Lesson 4 or 5? :)

@SethMonahan

2 жыл бұрын

@@flopondia Another great question! One of the things this video doesn't address is HOW one actually determines which notes are chordal and which aren't. (Sometimes it's super obvious, but other times not.) For that, one needs to understand what we should-or shouldn't-expect to find, harmonically, in a given style. In the "Spring" sonata, we're talking about harmony as practiced in Central Europe around 1800. And in that style, tonic chords never have sevenths. (Well, not "never"-it happens in special progressions called "sequences," but this isn't one of those!) You don't see major seventh chords acting as stable tonic chords until the late 1880s or so, and usually in French rather than German music. If you're interested in learning more about harmonic syntax ca. 1800, check out Videos 16-18, which form the basis for all of those that follow!

I believe I've heard many people refer to non-harmonic tones as melodic embellishments and also as non-essential tones. So is it correct to say that if all of the melodic embellishments were stripped away from a piece of music, that there would remain enough melodic structure to still be able to create a unique piece of music and still be identifiable? Stripping away all of the melodic embellishments would seem to just leave a series of chords without any uniquely identifiable melody! So it would seem to me that melodic embellishments are very critical and very essential in creating the main melody. Not sure why melodic embellishments are referred to as non-essential!

@SethMonahan

4 ай бұрын

No one who really understands music would describe non-chord tones as categorically "non-essential"-for exactly the reasons you lay out here. And if they use the term "non-essential" to mean "non-chordal," it's a terrible lapse of judgment. Here's why: a pedagogy that distinguishes between chord-tones and non-chord tones does so for **grammatical,** not expressive or artistic, purposes. If you're old enough to have done sentence diagramming in school as a kid, you might remember that the most grammatically foundational words in a sentence-the subject noun and predicate verb-are often NOT the most interesting or characteristic words. The subject/predicate "I ran" might be the basis of a bland sentence ("I ran down Main Street to catch the bus") or an interesting one ("I ran into Abraham Lincoln's ghost in a church graveyard"). But if you want to understand how English grammar works, you have to be able to see that the two sentences are, at base, structurally rather similar. Same thing with chord- verses non-chord tones. It's not a question of what's "essential," it's a question of hierarchy.

Bar 6: why is this in G Major and not C Major?

@SethMonahan

3 жыл бұрын

I assume you're referring to mm. 5-8 of the first example (Bach's C-major prelude)? I'm afraid there's no simple answer here. Of course, there's a note that's not in C major (F#, m. 6), but that doesn't, in itself, mean we've changed keys. Rather, the chord progression as a whole-all of mm. 5-8-is a progression that points to G major as tonic. This isn't something particularly obvious to the novice ear. But the experienced analyst knows that this simply isn't a chord progression you ever see in C major. (The chord in m. 5, for instance, would be "vi6" in C. But as you'll learn later in the series, "vi6" is an extremely rare chord in this style, one that only appears in certain special situations-and this isn't one of them!)

just a minor misspelling: you write Gonoud in stead of Gounod.... 🙂

haha, I do believe Chopin was playing the blues? flat scale degree 5 in minor? And that G with the A# in Mozarts string quartet also sounds like the blues.... This proves that the sound of the blues was present in classical music long before it was made popular and called "the blues"

@TheDudefromLebowski

2 жыл бұрын

But the blues scale doesn't have that flat scale degree 6 that Chopin used in this piece

19:22 FNAF 💀💀💀

you underestimate my ability and tenacity to sing anything stuck in my head

It troubled me to see the score in the beginning and hearing it played a whole step lower. I thought something was wrong with my ears.

@guszimbalist8416

4 жыл бұрын

No troubles here. This message was brought to you by by the relative pitch gang

@caterscarrots3407

3 жыл бұрын

Nope, it's the recording. That's actually not uncommon for recordings with period instruments to be down lower in absolute pitch, usually a half step is the max I hear though, so like Bb major would sound like A major.