📌This video is a revised re-upload. I originally uploaded this video in April 2022, but soon realised from the reaction in the comments that I had skimmed over a lot of detail when it came to the major scale and the tones and semitones. This was causing confusion for many viewers so I've now decided to replace that video with this new, updated version. I'm much happier with the explaination in this video. Sorry again for any confusion caused by the original edition. You can still view the original version if you like here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/pGuVs7OKo9nemNI.html

@nedludd3641

10 ай бұрын

You are an angel. You are aq good teacher who has helped me enormously. Bless you.

@thesuncollective1475

10 ай бұрын

Where did the western scale come from I mean why was is the way it was. Is it something to do with nature or totally random?

@chrisisbell3080

10 ай бұрын

@@thesuncollective1475 That is a really complicated question that would need a large book to answer it. Very briefly, we find musical intervals that have simple integer ratios consonant, However if these 'pure' intervals are stacked, things go slightly out of tune. Stacking twelve perfect fifths and then coming down seven octaves to what should be the original starting note gives a different pitch. (Look up Pythagorean Comma and Syntonic Comma for more information.) More formally, the octave is a doubling of frequency and any equal division will involve roots of two, which are irrational numbers. This means that they cannot be expressed as integer ratios - i.e. as pure musical intervals. The whole history of music everywhere in the world has been profoundly influenced by this.

@thesuncollective1475

10 ай бұрын

@@chrisisbell3080 Thank you..Maths , Frequencies doubling its very cosmic stuff, I will have to go on a quest I feel to get to the bottom of it. Thanks. As a side note its interesting that Allan Holdsworth came up with his own math based system. I'm inclined to say he was right as it was much simpler. He realised, perhaps, a system which has ten ways of naming one chord is a weak and over complicated system !

@SpencerTwiddy

10 ай бұрын

@@arcadepiano I see when you use your special keyboard, you produce many typos.

The bigger question is why did they start with "C". Why not have the white key major scale start with "A". That would make more sense....

@DonkeyPopsicle

10 ай бұрын

I wondered the same thing

@zzlg

10 ай бұрын

Iirc, the "standard" mode was the aeolian, aka, the minor scale. And since they used to use the white keys, that's why they actually start in A, not in C

@stephenshoihet2590

10 ай бұрын

As he notes in the video, vocal music and lettered notes existed before the piano was invented. They chose to start the piano with C because it made sense at the time. Our current music system wasn't something which someone just sat down and wrote one day, it was an evolution over time with many different people and changes. For all the people who have ever wondered: if you actually want to know the reason why in more depth, the internet is full of music history and answers about scales, modes and how our current western music system evolved. If you ever say "i wondered why" about anything and you don't go find the answer, then it really wasn't that important to you.

@DavidBennettPiano

10 ай бұрын

That is a question I will be explaining in a future video!

@estranhokonsta

10 ай бұрын

@@stephenshoihet2590 I always wondered why we exist. But i never found the answer in the internet. I wonder why. 😎 Jokes aside. Your argument was sound enough in my opinion and i did like the small barb at the end. A much more interesting argument now that we are in this info overloaded/over-bloated reality.

Our choir learned to sing quartertones, bright or dark for each chord. This is extremely tough and takes a lot of practice and a great ear. But the effect is impressive

@kaitlyn__L

3 ай бұрын

Why have I been calling it “half a semitone” instead of “quartertone” 😅 I love using them

As someone who is just recently starting to learn the keyboard, the layout actually really helped me memorize the notes. I tinker around in E Major a lot and so I always know where E is, two keys to the left of the group of three black keys. The slight variance on the pattern with black keys is just enough to give every note it’s own little distinctive spot, regardless of what octave you’re in. (Which is also easy to tell just by looking at that pattern) If it were a perfectly symmetrical layout, either with those black keys added in or with just white keys, it’d be a lot harder to tell where you’re at, especially as a beginner. But as is, it’s akin to having little landmarks to go off of when you’re getting directions. Seems like it wasn’t even done purposefully but when I realized how much it was helping me I began to really appreciate the design of modern keyboards.

It wasn't until I started singing choir music that I really appreciated how the voice is the instrument standard notation is optimized for. It really makes it easy to sight-sing major, minor and modal music.

As a guitarist, I think showing the guitar fretboard would help illuminate this question. The keyboard-oriented labelling of the Major scale obscures the fact that It is blindingly obvious on a fretboard that there just isn't a semitone between B & C, and between E & F. At age 15 or so in the mid-Sixties I taught myself to play guitar by ear and with tablature and never learned to read sheet music. To me, the question initially appeared the other way around: "Why have these musical theorists assigned letters to some notes on the fretboard, but not others?"

@cosimobaldi03

10 ай бұрын

exactly

@Leftatalbuquerque

10 ай бұрын

You're just miffed that the age of guitar-based pop has ended and we are back to keyboards. Ha!

@flamencoprof

10 ай бұрын

@@Leftatalbuquerque So why are some of my faves New Order, Fatboy Slim, Bodyrockers, Alice Deejay, and on and on? It's not a matter of taste, it's a matter of utility. On a fretboard all the notes are equal, no black or white, key changes are easy.

@harveysteven1530

10 ай бұрын

@@LeftatalbuquerqueDumb comment

@tarksurmani6335

10 ай бұрын

Because your guitar is built for most general and latest music. This however doesn't explain to you in any way, shape or form, why we use 12 temperaments and not 53. Or with equal 19 temperaments, 63hz steps.

David, you are sent from God to explain to us non musical all the questions that confused us in primary school.

@DavidBennettPiano

10 ай бұрын

🤩🤩🤩

@freddyrosenberg9288

10 ай бұрын

Sorry, but you have to know music theory to understand his explanation. This was mumbo jumbo to me.

@boghund

10 ай бұрын

​@@freddyrosenberg9288 was it really?? I don't think so

@austridge31

Ай бұрын

​@@boghundI've been playing guitar for 20 years and I still don't get it! 😂

@johnx9318

Ай бұрын

If you think he was senf by god, they your primary school failed you twice.

The question that sticks in my mind is how the seven notes in the scale even got to be in the first place. Going by perfect intervals, a 12-tone system emerges clear as day, but I've always wondered why the white notes begin and end where they do on the circle of fifths.

@althealligator1467

10 ай бұрын

That's a good question. I assume it's because it's just the scale you get by stacking perfect fifths until you get two consecutive semitones: F-C-G-D-A-E-B then you'd have F#, but then you'd get F, G, and F#, which I guess they found too dissonant together (they obviously wouldn't have had the names yet). My question has always been what does it even mean to "treat a different note as the tonic"? It's a phrase that's constantly thrown around yet never actually explained. The implication has always been that if one note is treated as the tonic, the chord built on that note will be resolved and chords built on other notes will not. But why? I personally have a completely different theory of what makes a mode resolved, the biggest difference being that tonality revolves around intervals and not individual notes, and "treating a chord as the tonic" pretty much boils down to that chord being the first you hear. What determines tonality beyond that is the relationship of a tritone resolving to a major third, and so tonality can very quickly become ambiguous, two major thirds being resolved at once. This probably doesn't sound like much like that but I can explain it more in depth if you want.

@ovelhoranzinza4021

10 ай бұрын

I see the circle of fifths as a 360° section of an infinite spiral of fifths.

@OHYS

10 ай бұрын

One day it struck me that the circle of fifths starts with the tonal note of the brightest mode and ends witht the darkest, for the white keys for example, it goes F C G D A E B- thats the tonal notes of lydian, major, mixolydian, dorian, minor, phrygian, locrian, which is all the modes in order of brightness What i do NOT understand is what makes a note the tonal

@gwalla

10 ай бұрын

There are two explanations I can think of, based on how you construct your scale. I'll call these the "Pythagorean method" and the "Tetrachord method". In the *Pythagorean method*, you build a scale by stacking perfect fifths (a 3:2 frequency ratio) and wrapping around at the octave. With just one perfect fifth, your smallest interval is the 4:3 perfect fourth (what's left over between your fifth and the octave). If you add another perfect fifth, you end up with a new smallest interval: a 9:8 ratio, the whole tone. You can keep adding perfect fifths and that will stay the smallest interval until you max out at 5 distinct notes, and you've built a major pentatonic. As soon as you add a sixth perfect fifth, you introduce a new smallest interval, the diatonic semitone. This time you can fit in just one more perfect fifth before introducing an even smaller interval, the chromatic semitone, giving a diatonic scale (specifically, what we now call the Lydian). Then you can get up to 12 notes in your scale before finding something smaller than a chromatic semitone. So this method, stacking as many perfect fifths as you can for a given smallest interval, produces a natural sequence of (IIRC) 2, 5, 7, 12, 19, 31, and 53-note scales. Technically you can go higher but the smallest interval in a 53-tone scale is so tiny that it's almost imperceptible. (I should point out that twelve perfect fifths doesn't exactly complete the octave if they're tuned pure--no stack of fifths will ever reach an octave equivalent of the starting note--so strictly speaking the 12-tone chromatic scale is a no more natural stopping point than 19. It's just the one that the West settled on, mostly for convenience) The *Terachord method* is how the ancient Greeks conceived of scales (or "octave species"). An octave would be split into two perfect fourths plus a leftover tone. The perfect fourths were then filled in with two more notes to produce a four-tone subscale called a tetrachord, with both terachords following the same pattern. If the largest interval between adjacent tones in the tetrachord was a whole tone, the species was diatonic; if the largest interval was a minor third (meaning the rest was split into two semitones), it was chromatic; and if the largest interval was a "ditone" or major third (meaning the remainder was split into quarter tones), it was an enharmonic species. So really, all ancient Greek scales were in theory heptatonic, even their chromatic scales.

@estranhokonsta

10 ай бұрын

@@gwalla Here is a quote from a random internet text, so the source is not that great but the idea still remains and can help in following better research: "... The Gregorian modes, also known as the church modes, were developed from earlier musical traditions and sources, particularly in the medieval period. The modes are a system of organizing musical pitches that were used extensively in Western European sacred music from the 9th to the 16th centuries. The origins of the Gregorian modes can be traced back to ancient Greek music theory, which classified melodies based on different tonal systems known as tetrachords. These tetrachords were combinations of four pitches that formed the basis of scales. The Greeks had established several different tetrachord structures, which later influenced the development of the Gregorian modes. During the early Christian period, as the Gregorian chant was evolving, the early church musicians adapted the existing musical practices and theories to suit the needs of liturgical music. They incorporated elements from both Jewish and Byzantine music traditions. The modes provided a framework for composing and performing chant melodies that conveyed different moods and spiritual significance. The Gregorian modes were originally developed as eight distinct scales, each with its own characteristic pattern of whole and half steps. These modes were named after the ancient Greek regions: Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Hypodorian, Hypophrygian, Hypolydian, and Hypomixolydian. Later, two additional modes were added, making a total of twelve modes, which included Ionian and Aeolian. The modes were primarily used in monophonic chant compositions, such as Gregorian chant, where a single melody line was sung without accompanying harmony. Each mode had its own unique melodic characteristics and emotional qualities, and they were associated with specific liturgical texts and occasions. Over time, the system of Gregorian modes became an essential part of Western musical tradition and influenced the development of later music theory, including the major and minor scales that are widely used in Western music today."

Writing B sharp also preserves the chord (or melody) shape on the staff, making it easier to read and remember once you get to the point you're reading several bars ahead of where you're playing.

@JamesDavy2009

10 ай бұрын

Especially in certain keys where it's neater to write a minor second interval chord using B sharp, E sharp, C flat or F flat than it is to write a unison and present a confusion over which note gets the accidental.

@KingNedya

3 ай бұрын

I think this is probably why I've always been particularly confused on the use of B sharp. Despite playing music all my life and playing in the school band every single year, unlike my fellow students I was never able to sight-read, so any aspect of notation meant to help with sight-reading would just go right over my head because I'm not even able to read several measures ahead, so keeping the shape to make sight-reading easier just serves no purpose to me since I can't take advantage of it. I was, however, very good at memorizing the music, so despite having to spend hours handwriting my own notation of my own invention on the sheet to make it easier for me to learn, I was usually the first one to learn the piece to the point of no longer needing sheet music at all.

What an incredibly easy way to understand what you said, well done! This has been explained to me over and over, but because I have so little understanding of music and music theory, I never understood any of this. I'll have to go through this a couple of times, because you showed me things I didn't know that I didn't know.

David, I just discovered your channel And I am highly impressed at how informative and educational your videos are!

I found myself coming back to this video and am so glad the short explanation is dealt with right away.

Brilliant, as always! Your videos are educational and very well explained!

David, this was an excellent tutorial and, for me, answered questions which I struggled to even articulate. Thanks for the history and insights.

Great Instruction again Dave. Wonderful Channel

The answer I heard growing up was 'it just is'. The answer I attempted to give teaching college music theory was 'ok, it's complicated and very Western-centric, but . ...' The real answer is: well, we string players know that keyboards are built out of tune, but when we have to play it their way, we do. 😊

@Halberds8122

10 ай бұрын

What does that even mean?

I think a better explanation for having B# is harmony and scales. The chord G#B#D# is just the V chord of C# Major. If you notate it with C natural, then it would be understood as a different chord for a funcional point of view. In a sense, this is all done so that C# Major doesn't have any repeated note names (C and C#) so that the structure of the major scale is kept.

@dylanchope8992

10 ай бұрын

yeah, his explaination was bizarre. like it made sense but its not the primary reason and I've never heard anybody make that point

@CaesarSneezy

10 ай бұрын

The original explanation made a lot of sense to me and answered a lot of questions I had about basic music theory. Your explanation doesn't make any sense to me because I don't know what you mean by "V chord of C# major."

@CaesarSneezy

10 ай бұрын

I've watched lots of music theory videos trying to get a basic understanding of how scales and modes work, but everything until this video went in one ear and out the other because everyone seems to expect the viewer to have some prior knowledge of music theory. Starting with a history lesson from the beginning of Western music finally made something click for me.

@javiecija96

10 ай бұрын

@@CaesarSneezy i'm glad you understand his explanation. That still doesn't mean that the accidental thing is the main reason. In fact, having to write more accidentals is a side effect of the reason I've commented, because you would normally use the chords of your scale, while accidentals often don't belong in the scale. In fact, if you don't write tontal music i.e. if you write music that is not based on tonalities, you may end up writing more sharps than naturals if you use B# instead of C.

@javiecija96

10 ай бұрын

@@CaesarSneezy at a very basic level C# Major is a set of notes that start in C# and the distance between them is the same as in C Major (the tone tone semiton tone tone tone semitone explained in the video). So it is a scale that sounds as "good" and has a similar "bright" quality as C Major but with other set of notes. This means that we have all the notes of C sharped: C#, D#, E# F#, G#, A#, B#. If you rename E# to F and B# to C the relation between C Major and C# Major would be less obvious. The letter V is also the roman numeral 5, so in music theory the V chord is just the fifth chord of the scale. We started the scale from C# so the fifth note is G#. You may or may not know that chords in western music are typically structure by thirds and by default contain 3 notes. Taking that into account the V chord of C# Major is G# B# D#. If you write C instead of B# you don't have a third from G# because the way intervals are named is by counting how many differently named notes are in between: G A B C are 4 notes, so it would be a fourth. More precisely a diminished fourth, not a perfect fourth like ones in the video, because effectively it is as small as a major third (2 tones). So from the point of view of writing chords and harmony this is fucked up. There's much more depth to this, but I think I've already said a lot.

This made things very clear, thank you. With regard to 12 tone equal temperament, and the impracticality of just intonation tuning on the fly for pianos, please consider talking about hermode (dynamic) tuning for synths. I see it in my digital audio workstation but don't really understand it and am curious about it.

This is the best video covering everything I was missing in music ❤ Thank you 👍🏻

Just one comment: The more important reason why to use a B-sharp in the Moonglight Sonata example rather than to avoid a "mass of accidentals" by alternating C-sharp and C-natural comes from harmony: the dominant chord in C-sharp harmonic minor key HAS TO BE a G-sharp major chord (G-sharp B-sharp D-sharp) in order to keep the logical major triad shape of the chord.

@sebass8292

3 ай бұрын

well put and explained. B# and E# exist in certain keys when speaking diatonically just like Cb and Fb exist in other keys.

@bvssmouq6gamingofficialyt

3 ай бұрын

​@sebass8292 actually F flat is nowhere in any key

@bvssmouq6gamingofficialyt

3 ай бұрын

​@sebass8292 other than the key just being C flat major instead of B major

@siggyretburns7523

2 ай бұрын

But for all intent and purposes...

@sebass8292

Ай бұрын

@@bvssmouq6gamingofficialyt you figured it out yourself, welcome to the key of C flat. If you haven’t realized it yet, F sharp and G flat are also the same key.

Thanks for the video. History is always so important to put things in perspective and help us get the actual meaning of things. Everything is always in a context.

@stephenshoihet2590

10 ай бұрын

That is so much of the part that many people miss. They expect "theory" to explain all the whys and wherefores of our current western system, as if someone just sat down and created it all at once... but it was an evolution over hundreds of years with many different people and the way music is thought about has changed with time and culture too. So many beginners get themselves wrapped up in those questions and the best thing to do is just forget it, learn things because they "just are" and later when you have a solid understanding of the basics, come back to fill in the gaps. Adults do the same thing when trying to learn a second language (esp native English speakers) why is a dress masculine in Spanish when a woman wears it? Doesn't matter, it just is, learn it. A big reason children learn things more easily is they don't burden themselves with rules, they just repeat things until they know them. Adults think rules are some kind of shortcut to understanding something and it usually isn't. Why does something fall when I drop it? Gravity. How does gravity work? Nobody knows and I don't care; I just don't drop things that will break 😝

Thanks for the wonderful explanation. You did a good job, a big kudos for that.

That grabbed my attention and kept me there till the end. Fab video and much appreciated 👍 Many thanks!

This is brilliant...and unbelievably clear.

I learned something important, thank you. The examples was perfect for this, it was clear to me which one was the odd one out.

10:44 Calling B a perfect fourth above g-flat is convenient but also troubling. It quickly drives home the fact we don't need a black key, but writing B above g-flat LOOKS like a third of some type (in this case an augmented third), whether it's on the staff or we look at the letter names. Yes, an augmented third does have the same semitone distance as a perfect fourth (when we're using equal temperament) but we really should write the enharmonic equivalent (c-flat) rather than B when describing a perfect fourth above g-flat.

@JamesDavy2009

10 ай бұрын

It's in the aesthetics of how the piece looks. Accidentals consistent with the key signature (excepting C major/A minor where you pick one and stick with it) along with as few in the bar as possible are the unspoken rules of thumb hence why key signatures even exist.

@galoomba5559

4 ай бұрын

It's also not even true. If using just intonated fifths, Cb is 23 cents (0.23 semitones) lower than B. It's only 12-tone equal temperament that identifies those two notes, and that was not the standard until centuries later.

@PeterCamberwick

19 күн бұрын

I'd love to live in a world where this was troubling. LOL

Excellent presentation. I thought I knew a thing or two about music but much of this is new to me. Thanks!

Also nice noting that besides having the major scale in the white notes, a cool side effect is having the pentatonic scale in the black ones, which makes them even easier for simple melodies Best cheat code in the piano

@kaitlyn__L

3 ай бұрын

Nothing I like better than saying to someone who “only knows how to use the white notes”, “how about only using the black ones instead?” It’s so much spicier, and also more flexible in terms of shifting the tonic position without changing the actual pool of notes. Definitely much more expressive for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.

The more interesting question is: why is the scale on a keyboard not based on A, why C?

@LonnieDucote

Ай бұрын

It’s based on the A Minor scale

I already knew the answer as to why, but I watched your video anyway because I always enjoy your channel. Keep it up!

@DavidBennettPiano

10 ай бұрын

❤️❤️

Wow. What an incredibly informative video. I learned more music theory in 25 minutes than in a whole college class.

@2.5k_ping56

Ай бұрын

Teaching music theory in college would be stupid anyways, Music schools teach them quite well however

In German B flat is just B and B is H, showcasing just how ancient and fundamental B flat is in comparison to all other flats/sharps. It literally predates a word/category of flat and just gets a normal letter.

@tahmeedauret

26 күн бұрын

Wut? It goes A - B - H - C??

@autarchprinceps

26 күн бұрын

@@tahmeedauret Pretty much, though B is then of course a black key unlike the other three mentioned, but given that H->C is also just a half tone, without our strict modern musical sense that may have mattered less in the olden days. In sharp it would in theory be called ais, but as the only vowel with a sharp, that doesn't really work as well spoken, so its often called b that way round anyway. The other sharp tones work better (cis, dis, fis, gis), while the other flats are called des, es, ges & as. At least that is as far as the classical piano key notes go.

Thank you for this very informative and interesting lesson. I’ve often wondered why and how the keyboard notes were set out this way.

Very interesting, and perfect timing for me! Precisely in these days I am studying about brass winds, to be able to write a solo for a song I am working on with a friend.

Thank you, David. Brilliant tutorial 👏

I think the note layout actually comes from the minor scale, not the major. A lot of plain chant was done in minor and our notation system comes from notating plain chant. It would also make sense to start your scale on A, not C.

@bacicinvatteneaca

10 ай бұрын

You forget many keyboards were made in Italy, where the notation system starts at Do.

@nuberiffic

10 ай бұрын

@@bacicinvatteneaca the major scale starts on Do. The minor scale starts on La, and they chose that to be A. Your point doesn't contradict mine.

@carljohnson9474

4 ай бұрын

Probably they just took C Major and A minor since they share the same notes and they are all natural

@nuberiffic

4 ай бұрын

@@carljohnson9474 ...no dude. I don't think you understand my comment at all

@carljohnson9474

4 ай бұрын

@@nuberiffic I think I did, but tell me what I could have misunderstood

This is by far the best video on this topic. Even though I knew the answer to the question, it was very enlightening.

Great as always David, thanks a lot

@DavidBennettPiano

10 ай бұрын

Thanks!

I swear this video was already released and I watched a few days ago. This is a super awesome historical explanation.

@DavidBennettPiano

10 ай бұрын

Yes, this video was originally released last year. I wasn’t happy with it though so this is a new updated version. I’m glad you enjoyed it 😊

@timgoodwintv

10 ай бұрын

@@DavidBennettPiano of course! Love the content man! Keep it up! Funny coincidence that I was just watching this video and you re-released it.

It makes a lot more sense if you look at notes not as abstract keys that trigger a pretuned action on a keyboard but if you look at a stringed instrument such as a guitar. Then the notes take on a more physical physics based approach. You have to have the semitones because otherwise your fretboard would have empty spaces in the scale.

@DavidBennettPiano

10 ай бұрын

That’s not quite correct. If you made a guitar that only featured the frets of the major scale notes it wouldn’t have “empty spaces”, it would just have bigger spaces between the frets, much like how at the bottom of the neck the frets are more widely spaced. 🙂

@failsaferecords4401

10 ай бұрын

@@DavidBennettPiano it would have irregular spaces then. the spaces decrease as you go up the neck by a regular amount. if you take out the black notes you'd have skipped frets where the gap was unexplained wider. The way notes happen are very mathematical. 1 octave is exactly half the string length. a 5th is 1/3, a 4th 1/4, and you can see the strings resonate (wobble) in those patterns when you fret a harmonic. ie a 5th creates 2 wobble points on the 7th fret and the 19th fret splitting the resonant wave into 3 equal distant parts, which is exactly where the length divided by 3 is.

@DavidBennettPiano

10 ай бұрын

@@failsaferecords4401 I see what you mean 😊

@damnyancey

10 ай бұрын

​@@DavidBennettPiano correct. Look at the fret layout of the dulcimer.

That explains everything - thank you! Even the Simpson's joke I never got...

The historical account given is fascinating. Thank you!

Another wonderful video! Maybe sometime you can address how alternative keyboards (such as those used by chromatic accordions) can, in some ways, address the inconsistent layout of piano keys. I play piano and piano accordion, but have been told that starting with a chromatic keyboard layout can be much easier to learn to play, visualize, etc. Glad I subscribed!

Interesting material, beautifully presented.

Great channel!!! My support!!!

Yes, exactly, I was also reminiscing, that something like this video was already uploaded last year, but this one was more comprehensive, even much more comprehensive 😊😊Do, thank You very much once again ☺️😊🥳🥳☺️

I was pleased to see how long this one was in spite of how simple the question and its answer were. As usual, friendly to all levels and yet something to learn for intermediates and the advanced as well. Definitely saving this for future music lessons when the question inevitably comes up

Good job on your references- Adam, Elam, and 12tone are the three music ytubes I trust the most.

David: Thanks so much for this video. Helps clear up a lot of those "I wonder why...." thoughts.

Danke. Sehr schön erklärt!

I can tell you this as a Jazz Pianist. The keyboard would be impossible to negotiate as an improvisor of harmonically complex music if my fingers couldn't see what they were doing. My hands/ears understand music theory far more instantaneously than my brain. The fact that there is a big island of black notes and a little island of black notes forming a symmetric archipelago in a sea of white notes; it is this fact that makes it possible for all post tempered improvisors from Bach to Tatum to Bill Evans to function as improvisors.

About why we use C# or Cb. As I learned it‘s not only to avoid more accidentals. It‘s also to make intervals easier to read. If I‘m in the key of G#, a G# triad would be G# - B# - D#. The intervals still look like thirds in sheet music (like a G major triad). Would I use C, that chord would look like a suspended chord at first glance: G# - C - D#. It wouldn‘t resemlbe the familar triad structure we know from sheet music. So adding that C# actually makes the intervals and the chord easier to read.

Thank-you. This is very educational for me

Very nice video. Covers a lot of topics on music theory and history

I never even noticed before. This was really informative. I've never played a piano or learned the notes before

Thanks David. Excellent video. As a guitar player, I am always frustrated by the keyboard layout because The key of C is easy, but every other key is complicated. If they changed the names, and had an equal number of white and black keys, as you pointed out, keyboardists would only need to learn two major scales (one staring on a black key and one starting on a white key). Every scale would be as simple as learning two types. However, it would require an entirely different way of writing sheet music!

@kaitlyn__L

3 ай бұрын

Funnily enough, I always struggled with the same-shapedness of guitar when trying to learn the fundamentals. Mainly because remembering which notes to skip making sharp or that was counterintuitive on continuous strings. I’d often start chords on the wrong fret and then have to move up or down by one or two semitones to get it right, and that was really frustrating. Learning each shape-cluster on keys, with B#=C physically encoded, made it easier for me to back-port it onto strings once I’d internalised those patterns. This mainly affected chords, I could happily belt out melodies on guitar before I got right-into chords on keys. I’m sure I could’ve internalised the note order with enough drilling, but especially since I started on wind instruments where fingering one note and pressing the flat or sharp key is absolutely possible on B and C, you just do then end up with the same tone at the end of it with all the mechanical interlocks. (Unless the intonation is a bit wack, just like how bad guitar intonation affects tuning by fourths.) So I’d never had to rote-learn that because, again, the physicality of the instrument just did that for me. You quickly learn all the fingerings that are “identical” and just play whatever’s the most convenient for the piece, but that still doesn’t really require the same mental model of note names. Heck, after my first few months on wind I’d stopped thinking of note names at all, and just associated notation with fingering - which makes sense because that’s literally how transposing instruments are designed to be thought-about. You get used to the same fingering being written the same way but sounding different on a differently tuned horn/pipe/flute. Kinda like a capo, but with just-intonation rather than 12TET. It’s funny, thanks to Bb and Eb being the most common tunings of wind and brass, as well as clarinets having a key to raise by a twelfth, fourths sound almost as equivalent to my ear as octaves do. Not quite, but close. Thirds and fifths sound very “far away” but fourths are “right next” to a note. But hey that’s also useful for tuning most string instruments.

@2:25 you were totally channeling the 'Sleaford Mods' right here and it was glorious to my ears :)

This is super informative :) and ending with Simpsons is always appreciated :) greetings from Poland :)

The keyboard design (which I guess would be a "whole tone keyboard") at 01:00 has some advantages - you only need to learn two "shapes" for each type of chord (in root position) - one if the root is a white note, and one if its a black note. Same for inversions and extensions - the notes are in the same relative position for each white note root and each black note root. Someone's built one of these I bet...

Hey, love the channel and vids. I thought it would be interesting if you could maybe do a video on Neapolitan Chords and Augmented 6th chords and how they were popular in western classical music but haven't really translated into the modern music world. It would also be cool to see examples of songs that do feature them, I know Leonard Cohens 'everybody knows' has a Neapolitan chord in it as well as The Warnings 'EVOLVE'.

@DavidBennettPiano

10 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching 😊 I’ll keep that topic in mind. I did touch on both those topics in my “Iceberg” video so check that out if you’ve not already 😊

Imagine how confusing the piano would be if the black and white keys were evenly distributed. The black key that was once an F# in one octave, would now be the G# key in the next octave

@nates2

10 ай бұрын

Idk I think it would be the same as the guitar, violin, flute,... comes down to muscle memory, no matter how conplicated our brain somehow can do it. :)

@manuellayburr382

10 ай бұрын

That is not true. Look at the diagram at 0:58. C# is always the same number of of keys away from say A. It is just that octaves are represented more compactly. You can't see two F#s on that diagram, but if you could, they would be evenly spaced.

@muchanadziko6378

10 ай бұрын

I think you're forgetting that if there were black keys between B/C and E/F, then an "octave" wouldn't be 12 intervals away, but 14

@MrKockabilly

10 ай бұрын

@@nates2 Exactly

@KazKasozi

10 ай бұрын

It wouldn't be confusing guitars aren't confusing. It would just be different.

This is very fascinating.

brilliant explanation, subscribed

@DavidBennettPiano

5 ай бұрын

Thank you!!

Thank David!!!

I love your videos, you've helped me to understand music theory and also inspired me to want to know more, thank you.

Always showing the Bb in the lowered B starting from C results it like a Mixolydian Mode.

Having gaps at least gives some very quick visual indication --- eg. land marks. Very quick and convenient visual indication - without needing to use colours, which probably wouldn't be as convenient - even though people probably could get used to it.

This was great! Took me back to Music History a bit.

I know not a lot about music , the furthest I got was the recorder at school and the basic theory which no-one ever really explained the basis of so this is fascinating - as an engineer however I’m also curious to understand the actual frequencies that define each note - I have seen these on a guitar tuner (very early days of self teaching) but reading music is like learning a new language for me - thanks though 👍

@frederf3227

Ай бұрын

In the most common, modern system A = 440 Hz, every octave is a frequency doubling. Each semitone is a twelfth root of two ratio from its neighbors. The twelfth root of 2 multiplied together 12 times is 2 (octave). Historical intervals equating to semitone intervals of 12, 7, 5, 4 are reaaaaaaallly close to small ratios 2:1, 3:2, 4:3, 5:4 which is why they sound so consonant, their beat frequency is closer to the average note frequencies.

Nicely explained.

That last bit was interesting and something I didn't know.

Actually -- I believe (as does nuberiffic) that the basis for western music and modern keyboards was initially based on the A natural minor scale (Aeolian mode). One question I'm asked by my piano students that's related to this is: why does "the major scale" start with C instead of A? I believe the answer is that the major scale series of whole and half steps is but one of seven modes available from the 7 natural notes. I think you covered it fairly well. The best answer I've come upon is that: 1. music was around for quite some time before keyboards were in existence. 2. in accordance with church decrees at that time, " ... music for use at Mass ... must be truly ecclesiastical in style, grave and devout in char­acter." * 3. the Aeolian (minor) mode ( " ... grave and devout in char­acter" ) was a prevalent mode in use at the time keyboards were coming into existence 4. the Aeolian mode is represented on the keyboard by all the natural keys, therefore beginning with A. * excerpted from christianstudylibrary article: church-music-throughout-ages ... Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) complained that "modern church music is so constructed that the congregation cannot hear one distinct word." Not only was this a complaint against the use of the Latin when the people could not understand it. Erasmus was also criticizing how, in much of the church music of his day, the text was being sacrificed to the tune, the instrumental was crowding out the verbal. About a century and a half later, an official papal pronounce­ment declared that "all music for use at Mass ... must be truly ecclesiastical in style, grave and devout in char­acter." The pope at that time for­bade anyone "to sing with a solo voice, whether high or low, a hymn ... in whole or in large part." He also decreed that during Lent the playing of the organ was altogether prohibited (presumably to add more solemnity to that holy season). Evi­dently these restrictions were not sufficient to ensure "grave and de­vout" worship, because a hundred years later Pope Benedict XIV de­clared that "ecclesiastical music must be composed in a style which differs from that of the theatre. The solo, the duet, the trio, are forbidden." While the organ was "accept­able" and stringed instruments "tol­erated," the "forbidden instruments included timpani, trumpets, oboes, flutes, mandolins" and "in general, all instruments which are theatrical in character." Another century passed and the Roman Catholic list of the forbidden included "long in­troductions or preludes," "brilliant pieces which are distracting," and "rapid and restless [instrumental] movements ... when the words ex­press joy and exultation." Monetary fines were levied against violators found on the organ bench or in the choir loft and, after a third offense, such musicians would be dis­missed. /// The earliest keyboard instruments were a type of organ (3rd century BC - hydraulis), and their keyboards were not chromatic (did not need to be). The seven modes available from the naturals are each a combination of whole steps and half steps. While singing in any mode starting on any note is easy enough, to do that on a keyboard requires adding the missing half steps. Apparently they were added to keyboards gradually -- according to Britannica -- starting with Bb around the 10th century, followed by F#, and eventually all 5 sharps/flats by the early 1400's -- the earlest documented chromatic keyboard being a pipe organ at Halberstadt cathedral in 1361. This fills in all the missing half steps in the 7-note natural scale and makes it possible for any mode to be sung/played beginning on any pitch -- in addition to further chromatic enrichment of both melody and harmony. Then there are the attending issues of temperament (which still exist today), with some organs (and harpsichords in early music ensembles) being tuned in temperaments other than even/equal temperament (meantone, Werckmeister, etc.). Digital organs typically have several temperaments available to choose from. Nicola Vicentino’s Arciorgano from around 1560 had 36 keys per octave (there was also an archicembalo the same keyboard design). The white keys are the same as in a conventional keyboard. The black keys are split in two parts; the parts closest to the player are the sharp alteration, the back is the flat section, with the exception of D-sharp and E-flat, and A-sharp and B-flat. The lower manual has 19 keys in quarter-comma meantone with split black keys; the upper manual is the same, but without E-sharp and B-sharp, and tuned a quarter comma higher. The two manuals playing at different pitches, gives 36 individual pitches per octave.

very informative! also that tune you picked sounds a lot like the best of both worlds from star trek the next generation. spooky!

Brilliant!

@DavidBennettPiano

Ай бұрын

Thank you 😊

@rushelm8101

Ай бұрын

A true indicator of intellect, is the ability to conquer mathematics. Music is pure mathematics. Well done you!@@DavidBennettPiano

14:35 - 15:50 - This explains a lot, best part of the whole video, thanks! Ok, the cartoon joke at 16:05 is pretty good too!

12 == 7 + 5 && 12 != 7 + 7) we may add only 5 notes to 7 to keep 12 notes octave) Thanks, your explanation is musically deep)

I imagine having 6 notes and 6 sharps/flats and just put a coloured C everywhere so pianists can know where they are and that's it

An interesting argument based on perfect intervals that sort of glosses over the fact that the temperament - woops! (12:24) I started typing too soon... But the issue of using b sharp is not only because it simplifies writing the accidentals within a measure, it also ensures that every scale/key signature includes one of every note (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) in the written scale even at the notational expense of now requiring double sharps and double flats on occasion. Very well done!

@JamesDavy2009

10 ай бұрын

Example: F# major-each of the following scale progressions sound the same, but which looks better? F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, F or F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E#

Great video!

Excellent video. Can we get a video on the subharmonic series?

man, i played piano and clarinet way back, so I can follow this, but its been a while. I've got some catching up to do!

great topic- I would love to see alternating keyboard keys pianos (both analog and digital) sold on the open market. Another benefit besides being more logical, is that every scale is the same no matter what key for either a white or black note. I was thinking recently that we could even just drop sharps and flats and go from Letters A to L or perhaps use a one-letter=one sound only easy to write democratically decided fonetik alphabet to avoid mispronunciations.

Brilliant video. Cheers dude. How about the B sharps? - comedy gold!

I don't know if some one already mentioned this BUT First the video is great and IMHO has a lot of excellent information and it's well organized like many others in this channel. That said , actually the absence of the "visual" black keys between B and C, E and F, is because the traditional keyboard establish almost 700 years ago isn't isomorphic in isomorphic layouts like Janko, there is no "visual" gap. Another point I would made is, it's not that traditional keyboard form "western music" is C based. Major mode became mainstream much later around XV or XVI centuries. The base reference was de Aeolian mode and it's why A is called A, it was the first note indeed. Since mid of XIV, this layout was established and haven't changed so far although other isomorphic proposals were developed but hasn't been greatly accepted. Tradition is hard to change specially if you learned the hard way and are lazy or envy to teach the new generation a better system that he/she haven't had a chance. Human beens! if I had to suffer you will have to suffer as well and manufactures will say "amem" for the sake of their business !!

Added sharps/flats notes starting from C for modes only; Bb: Mixolydian Mode (b7) Eb: Dorian Mode (b3 & b7) Ab: Aeolian Mode (Natural Minor Scale; b3, b6 & b7) Db: Phrygian Mode (b2, b3, b6 & b7) Gb: Locrian Mode (b2, b3, b5, b6 & b7) Except Lydian Mode starting from C, Only one sharp added. (#4)

I noticed that tritones have two leading tones depending on key signature. For instance B-F could either lead to the finale of C major or Gb major. Try it.

5:11 - I'm writing a song in L minor. For those who aren't aware, higher letters in the alphabet are used to describe super-low guitar tunings. "What's that tuned to, dropped L?"

TLDR: B# and E# exist they just sound identical to C natural and F natural so it’s pointless to have it on the piano and it would probably only be used writing music, in a complicated way to substitute a note where F natural cannot be used. Double sharps AND double flats also exist so you can write music with different specific notes while staying in the chosen key.

@PeterCamberwick

19 күн бұрын

Quite.

There were even places where the regular B was intonated lower. In Germany still today, the “B“ referes to a Bb, while the B natural is actually seen as the adjusted note (and hence got the next letter in the alphabet: “H“, which in script looks a lot like a # … and then consider were the “flat sign“ b comes from…). It‘s a very interesting history, thanks for providing a glimpse of it in this video.

I think this channel has taught me more about music theory then decades of music lessons that never took. But now the Major Scale question comes up, notes are based on frequencies. Do those "gaps" represent equal value of frequency as in B to C same as F to F#? These kids of questions are why I never really got it, and just ended up playing by rote without really understanding. I'm so happy there are excellent teachers out there and more important, excellent musicians/players.

I'm so happy to get the answers of some for long years asked questions, thank you so much. Now the system I always tryed to accept, without understanding makes sense. But one of my questions is left. Why does the mager scale starts with CDE... and not with ABC... . Wouldn't it be easier to lern the ABC of the notation to make music the same way the ABC of letters is educated to write and read speach? Or the same question the other way around, why is the mode a minor scale, if I start the scale with A? Thanks for some more hints! 😊

Thanks for theses explanations ! Someting I don't understand at 7:35, because there is still a tritone between Bb and E, so there is no "perfect fourth or perfect fifth anywhere in the scale" ?

I've been musician for decades and know a fair share about harmony, theory, modes, temperament, etc. (including the real reason it's a B♯ in Moonlight). But I've learned so many new things in this video. It's a case of not knowing what you don't know and just how interesting that unknown can be. (I also learned something very very basic he mentions near the end that I'm too embarrassed to admit. I play the music correctly so must be something instinctual that I didn't know I knew)

Excellent attempt at explaining the whys. I’m still thoroughly confused! The sort of thinking I am accustomed to using can’t quite process the logic in any of this - it all seems utterly arbitrary, and is a strong demotivating factor for me as far as learning music theory goes. I have sort of resigned myself to accepting that I just need to learn by rote what things ARE rather than to get distracted and hung up on WHY 😅

6:50 reminds me of Zelda: OOT, the part in the church area, they had that dissonance but made it sound good!

Thats why when I learned scales, I didn't learn them by the names of the notes. But by the sequence of half steps and whole steps. (Or semis and

The purpose of the B sharp is to tell you what chord it is... If the third is raised, then the chords' purpose is to be a dominant chord leading to somewhere like the minor scale of that key signature, eg G# is chord V of C# minor. It provides more info so that you can simplify those three notes into one chord idea.

Another major reason we would spell the note in question in the Moonlight Sonata as B# is because we find ourselves in C# minor in this moment and we can’t have two C’s in any diatonic scale. The B# is functioning as the leading tone in this example. The leading tone is maybe the most important part of the polarizing V-I chord progression in western music. Just my two cents. Thanks for a great and informative video!

Thank you for the nice explanation. We "see" these semitones as "black" or "white" only if we have previously seen a keyboard. On any other instrument, they are merely a semitone away from each other. I wonder if anyone has ever learnt to play a non' keyboard instrument without ever being exposed to a piano. An interesting speculation. I "think" in black or white notes, although I have played the trumpet and guitar in the past. Curious, isn't it?

That was brilliant, thank you.

@DavidBennettPiano

10 ай бұрын

Thank you 😊