Mode Mixing in EDM | Deadmau5 & Zedd
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- čas přidán 6. 08. 2016
- In this tip, Pyramind instructor Ryan Rey discusses mode mixture in EDM using several track examples by Deadmau5, Zedd and Kaskade.
First, he explains how to achieve mode mixture using the C major scale. If you write a chord progression in C major, but borrow a chord from C minor, you are mode mixing! After explaining the concept, he dives in on some musical examples.
The first musical example Ryan uses is “Some Chords” by Deadmau5. The chord progression is in G♯ minor, and Deadmau5 borrows a chord from G♯ major. This use of mode mixture is unique because the chord Deadmau5 borrows is the I chord - G♯ - and both versions of this chord are used. The first time you hear the chord, you are hearing G♯ minor. The next time you hear the chord, Deadmau5 borrows G♯ major. This helps keep the listener engaged by using a chord they won’t expect.
The next example Ryan dives into is “I Remember” by Deadmau5 and Kaskade. What’s interesting about this example, is that the first chord in the progression is borrowed. The song is in B minor, and the first chord in the progression is B major. Right away, the chord obscures the expectations you have in your head. Another interesting characteristic of this chord progression is the borrowed V chord. Deadmau5 borrows F♯ major, which includes the or A♯ (or B♭) note. Normally, the 7th note in the B minor scale is A. By borrowing F♯ major, the 7th note in the scale is raised to A♯ (or B♭). This helps nicely lead the progression back “home”, to the I chord.
“Addicted to a Memory” by Zedd also features this use of a borrowed I chord. The chord progression is in C♯ minor, but the first chord you hear is borrowed - C♯ major. However, the chord progression is a bit longer and you get to hear both the major and minor versions of the I chord. This is similar to what happens in Zedd’s 2012 hit - “Spectrum”. You can watch our breakdown of the chords he uses in Spectrum, here: • Theory & Arrangement B...
The next example is “Ghosts n Stuff” by Deadmau5. This chord progression is in B♭ minor, and starts how we would expect it to - with B♭ minor as the I chord. In this case, the borrowed chord is the IV chord. Deadmau5 uses E♭ minor instead of E♭ major. This results in a nice mood change at the end of the progression.
Last but not least, Ryan digs into “Right This Second” by Deadmau5. In this example, Deadmau5 uses a minor and (borrowed) major chord right next to each other. Placing a borrowed major chord right next to the minor chord really emphasizes the mode mixture. This can also be heard in other examples where the borrowed I chord happens right before the progression loops.
This is a must watch for producers looking for creative ways to use mode mixture when they write their chord progressions.
Ryan teaches the Music Theory & Piano courses here at our ground campus. He writes music for a diverse array of mediums including chamber ensembles, rock groups, videogames, and film.
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I like to believe that writing melodies like this not only mystifies the listeners, like you said, but also conveys a human an emotional sense of a joyful life with everyday stress in the background.
Never really appreciated how beautiful "I Remember's" chord progression really is D: That side-chain makes it so euphonious
This proves that deadmau5 is really smart in the way he makes music
I disagree. He is very knowledgeable and does what he feels like doing, which is smart in my opinion.
+&I Can you read?
I wouldn't say "smart" is the right word, he certainly wouldn't want to be called like that either. He just does what sounds good to him.
And he say that he don’t know music theory 😂🤣👌
there you go, someone was explaining brilliant things in music and some kids were just focusing on his nails in the comment section. the teacher was explaining how rules can be broken, the "comedian" was trying to be funny, and the "noble" was trying to defend his nails. damn, I love this world.
One of the main reasons I love Zedd's music is how he does this - resolving minor chord progressions with a relative major key. That's what made Spectrum so good and popular and it's something I try and do often :)
Matthew Koma is the man
Nine inch nails
To all the people commenting on his nails: they are guitar nails. He probably plays classical guitar. It's very common for classical guitar players to have long nails on the hand they strum/pick with.
On both hands? :)))
this is a really cool, well articulated breakdown of what I've heard a lot of. thanks for explaining it so thoroughly
Goes to show that knowing your music theory ironically gives you an edge. Anyone who thinks music theory is useless or pointless isn’t using all the tools in the toolbox
Sweet ! I finally figured out 'I remember' on the piano, using your guide, with the right inversions it just sounds awesome, what a great chord progression. Many thanks
Sooo stoked on these! Thanks a bunch! Keep 'em comin'
Very Informative stuff ;) Love you featured Deadmau5 in your teachings , legend
Another superb tutorial, you guys do the best theory videos.
I really loved this video. Quality stuff. This guy has a good ear!
Deadmau5 just does whatever he wants lmao. He just drag the bars until they sound good to him
Can't argue with that technique though! xD
+Devon Hernandez He has no knowledge in music theory, however. Piano lessons help, but it's still by ear.
who cares ? He is doing fucking great music and not this Martin Garrix Mainstream shit that everyone does
I heard him speak about fifth, seventh and diminished chords on his stream a while back. Now I don't know how much theory he consciously applies while making his progressions but I think he is a lot less clueless than people give him credit for.
Deadmau5 says he cant play.. just draws, in his Masterclass. You can dissect it all you want... he, like so many, putzes around for hours till he hears something he likes, then applies his technique in composition, then, allegedly, masters.
awesome video as usual Pyramind
Very nice tutorial on how to use mode mixing, I understood most of it. I love this new music theory tutorial series as most of what I know is plain boring theory that doesn't do this much variation, keep them coming. 👍🏻
Finally!! Love it! This is the point, where a professional jazz guitarist puts down his (my) axe, and start tweaking!! I think i am not the only one! EDM will explode!!!!!
These are surely on my top favorite videos on youtube, i just love this theory breakdowns, i learn so much, it´s making my music so much richer, Thanks for your beautiful work sharing them with us ;-)
Awesome thing to share. Sometimes the quest to find the right chord is as simply finding the wrong one.
Great tips, and good song selections! i always wondered what gave those progressions that flavor, and it's mode mixing!
Joel (Deadmau5) also does this on Colleen D'Augustino Ft. Deadmau5 - Stay (Drop The Poptart) w/ a 'B Major' to a 'B Minor', I knew you could make "breakin' the rules" still sound good
amount of KNOWLEDGE in this video satisfied me
Great video. Been at it a while and I'm sure that I have written progressions with this concept but never understood that there was anything 'weird' occurring other than the sound. Thanks.
Very very useful video, thanks Ryan!!!
Ryan's diction is so precise that the video is very comprehensible at x2. (protip intended)
Shit, Pyramind videos are so good, loving all the videos on theory at the moment!
Nice nails bro. I think that this is very good information, mode mixing makes the world go round!
Good video!! Learned a lot!!!
I would've liked this video more if you'd given examples on each of the chord progressions while explaining how they would sound like when resolving "per book" so to speak. Otherwise really interesting and explains why those particular songs/chord progressions are so facinating. Thank you!
thanks for this video man
Thanks man! This is great.
Thanks dude. This helps a lot
thats a damn fine serge system in the back
Modal mixture is variation on semi-tone standard pattern of the common Ionian scale or what is known as the "Major scale". So the mode of any given song or piece of music can be thought of as the dimension or frame of the music. You can use modal mixture to add texture to your music by implementing in the emotional changing or lyrical changing parts of the song to add highs and lows. The darker or more clashing of the tones in the scale/mode, the more tension or to add emphasis to a particular given part of a song.
yeah like Joel gives a shit about mix modes, it just sounded right to him on the spot. But thanks for showing us whats going on there.
Pawel Walentynski
you forget that during this time frame, he almost exclusively used Cthulhu from his bro Steve Duda, which at the time he designed his plug-ins around Joel’s input.
Videos on polytonality and rhythmic tricks, please
Love these analysis videos
Nailed it!
fricking amazing dude. i love u
awesome, thank u so much!
Thank you so much!
excellent thank you!
i like this, i like this a lot
Coincidence that Zedd's "Addicted to MEMORY" perhaps "borrows" so heavily from Deadmau5's "I REMEMBER"? Funny, how the former is also about memory/remembering...hmmm
I feel like a lot of electronic musicians start off by the trial and error technique, and therefore create their music aurally. This seems to work a lot of the time for fairly simple chord progressions, typically one chord per bar in common time.
From what iv'e seen, the majority of electronic music producers usually don't come from a western art background. Therefore, we experience a lack of depth in the music we hear. Usually the majority of the time goes into sound design (and sik bass), over melody, phrasing and dynamics. In terms of classical music, you get a lot more time signature and key changes, as well as varying melodic content. Something I admire about Deadmau5 is, even though he admitted that he can't read music, nor would call himself a musician, there is more complexity in the melodies he creates by ear (particularly in the chords). However it is repetitive, but that's expected from a dance track. On the other hand Spectrum by Zedd (who is classically trained) has a much more varying chord progression which gives the song a lot more character. I feel like this is what a lot of edm producers are lacking these days.
TLDR; fuk u Martin Garrix
You do realize most European cultures are still considered western cultures right? And then the majority of classical music is from Europe...
Also there is rare occasions when there are voice leading in chord progressions, the chords are jumping up and down instead of all the notes going smoothly to the next one
Buddy, Martin Garrix is sick. Fuk u GhastlyDesigns.
Sup!!! Durant Miller!!!!
I would like to point out that in the 1990s genres like UK breakbeat hardcore, jungle, gabber, acid, techno/minimal and even idm (most of the time) were just fine without much of the music theory. In fact it's right now when music became bland and boring with all the predictable chord progression things. Back then it was just about unique and spontaneous ideas, more about electroacoustics if anything than music theory.
This is great thanks! Question... 'More Chords' track... Doesn't also borrow the Major 6th chord, from the major scale? Effectively creating a Doren mode?
how can a human come up with chords like these holy cow
Nice
Thanks
Could you do a tutorial showing how to do this with Captain Chords?
Does he play classical guitar, and nice vid :)
yes he does :)
He better, I mean.
I like doing this kind of mode switch in-patch. Put a macro on the octaves. The slide effect between the mode switch can sound nice too ;)
Would love to see the breakdown of Shipwreck, from Modeselektor feat. Thom Yorke, it feels this kind of modal misture as well, and mood is super deep and misterious
please tell me you need those nails for your guitar playing
musicians like to party, you get tired of having to clean your car keys just to take a bump
toilet time must be a bitch.
Bahahahahaha good one.
That split tissue action
Zedd's Spectrum C minor scale used borrowing chord from C major.
I'm a qualified musician but this is really interesting, the last example sounded like he was mixing up the chords from Adagio For Strings, as it's in the same key.
I'm hearing I - IIIM9 - VIM7 - V - IIIM9 - VI7 in "I Remember".
i wonder if people back then were like "fuck that bach guy, he's such a sell out.. EVERYONE is using pickerdy thirds these days"
Dear pyramind, is that mode mixture thing in somekind of double scale in one song which is the major and the minor works together by borrowing notes similar to passing tone? but its just not in the form of melodies, but in chords. please correct me if im wrong and help me to get a better understanding of this.
Game of thrones theme has mode mixing as well starts off in cminor then goes to cmajor
Yes, it does. It happens just for a few repetitions of the melody/theme in the opening and then shifts back to minor.
Yay chords....I was expecting to learn about mixing..
I'm kind of new to this so I don't understand - when talking roman numerals with "I remember" the second chord is a III-7 chord, not the 7th minor scale degree chord right?
Also, there are so many borrowed chords, how would you determine if it was in b major or b minor? Would you consider it b major because it uses the I and V chords?
Does he play spanish guitar??
K100 Yes he does
He is a classical guitar player .His left hand thump nail is to clean his right hand nails.
Can't say no for more ! xD
Great video and very interesting, will certainly give me food for thought in my own compositions. However, why do people insist in calling it G#minor, instead of Aflat minor, which is a bit easier to digest, probably less confusing and easier to notate.
because of the way it relates to the e major and f# major chords. (It is like using the iii as the basis) It would not make any sense in Ab major.
why changes the tone on the 3th note?
the first chords melody is from James Bond movie,,
Okay now I heard picardy third my guess would be deadmau5-Some Chords and Zedd - Spectrum. (Haven't watched the whole video yet)
Great tutorials!
I have a question, what happens here at 1:09? Is that mode mixing aswell?
soundcloud.com/revealed-recordings/bali-bandits-mr-meow-preview
It says the track isn't available in the US. Do you have another link?
Thank You💀👻
I would call this Modulation or using a parallel major or minor key. The phrase ‘mode mixture’ doesn’t sound familiar
check out also N70 from Robby East
Yep. The last chord of the progression switches from minor to Major.
11:08 OH SWEET JESUS
Deadmau5 wouldn't know what a Picardy third was if one fell on his head. :)
hahahaha
Jimmy Page used an A and Am in Gallows pole.
at 8:40 why does he call the second chord VII and not III ? isn't VII A C# E ? Im not expert, i'd like to know if there's a reason :) ty great video anyway
I was just looking at that myself. It is a III (maj7), the progression is I-III-VI-I-V-III, when it repeats he calls it a 3.. (D-F#-A-C#) I'm sure it was just a mistake.
That's also what i thought, thank you :)
Ya, I meant to say III (not VII). There was (maybe still is) an annotation with the correction showing I-III-VI--V-III-VI.
now i have a deeper appreciation for music and long nails.
you're uh....you're welcome
are you a fingerstyle guitarist? i can tell from your nail
there's all these tutorials online breaking down the music theory behind what popular artists do. but the funny thing is, that deadmau5 himself probably has no clue about these music theory details :)
Modal Interchange...;-)
Great video. I wonder if deadmau5 even knows this.
I've read a loooong time ago that he used to download classic music MIDI for fun/inspiration, that could partially explain why he would unknowlingly do it, he assimilated those little nuances about that kind of music. It would also explain why he likes putting some big ass, semi-double hand notes in a chord in the piano roll when you think about it
I'm certain he does, this isn't a very complicated idea in music theory. Hardly advanced theory. Also don't forget he's been working w music for years
He said he has no knowledge of music theory so he couldn't call himself a composer.
I'm sure he has some very basic knowledge. He had piano lessons.
I don't think he works his songs like this, I think he uses his ears rather than extensive musical theory.
I find the Little disclosure when trying to comment on this funny. “Be civil” lol heck i was gonna comment on his nails 💅 but nothing bad just say that i would have a hard time playing keys with nails like that. 😁
What we think Deadmau5 is doing.. deadmau5: *uses Cthulhu*
In the songs they showed in this Cthulhu wasn't even used (except for Right this second). Also, he still has to make the chords Cthulhu just arpegiates them
sometimes
he regularly streams himself writing the chords from scratch
Jean-Luc Picardy third!
lmao saw the nails and knew the first comment had a reference to it
Based on his fingernails. He knows where the good coke is lol. Jk
I wish Pyramind had a New York City campus... :-{
If you can't make it to San Francisco, we offer multiple online programs, as well as one-on-one online mentorship sessions!
For more info on our online courses: www.pyramind.com/training/online-classes/
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Meanwhile Deadmau5 doesn't understand or get what the hell he is talking about. He just does.
I didn't think your finger nails would be that distracting...but man, couldn't focus on what you were saying, gotta clip that stuff away man =/ sorry, seemed interesting / well explained
he scratches the inside of other peoples hands when they dap him up
Does Deadmau5 even know what he's doing? Looking at the snippets from his Masterclass, it looks like he's playing around with the electronic tools and comes up with all the tunes and not with music theory and advanced composition.
KK Hence proven!!! Wo waha hai aur tu yaha!! GFU!!
God .. i cant look away from them !!!!!
ughhh
Dude. The nails though.
The edmund Fitzgerald song has this
but your "I remember" chords are not actually right. Not similar. Do you hear it no?
And here I thought I had long fingernails, this dude must be getting pedicures or something
those nails tho!!!
ok but. deadmou5 use (cthulhu) plugin for arp, it's more simply!! :)
Really?
adiaden yes😉