Coloring with Sound - Ben Levin
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- čas přidán 18. 12. 2017
- Harmony is paint for your ears! Let's form chords like a painter.
Check out the book Harmonic Experience - amzn.to/2BMSjYS
Thank you to my Patreon Pals: / benlevin
My music: www.BenLevinGroup.Bandcamp.com
www.BentKneeMusic.com - Krátké a kreslené filmy
Ben during summer 2017: Let's make a whole composition!
Ben during fall 2017: Some chord progressions!
Ben during winter 2017: Intervals only!
Ben in spring 2018[*]: ....Sounds?
his next video is 4 seconds of him yelling
He runs out of ideas.
Update: he turned into a blender bunny and joined the AI mayor's cult.
Yeasss boy i love the way you think! Keep up the good work!
Never a boring video
This spiral thing is the most accurate statement about music, specially when you are a beginner.
It is accurate on many levels. The first few circles take you awhile because of the bigger circumference you have to journey on. Learning the basics is the biggest chunk you have to pass. After that the journey becomes more about mastering the smaller trails and branches. The beauty of it is that there is no real summit. The journey can continue forever on
I like that I tend to learn ways of thinking about music from you. It makes you stand out from a lot of music channels.
Sounds like a Zelda Dungeon lol
Lately when I've found myself in a rut or writers block I'll watch Ben do his thing and before is over I'm jamming again.
I just noticed: "Embrace Failure" - love it :-)
Doesn't it say, "Embrace Failare"?
Contemporary jazz rabbi.
Thank you for existing.
I admire your continuing commitment to learning and appreciate your generosity by sharing these concepts. This is very inspiring. Thanks and happy holidays.
I want that embrace failure shirt. Ben, this was an amazing video. You are like a musical scientist.
I owe my musical growth to so many CZcams channels, you being the latest, Ben. CZcams may be the greatest musical multi tool ever, and it keeps getting better all the time thanks to so many great musical minds not being greedy with the knowledge they have. I thank you for reinvigorating my alchemical marriage to harmony.
Dear Ben,
I just discovered your channel via your session with Adam Neely and hell man!
I love the way you live and speak about music, your sensibility and creativity, is inspiring.
So, thank you for sharing and you can take my appreciation as a small but sincere christmas gift :)
From a passionate musican to another
About the first analogy you used, in my opinion it seems like the reverse is true - that we start at the TOP of the mountain, and see music as just a "landscape" or a "view", and as we spiral downward and delve deeper, we start to understand minute details, and we can see each individual tree, rather than just a forest beneath us. As well, once we get to the bottom, there is a trampoline at the bottom, and when we jump on it, we can interchange between each type of listening, which I think is how I listen to music - I can either analyze the sounds based on my knowledge, or I can turn off the theoretical switch completely by jumping on this supposed "trampoline" and once again seeing a landscape rather than paying attention in a critical way like I would if I were trying to learn a song by ear, or playing with a band.
Ben I love your videos. They really make me think outside of the box and approach everything in a new and creative way. I am a very classical musician who is stuck thinking fuctionally and I find your videos open up a lot of creativity. Thank you so much you are a LEGEND
yeah, this is kind of like to how I've been approaching harmonies lately, but I came to it from looking at the music of Messiaen and reading a very interesting paper by a man named Brett Clements on Frank Zappa's chord bible which I highly suggest you look into if you haven't already! Intervals are like the genes of harmonic structure, and I think its very important to have control over the interval content of your music. I have a theory that all of the most distinctive composers are especially keyed in and fluent in the effect this has on the overall quality. A good way to practice is to take entire 7 or 8 note scales and figure out how to use them all in a chord and keep them sounding good, there are tons of colors and configurations you can get out of each scale and mode. Then after that you have some vocabulary can start figuring out 7 part voice leadings and instead of thinking about moving to other chords, think about moving to other scales with the intervals within each determining the character and voice movement.
I love the way your brain works! Thanks for sharing it with us. Inspiring ideas Ben.
loving your videos! they are thought-provoking and often inspire new music ideas for me. thank you and keep creating!
I really like this way of looking at harmony, mostly because I haven't learned a lot of traditional theory past the basics, and this perspective on harmony is how I already do things! I think it's much more interesting to create a strange but cool-sounding chord than to completely rely on chords I know with my limited knowledge of music theory.
Fantastic video! The idea of letting yourself enjoy the learning process as exploration really resonated with me.
My little bro wants to be a christian rapper, and I offered to help him write beats (whatever I can do to help him in his faith, ya know?). And I want him to sound like his own rapper, not just another rapper like Sevin, Bizzle or Flame. And this is definitely a good way to make the beats sound original, thank you!
Completely mind blown!
I like comparing harmony to mixing colors. I've, always, referred to songs as paintings. You don't really need to talk about all the painting but maybe describe parts of it; including matisse, color, light, shadow, figures, tendencies and so on.
Thank you, so much, for this. Eye opening and wonderful! You rock, Ben!
always been a little confused on the concept of mixing sounds like mixing colors but this video made it a lot clearer. confused partly because i didnt know what people were really implying and also because i already play with notes in this fashion. I think its just about how freely you would mix colors if you could get any color at the press of a button (like a piano) and that you SHOULD feel free to mix the colors, even though with music theres the weird context of not being able to tune out the result. like when you play a dissonant chord, you have to actually run away to stop hearing it, but with something visually dissonant, most times you can just look away. i dunno. i always kinda sandwiched intervals on top of eachother and i know it has been a successful experimentation. just never really realized how pertinant it is to this concept
I loved this, I'm really excited to be experimenting with ideas using this. Thank you Dr. Ben Levin.
Great video! Love the analogy with color! This video really feels like it will be accessible and useful to a lot of people.
This was a cool brainstorm inspiring thing. Thank you, mister Ben Levin.
You know I’ll be honest, nothing in this video really blew my mind, but I am so utterly ecstatic that you made a video talking about the difference in color between chords. It’s so reassuring to hear someone talk about things that usually just stay up in my head while I study music, and I really look forward to your videos for this reason, to hear someone else talk about these same phenomenon. It makes me feel a little less crazy when I think about these things :) thanks so much for everything you do Ben.
I'm so glad I found your channel. You offers so many awesome lessons and unique perspectives for curios people like me
Keep up the good work, you definitely rock
Bro this video is literally so well timed and relevant to where I am right now thank you definitely will read that book.
dude you're such a helpful youtuber, thank you ben
Yo Ben :)
I think you are really sympathetic as a person. this video's topic is one that I really enjoyed. The only thing on your channel that I liked more than this was your insane zelda series on modes :D
In addition to being being able to color your music, to me this idea is a really inspiring new way to come up with ideas :)
That improv head bob though. Hehe. Thanks for brightening my day
That was brilliant, very interesting perspective that I’ll try out with my own compositions! Thanks Ben
Loved the perspective!
So I've been watching your videos for a while because your musics awesome and its really been helping my music theory understanding, so thank you for that!!! I think the idea of making chords/sounds like you would with paint makes so much sense!!!! It seems like the perfect way to make something that you feel...things that you would paint blue with dashes of purple would translate to certain chords and I just???? /runs off to keyboard coz I'm so inspired rn, thank you so much!!!/
This is such a beautiful concept
What a great video! I really enjoyed Harmonic Experience, too.
Thanks Doc!
Thanks Ben!! Good stuff.
Ben Levin - would you be willing to share your wisdom with us on the binding differences between various fabrics for taping our mic recording devices to our shirts. It would be much appreciated around the community I'm sure. Thanks :)
Not sure what you mean, he's clearly using a lav mic?
I was hoping velcro was involved.
Hey Ben, I love the video. It occurred to me many years ago that every sound has it's purposes. For instance, although certain fifths against the C-G perfect fifth create a dark or odd sound those sounds work well in film. They create suspense or awkward scenes, etc. Keep the videos coming. Thanks, Melodum.
Great Video Ben :) 1st one I've watched after seeing you in Adam's video. Absolutely going to watch the rest now :)
Have a great day :)
you said "royal".....my mind had said "regal". you and i are on that level ben.
loved this, trying it out tomorrow!
Yes! This is kinda how I thought about the way keeping the same tone over different chords, only on a more abstract level. It is the same tone, but it feels different, I'd even say it sounds different. And you put it really nicely into words. :)
This is actually really cool and inspiring!
love you Ben
I came for the knowledge, I subscribed for the hair.
This video here is why I like your demonstrations. Theory but you try to take things outside of the box.
Awesome video as always. Also nice supro in the back!
Mmmm... More singing/hearing tongue twister! Love it. And the mountain metaphor illustration, nice! Will check the book. Thanks doc!
Damn, I love your videos
that CG EB interval sounds like dungeon music from Link To The Past, haha)) especially when it's arpegiated.. wonder if it was inspired/created that way too..
I thought same thing! It's weird, because the Light World Dungeon Theme is based on descending m7-chords, and Dark World Dungeon Theme emphasises tritones.
Ah, someone further down mentioned the ambiguity in maj7-chords: The contain the same notes as m6-chords, i.e Cmaj7 in first inversion is the same as Emin6 (where 6 is the minor 6).
I had a huge flashback from when I was a kid playing Zelda as soon as he hit that chord as well.
It was like my phone magically transformed into my Game Boy Advanced SP with ALTTP inserted in my hands. :p
This idea gave me a whole new perspective to how to choose my chords! Now I don't think I can sleep until I compose something.
I really like that idea of the perspective from the mountain :))
Yes! W.A. Mathieu is the best teacher I have ever had (just by reading his books) and the Harmonic Experience is my bible.
Got some Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past chords in there.
I liked that F# C# C G chord. Sounded like the hero just discovered an important clue just before the commercial break in the early 80's after school special.
This is great perspective 👍🏽
Reminds me a lot of switching power chords on guitar, while playing just the open E and B as arps on top of it. Of course, with a perfect fifth, instead of perfect fourth here, which is harder to do on guitar. However, I really dig the color framework you choose for this - it can be so much more creative to think of these classical intervalls in other ways and forms :)
Thanks for this. I have been reading Harmonic Experience as well. The teacher lives in Sebastapol, California. He's a super funny dude.
thank you sensei levin, gonna try this and taste the rainbow
Found this video while I was looking for drone tape that W.A. Mathieu mentions before first chapter of "Harmonic Experience". Didn't found drone, but this video is goood.
By the way idea of mixing colors and experiential learning strongly corresponds to another book - Josef Albers - "Interaction of color".
Cool ideas Ben! These have a similar kind of feeling to Drop 2&4 chords on guitar. Which are basically 2 fifths on top of each other.
You got a new subscriber, awesome video.
Yesterday I was practicing maj7 inversions with my guitar and I had the same thoughts about that particular one
Great insight! I'm circling the mountain.
You should link to the book on amazon. I love this analogy.
Hey Ben, so good man, thanks so much!
I'm having problems figuring out how to do this on a guitar, but that might be because I never really learned the guitar in an academic way (so more by tabs, not by actual notes).
This seems like a lot of (learning) fun though, I'm gonna try to figure it out correctly. Thanks again!
Very insightful
This was fun and reminded me of a big reason I studied music theory.
Tritones are especially dissonant on equal-tempered keyboards (and another term related to what you demo here is cross-relation, a chromatic notion), but what I’d like to hear you deconstruct is yet another big taboo of western harmony: parallel fifths. I’ll bet I crave them more than you do ‘leading fifths’ (if you will).
Hearing lots of classical music as a boy I knew some motion was missing (in my childish expectation when it was new to my ears). “Why don’t they ever... (I couldn’t explain it)?”
Rules of harmony are for me only as useful as notation, which is also far too limiting.
those were my 2 favorite chords lol
thanks for these ideas. gonna try some :)
Pretty sure that F# C C# G is in the intro to 'When it Rain' by Danny Brown, so even that's usable. Voicings and inversions are a huge part of the sound of chords and I don't think most music education pays enough attention to that, major seventh chords range from spooky to magical depending on where you put the notes.
Thank you
Very Kid A sounding I reckon.
"Everything in its right place" intro kinda thing
glad someone said it XD
Just commented this and scrolled down to find your comment haha
You reckoner?
treefingers for sure
Love It :)
Imagine when we analyze the theory of a song. Now imagine someone composes something with this method and we analyze it. We would be ascribing all these crazy academic names to things when really it doesn’t fit the system that the composer used. Very cool
Lovely.
Question though: How to deal the 'beating' with some colours. Obviously, the sludgey mixtures that create more beating, but some of the nicer sounds still had it a little.
Or is this just an issue with sine waves?
My ear is making all of the combinations of fifths sound relative to each other rather than the pairs of fifths relative to each other so all I feel is rising tension. How do you recommend I try this out in a way where my ear can try and truly feel each chord on its own rather than as a series of rising fifths?
Ever thought of analyzing any piece of music this way (mixing intervals like colors) like breaking down the score and stuff?
(also love how there are lots of kids chanells videos about colloring in my recommended tab after watching this)
awesome vid
it was wondefull, thanks ;)
I've never thought about theory in that way... Nice. Thanks.
oh I was just messing around with this on guitar the other day! I started with the all B and E chord with open strings, and an E power chord on the 7th fret, with the 5th, 4th, and 3rd strings. then I would keep the open strings and moved the power chord around. it's such a coincidence that I just did this sort of thing!
Hey Ben! Any opening tuning with a perfect fifth (for example, cgcgcg) would allow you to do this perfect fifth idea. Keep the 3rd and 4th strings open since they are a fifth and do different fifth voicing fretted on the 1st and second strings barred
Thanks!
Are you John Frusciante? You don’t have to answer now
TheCarrotBush i mean, we have never seen both ben and john in the same room at the same time
TheCarrotBush I like the guys work, but he doesn't look like, or sound like John frusciante (talking or playing)
Josef Albers The Interaction of Collor. There is an ipad app but I don't think it's available otherwise except as a book.. This is the seminal text on color theory but there are many more. A pack of pantone colored paper and you can explode your mind. But maybe you know this...
Really interesting, I'm going to try and stack nines. Reminds of some Thelonious Monk stuff his chords can be pretty out there sometimes.
If you're not using m i n o r ninths, it's basically extended fifths you're stacking. Just food for thought. :)
Hey Ben! Loved this vid. I will put this to practice. Sidenote: What happened to the natural colored tele?
Wow, that G C B E chord sounds like bittersweet memories - if they had a sound.
Awesome
The fifth stuff 3 mins in sounds like Kashmir from Zeppelin
Yo can please somebody tell me what’s up with the CFL lightbulb disguised as a microphone?
Thanks
Ben I've been meaning to respond to another video you made titled Interesting Chords for a while now! It's basically me trying to explain how to make sense of the flat 9/sharp 8 kind of interval in major chords, only problem is I don't have a microphone.. Btw your synth sounds are always so interesting, do you make them yourself? And would you be ok with me making that video? I could make it unlisted and send it to you when it's done, maybe I'll use captions, not sure but the info is pretty exciting imo.
That EB CG feels as an Em6, which is not really common, it's a dark Cmaj7 (sort of)
Em(b6) *
That EBCG reminds me very vividly of something that's on the tip of the tongue, maybe Silent Hill or the save room theme from an early Resident Evil. Think it's one of those.
Wow this demonstration is awsm
Love the sound. What is it?
Lol, why the triplet in the fingernail tho? Really lovely sound! Sounded really cool the walk up with from c to f with the perfect fifth above
this reminds me of idioteque, great lesson, very usefull