Why Voice Leading is ESSENTIAL to The Strokes' Sound || An Analysis of "The Modern Age" Riff
VloĆŸit
- Äas pĆidĂĄn 12. 11. 2022
- Exploring how voice leading can work in a rock/pop context and why it's essential to the sound of certain songs and artists.
đ LINKS:
đ€ Support me on Patreon: / mattygregmusic
đ More info on Private Lessons: âą NOW OFFERING: Matty Gr...
đ€ Sign up for Private Lessons: forms.gle/s6AYdPAhUyXLmZ7m9
--------------------------------
Socials:
TikTok: / mattygregmusic
IG: mattygregmu... - Hudba
this is such a gem to find as someone obsessed with the strokes and who's overly acquainted with voice leading atm due to music alevel and the exam board's preoccupation with bach's 4 part harmony.
something that might be further useful to consider in terms of those two chords is the spacing between the notes (you do mention this briefly ofc!), since for traditional satb voice leading this has a significant effect on the sound. I noticed in the 'proper' voice leading example the spacing of the notes keeps a large distance between what would be considered the bass and tenor line, whereas in the 2nd example it's not only that the notes are more spread out, but that the interval between bass and tenor is diminished in favour of a wider spacing of the upper parts. besides the significance of the major 2nd interval, this difference would likely have accentuated the disjunct/incoherent nature of the accurate example and contributed to why you heard it so strongly when making the initial arrangments.
incredible insights and i definitely think you are on to something there!
This is a goldmine of musical theory. Absolutely love these more lengthy Strokes breakdowns. Please keep doing them Matty!!
@Kirk Wolfe - Indie Music I love Jorge's videos but they offer no explanation to what's happening musically. It's just fantastic tablature. If you want to understood what's happening with the music, these videos are the way to go.
@kirk Love Jorge Orellana so much he is a legend! I always direct people to him when they wanna learn
@94 Sounds, thank you so much for your support!!! It means the world đ„°
@Kirk Wolfe - Indie Music i think comedown machine is ridiculous underrated and will feel definitely be talking about it at some point!
Yes thank u I want to get better at using voice leading with writing my guitars and Iâm in love with the strokes so thank u so much this is the best content I could ever ask for!
So happy you found value in my musings :) good luck on your journey, feel free to share your stuff with me!
When Is This It? came out in 2001 I was in High School. I was done with the only rock music I knew, 90s alt rock. That album brought me and rock music into a new decade and put it back in my life for good. I learned guitar by learning how to play every song from Is This It? and Room On Fire. These songs were so important to me and these breakdowns are an absolute gift. Thanks!!
So happy you are finding value in them, thank you for the support đ„°
I'm a student at the Victoria Conservatory of Music (in B.C., Canada), and I love seeing four-part voice leading broken down and applied in such accessible terms to my favourite band! I love your videos, and am very grateful for your content! Will share, and hope you can make a go of keeping this good thing going. All the best
So awesome to hear! Thank you so much for the support, and good luck on your studies!!
Julian has for sure watched this, stroking his chin and nodding in agreement with Lou Reed and Bach both playing in the background
I need more of these videos. Good lord do I love breakdowns of songs, not many other channels cover the strokes though. You're doing a fantastic job!
Thank you! Yeah, i noticed no one was talking about how intricate this stuff actually is, so i figured I'd step in and fill the gap đ
I am still super new to writing songs, and am super grateful for what you do. This is awesome
Love these videos man, appreciate the great work!!
Great video man, i loved how you paced it!
One of the best videos on music Iâve ever seen. Love the song, cool theory, and excellent presentation. Well done!
thank you so much!!
I feel your passion for this and I love it! Thanks for this. It made my day!
thank you so much for the support! :)
I love your videos. No matter how long it takes between them, I love that you put 100% into them and donât sacrifice quality for quantity!!
You make music theory that Iâve studied very approachable to the average person too, which is a massive skill that so many people, including teachers donât have.
Basically, thank you for being great!!
I love this! Good insight. Keep up this important work!
Tysm, lots more coming up đ€
Would definitely watch some more videos like this Matty keep em coming!
you got it! just put another one up last week!
Great video Matty, love these deeper breakdowns
Tysm đ„° you gotta lmk when ur playing an nyc show!
YESSSIR. this is so cool. we need more like this. i bet julian and albert are gonna love this one too. keep it up manđ
Thank you! In an interview from 2002 jc said he wished people noticed how much work went into the music, and i like to think I'm doing just that now :) shame it took 20 years tho lmao
Please make more videos. I love your passion and energy!!!
another amazing video, I will never tire of your videos on The Strokes! also holy crap your Julian impression is crazy accurate, from delivery all the way to the vocal mixing. the acapella sounds heavenly
thank you so much my friend, I appreciate your support so much! Be on the lookout for a very strokesy original song at the end of the month ;)
Randomly stumbled across this video... wow! Really great, thanks for making this kind of guitar content you don't see too often!
tysm! thats what I aim to do :) felt like this kinda stuff should exist but I just cant find it anywhere...so figured id do it myself
This was probably your best longer video yet imo, you're so into this stuff and it shows and pulls me in too. Now I'm curious how it would sound if you added 1 more voice to the "accurate" choral arrangement that's just the lower octave of the other part. I wonder if it would sound even better!
Hey now youre thinking with portals!! In hindsight, i probably should've done just that as a final illustration of the point!
Thank you so much for watching and for the support đ„°
Fantastic analysis---learned a ton, thanks, LOVE The Strokes!
Thank you so much for the support!
Now I know why it's my favourite Strokes song!
This is a great video and also you're a really clear, straightforward, interesting and fun teacher. You're gonna do great doing music education full-time, whether on youtube, private or otherwise. I'm stoked that a talent such as yours, both musical and educational, didn't get the spark crushed out of you from a life of corporate fuckery. I commend you, sir
Thank yo so very much for this kind and thorough feedback! I will try to make you proud as I continue down this path :)
can't believe I just found your channel, excellent analysis and presentation. love this!!
thank you for your support!
Great video. Learned so much. Keep it up!
Thank you! Lots more coming up đ
Amazing video you break this stuff down super well
I appreciate that so much đ„° lots more coming!
Awesome breakdown, thank you!
thank you for watching!
Wow, excellent breakdown. Thank you for this.
thank you for watching!
This is the exact content I never knew I wanted, so good man.
thank you for your support!
That was great, amazing video!
Tysm đ„°
real nice video, really liked the piano graphics. Some other parts I couldn't really follow, but I still got something out of it.
Very happy to hear you got something out of it! I'm trying my best to figure out ways to visually illustrate these concepts without using sheet music
These videos are so helpful thank u so much pleaaaase make more
Don't gotta tell me twice~
This just popped up on my recommended and I hardly understand any of the concepts you mentioned but Iâm glad I tuned in, Iâve been trying to learn guitar for a while
Thank you for watching!! Hope you're enjoying learning guitar :) i teach lessons online if you're interested!
Dude thatâs is amazing! Truly valuable and information dense
Thank you so much for watching and supporting! Hope you found someone useful:)
@@mattygregmusic Iâve been obsessed with it for the past few days while I was sick and it inspired me. Thank you for making it!
Really into these videos you do! Iâd really love an explanation on the way the instruments join together in the reptilia chorus. Especially with it sounding like thereâs almost 3 guitars being played (excluding bass) with how Nick+alberts parts mesh together gets pretty confusing when you try and pick out where each notes are coming from. Difficult to explain but at first glance it looks like it should be a sonic mess but they come together incredibly
I agree, the parts of reptilia are borderline chaos but they come together so beautifully it's kinda crazy! In general i can't wait to get to room on fire stuff because it expands on the principles of the first album in such a great way!
More Strokes please! Iâm subscribed instantly
Don't gotta tell me twice
What a gem of a channel Iâve just discovered
I'm honored and humbled, thank you for your support :)
i loved this!!! hell yeah more pls đ€©
twist my arm about it why dontya đ
@@mattygregmusic đđđđđđ
YES, well explained, gratifying, yay thank you :)
Hopefully i gave you some gratisfaction đ„°
As a guitarist my mind is blown right now. Never heard of this before
I encourage you to try approaching part writing and playing with this mindset from time to time, can be very illuminating! In the future I will be talking about applying voice leading concepts like this to just one guitar; getting more into that fractal concept I mentioned
Thanks for the video. Its interesting when you talk about how to arrange for different instruments. Just to give another perspective, im a producer. The "octave" concept can get really diffuse if you think about harmonics as every sound can be placed higher or lower in the register, even being the same note, just because of the weights of each harmonic and the number of them. I think that an interesting approach is to take voices as groups of harmonics. For example, some melodies take more than one instrument to really cut through a piece of music, this blend of instruments could be thought as a blend of harmonics, wich would make clear how this instruments are cutting through the music. Classical music usually treats this topic as a really important one, and you can see really unorthodox ways of using timbre and harmonics (i specially enjoy the post romantic era).Today its easier than ever to consider this approach as we have DAWs with lots of plugins to monitorize and alter sounds. Im not an expert arranger, and i dont know if theres any articulated and academic way of expressing this ideas. I would love if you make a video on how timbre/ harmonics affects arranging.
Harmonics are FASCINATING and their role in a production should not be overlooked. Paul Davids actually has a really good video on how the harmonics of distorting electric guitar change how you perceive a riff or chord. I might definitely be interested in exploring that concept myself đ€đ€đ€
really cool video, i think you're very didactic, good work, gonna watch more of your videos for sure
thank you so much!
Great video mate. Keep it up, I think you can do really well âïžđ
Thank you for the support!
Ok that octave explanation at the end was sick
This channel will be at 50k next year and 200k by the following one. Mark my words.
I appreciate your faith in me ! Lets get 'er done đȘ
Thanks for another great video. And letâs not forget: Julian wrote and arranged all of it. Every single note, every chord, every wordâŠ(Your hair looks great btw)
Yes, the man is an absolute legend for arranging the entire thing himself!
And tysm đ„°
Definitely keep it up!
You got it đ
@@mattygregmusic one day I'd like to send a song from our band and get a breakdown! Haha
I came here thinking I was going to learn about voices. Now I leave with way more knowledge than I previously had 18 min ago. Really great video! Thank you!
That's the best feedback you could possibly give me :) ty for watching :)
Acapella cover. PLEASE. You're already almost there!!!
Haha youre right! Check back next week!
Great!!!!! Thanks!!!!!
Brilliant video. Never knew I needed The Strokes 'This is it' by The Beach Boys until now! Imagine Brian Wilson reconvened with the rest of the band and covered the entire album in a late career curveball masterpiece! Mike Love would hate it đ€Ł
Lmao Mike love would indeed hate it but we would love it đ should i do more strokes a capella??
Love this series! You should do a video about how The Strokes use arpeggios!
Oh for sure! Their use of awhile arpeggios is amazing!
Great video thanks
Ty for watching :)
The intro sounds like Brian Wilson meets The Strokes. Now I need more.
Wow should i make a whole gosh dang song with the intent of mixing Brian Wilson with the strokes lmao
@@mattygregmusic please do it my friend! Plus I'm sure Julian will love it.
I LOVE THIS VIDEOS
Just signed onto your patreon big man. Keep it up king. Corporate jobs stink, wicked music content rocks
đČđČđČ youre the goat!!! Thanks so much my friend, i look forward to chatting with you on discord đ
Thatâs a hot Nashville tele
Thank you! It's a partscaster I did myself!
this is an amazing video a treasure
No u đ„°
Bro, lovely video. Love from India. I'm actually going to see the Strokes live in January. I never in my wildest dreams thought they would play here but it's happening and I'm so excited. Can't wait to consume all your strokes-related videos as well haha. Which video of yours did Albert Hammond comment under btw?
congrats!! I hope all Strokes fans in India get to see them!!
He commented under my hard to explain short on IG!
Have fun at Lollapalooza!
More strokes content PLEASE
Don't gotta ask me twice
Love this passionate and fascinating analysis, I think you really cracked open something for me here in my own arranging! Cheers
that's one of the best things you could say!! thanks for the support :)
I find something likely in Barely Legal.. just before the chorus, some kind of tension. Seems that one guitar is playing a total different chord than the other. Great video by the way
Agreed, barely legal is very cool and i will be taking about it!
Amazing content, man!
Shoutouts for the Ocarina of Time reference.
THANK YOU you're the first to comment on it
i understood none of this but i still watched it all bc i love the strokes
That's amazing haha! I'm trying to use music theory to talk about how amazing songs are! Whereas i feel like a lot of music theory content uses songs to talk about theory...
Lol me too. I tried. I know the strokes sounds great though đ
I donât know why Iâm commenting this but life is such a funny journey (get it lol)
I discovered the strokes during the lowest time of my life and that made me reconsider everything in my life, especially the route that I was taking in terms of studies etc.
Basically the strokes music made me realise that if there was something that could still make me want to live, that was music.
so after a year and a half Iâm studying to get into conservatory and Iâm now studying the basics of harmony etc and seeing these videos made me realise how far Iâve come lol thatâs so cool
Fascinating story! Good luck on your journey, Im sure I and others are very happy to have you here with us :)
i may not know what the heck yoire talking about but its very interesting and fun and i love the strokes so â€â€â€
Very cool. Would love to see you break down something by the Beach Boys or Animal Collective like this.
both great bands! could def see myself breaking some of that down!
strokes, white stripes, yeah yeah yeahs hell interpol, all super interesting bands to work out their complexities
did stripes for two years, pretty standard Penta sub major but, the way the would do major chords with the minor sixth/third - just a but odd
def interested in learning more of the stokes and the greats from this distinct era of garage rock revival and harmony
its a very fascinating style & era of music!
I learned guitar through song lessons on YT. I donât understand most of everything he is saying in this video. Anyone have any advice as to where to start learning theory, how to write music, improvisation etc? Starting to hit that plateau in my development
In my first long form video "how the strokes use downstrokes", i outline some good places on yt to start learning theory!
Good video
Can you do something like this for interpol?
finally. thanks for making this and great decision to abandon that corpo crappp to get into something you obviously love and excel at. takes a lot of bravery to do it. keep them coming.
Tysm for the support đ„° both with the content and in regards to quitting the job đ should I keep going headfirst into strokes territory? What other artists might you be interested in hearing about?
@@mattygregmusic
man, it is such an important decision you really deserve all the prize. also, the content is educational, well presented and I love longer stuff that can get into depth. so you tick all the boxes.
since you asked about other artists... well, I am biased. four years ago I started making music as I had two songs in my head for almost 20 years. so, I was studying bits of theory and figured out what JC does is a lot of voice leading. fast forward a bit, and I discovered your channel looking for theory behind the strokes.
there is really very little info about the way JC composes music. so, i am happy you are covering that gap. i have no idea how good of a business decision that is or how youtube works so i don't feel like giving advice on that.
however, whatever artist/topic you cover, I think you will get the best results if you pick those you are passionate about. like the strokes :D
or even general stuff like composing, arranging... whatever it is that makes you happy to do it when you get out of bed. basically, whatever makes your mood entirely opposite of what you felt when you had to wake up for that corporate job :D
wish you all the luck!
@@mamutakada you sound like you're speaking from experience!! We're you stuck in a corpo job too at one point? đ
I'm not sure exactly what the most sound business choice is either but i think you're right on the money- as long as i keep consistently put out videos on content I'm passionate about, the rest will follow :)
Tysm for your support!
@@mattygregmusic it takes one to know one I slugged at IBM for two years... it all went downhill the first day when they started throwing chocolate bars across the office for "right answers".
Absolutely great! Thanks for sharing it. Just wondering tho, why are you calling F# (mi) and G (fa), is that a mistake or am I missing something?
Thank you for watching! I use moveable Do!
more more more more more strokes!!!
def more strokes coming
Hey! Thank you for this great video! Can you explain why your âdo re mi fa⊠â do not match with the actual notes? It is my understanding that do=C re=D mi=E etc etc⊠did you change them for the chord numbers?
Thanks for watching! I use Moveable Do; so in the key of D: D = do, E = re, F# = mi, etc. But in the key of F: F = do, G = re, A = mi, etc
I got to work with the producer of that first album. It was a great time and we produced some good tracks.
Yo I'd love to meet Gordan Raphael... Didn't he just write a book?
@@mattygregmusic i need to check that out, he was a blast to work with and is just so nice. He really understood what i do and we clicked so well.
nice job also i gota question
is the "julian voice" your natural voice just in singing mode? (idk i'm tired and singing mode basically means when someone is singing)
Our voices are way more versatile than a lot of people think! While it is true that my voice works well with a "Julian voice", i am certainly putting on an affectation and trying to sound like him, though over time it kindve becomes habit to the point where ones "natural voice" will start to doing similar to that as a default
@@mattygregmusic ah I see.
Thanks!
Angles and Comedown Machine are my favorite Strokes albums
Angles is great & Comedown Machine is criminally underrated
This is cool
wowza
after listening to the modern age rough version the normal one it seems so slow to me
yeah the tempo difference is wild
Do you think they kept that voice leading mentality on their most recent album The New Abnormal?
Absolutely! I think it permeates literally everything they've ever done
Most interesting..the interplay between Albert and Nick reminds me of... it's gonna sound nutty maybe, but Dave Mustaine and whoever he's had as second guitar in Megadeth over the years. It's so detailed and intracate. We know Julian is behind the details and he got the right choice of musicians to carry out his vision. I always ask the question though: why the Strokes never made major inroads in America? I'm beyond happy they never broke it off! Thank you for breaking down the genius of Julian.. it's incredible!
hey tysm for this insightful comment and your support! I totally hear what you're saying about megadeth! metal was heavily influenced by rock and there was lots of makings of the "dual guitar" sound there, such as one of the strokes' main influences: thin lizzy! I also think there is 100% a solid but hidden amount of hardcore & punk in the strokes' dna, and those genres took a lot from metal as well! the connections are there hehe
@@mattygregmusic Brilliant observations đđđđ..and I didn't think Thin Lizzy would be an obvious influence..duh on me! Perfect answers, thank you!!!đžđâïž(and thanks again for your compliment, you are the best Strokes/Julian scholar âïžâïžâïž)!
@@leticiabromley6013 I am honored to be seen as a Strokes Scholar, ty đ
@@mattygregmusic you are most welcome, as is your Strokes support..we need you!!! Can I ask your opine about why America has never gone raging mad over these deserving men? I mean, l never saw Queen being as accepted here as they were, for that matter I'll throw in The Cars (for Ric Ocasek's unique visage alone). Anyhoo, I digress.. Share your thoughts if you want!âïžđ
@@leticiabromley6013 i believe it is understood and documented that JC and the Strokes boys made deliberate decisions to keep their fame suppressed to a certain extent. No doubt if they wanted to be, they could have been bigger than the killers or arctic monkeys or what have you. I personally very much respect their choice to remain in a position where they'd have more creative liberty.
That being said, they are clearly extremely beloved and influential, easily among the most influential musicians of this century. "your favorite band's favorite band" kinda thing
Great video! I think you got the notes wrong tho, isn't D a Re? Or are you considering the 1st note of the octave a Do?
I'm using movable Do!
@@mattygregmusic that makes sense. You defo proved that you have a lot of music theory knowledge so i couldn't understand why you were saying that :)))) Great work! You're like a new Rick beato (i mean that in a good way xD)
the oot joke is incredible
omg ty for noticing, no one else has mentioned it hahah
I find the second ("accurate") voicing example to sound closer to the song. I don't find the major second clash to stand out as constant throughout this section, because Nick's part is inherently stabby anyway and would stand out without tonal clashing. The second chord works like a "home" for me. Having a clash and then not having a clash creates more musical movement.
I see what you're saying! I agree on having clash then no clash being a nice musical movement but that is what happens in the song: D (no clash), Dadd2(clash), Gadd6(clash), G(no clash); tension then release!
The syncopated rhythm of Nick's guitar is of interest, as you pointed out but i think that's something that works really well in this case: it only activates the major 2nd clash when he plays! I definitely would posit that that phenomenon contributes to the essential core of the arrangement, therefore keeping the major 2nd an essential element
Mb I donât understand lol how does making the riff octaves help the voice leading?
It ensures there is a Major 2nd interval in both add chords!
Ohhhh I get it lol love ur channel btw insane info
I'M CHOOOOOOOOOORRRRLLINGG!
same
Is this "voice leading" though? I'd describe it more as "chord inversions". Isn't voice leading more like passing notes (in key/scale) leading I to a chord change?
It is indeed voice leading! voice leading is essentially the horizontal movement of voices in relation to each other and the overall harmony. This can include passing notes, but it doesn't have to. what you're referring to as "chord inversions" would be called "chord voicing", which is the vertical arrangement of a harmony. Also, inversion means having a note other than the root of the chord in the bass. There are no inversions in this example. I hope this helps, lmk if you're still confused!
Operation: Get Matty Velcro To Organize Cables is a go
They're organized to ME đ€đ€đ€
Main takeaway - the major second interval maintains tension in the riff.
Exactly!
dude, that intro sound better than the whole original song.
I am flattered but i definitely like the original more myself :)
I do the same when i compose and i didn't notice
now you know what its called!
The notes are the what, the intervals are the _why._
Now that's a great way to put it!
An acapella version of the modern age was apparently all that was missing from my life
Check out shonkywonkydonkey
@@prismix0870 that's incredible lol thanks for the recommendation
@@scottcombs3882 haha no worries
i love that vid hahaha
đ
Just commenting to help the algorithm
tysm đ
5:12
I thought you were gonna sing, 'Fat Bottom Girls' by Queen.....Aahhhhhhhhhhhhh Won't you take me home tonight? Aaahhhhhhhhhhh beside the warn firelight? Aaaaahhhhhh won't you give it all you got, fat bottomed girls you make the rockin' world go round!'