NEW COURSE! Making Music For Yourself: benlevinmusicschool.com/p/making-music-for-yourself Chord Progression Notation: www.dropbox.com/s/93yawzmewmi...
I tried making a little something with these chords after watching and not only can they just go on forever, I've also found it impossible to break out of the sequence in a smooth and satisfying way. Now I'm stuck in my DAW endlessly modulating the same sequence. I think I might die here.
Ben, maybe what's happening is that the major 7th chords act like pivot chords (since both the keys of F and Bb share a Bbmaj7 chord and the keys of Bb and Eb share an EbMaj7 chord), which causes the chords to sound surprising, but not too distant. Another explanation can be that the first maj7 in the progression is acting as a secondary dominant for the next chord, which itself is the dominant chord that would resolve to the final chord (Only that instead of using dom7th chords you use Maj7 chords so there's not a lot of tension in each chord). And maybe the reason it sounds endless is because the modulations are always in whole tones (Which would imply that you are moving through the whole tone scale, which in itself feels endless). Thoughts? (Sorry if my English is not perfect, it is not my first language).
I really like this expansion on these ideas! Music theory always has more layers to dig down, and it's so fun to see what knowledgable folks can uncover :D
I see comments all the time...on this here internet...that are SO lucid and well phrased...only to come to the end and read, "sorry if this isn't perfect, english isn't my first language." I think people need to realize...most English speaking people don't...speak English...this well. Just saying. Much love to you and your comment. :}
Dunno if it's what's happening here, but maybe it'd be possible to create an endlessly falling sound by emulating a Shepard's Tone. Have chords that create a parallel descending harmony, with extensions above and below, so (hopefully) the listener is drawn mainly to the triads in the middle, and pays less attention to what's happening in the periphery, doesn't notice new high notes being added and low notes not continuing to walk downwards after each loop.
Music theory teacher back when I was at college would be extremely disappointed if anyone would call a maj7 chord a dominant, lol. Here's another way to look at this progression: every maj7 acts as a IV chord when it first appears and then becomes a I chord in retrospect when the next maj7 is played. That way all implied #11s are natural to their respective keys. So you can think that first 2 bars are in C, 3rd in F, and 4th bar in Bb. E7#9 in that case is an actual secondary dominant (like Creep or Yesterday). At least that's how I see it.
I really love that you're explaining this chord progression I've heard in your videos for years (the first time I can remember was "Music Theory to Explain God's Absence" but I'm certain there have been other examples). It's such a cool progression and it's a gift to hear your explanation for it. The Radiohead cover was also an unexpected treat. I look forward to taking your new course! It sounds like exactly what I need right now.
I really like what you are doing! The video left me with a very nice feeling, and "Making Music For Yourself" is such a cool and wholesome idea! I'm gonna check it out :D
I’ve just found this channel. The presentation is SO fantastic. “Tim and Eric” music theory is something I never knew I needed in my life, but it really works - totally engaging - thanks for creating.
I love how you explain every part of the thought process. This is how I want to get better at harmony, to understand how every note of a chord works in context, what do they change about the sound. Thank you for this lesson Ben!
When Ben transitioned from the metaphorical to the practical!! Lessons, I dare say, Adam might take heed of! Great job at concisely letting us know why these progressions work!!!
This is better than all those gospel and neo soul tutorials that speed through a bunch of complucated extensions, add ons, and passing chotds without really explaining what's going on.
I think the fact that the second chord of a loop is nominally the same as the final chord of a previous loop is doing a lot of work here. It sets the "Ebmaj7" up to be part of a sort of offbeat cadence that immediately gets swept up in a chain of IV/IVs.
Very cool video! I recently felt a similar experience with Steve Swallow's Falling Grace. That tune feels like it can go on forever, and I think the maj7 chords book-ending the form are a big part of why.
Wow - can't believe I've only just found your channel. What a cool progression idea - although that sharp 9 is a bit spicy for my ear to hear first thing. I'll try to find a gentler way to set up the tension. Great work - thanks for sharing. :)
The end of this progression is legend of zelda goodness. (prelude music for Zelda III, that BbMaj7 to EbMaj7 is my childhood nostagia in musical form.).
Oh wow....an ad on CZcams that I'm actually very ok with. The bit at the end...I am 100% purchasing that. I've been aware of your one on one music school zoom kinda thing for a while...and I really want to do it.....but also, I'm just at a place where...I can't, for technical reasons...but also I just feel stuck, and not super keen on sharing that in person. Anyway........ All that to say....if you're saying, if I send you cash munny, I get all those videos? Sold. Just from the clips you showed and the overall outline/thesis...this is what I need right now. Thanks Ben! Gonna buy this after work tomorrow. :) * also I just realized how suspiciously gushing that sounded. I promise I literally don't know Ben...I'm just some human who is a big fan and then saw that bit at the end and got excited. :P
One thing I would like to note about the Bb in Fmaj7 is that it *can* sound restful if voiced with the places of the major third and natural eleventh switched, or with the Bb placed in the bass as in a slash chord, but even if one were to do this, the vibe would draw the ear inevitably towards the following Bbmaj7 chord through voice leading in the same way that doing so with the Eb in Bbmaj7 would guide the ear to the Ebmaj7. Likewise, the upper structure Gmaj triad in the E7#9 leads naturally into the component Fmaj and Amin shapes which comprise the Fmaj7 just as the Emaj leads up into the Fmaj. It's really quite clever!
I released a song recently called "Don't Come In" that has a similar idea but goes up a half step each progression. Gadd9 - Cmaj7 - F - Fm - Fm7 V - I7 - IV - iv - iv7 Instead of going back to the G major, the m7 can be used to go to the five chord of the C# major scale. So now you can play the same progression but a half step up and it doesn't even sound like you modulated. G#add9 - C#maj7 - F# - F#m - F#m7. And so on
The new course "Making Music For Yourself", if anyone reading this is confused by what I meant. I'm not lacking inspiration currently. But times and moods change, always, and presumably the course will be there for a while at least.
Damn, Ben releases a """normal""" video and all of a sudden it's like, this video, what would normally be normal, all of a sudden this normal IS THE NEW WEIRD. Haha, my brain has been rewired by this channel.
This chord progression is sick. I have a similar way to think of it. If you are a follower of Barry Harris' harmonic theory (I consider myself to be one), the E7#9 is a diatonic chord in C major (Ab is a note in C Major, see diminished 6th scale). So to me, E7#9 and F major are diatonic to the Key of C (you seem to agree that F is lydian, so C major). Then, we modulate when we get to Bb. Bbmaj7 Ebmaj7 D7#9 Ebmaj7 are the 1, 4, 3 and 4 of Bb major. Then go down a whole step, and repeat. If you look at it this way, it's 1,4,3,4, then going down in whole steps (the 3 is a 7#9, but still diatonic in the BH world). Dope chord progression!
Something cool that you can do with this idea is making low voices get quieter and high voices get louder, so that you can make it sound like the song is endlessly looping AND endlessly falling (which sounds contradictory). The idea comes from the concept of Sheperd's Tone and I actually made a piece called Sheperd's Temple for a Celeste custom level OST using this idea a while ago (although in my piece the loop was longer and it went down by minor thirds as opposed to major seconds)
@@juliesleepydyingmess5443 well the song is on my channel, but I never published the level, since I didn't finish it, maybe I should get back on it and finish it hahaa
Ooh, it's kinda like the backwards version of the 'aways ascending' progression from 'Dirty Boy' by Cardiacs. In so far as it's always modulating downwards anyway. Cool!
Yes it works because you’re going round the circle of 5ths in the other direction (so circle of 4ths) if you see the 2 middle chords of each sequence as focal points, it becomes very apparent, just my opinion ❤ have a good one!
Cool! But now you need to do some octave trickery in the arrangement so it can loop forever like a shepherd tone. I've accomplished this a few times using augmented 7th chords
Ben was hiding in my bushes this morning. I told him he scared me, and he left without incident. It was the third time this month, but I know he can't help it. It's okay, Ben. 🐢
It's roughly in the key of Aminor at the beginning, with the E7 being the V7 and the Fmaj7 being the bVImaj7 but it quickly moves to A phrygian when the Bbmaj7 appears i don't think of it in those terms personally though.
Something like the way that *Dirty Boy* ascends ever upwards? (You could mix the two and do some hot musical thermal soaring perhaps?) The *Joe Parish* cover (just in case you want to follow up with The Rites of Spring). czcams.com/video/xx15Gr2nRME/video.html
I tried making a little something with these chords after watching and not only can they just go on forever, I've also found it impossible to break out of the sequence in a smooth and satisfying way. Now I'm stuck in my DAW endlessly modulating the same sequence. I think I might die here.
Creepy Ben :D
Creepy Ben is creepy
Ben, maybe what's happening is that the major 7th chords act like pivot chords (since both the keys of F and Bb share a Bbmaj7 chord and the keys of Bb and Eb share an EbMaj7 chord), which causes the chords to sound surprising, but not too distant. Another explanation can be that the first maj7 in the progression is acting as a secondary dominant for the next chord, which itself is the dominant chord that would resolve to the final chord (Only that instead of using dom7th chords you use Maj7 chords so there's not a lot of tension in each chord). And maybe the reason it sounds endless is because the modulations are always in whole tones (Which would imply that you are moving through the whole tone scale, which in itself feels endless). Thoughts? (Sorry if my English is not perfect, it is not my first language).
I really like this expansion on these ideas! Music theory always has more layers to dig down, and it's so fun to see what knowledgable folks can uncover :D
I see comments all the time...on this here internet...that are SO lucid and well phrased...only to come to the end and read, "sorry if this isn't perfect, english isn't my first language."
I think people need to realize...most English speaking people don't...speak English...this well.
Just saying. Much love to you and your comment. :}
Woah
Dunno if it's what's happening here, but maybe it'd be possible to create an endlessly falling sound by emulating a Shepard's Tone. Have chords that create a parallel descending harmony, with extensions above and below, so (hopefully) the listener is drawn mainly to the triads in the middle, and pays less attention to what's happening in the periphery, doesn't notice new high notes being added and low notes not continuing to walk downwards after each loop.
Music theory teacher back when I was at college would be extremely disappointed if anyone would call a maj7 chord a dominant, lol. Here's another way to look at this progression: every maj7 acts as a IV chord when it first appears and then becomes a I chord in retrospect when the next maj7 is played. That way all implied #11s are natural to their respective keys. So you can think that first 2 bars are in C, 3rd in F, and 4th bar in Bb. E7#9 in that case is an actual secondary dominant (like Creep or Yesterday). At least that's how I see it.
I really love that you're explaining this chord progression I've heard in your videos for years (the first time I can remember was "Music Theory to Explain God's Absence" but I'm certain there have been other examples). It's such a cool progression and it's a gift to hear your explanation for it. The Radiohead cover was also an unexpected treat.
I look forward to taking your new course! It sounds like exactly what I need right now.
"I shouldn't be here with the less creepy guys... CREEP" Next level, no one is doing it like Ben
best way to get into a good mood for my interview today thanks man
You’re gonna do great! No good luck necessary, just confidence. Believe in your excellence!
hey it’s me your interviewer. Just letting you know you got the job! Congrats Ean, happy to have you here.
good luck!
That creep cover brightened up my day 😂 😂
I can't wait to have enough time to study this kind of thing
you read 30 pages of simplified theory of harmony by H. Riemann then you can already tell us more interesting things than this progression
@@emanuel_soundtrack thanks for the heads up about the book!
I really enjoyed this video Ben. It checked all the boxes of a great video from you. I appreciate you sharing this knowledge with us. Keep it up!
I really like what you are doing! The video left me with a very nice feeling, and "Making Music For Yourself" is such a cool and wholesome idea! I'm gonna check it out :D
Love your creative and fun take on making music!
Diggin the new Chords, and the new look Ben.
You're a beautiful dude.
Amazing lesson Ben ❤
I’ve just found this channel.
The presentation is SO fantastic.
“Tim and Eric” music theory is something I never knew I needed in my life, but it really works - totally engaging - thanks for creating.
Fantastic video!
I love how you explain every part of the thought process. This is how I want to get better at harmony, to understand how every note of a chord works in context, what do they change about the sound. Thank you for this lesson Ben!
Amazing! Thanks 🙏
Actually so genius to plug the course at the end with the fully orchestrated chord progression that we’ve been waiting to hear lol
So you're trying to lead the four-chord loop crowd down the primrose path to the idea of sequences. I approve. I'm tired of four-chord loops.
What an amazing video. Can't wait to use these ideas in my own music
I love this progression. And the progression with the falling I - IV - V s is very cool as well.
You are great Ben
When Ben transitioned from the metaphorical to the practical!! Lessons, I dare say, Adam might take heed of! Great job at concisely letting us know why these progressions work!!!
Insane production value, Ben
This is better than all those gospel and neo soul tutorials that speed through a bunch of complucated extensions, add ons, and passing chotds without really explaining what's going on.
such beauty to be found in the sounds 🎼🎵
these are gonna be in my head all week now!
I think the fact that the second chord of a loop is nominally the same as the final chord of a previous loop is doing a lot of work here. It sets the "Ebmaj7" up to be part of a sort of offbeat cadence that immediately gets swept up in a chain of IV/IVs.
Music Theory to Explain God's Absence tattoo'd this progression in my brain. Instantly recognized it.
Tagline: The music theory of “Music Theory to Explain God’s Absence!”
@@RobertDPore True. A welcome contribution to the Ben Levin cinematic universe!
What a great discovery! just what I need to know and with a great, totally aesthetic edition. Subscribed
Ben that was so cute, thank you for the lesson.
Very cool video! I recently felt a similar experience with Steve Swallow's Falling Grace. That tune feels like it can go on forever, and I think the maj7 chords book-ending the form are a big part of why.
Brilliant! Well done. B natural forever!!
Whilst watching this, I am eating Virginia Diner Zatarain's Spicy Cajun peanuts. For these things I am grateful.
Wow - can't believe I've only just found your channel. What a cool progression idea - although that sharp 9 is a bit spicy for my ear to hear first thing. I'll try to find a gentler way to set up the tension. Great work - thanks for sharing. :)
Doctor ben levin strikes again!
The end of this progression is legend of zelda goodness. (prelude music for Zelda III, that BbMaj7 to EbMaj7 is my childhood nostagia in musical form.).
Totally.
Very Zelda
With strong chords comes strong modulation.
The thumbnail is insane ⭐⭐⭐
Ben is the bestest! x
This is epic!!
that creep cover was on point man 😂
Oh wow....an ad on CZcams that I'm actually very ok with. The bit at the end...I am 100% purchasing that.
I've been aware of your one on one music school zoom kinda thing for a while...and I really want to do it.....but also, I'm just at a place where...I can't, for technical reasons...but also I just feel stuck, and not super keen on sharing that in person.
Anyway........ All that to say....if you're saying, if I send you cash munny, I get all those videos? Sold. Just from the clips you showed and the overall outline/thesis...this is what I need right now.
Thanks Ben!
Gonna buy this after work tomorrow. :)
* also I just realized how suspiciously gushing that sounded. I promise I literally don't know Ben...I'm just some human who is a big fan and then saw that bit at the end and got excited. :P
this is great
Nice lesson.
THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR I'm an absolute beginner but I want so bad to learn psychoacoustic illusions
That reminded me of some of the suspenseful music used in the film You Only Live Twice.
Eye-filling chord progression🙂🥲😢😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Can’t help hearing Wayne Shorter’s E.S.P. every time you hit that E7#9 Fmaj7. Also the same chords in Some Day My Prince Will Come.
One thing I would like to note about the Bb in Fmaj7 is that it *can* sound restful if voiced with the places of the major third and natural eleventh switched, or with the Bb placed in the bass as in a slash chord, but even if one were to do this, the vibe would draw the ear inevitably towards the following Bbmaj7 chord through voice leading in the same way that doing so with the Eb in Bbmaj7 would guide the ear to the Ebmaj7. Likewise, the upper structure Gmaj triad in the E7#9 leads naturally into the component Fmaj and Amin shapes which comprise the Fmaj7 just as the Emaj leads up into the Fmaj. It's really quite clever!
Still remember this one from your video "Music theory to explain god's absence", It really stood out to me there!
I released a song recently called "Don't Come In" that has a similar idea but goes up a half step each progression.
Gadd9 - Cmaj7 - F - Fm - Fm7
V - I7 - IV - iv - iv7
Instead of going back to the G major, the m7 can be used to go to the five chord of the C# major scale. So now you can play the same progression but a half step up and it doesn't even sound like you modulated.
G#add9 - C#maj7 - F# - F#m - F#m7. And so on
Well, I don't need this course at the moment, but will keep it in my mind's attic, hopefully to be remembered when I do need it.
The new course "Making Music For Yourself", if anyone reading this is confused by what I meant. I'm not lacking inspiration currently. But times and moods change, always, and presumably the course will be there for a while at least.
ben good man best man c:
Jeez, I look away for just a couple years and suddenly your production values have increased 10-fold
Your music is what I imagine would play in heaven, if heaven was filled with people as awesome as you
Damn, Ben releases a """normal""" video and all of a sudden it's like, this video, what would normally be normal, all of a sudden this normal IS THE NEW WEIRD. Haha, my brain has been rewired by this channel.
Now I know about music. Thanks.
This chord progression is sick. I have a similar way to think of it. If you are a follower of Barry Harris' harmonic theory (I consider myself to be one), the E7#9 is a diatonic chord in C major (Ab is a note in C Major, see diminished 6th scale). So to me, E7#9 and F major are diatonic to the Key of C (you seem to agree that F is lydian, so C major). Then, we modulate when we get to Bb. Bbmaj7 Ebmaj7 D7#9 Ebmaj7 are the 1, 4, 3 and 4 of Bb major. Then go down a whole step, and repeat. If you look at it this way, it's 1,4,3,4, then going down in whole steps (the 3 is a 7#9, but still diatonic in the BH world). Dope chord progression!
I like that the Fmaj7 consists in the notes "FACE"
Best music education in the universe
Finally, music education that both my cat and I can enjoy
I might have to sample that singing duck😅
Oh this is from Ben Show 4 my favorite youtube video of all time
Something cool that you can do with this idea is making low voices get quieter and high voices get louder, so that you can make it sound like the song is endlessly looping AND endlessly falling (which sounds contradictory). The idea comes from the concept of Sheperd's Tone and I actually made a piece called Sheperd's Temple for a Celeste custom level OST using this idea a while ago (although in my piece the loop was longer and it went down by minor thirds as opposed to major seconds)
where can I find that Celeste custom level? that's a realy cool idea and I'm always down to play more Celeste :)
@@juliesleepydyingmess5443 well the song is on my channel, but I never published the level, since I didn't finish it, maybe I should get back on it and finish it hahaa
Nice, a Shepard Riff.
Could we just call that E#9? The lack of the 7th really changes the flavour.
Speed up the chord progression, play it backwards, and you've got the makings of a pretty good Cardiacs song for Tantacrul.
An extra like for the Creep variation that couldn’t possibly be plagiaristic even if it was deliberately and consciously inspired by the Hollies.
Ooh, it's kinda like the backwards version of the 'aways ascending' progression from 'Dirty Boy' by Cardiacs. In so far as it's always modulating downwards anyway. Cool!
Reminds me of the Never Ending Story soundtrack really underrated
Check out Genesis "Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" for an up-a-minor-second modulation sound with no modulation.
Yes it works because you’re going round the circle of 5ths in the other direction (so circle of 4ths) if you see the 2 middle chords of each sequence as focal points, it becomes very apparent, just my opinion ❤ have a good one!
Well if he had just recorded himself saying "it works because of the circle of fifths" he wouldn't be a good teacher now would he?
As a non-musician, my takeaway from this video was that bees somehow aren‘t natural anymore 🐝 🐝 🐝
It works like rocj climbing. Two points of contact at all times.
The structure I found which lead me to this harmony is E7#5#9 Dm9
Cool! But now you need to do some octave trickery in the arrangement so it can loop forever like a shepherd tone. I've accomplished this a few times using augmented 7th chords
F A C E
Ben was hiding in my bushes this morning. I told him he scared me, and he left without incident. It was the third time this month, but I know he can't help it. It's okay, Ben. 🐢
The Belt! xD
nice belt
The belt omg
I need to watch this again with a keyboard open
lmao at the shotgun mic.
sounds like the anime !
2:53 That's the lesson, guys. If you want to git gud, just change you hands depending on the instrument you play. You can leave hairstyle, though
that belt...
this is a jazz standard now
ben feels like an older brother
Instant Tame Impala chords
Well, of course a modulation sequenced forever without cadence will sound like modulating forever.
this can be found in tame impala's jeremy's storm
So we start in the key of and then go to Eb? I'm very confused. Can someone tell me what is the key in every moment and when it changes ?
It's roughly in the key of Aminor at the beginning, with the E7 being the V7 and the Fmaj7 being the bVImaj7 but it quickly moves to A phrygian when the Bbmaj7 appears i don't think of it in those terms personally though.
Kinda reminds Bach canon per augmentation from musical offering
Something like the way that *Dirty Boy* ascends ever upwards? (You could mix the two and do some hot musical thermal soaring perhaps?)
The *Joe Parish* cover (just in case you want to follow up with The Rites of Spring). czcams.com/video/xx15Gr2nRME/video.html
could something like this be compared to inner urge?
Something explicitly told me that 🐝 🐝 aren't gonna b natural anymore
you're _too late,_ mr. levin! i _already_ contrived a way to make my song modulate from F to Ab!
maybe just descend by 5ths but make every chord a maj7
0:59 it looked at me