Simplifying Aphex Twin
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- čas přidán 27. 06. 2024
- It's almost Avril 14th, so let's celebrate by learning something from the iconic Aphex Twin piano song.
In this song Aphex twin uses an odd chord shape that I'm not familiar with, so let's explore that! And as a broader lesson, it shows how you can take a piano song, see the abstract chords behind it, and then use those chords as colours for your own musical composition 💙
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Contents:
0:00 Learning sheet music
1:00 What scale is it in?
1:49 Four-chord song perspective
2:50 The voicings I already knew
3:11 The aphex twin chord colour
4:00 Using these colours for improv
4:40 Learn to produce your own music
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Hey Oscar, could you listen to a mixdown of one of my track please?
We can simplify his music but we'll never crack his mind
I feel like those 6 chords over the 1 were used a lot in the 90's for soundtrack orchestration. Love that you did this Oscar. Aphex Twin has always made us think a bit more about what we were listening to.
To me this song is actually minor, and the progression goes:
- i chord in first inversion (Am/C)
- III chord in first inversion (C/E)
- VIsus2 chord (F with a natural second instead of the major third)
- III add9 chord in fourth inversion (C/D)
What is remarkable is that motion is achieved without any root-subdominant-dominant cycle: the i, III and VI chords all have root function in the key. This is why this piece does not so much "go somewhere", but rather deliciously floats in static mid air. The VIsus2 chord in particular is super "floaty", it perfectly encapsulates the whole atmosphere, making it the climax of the cycle (which the third in a four-chord sequence should be: it's the most satisfying place to have it). Great ambient stuff, but with an articulate melody line, which is a very original idea.
The final chord could be construed as an implied iv9 chord (Dm with a C and an E, missing its third and fifth), and it could be argued that this eventually makes for a resolution in sort of an imperfect plagal cadence (subdominant to root), which would then make this progression into a retrogression, but I honestly think that what we have here is a lot simpler: If it sounds good, it's good, it doesn't need scientific labels, let's just play with it.
Good Comment
The "ii" chord could be read as essentially a "ii7" with the final eighth note being an anticipation of the iii/I in the next bar. That final note in that measure makes the most sense to me that way, anyway. I really appreciate the depth of analysis you offer on stuff like this - it's super refreshing to hear other people's curiosity and see it lead them to learn stuff just because it's interesting! Thanks for everything you offer to this community!
Thanks for the comment! Yeah it's a weird one - that ii chord really barely feels like a chord "colour" beyond just a root note, and like it was just mostly designed to give the top melody something to bounce off against. But my ear isn't the best, so I'd welcome all perspectives to learn more myself!
Last chord is a D min 7, but that f(the 3rd) resolves down to the 9. So you could call it D minor 9. The A (the 5th)) is not played, but that's commonly omitted in piano voicings as the 5th gives the least information about the quality of the chord. The quality of the chord comes mostly from the 3rd and 7th.
This is a good perspective, I like it :) thanks!
Love Aphex Twin. Got the sheet music. Mostly learned this on April 14th but cant do all the tricky bits near end yet. Had a beautiful time. Thanks Oscar!
As a guitarist of many, many decades, I love your spin on simplifying the true genius of Aphex Twin.
Musiciens sans frontières 👍👍👍
my man really dropped a bit of really useful advice for chord progressions at 2:50 and didn't expect us to notice it.
seriously, that level of music theory advice is so hard to find explained so well, thank you!
I really like how you don’t overanalyse a song, but just look at what you like, analyse that, play around with it and make it your own. Or our own, if you like.
Great videos. Keep m commin
Thanks, it's interesting to see this! I have a different take. Some tips: Look for the triads (1 3 5) and while melody can be more complicated it shouldn't be ignored (like the F over Db in the second measure). The key is F minor (A minor in your transposition). The first chords are first inversion F minor and Ab major over their third, I make the second two as Db major 9 and Bbm7. So i III VI iv.
It’s one of the fewest songs that makes me sad and happy at the same time. Love it!
Nostalgic is the feeling I receive from this track. He definitely has a way with sound!
Funnily enough, I’m learning this song on piano right now! Thanks for the new perspective 😊
Bro! I did a cover of this song on my Soundcloud shortly after I finished up with the Underdog school last year. There's a dual sense of nostalgia with this one because so much has even changed for me since then. So cool to see you shine some love on this beautiful tune.
Thanks, that was a real treat. Two of my favourite music producers in one video. And a beautiful tune I must also learn to play!
This is the piece of the pie I'm always needing to work at to understand more deeply. So much complexity
This video cracked something open for me that I'd been struggling with for a minute. Thanks Oscar!
I'm diggin' your 90s style trackie top!
Thanks for covering Aphex Twin, would love to see more in the future. From his miminalistic to his super complex stuff, it always mesmerizes me. Things like Alberto Balsalm and IZ US, maybe even Vordhosbn could be fun to cover.
Also really like your rendition in the end! These chords really eminate a peaceful and touching quality
Yeah! Vordhosbn particularly must be one of my top favs ever. But some of his stuff is hard to cover without also covering Trackers, and I'm not very experienced with those!
@@OscarUnderdog Yeah same here, these were all some the first songs I heard from him and they still blow my mind.
But yeah, trackers are an entire new world for me too. Should probably stick my nose in them one day
Brilliant video. A great follow up for this would be how to program IDM or Breakcore drums. Thanks for sharing your knowledge Oscar, it gives me one more thing too look forward to every week.
Your rendition of avril 14th is great
I absolutely love this channel. Keep up the good work. I'd be very interested in a video Dissecting Aphex Twins drum programming. For songs such as Windowlicker.
Yeah I should sit down and see what I could share after a bit of analysis. Should probably get my hands dirty with some trackers though, which is new for me!
@@OscarUnderdog thanks so much for the reply. That would be great. Either way your videos have been invaluable to me on my journey into production. Thanks again.
Cool stuff, and track top too!! :)
i think we have all been led a stray with this song i dont think it wrote by richard james may be his brother who died wrote it
becuase i remember hearing him state in a interveiw he cant play keyboards so how the hell did he up with this great master piece ?
Great video. Great explanation. Great teacher.
A pretty incredible arrangement and real soul-melter rendition of this piece is Loscil’s remix of the Murcof & Vanessa Wagner cover. Worth checking out for how the evocative power of those notes and chords carries through as a piece is transformed.
Thanks for sharing this! I’ve only listened to Loscil’s “Lifelike” and found some really incredible spaces in their music. This remix sounds like something I would really love
Happy Avril 14th
beautiful Oscar !
He’s easily one of the greatest living composers.
FYI, it's a Dm9, the last chord in the progression (D-F-(A - not played)-C-E)
Aphex allegedly said that he has no idea what he is doing and he is just turning the knobs.
i think richard dont think (even know) about music theorie or chord progression,he does what he wants.and this is wonderful.
Thank you 👍
I'd interpret that final chord as a iim7 9, where the E is the 9th of the Dm, and that high F (iii of D) is used to confer the minor tone.
Thank you! It was very helpful for me. Please explain me an other song of Aphex Twin. This is my favorite artist :)
Imo, this channel itself would not even exist if it weren't for Richard D. James himself.
Probably true, I got a CD of this album as a gift when I was 16 and look at where it all led me :)
More aphex, saludos desde argentina
Love the video. Is there a link to the sheet music you used?
Neat!
Hey man love your videos! This is unrelated to this video but do you think you could make some content on lofi house, the likes of Mall Grab and the hurfyd channel
That’s called a slash chord btw the C/E
the most simplified artist ever
correct me if im worng, but is hat chord at 3:12 not an A minor chord in first inversion ?
I'm just confused now. I'd call the first chord (transposed in C) Am/C? The second one being C/E?
Agreed, those are the absolute names, but I like to bring it back to their function in the scale. I'll write the roman numerals usually, so I can re-use this pattern not matter what scale I'm in.
🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻👍🏻
Where did you buy this jacket? 💫
Looks like the third chord is a Csus4 in first inversion.
The first chord is just a minor chord with the third in the bass. Essentially second inversion?
It's an interesting way to look at it! My intuition was that the root note is so low, we simply must consider it the root position of the chord. If you do consider it a very stretched style of inversion you would think it's a vi-I-IV-ii progression, but that doesn't capture the mood quite as accurately when improvising (for me).
Nice
To me Avril 14th sounds like an anime theme. Ambiguous, dreamy and never completely resolved.
Like many of Aphex Twin's tracks!
Interesting...👍
Nice earring teach.
Interesting..
Either you got a new camera or I am seriously tweaking. 😶🌫
thought this is a tutorial about heavy glitchsplicing
Maybe on a next one :)
This is a very flattering angle and lighting. I wanted to learn, but I kept getting lost in your eyes lol. Stop it
🥰
Pleas make video about live performance from Ableton!!!! :))❤😂🎉😢😢😢😮😮😅
When you don't follow the rules you have more options.
I love Aphex Twin but this whole video went right over my head.
bruh why you playing blame game by kanye??instead of aphex twin???
the crucial question is, about your sport jacket : WHY ?
Yay! let's all be the same. Turn art to generic trash. "Underdog", a leader in avant gimic culture and a hustler
He didn't play the piano on this song.
Hacks 😂
Here guys, i'll give you the best advice that any musician could ever give you.
Make what sounds good to you.
HU? I don't think you actually said anything in this video
He’s analysing one of RDJ’s most famous pieces??