Songs, generally speaking, aren't just showcases of virtuosity in songwriting/composition or whatever. Why is "complexity" such an important metric for music to begin with? This one in particular irks me. So, are you sure about that? But okay, let's move along. This song uses exclusively three power chords according to the tabs. Took me about 30 seconds to search for their tabs and the first song I find is "You Know You're Right". So, let's talk about complexity, and Ricks seeming obsession with it.Īny song from Nirvana is more complicated than any modern radio tune! There's no predominant without the "dominant", after all. The diminished chords, while they can be seen as independent, they still practically only ever serve the dominant sonority in tonal practice - even when they occur in the upperstructure of a chord that functions as a predominant (ii7b5). But of course, had he said that, he would have been slightly closer to the actual answer. On a more personal note - this is also bit misleading because "you don't hear diminished chords anymore" is just a misguided way of saying "you don't hear dominant sonorities anymore". And doing this IS different compared to melodies that "respect the changes" (or, alternatively, are supported by the changes). This includes "one note melodies", but also many other kind of melodies where the general idea is, in one way or another, repetition. One can, for example, create "floating" melodies that do not really respect the changes, giving an interesting musical effect. But rather than seeing at least a little effort in exploring why that is, you already have the answer: because we're regressing! However, had you spent a little time cracking this nut open, you would have instantly figured out why because pop music (until perhaps very recently) has for a long time preferred consonant sonorities thorough the songs without standard tension-release structures introduced in the harmonic idiom itself. Indeed Rick, we do not hear very often diminished chords in modern pop music. The polychords that he every now and then presents in his channel, are virtual opposite of that.īut more importantly - who can actually even come up with a progression that hasn't been used in the past 300 years already that sounds decent and is relatively easy to work with? This is because these progressions work and tend to be fairly easily employable. How does a person, as experienced as him, not understand why generally people use a somewhat limited set of chord progressions that work easily? Yes, there's millions of songs for almost any specific popular chord progression. The chords of modern songs are not unique, for they are actually stolen from somewhere else. I've tried working a bit away from that habit especially as of late, but alas, it is hard.įirst segment of this begins with the chords and rest of it mostly still focuses on chords (even the melody part, heh). I love discussing chords - possibly more than anything, even though music has so much more to it than just the chords. I cannot blame him for participating in this, for I do it all the same. Theoretical discussions of music are somewhat oververticalized. the only thing in music that matters, right? For all you know, I could be misrepresenting the man. I wish I didn't have to link the video (because I think he does not deserve any views at all), but I have to link it anyway. But that's okay, because I'll provide that. He is like the modern day Artusi Giovanni, except worse for, unlike Artusi, this man lacks dialectics. I've not had much respect for Rick but after this video, I've lost even the slivers I might have had for him. I've edited various parts specifically in lieu of rule #1. Consider Rick Beato as a prototype of sorts of people who criticize contemporary music in this obnoxious way. Small preface: this post was removed from WATMM as it did not abide by their rules, specifically that it has to be about "music making" - the intent I have with this post is to make people, in particular less experienced / confident people to understand, that great music does not come from complexity for its own sake, nor is simplicity a "bad" thing.
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