Negative Harmony Explained in less than 3 minutes
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Negative Harmony Explained in less than 3 minutes
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Already knew most of this frankly, but itās very helpful to get a good refresh
Thank you very much ā¤ā¤ā¤ā¤
You’re welcome š
I hear some ‘Lean On Me’. š
Is the negative harmony Push On You?
ā@illegal_space_alienepic! ā¤
ā@illegal_space_alienor Stand upright by yourself š¤
Yeah me too š
@joebutler9850 Now face north! š
Literally in less than 3 minutes You just explained it comprehensively like a champ of all the champs!š
What this guy doesnāt know about music theory isnāt worth knowing!! Heās AMAZING!!
David’s here inviting us to “lean on him” for musical knowledge.
Very clear explanation!
Boys donāt cry -> Girls do laugh
Lol Iām glad Iām not the only one who thought of that song
š¤Æšš»šš»š¬š¤š¤Æ just Brilliant… Thanx a Lot … ššš
This was really interesting! Negative Harmony was skipped over in my theory classes at college. Silly question, but at the end: why do we know it becomes descending instead of ascending? Thank you to anyone with an explanation. <3
I guess it has something to do with the 5ths ascending or descending, depending on which direction in the circle you go?
in short: Because minor flattens while major sharpens, and major & quintal intervals largely arise out of the overtone series [which ascends], whereas minor & quartal intervals largely arise out of the undertone series, which descends.
Notably also, the dominant seventh chord carries an āextrovertedā quality that is fit for resting on with a robust quality OR resolving upward non-deceptively to a tonic a fourth up (a half-step up from its third spelled up from its root). Meanwhile to that, the minor sixth chord carries a more āpensiveā quality that is ripe for making a funky or jazzy groove out of as well or resolving downward to a tonic a fourth down (or a half-step down from its third spelled down from the dominant).
āDeceptiveā resolutions can also occur like ii6 to I or VII7 to i but these seem to be the most natural, easiest anticipated tendencies of such chords, to which acoustical behaviors and patterns seem to correspond.
@gillianomotoso328 Thanks for this in-depth comment, appreciate it.
awesome explanation, it was so complex for me before š
Thanks, David š
You nailed it!
Best explanation ever! I always struggled to fully understand it with other explanations; this one was perfect. Thanks!
It works using the 12 note in order as wellā¦
(It doesnāt need to be in the circle of 4th/5ths order).
Love this explanation so much…..Almost as much as I love your shirt. I was lucky to see McCartney twice on his Got Back tour. I saw him in Boston during the first leg of his tour, and just saw him again a few weeks ago in Buffalo, NY on Nov. 14. I have to admit, I enjoyed the Buffalo show more. Instead of beginning with Cant Buy Me Love, like he did back in 2022 in Boston, for the more recent show I saw, he swapped out songs and began his set with Help instead. He also performed Now and Then, which wasn’t released yet during his first North American leg of his tour. It’s such a treat when he performs some of John’s songs like he did more of during his show in Buffalo NY. Plus, his voice was noticeably stronger during his more recent show, which was a nice surprise.š
Love the negative harmony concept… You get some interesting sounds and progressions…
Excellent- now itās clear!!
I still don’t understand why people do this exercise though. Is it to “think outside the box” and find new ways to resolve chord progressions?
Thanks for getting to this topic David!
It helps to think of how chords tend to move as you ascend in major, versus as you descend in minor. C – Dm – Em – F, versus Cm – Bb – Ab – Gm, for instance. It doesnāt even matter which tonic note you start with: A – Bm – C#m – D, versus Am – G – F – Em does the same.
The first chord is tonic major or minor. The second chord is supertonic or subtonic and it carries a mixodorian quality (a light & bluesy interstice between major and minor).
The third chord is mediant or submediant and functions either as a dark [phrygian] truncation of the tonic or a bright [lydian] suspension of the tonic.
The fourth chord is harmonically weak in pull though notably secure to rest on for a bit; it affirms preparatorily where the tonic chord is; it is either the subdominant in the ascending series or the dominant in the major series. Notably this chord often swaps its quality for minor in the ascending series for an added intensity, becoming a type of dorian minor sonority as iv or a phrygian dominant sonority as V. And in fact, these exact chords occur in reverse when we proceed past IV and v ā which also yield lydian and phrygian sonorities in major and minor, just as the bVI submediant and iii mediant do.
When we proceed past them, we get a mixolydian quality for the V or major dominant ā E in A major, or G in C majorā¦ and a dorian quality for the iv or minor subdominant ā Dm in A minor, or Fm in C minor. These tend to be much stronger in pull toward the tonic than the more āstaticā diatonic chords at IV and v. I like to think of it as there being a weak subdominant & dominant and a strong subdominant & dominant. Weak subdominant & dominant are IV & v, notably found on their own in the natural major & minor scales but also in the dorian & mixolydian scales and many of their variants. The strong subdominant & dominant are the iv & V and they are found on their own in the natural minor & major scales but also together in the harmonic major & minor scales.
Notably if we continue ascent & descent, we reach another tonic chord: F#m & Am in A major and C major, C & Eb in A minor and C minor ā not a coincidence it being that the tonics of these chords form a diminished seventh chord when placed together, which harkens to Barry Harrisā systems of harmony. And following these tonics is the diminished chord itself, which provides archetypically both tension and release. The iiĀ° (DĀ° in C, BĀ° in A) resolves downward to I or i, while the viiĀ° (G#Ā° in A, BĀ° in C) resolves upward to i or I, although without a note a major third underneath it to make it a dominant seventh chord it tends to function easiest like the iv6 chord of the relative minor, which it shares all its notes with.
And notably, while many who discuss this system will describe the diminished chord as a negative with itself, I find that at least modally its negative really is the augmented chord. Locrian is negative to Lydian augmented because where one features downward tendency toward the fourth and root, the other features upward tendency toward the fifth and root. And namely not even the root you would think of ā which it has as well, just as Locrian has tendency toward its hypothetical fifth but the fifth is displaced to have tendency toward its fourth. The root I speak of is actually the relative minor of the Lydian augmented scale and it forms the tonic of the melodic minor scale. Likewise Ionian augmented, a scale found in same fashion (III+) in the harmonic minor scale, has a negative in the Aeolian b5 scale which is the viĀ° mode in melodic minor. Modally speaking while most negative mode pairs share the same parent scale, some do not! Because it is about harmonic function, tendency and color, not just random assignment. It is worth noting for instance that harmonic minor and its modes [save for the Ionian augmented mode] all are negatives of the harmonic major scale and its modes, respectively. Notably neither of these āharmonicā scales has a *functional* relative tonic unless something is altered ā namely the would-be fifth or root of that relative tonic. They really only have themselves to resolve to. And the distinct color of their respective major [phrygian] dominant and minor subdominant [āUkrainian dorianā] modes.
You can also end up with double-tonic relationships like the V-i found in melodic minor and the iv-I found in its negative, Aeolian dominant. The exact same chords and scale are used but the arrangement and context are what determine which chord is tonic. Similar to this but more modally strong than tonally strong is the ii-V relationship found in Dorian, whose negative is the I-v (VII-iv) relationship found in Mixolydian. These are considered opposites and acoustically are but they are also hardly far off from each other in their being polar to one another. Much like how Mexico and Brazil are closer in geography and climate than far yet are on opposite sides of the Equator, so goes for Mixolydian and Dorian. Meanwhile Phrygian and Lydian are as far apart diatonically as possible, much more like how Norway and South Africa are both theoretically traversable from one another by car. Locrian and Lydian augmented are much like whatever is as far apart as possible while still retaining seasonality: they never share anything in common but are so greatly definable by their oppositeness. Phrygian dominant and Ukrainian dorian meanwhile are much like the polar regions themselves: geographically opposite, slightly different, yet incredibly similar.
But without getting overwrought about geography, the main point to drive home is about harmonic directionality and modal color. And it helps all the more if you give a look at overtones and undertones, which the major triad, minor triad, perfect fifth, perfect fourth, Lydian dominant scale, and Dorian b2 scale can be said to acoustically originate from or harken directly to. It seems more than coincidental to me that the Lydian dominant scale by the way is essentially a dominant type scale without a subdominant to resolve to, and the Dorian b2 is a scale based around a minor 6 chord and a dominant that is destabilized from allowing resolution (Aeolian b5ā¦ which granted is a much smoother diminished scale than Locrian or altered).
By the way: as far as the altered scale (Locrian b4), the viiĀ° mode of melodic minor, its negative is something very similar to the whole tone scale as the diminished fourth that arises in it requires an augmented sixth to arise in its opposite. And indeed just as the minor third in altered is often omitted or swept past to produce a still harmonically very tense sonority much like Phrygian dominant, the removal of that negative scaleās major seventh produces a scale that is actually identical to the whole tone scale. G# A [B] C D E F# G# is thus opposite to Ab [G] F# E D C Bb Ab: one is the absolute exaggeration of Locrian to something very tense and menacing in sound, while the other is the absolute exaggeration of Lydian to something very bright and frenzied in sound ā and again, the diminished fifth and augmented fifth respectively are to be found in either of them, as well as the minor sixth (and minor third) and major third (and major seventh), and the major second and minor seventh. It can get unwieldy but it all does track.