Jacob Collier Answers Music Theory Questions From Twitter

Back in the day, you know

sort of talking a few hundred years ago,

people thought that an interval called

the tritone was very, very devilish and

and this is what it sounds like. [Dramatic Piano Note]

No, I'm just joking, just joking.

It sounds like this. [Somber Piano Note]

What's up, everybody,

my name is Jacob Collier and this,

is music theory support.

We have a question from David Brown.

I don't know the difference

between pitch and timbre.

Pitch and timbre are

two very different things.

The pitch of a note is how high

or low the note is.

So here's a high note. [High Piano Note]

That's a C sharp and the pitch is quite high.

And here, [Low Piano Note]

that's a very low note.

That's an E.

Timbre is the kind of texture of a note

or the, the quality a note has.

So I play a note right? [Piano Note]

E-flat, and then I sing,

[Sings Note] that's an E-flat

[Piano Note]

[Sings Note] they're the same note,

they're both E-flat,

but one has the timbre of a MIDI piano. [Piano Note]

And then the other is [Sings Note],

that's a human voice.

So both very important variables.

I'd highly recommend you explore them both.

I love this question.

My name is Rachel Chop Suey.

And the question is omgawd,

like what the hell is reharmonization?

Well, reharmonization is when

you take a harmonization

and you shuffle it up a bit.

Just so you know,

there are infinite ways to harmonize everything.

Just by way of example, let's take the song

Hey Jude, which you probably do know it.

If you don't know it, that's pretty tragic,

I'm not going to lie.

Now Hey Jude I think is in F major.

[Simplistic Hey Jude]

So if I harmonize that melody,

it's going to go something like this.

[Harmonized Hey Jude]

Yeah.

Right.

So when we think about reharmonization,

we take that melody and we think,

how else could we harmonize this melody?

[Piano Notes Ring]

Firstly, notice

[Piano notes and Singing]

Right?

But what other cords go with the note A?

This is the note A. [Piano Note]

Now what other cords go with A?

There's tons of 'em, for example D.

[Harmonized Piano Notes]

Whoa that's cool, that's a

completely different sound, so,

[Piano Notes And Singing]

Crazy, yeah? [Simple Piano Notes And Singing]

So E means C, that's what he meant.

But what other chords go with G?

Like E-flat for example.

[Harmonized Piano] Whoa.

So suddenly we've got

♪ Hey Jude, don't be afraid ♪

It's like, what are you doing bro?

And then,

[Piano Notes And Singing]

Yeah?

[Piano Notes And Singing]

They all have different feelings.

There's not really a right and a wrong.

It's just, what do you feel is good?

What do you feel is right?

That, Rachel, is what reharmonization is.

Here's an excellent question from Ethan.

Hi and Ethan, what's up?

And the question reads as follows.

[Takes Deep Breath]

What would you call the second mode

of the major pentatonic scale?

In C, it's the notes C, D, F, G, and B flat.

I've seen suspended, Dorian pentatonic,

some other terms.

I love the scale and use it a lot

but I'm not sure what to call it.

Suggestions? [Labored Breathing]

Well, this is the sound of it,

[Piano Scale Plays]

so I guess that's what it's called, really.

[Piano Scale Plays]

This is a question from Scott Jasnow.

It's a short question.

Very simple, very important.

It's what is middle C?

Middle C is

[Sings Note]

is the note

that's kind of in the middle of the piano,

kind of, kind of,

because you've got C [High Piano Note Plinks],

you've got C [Low Piano Note Plays],

you've got C [Mid-Range Piano Note Plays],

you've got C, [Mid-Range Piano Note Plays]

you've got C, [Mid-Range Piano Note Plays]

you've got C, [Mid-Range Piano Note Plays],

and then in the middle, you got this one.

[Double Glissando]

But yeah, what's called C4.

It's like the fourth C on the piano.

And I guess it's like the most accessible C,

which is itself the most accessible key.

Here's a question from Ralph.

Question, is it ever too late

to learn piano/keyboard?

I'm about to enter my fourth decade of existence

and I told myself this year

for my learn something new,

it would be piano/keyboard.

Ralph, it's never too late to learn anything in life.

And I would highly recommend

you learn the piano/keyboard.

There is bottomless, discovery

and creation and storytelling

and enjoyment to be found.

It doesn't matter how old you are.

There's, there is no cap

on how relevant music can be in one's life,

so I highly recommend you do it

and I'll hold you to it.

I'll give you a call Ralph,

in about two years' time.

Next up, the question from Roy Wol,

the question goes,

why does music theory sound good to our ears?

Is it science?

Someone, please answer.

I guess, first of all, music theory

doesn't really sound like anything.

Music theory sounds like parchment.

Music sounds like stuff though.

And I guess the honest truth of the matter is

no one really knows.

It's a bit of a mystery.

Next up, here's a question from trivia mafia.

What's the saddest key in music?

There is no answer to this question.

There's not one objectively saddest key.

Some people tend to, well opine,

the minor chords,

and major chords tend to

reflect certain moods

which I think to a certain point they do.

So we've taken an E flat minor

[Somber Piano Chord]

versus E-flat major

[Slow Piano Chord]

One, perhaps is slightly brighter

than the other, yeah?

Now, I personally think what makes a chord sad,

is not necessarily whether it's major or minor,

but the context within which you hear the chord.

So say I'm in A flat minor, for example

sometimes I'm in A flat minor.

[Melancholy Piano Music]

Right?

If I go, [Sings With Piano Music]

Say I did that, most of those chords

are major chords.

That last chord for example,

is B major.

But if I go,

[Piano Chords Play]

Now that's really sad to me.

The context of B major coming from A flat minor

is what makes that sad.

First of all, I have to commend this username.

Human equivalent of arson.

And the question is,

can someone explain the circle of fifths

to me because it's gibberish rn.

And rn means right now, I've come to realize.

Circle of fifths.

Well, there are 12 notes on the piano, right?

Here they all are.

[Discordant Piano Tone]

One of the best ways to display

these notes is in a circle.

So this is a circle,

and the circle of fifths goes C

[Hums Note],

and then it goes G

[Hums Note],

and then

♪ D, A, E, B, F sharp ♪

is at the bottom, six o'clock.

Then it goes

♪ C sharp, ♪

♪ A flat, E flat, B flat, F, C. ♪

That's the circle of fifths.

[Hums Notes]

I find this a really useful resource,

because keys that are close

to each other,

live in a kind of similar space.

And chords that are far away

from each other, have a very

different relationship,

but you can see some

of those patterns very clearly

Every note is a fifth apart

which is also, as you may have learned earlier,

a fourth, is the same thing.

It goes to say, it's a circle

of fourths for all I care.

Here's a very good question

from Anthony Rice music.

What's a music theory concept

that you find interesting?

#music, #musictheory.

One music theory

concept that I find interesting

that I haven't already mentioned,

swing percentage.

If you take a groove or a rhythm

[Imitates Drumbeat]

Then that is not swinging.

If I go

[Imitates Rhythmic Drumming]

then that is swinging a little bit.

If I go

[Imitates Rhythmic Drumming]

that's really swinging,

that's swinging really hard.

So there you go.

There's a music theory concept that I find interesting.

And you may not find interesting.

And I don't mind.

Here's an absolute classic question

from Janet Brooks.

What's up Janet?

what is the devil's interval,

and why is it so evil?

Back in the day, you know, sort of

talking a few hundred years ago, people thought

that an interval called the tritone

was very, very devilish and,

and this is what it sounds like.

[Dramatic Piano Note]

No, I'm just joking.

It sounds like this.

[Somber Piano Note]

Here's another one. [Somber Piano Note]

Here's another one. [Somber Piano Note]

Here's another one. [Somber Piano Note]

Here's another one. [Somber Piano Note]

Another one. [Somber Piano Note]

Here's one. [Series Of Somber Piano Notes]

The tritone, by nature is

not resolved at all.

It's very uncomfortable to stay here.

[Series Of Somber Piano Notes]

It's called a tritone,

because it's three tones added together.

And in the USA, you would say it's a whole step,

but here in the UK, we would say a tone,

a tone is this distance.

So you've got tone, tone, and tone.

Three tones added together,

is a tritone.

Going back to say, you know, the 1500s or so,

there wasn't really a good use

for this interval because a lot

of the music that was written there

was built out of fourths and fifths.

[Piano Notes]

Right?

The idea of doing this

[Somber Piano Note]

was completely insane.

And so it was such a dissonant sound

with no context that all people could say

was this must be Satan.

This is the devil speaking through music

In jazz, we like dissonance,

and it's really interesting.

[Jazzy Piano Music And Singing]

Devil, devil, devil, devil,

devil, devil, devil, devil.

[Jazzy Piano Music]

Here's an excellent question from Janet Brooks,

I think this is the second question from you, Janet.

I'm glad you're asking so many good questions.

How do you change a C major chord

into a C minor chord?

I've been there.

Let me tell you, I've been there.

Well, I think we've all been there.

I've got a C major chord

[Piano Chord Plays]

I just think, I want this to be C minor.

And it's a very, very simple equation to solve.

You take the E, and you weigh her down.

[Piano Note Flattening]

One, two, three,

[Piano Note Flattening]

That's a minor chord.

Just make that third slightly flatter.

Put some weights on it, you know,

give it some luggage or something. Yeah.

Here is a more practical question from KK.

What do the piano pedals do?

A piano has normally three pedals.

The pedal on the right

which is a bit like the sort of an accelerator.

You could say the gas pedal,

that one is called the sustain pedal.

And so when I play lots of notes

[Bright Individual Piano Notes]

with no pedals pressed down,

they are, what's called staccato.

[Staccato Beatboxed Notes]

they're short.

[Bright Staccato Piano Notes]

If I put the pedal down, so sustain pedal down,

[Lengthened Piano Notes]

they sustain

[Sustained Piano Notes]

And I'm going to lift the pedal,

they cease sustaining.

That means I can go

[Glissando]

and all the notes ring,

and when I released the pedal,

they all stop.

It's kind of like magic.

So then there's a pedal on the left of the three,

is usually what's called a soft pedal.

And what the soft pedal does,

is it makes all the notes just slightly quieter.

And this is good, say if you have like

sensitive roommates,

or it's just very late,

or you're just not in the mood

for making loud noise.

Now the pedal in the middle,

I know of two uses of this pedal.

One is what's called the sostenuto pedal.

I play a chord,

[Plays Piano Chord]

I hit the sostenuto pedal,

and only those notes are sustained,

and around those notes,

I can actually still

play staccato notes, right,

which is kind of fun because it means

that certain notes will sustain

and certain notes won't sustain.

And you can change that chord all the time.

So it's almost like a sort of halfway sustain pedal where

you choose which notes you would like to sustain.

The other use of the middle pedal,

sometimes you have upright pianos

like the one that I have at home,

is the mute pedal.

And so I have a bit of felt

inside of my piano at home.

That goes [Muffling Sound]

when you put the middle pedal down,

and when you lift it up, [Unmuffled Sound]

then it comes off.

And that bit of felt, it makes it sound really,

really warm.

It's like you put a blanket over all the,

well you literally do put a blanket

between the hammers and the strings.

So when you play, it goes

[Mimics Playing Muffled Piano]

Instead of

[Mimics Loud Piano] It goes

[Mimics Muffled Piano]

and there's a really beautiful

kind of softness about that sound.

Excellent question here next up from Richard Jerrett,

blue heart.

What's the difference between three, four and

six, eight time?

There are different ways

in which you can divide time and

space within music.

Now, there's actually a lot in common

between three, four and six, eight,

because three, four, and six, eight

take up the same amount of time.

If you're good at maths

you would've already noticed that.

The main difference

between these two time signatures is

where the emphasis is.

So with three, four

there's an emphasis that happens thrice within that space.

One, two, three, one, two, three.

And with six, eight, the emphasis happens twice.

[Beatboxes In Six, Eight]

Waltzes, right?

Any fans of waltzes amongst the listeners?

Leave a comment below.

Waltzes are in three, four, famously.

If I go,

[Sings And Plays Waltz Music On Piano]

And what's a good example of six, eight?

There's a tune called my bonny lies over the ocean.

♪ My bonny lies over the ocean, ♪

♪ So bring back my bonny to me ♪

♪ Bring back, bring back, oh bring back ♪

♪ My bonny to me, to me, ♪

[Beatboxed Notes]

That's six, eight, and it's like a cradle.

[Imitates Drums]

So, thank you Lenny,

and I hope that helps in your

rhythmic quandary.

Here's an interesting question from Nick Berry,

why are the black and white keys

on a piano keyboard spread the way they are?

I don't really know,

I'm not exactly sure why.

But I guess I'd say that

all of these notes are naturals.

You see, C natural, D natural, E natural,

but you got E flat, or D flat, or F sharp.

These are different versions

of these natural notes

and all the sharps and flats,

those are the black keys.

So you've got the naturals,

and you've got the sharps and the flats,

The sharps and the flats are always

the most interesting notes

because they really add stuff.

They add color, they add interest,

they add motion.

So, it's laid out where a tonality

in its basic form is the white notes.

And then the black notes are all

of the kind of tributaries

that lead out of that tonality.

Here's a question from Trak Doe,

Trak Doe,

and the question is,

does music theory matter anymore?

I would say the short answer

to this question, does music matter anymore,

is I don't know if it ever really mattered.

I don't know if anything really matters, actually.

[Chuckles]

But I think that as a musician,

the more options you have to intuit through or with,

the more interesting your pallette is.

There's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of,

zoning into the things you like

and trying to understand them in more detail.

So, yeah. Does music theory matter anymore?

Sure, it does, but nothing really matters.

So I wouldn't take it too seriously.

Hope you're having a good time.

[Short Glissando]

This is a question from Joe Weisenthal.

Do different keys,

presuming the modes stay the same,

have distinct characteristics?

Like, is there any other objective difference

between A, C, F sharp, et cetera,

besides higher or lower?

Joe, that's a great question.

The short answer is yes.

Every key has a different characteristic

from every other key.

One of the joys of traversing

the world of music is changing keys.

At least that,

so you can quote me on that,

that's one of my favorite things to do.

If you take a different frequency,

you know, take A,

[Piano Harmony]

♪ Somewhere over the rainbow ♪

♪ Way up high ♪

That has a different feeling from,

♪ Somewhere over the rainbow ♪

♪ Way up high ♪

Yeah. It's different, different vibe.

Every key is a new world.

And so the more ways you have

of changing key and opening doors into new keys,

the more exciting it is

to be a human on planet earth.

Ladies and gents, that concludes this session.

Thank you for such brilliant questions.

I hope that I've been remotely helpful.

It's been wicked fun, answering them all,

and it's made me think on my feet,

which is great.

Thanks for sticking around.

Let's do this again sometime.

Catch you later.