It can be frustrating when learning a ton of music theory, like what chords go with what key,
when you listen to music that feels complex and rich and it feels completely out of reach.
To help me out here I've recruited the aid of an expert.
Hey how's it going.
Gavin Leeper is a talented composer who's
devoted a lot of time to studying and understanding how Japanese music works.
He's also a fellow YouTuber with outstanding videos on harmony and chord progressions
from anime and J-pop and video game music.
To get us started I wrote a piece in C major.
If you know the basics of music theory, like what chords belong in the key of C major,
then you should be able to follow along with a piece like this.
I then asked Gavin to "anime-fy" it by finding moments that could use extra color,
or idiomatic chord progressions, or even just make broader changes to make the piece more colorful.
I thought of initially like, okay out of the sort of common devices I've identified,
what sounds like it would fit under this melody, you know. Using the melody as a constraint.
He came up with three ways to add life and magic to the piece.
Before we break down all of Gavin's reharmonization choices,
let's listen to the piece in its diatonic C major form.
I'll also point out that all of the melody notes are also chord tones on the triads.
One of the first things Gavin did was replace most of the triads with seventh chords.
Japanese harmony is heavily influenced by jazz harmony, where the seventh chord is the default.
Jazz just always stayed relevant in Japan.
Like, the the harmonic palette never shrunk.
It always stayed like it was in the 60s in the US.
The next move was to substitute some chords for others.
For example in bar 3 I had an A minor with both melody notes coming from the triad.
He replaced that with a D minor,
which means now the melody notes are coming from the seventh and ninth of the chords.
Still totally legitimate choices but now from a much farther away and extended place.
Also notice how he specified that the Em7 have an add 9, which is an F#.
The F# has to come from another key because in C major we have F#,
so we're dipping our toes into the keys of E minor or maybe G major here,
which is a taste of that multipolar tonality I've talked about in a previous video.
With the way that that Em is extended, the extensions that that Em chord has
makes it no longer fit squarely into the key of C.
Right, that's our first chromatic pitch, right, that F#?
Exactly, exactly. That's the first time we have an accidental in there.
It's specifically from it being an Em9.
The rest of the first half of the theme he keeps relatively the same,
which is a great way to use harmonic color strategically.
If you start out right away with your most colorful
wackiest chords you'd better be ready to keep up that level of intensity the whole
time or everything that comes after is going to feel bland.
By gradually introducing seventh chords and then tensions and then
hinting at closely related keys, he's pacing the development of the harmony.
An important thing when you're wanting to add spice,
or add harmonic spice, is figuring out from a form perspective where do I want to add it.
You and I both have the tool kit to make a completely
incoherent not nice harmonization of this. Right.
There's all these levels that you could take this same melody
and feel like "all right gonna harmonize it Db the whole time.
I think, like you said, a thing that can be
really nice from a form perspective is that generally for, you know, your first little bit
you're staying pretty diatonic and really cementing your listener in a certain key center.
And then once we know where we're at that's when you can start adding a little bit of spice.
The next big moment comes in bar 13 with this line cliche.
This is where the piece is starting to get adventurous.
Now not only do we have pitches from outside the key, like that rogue F#,
we're also starting to get some non-diatonic chords.
A line cliche is a great way to introduce these foreign chords,
because the chromatic stepwise movement makes it feel so logical and smooth.
The line cliche was an interesting thing for me to learn because it's really,
instead of a vertical device, as in instead of a device where we're thinking about what's
the chord going on right now, it's really more of a horizontal device.
Also notice how this D7 would imply that it should resolve to G but actually resolves to F.
Just continuing the logic of that chromatic line from F# to F natural
makes the chord progression D7 to F major feel totally legit.
Finally Gavin makes use of a classic chord progression.
There are certain chord progressions and groupings that have become
stock sets that get used so frequently,
by using them you are making a reference to the whole catalog of Japanese harmony.
Oh yeah, it's a very, it's a very set list.
Like four five three six, four five six.
This four of four or like using a Bb major in C major is like a
common thing and the extension of that is like "do a circle of fifths thing".
Whether that's two five one or venturing out of the key.
These two borrow chords from C minor leading up to our one chord, leading up to C major,
the way i've heard this cadence talked about is that it introduces like
"Will our hero win? I'm not quite sure, the bad guy's pretty bad. Oh yeah he did!"
And then to geek out and add a little reference to Zelda music I added this little lick here.
So now let's listen to the final result of Gavin's reharmonization.
I took his new harmony and orchestrated it into this arrangement here.
Be sure to check out Gavin's channel where he gets way deeper into this kind of music.
Thank you Gavin for helping me out on this video and thank you for watching!
Enjoy the track and i'll see you in the next one!