Here are several videos I have really enjoyed lately.<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here Adam Maness talks about modal interchange and then his particular slant on it. His team calls it “Cush Chords” — a name they made up to describe the vibe.<\/p>\n<p>For example — he takes a simple chord progression I ii iv V<\/p>\n<p>You could simply change the chords to what they would be in a different mode (ex. aeolian or phrygian). Instead what he does is, think about what key the phrygian is equivalent to? Then after playing the 1 in the original key, just change the chords to the 2, 6, and 5 of the new key. The result keeps the same “shape” as the original chord progression.<\/p>\n<p>It would be good if I worked through some examples.<\/p>\n<p>Another couple of videos had to do with Chromatic Mediants. My random notes of the day gave me a composition with some crazy chords, and I couldn’t tell if they were chromatic mediants or not.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Chromatic Mediants | A film composer's favourite weapon?\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SD1mDm8kqW4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here Michael Keithson talks about how there’s Chromatic mediants in a strict sense and in a looser sense; he likes to use both. He’s a new resource to me; I’m glad I stumbled on him.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Songs that use Chromatic Mediant chords\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PtISkOeSz08?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>David Bennett gives an example (around the 10 minute mark) where he says “Is this a chromatic mediant, or would it be better to think of it as a secondary dominant?”<\/p>\n<p>Now for something completely different — here’s Jameson Nathan Jones talking about sound design with Phase Plant, a soft synth. He steps through the process of creating a sound.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everyone was right about Phase Plant\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yU9MYw4iDgg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I really enjoy Nathan’s music. It’s the sort of genre I would like to work in (he calls it ambient with classical overtones). Usually I react to skilled musicians doing “my sort of thing” with envy and resentfulness. Ex. Venus Theory’s music makes me feel discouraged –“Why should I even be trying to do this. I should just sell all my instruments and give up”. So I watch VT’s videos, and avoid his music! But I don’t react that way to JNJ. It’s as if, VT does such an epic job that it seems like there’s nothing more that can be said, and I might as well just sit down and be quiet. There’s no room for me. Like trying to have a conversation with someone, but their knowledge and eloquence is overwhelming. But with JNJ I feel like there’s room left for me to add something. Like “yeah! Not only that, but, this too!”<\/p>\n<p>I’m not sure why I have that reaction — doesn’t make a lot of sense.<\/p>\n<p>OK, one more set of videos. I’ve been oblivious to Wicked (both the musical and the movie). But I saw an interview with Kristin Chenoweth talking about her experience with Ariana Grande (Chenoweth met her when Ariana was a star-struck 10 yr old!) Then I watched a video on the movie by Eric Voss, my favorite interpreter of what’s new and hot. That led me to several interviews with the composer, Stephen Schwartz. Turns out he also was the composer for Godspell! That was a favorite of mine in the 70s.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"'Wicked' composer Stephen Schwartz breaks down his iconic 'Defying Gravity' | Classic FM\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zhND6ZDi5HI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Stephen Schwartz - on the Origins of Godspell\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mGfZ9eR4HXE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are several videos I have really enjoyed lately. Here Adam Maness talks about modal interchange and then his particular slant on it. His team calls it “Cush Chords” — a name they made up to describe the vibe. For … <a href=\"https:\/\/grexblog.com\/?p=951\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grexblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grexblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grexblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grexblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grexblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grexblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952,"href":"https:\/\/grexblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grexblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grexblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grexblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}