My main gig is teaching music theory to guitarist's, but I like to use a piano to teach concepts from time to time. If you want to check out my website, here it is. Thank you! www.zombieguitar.com/ Time Stamps: 0:00 - Lesson Intro 0:55 - Key Concepts 7:11 - Intro (F Ionian) 15:12 - Changing to F Aeolian 18:09 - Changing to F Phrygian 21:27 - The "Tritone Substitution" 23:59 - Chorus (Bb Major) 27:52 - Bridge (Getting back to Starting Key) 31:39 - Outro

This would be a great series. Rick Beato does, “what makes this song great”, “you should do music theory analysis.”

love how you can both learn the song and theory with this single vid usually you just see one or the other good stuff

You can never do enough Music Theory. Between you and Rick Beato, it is all coming together. I am glad I joined your website and got access to all your lessons. It is the best investment I have made.

Fantastic analysis Brian, thank you for putting this together and explaining the concepts used to write this masterpiece so well that even i could (mostly) understand it! Best teacher on youtube bar none, much appreciated.

I am amazed! That was well done! You reminded me of why I love music theory so much. And you break it down so well, not only did I understand all of it, I learned new ideas! That was one of the best videos on theory ever!

I think these types of video where you or other teachers explain the theory behind songs are the most helpful and practical lessons. I love when people explain the theory behind songs like Rick Beato's "why is this song great?" Or stitch methods "solo in the mind of Jerry Garcia" for example. Please keep making these types of videos, they help make sense of everything for new and give me more tools or tricks to use

Brilliant Brian Love all that theory stuff.cheers

I like this type of teaching session, going to keep looking for your next one

Excellent analysis! I need to watch it again...

I think the IV for chord in the chorus is actually minor (Ebm). Great analysis, thank you.

Absolutely brilliant analysis, thank you a lot. You've just shown me the new beauty in the long time fav song. It's like you used to know it's beautiful, and now you can also see how smart it is. Please, keep right on

Fantastic song and great analysis! I learned a ton!

Great explanation! Thanks for your efforts Brian!!

Awesome job, man... it definitely is a great song... thx sooo much for breaking it down... it taught me a lot! Thx again and rock on!

Really great analysis of the song, thanks a lot! Very interesting!

Brilliant 👍🏻 thanks for taking the time to analyse

Just wow Brian that was some bit of work. I will have to go through this a good few times. It was simply amazing, how you work all this out is light years away from me but so enjoyed it. Didn't realize you played piano so well either. Thanks as always can really see the time and passion you put into this and it is so appreciated. Cheers

BAM. This single lesson of yours is worth the price of admission. This is my favorite song. period. The lyrics, melody, and harmony fit together to build a perfectly constructed short story. Your analysis has definitely helped me realize that fact more clearly. I will, as I tend to do with all your lessons, view this one many times. Thank you!

Great video man!

Love all the Bowie analysis lately

Bowie, an artist , a legend, someone I have followed and loved his music from the start. I have a keyboard I use to put some tracks to background my songs. You just taught us a new way to look at those keys. Can’t wait to give you lesson a try and work that tune out. Thank you Brian for another great inspiring lesson. Be well, be safe, Peace

A brilliant dissection of this iconic song, and it greatly helps me in my music theory. Fantastic 😊

Wonderful, Brian. Bowie actually took the inspiration for this from the Sinatra song 'My Way'. On the back cover of Hunky Dory it says, "Inspired by Frankie". That's why. Sinatra chose a different English version of the French language hit of My Way (Paul Anka's) than Bowie's attempt called "Even a Fool Learns to Love" when Bowie was working as a lyricist for a publishing company. If you put My Way in the key of F, it's the same chords for the first 7 bars. After that though, it's genius as you say.

Epic song, epic video. I was glued to it, I'm not sure I'll remember all the details of it, but know where to look. Thanks

This is very interesting stuff. Thanks for posting.

You are so crystal clear in your teaching. No filler or red herrings. Well paced, informative, interesting. THANK YOU.

Brilliant video Bowie and Rick Wakeman really did write a masterpiece with this one I never get tired of listening to this song It’s an outstanding composition Almost classical 👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🇮🇪

Amazing. Thank you.

Great lesson in theory wilth a perfect composition 🤗🍀

Just over half an hour of well-researched, incredibly insightful and helpful music theory analysis on one of my absolute favourites, for free. What a time to be alive, great stuff!

Great job Brian, my musical knowledge has improved again.

Great video 👍

Wow, thank you for this video, would never have been able to figure it out on my own!

Fantastic thank you so much!!!

This is a great addition

GREAT!

Great analysis, thanks so much!!!!

Very underrated video! Well done!

amazing lesson. thank you very much

Legend goes that Rick Wakeman (Yes) was invited to play this piano part and played it to David’s humming and simplistic guitar.. it was Rick that added all those modes and shit.. of course they nailed it in a few hours.. that evening Rick went to his local pub.. he was quiet sipping on his pint.. a regular sitting next to him asked him: “what’s up Rick why so quiet” and Rick said: “oh nothing.. I just played the greatest song even written..”

Love this

My all time fav song

thank you very helpful

EXCELLENT! I've learned a lot from you over the past few years, but this was one of your best lessons. I agree, this would make a great series. Let us know if that's a possibility, and whether you would take song suggestions. Thanks for your efforts.

Kudos for this concise analysis. When looking for a chord-melody arrangement for this song, I ran into a ton of guitar-based YT guys with tutorials on how to play this song, however this was the only channel I found that showed the song structure from a theoretical angle. I didn't learn theory until well into my forties when I took the guitar back up after 20 years off and decided that I wanted to learn to play jazz. Many YT guitar channels seem to teach a song in the manner of "third finger, third fret, second finger first fret" which I think is an attempt to avoid understanding how music theory works but the thing I've learned (the hard way) is that there are no shortcuts when it comes to music, (or I guess anything else in life), shortcuts always lead to a dead-end. I always try to encourage musician friends who don't have a fundamental understanding of music theory to take some lessons, explaining how much it will serve them in all of their musical pursuits, but I don't think they listen. Thanks again for this lesson..

When the rover landed I tried to improvise over this song... This video is perfect to explain why I couldn't do it. Thanks!

Great video! I always loved Bowie and this is probably my favourite song of his. Piano on the original by the classically trained Rick Wakeman, of course. When Rick is interviewed on the subject he never takes credit for any of it but praises Bowie’s genius.

THE BEST ,ALWAYS ..NICE

Thanks Brian, this is brilliant. I hope people analyse this song as we're doing now. This is an equivalent to a classical masterpiece and quite probably Bowie's opus. I wonder if people will be analysing this song in two hundred years as they do all the greats? I don't suppose you could present it in a guitar format for us ...

Brian, Thanks for putting in all the hard work here and sharing it with students that don't already know these things. Song analysis is a PERFECT way to teach others becuase it's more hands on and we can relate to it without already being theory masters ...yet :) I'm continued to be inspired and even have a new channel of my own up and running ! You know how to find it simply click on the little picture next to our ID. There's even a link to my first channel with vids of my old band before they all died. Rock on, Michael @ Michaels Music

Brian, I really like your teaching style, explaining concepts like secondary dominants, tritone subs, cadences in a really easy way to understand. I too love Life on Mars and tried to dissect it a few years ago. To my ear, it has a number of things that stand out; the use of chromatic mediants between each section (i.e. moving up or down by a major or minor third) and the line cliches that involve augmented chords (think intro to Stairway to Heaven). My guess is he chose the key changes to get the sound of the chromatic mediants as opposed to moving to alternate modes. But I guess both theories fit, so who knows! That's the fun of trying to dissect songs and figure out what the composer was doing. Can I humbly suggest some of the chords could be more accurate. For the F Aeolian section, I hear:- Ab/Eb Abaug/E Fm Gb and for the F Phrygian section, I hear:- Db Dbaug/A Bbm Db7/B Also I think there is a Gbaug in the Bb Major chorus (as opposed to Gb). I love what you are doing, keep on doing it!

In the bridge/prechorus what you call a Gb Is by my ear an Ab7 3rd inversion. Likewise the B is a Db7 3rd inversion. The Db to Bb resolution is the most striking in the song.

Expecting more videos like this. song analysis, Music Theory Analysis

This song came out around the time I was born yet I never really discovered it until hearing Aurora's cover and now I'm hooked. Problem was that it was stuck in my head for almost 2 weeks straight and was afraid that would ruin it for me.

Awesome song analysis Brian ..... really opened my eyes, and my brain. What happened to the video intro ?

The London Symphony version of Life on Mars from 1978 is simply breathtaking

At about 11 minutes in, you say this is a progression used in a lot of Beatles song. I would have to say, it is a progression used by Paul McCartney. It sounds as those used on his first few solo albums. Paul was the master of melody. George loved his diminished chords, sus2, sus4 and John knew how to write a lick or riff as he did on Watching the Wheels, Norwegian Wood, Yer Blues, and Dear Prudence.

I think in the begining you can see the F7 as Am7b5/Eb to D7 whish function as ii/V in Gm. Then that's make way more sense

God darn it this was good thank you . I love this haunting and always surprising song. Always feel pushed/stimulated by it. Could you say it's an F note going on a journey to the end?

Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30. Strauss. Same modulations.

I was listening to the song while looking at this sheet music (musescore.com/user/2541051/scores/3774281) when I came across your video. The signature in this transcription is in Bb the whole time. Having watched the video, I wondered if the setting had the signature in Bb but the tune as written here actually starts in F and modulates as you describe. But then I noted that there is an E played in the second bar which would be flat in the key of Bb and isn’t marked as being natural and Eb has no place in the key of F. So - is this setting just not true to the original, or am I missing something?

Great video. Isn't Bb Major F Mixolydian as well?

I just got back into Frank Zappa, besides Steely Dan, one of the most advanced musicians of the past century. Bela Fleck also does more complex playing, but on the banjo.

The explanation of the three F modes in the song was great way to understand why modes are useful and how they can be used. The penny finally dropped for me. Thanks.

👍🍻

(Sometimes you use the technique). You play amazing piano for a guitar player, but when you play scales, a piano player showed me how to play the first three notes with thumb, pointer and middle finger, then you move you thumb under and hit the fourth note with the thumb and the remainder with the remaining fingers. In the opposite direct, you hit five notes, the reach across with the middle finger with the middle finger and then the pointer and thumb.

i bet mick tonson had a lot to do with this song as he wrote the string arrangement

Hi, i listened the original song, and i think that it started on E major, not F! Why you play on F?

Jeez 50 years ago...Read somewhere DB was inspired by "My Way" and that Rick Wakeman added to some of the "embellishments". Thanks for the brill analysis. in 1971 this was totallly incomprehensible and unplayable for me

This is like a game of chess! My brain hurts.

Prefer Ebm7 at "Take a look at the ....." Goes better with the orchestration. The turnaround is pure Wakeman/J.S Bach to get back to the verse.

Sometimes music seems like one of those choose your own ending books lol

How such a good video is only counting 4500 hits ?

Thanks for posting! If you have a second, we tried our hand at a cover of Van Halen. As fellow music lovers, we'd love if you'd take a listen. It's on our page. Don't be too tough on us :)

I've never liked this song. I appreciate the effort that went into making this video, but for me it's an extremely overwhelmingly complicated song that I have no interest in. Probably the only Zombie video I didn't enjoy or gain anything from. Sorry.

If you can do all this in a song, then nothing matters. Play any note. Lol

David Bowie is great it's not your opinion it's a fact