Why?

Rather than looking for things where we disagree, I would immediately try to find common ground. I think if you put together the best of classical music, pop, and jazz, you're going to have a pretty complete system because so much music is included. My main point is that our objective is to be as flexible as possible. Working musicians have to make a living, and that means being good at playing all sorts of music. When I was young I was in a dance band one day, playing a Broadway musical the next day, playing something by Rachmaninoff, Mozart, or Bach the next day, then accompanying for almost any instrument that you can imagine the next day. I didn't have much money and I didn't come from a rich family. After a single degree in music I had to go directly to work to make a living. So I think I am a very practical musician and therefore a very practical teacher. To me it's all about what we can play, what we can compose, what we can arrange and what we can improvise. I think perhaps you will not disagree with that. The bottom line is that you should always know what chord you're playing, how you got there, and where you are going next. When you can do that you are beyond names in a pure sound world. I will add to that that if you are notating music, you have to know the smoothest way to make it all work on the page.

You are absolutely correct. For instance, if you play D7 in the left hand and in the right hand Cdim7, those two chords spelled properly go together to make D7b9. This works because Cdim7 and Eb dim7 are really the same chord with some enharmonic spelling adjustments.

Augmented chords tend to be very dark. If you use a whole bunch of them, sort of front and center, your music will also be dark. So if you want to write something that is carefree, light, optimistic or cheerful this is not the chord to use. That was the whole point of writing this piece, and I knew that some of my happier friends would be "repelled", in your words.

Wouldn't that be wonderful?

I think this one really is dark. I did not want to go into too much detail about the mood I was in when I wrote it. But I was not in a happy place.

In this case for me to share the score was faster and easier than trying to come up with a kind of pictures I would have liked to present.

You are talking about exactly what I wanted to get across.

This is bizarre. I only see two words from you here. But in notifications I see that you wrote down the answers. I wonder why they are not showing up in comments here.

It was a lot of fun to write because I could explore how quickly I could move back and forth from major to minor and from minor to major. I think it's also important for students to know that we are taught systems that assume a piece of music is either in major or minor when so often it is a complicated mixture of both.

Maya, I have been dependent upon my friends, students and family to suggest music from video games because I don't play them. But I really think this music is a large part of what is going to be most important in the near future and maybe for a very long time.

Which inversions are you weakest at both in playing and hearing?

@@garydlloyd7718 I would say first inversion

:)

It is actually quite difficult to play this way.

Probably you have not seen the movie.

Are you a trekkie?

That's why I gave it to you!

I can only say that composing is very personal. Each thing that you create is something that you don't know how it will be received.

I was actually very discouraged at the time I wrote this. This channel has been doing very badly this summer.

That's a tough question to answer. I only use Roman numerals, when I am teaching, for very general concepts. I never use them for myself. For example, if I am in the key of C major or C minor I am aware that C is going to make some sort of I chord, F is going to make some sort of IV chord, and G is going to make some sort of V chord. If I have a G7 chord I'm going to think of that as a V7 chord. But I'm not thinking those numbers. I'm just thinking that those are my go-to chords for the key. The music that I prefer and the music that I compose is generally very chromatic, so I think about what key I start in, what key I am currently in, and how I am eventually going to get back to my starting key. I always know where I am and I always know why I am moving to where I go next. Roman numerals just get in my way for anything that is complicated or sophisticated.

I think you are right, but my ideas are more straightforward and don't get hung up on vocabulary. I can teach them to an 8 year old.

@@garydlloyd7718 I think you are onto something. I don’t fully agree with all of your ideas but I like your pedagogical approach.

What is an idea of mine that you disagree with?

I totally agree.

Be sure to try these chords out for yourself because they are a lot of fun!

So much of the music that is important today is being written for computer games.

I think Roman numerals are useful for broad, general concepts. But for me they fail utterly for anything subtle and sophisticated.

I am never sure if presenting three different ways to get to the same result is helpful or confusing for most people.

I think for pianists splitting something complicated into rather simple things for either hand is a great way to start off exploring some really cool sounds.

I think it's pretty obvious that figured bass had nothing to do with Roman numerals. So from that we can probably intuitively figure out that Roman numerals came later, and that's exactly what happened. But I am mostly concerned with the insane idea of combining Roman numerals with figured bass. To me that puts us into a system that gives us the worst of two worlds.

I took a quick peek at your KZfaq channel and I remember your name. If you will drop me an email I would love to catch up.

@@garydlloyd7718 sure will!

I wanted to ask you if you already knew this piece of music. But I am guessing that the answer is yes because our whole family loose computer games!

I totally agree!:)

You know that I Have fun making the pictures!:)

It's always fun to get a comment from you, Pedro!:)

Sing colors for modulation is always practical for pianists.

Glad it was helpful!

What is your point...

@@garydlloyd7718 my point is you're saying it wrong

@@guitarz99 Gotcha...

In the case of the C Sharp major prelude by Bach, there are a whole bunch of ways why composers at that time did not write in the key of D flat major. I believe I once did a search for Domenico Scarlatti and could not find one instance where he used this key for one of his sonatas, and this is a man who is famous for doing unbelievably original things. Using the tuning systems of the time, some keys sounded remarkably weird, and this is why Bach's tuning system is called "well-tempered" and not equal temperament. Whatever he used was closer to the way instruments are tuned today, but there were still noticeable differences from key to key. There have been other people who have researched this extensively, but you might get close by hearing a harpsichord player do this prelude. The difference in tuning is rather subtle to the ears of most people.

I think a larger point is that when we are doing something for the first time and we feel it is original or at least highly effective, as creative people we feel motivated and perhaps excited. But once we have finished something, we won't feel that initial excitement again if we have to do any kind of redo. That is true for me when composing, and it is also true for me when making these instructional videos. Once I have composed something and I know that it works, that composition will never be as exciting for me again. In rare instances I become remotivated if some time goes on and I have new ideas. What is absolutely frustrating and irritating is when something works very well when I play it but I see something that is not efficient or clear when I look at the score. The only reason that I am able to revisit old compositions and renotate them is that the process is very fast and is mostly a matter of reshaping things mentally. Just imagined how old composers felt if they recognized that something they did before could be written better, but they didn't have new ideas about the music, only about the notation. In that case just the thought of doing the whole thing over again would have been totally unpleasant.

What surprised me the most is that Chopin's theme effectively uses very simple chords that are just like what I have been teaching. I think this idea emphasizes that anything that works is timeless.