The Music Theory Iceberg Explained

Today we are running through my Music Theory Iceberg, unpacking music theory concepts from the most well-known and mainstream, to the weird and obsecure!

And, an extra special thanks goes to Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel’s Patreon saints! 😇

0:00 Introduction
0:30 1: Open air
2:04 2: Tip of the iceberg
4:02 3: Under the surface
7:50 4: Sinking deeper
14:00 5: Daylight doesn't reach down here
19:45 6: Running out of oxygen
28:45 7: The ocean floor
43:15 Conclusion

[felipecortegana]

Now here’s the real mind blowing thing about the whole iceberg. Once you reach the ocean floor, you look around the abyss, and suddenly you see other icebergs, then comes the realization of other cultures have their own version of music theory and their own icebergs attached

[dorsal-qbfr]

Pitch = Rhythm is at the deepest level... but it could just as easily be taught at the top of the iceberg - if provided with the incredible demonstration you offered here. Bravo!

[isidoreaerys]

Pitch is rhythm STILL blows my mind.
It’s crazy to think our bodies can make frequencies that move that fast using our voice

[chilaou]

The most memorable thing about A = 432hz tuning for me is that my hometown warned against its intentional usage during amplified musical performances for a couple of years back in the early 2000's. IIRC, they found out that the concrete supports of our amphitheater would resonate at 108hz after someone was performing, apparently using 432hz tuning, and during a very loud sustained note (I guess A2) at the end of a song part of one of the lighting rigs supported between two of them snapped. I remember seeing a follow-up in the newspaper about how during their investigation into the cause, one of the engineers said something like, "I guess the original architects hadn't thought about the 'weird stuff' kids might be doing with music in 70 years."

[Watermelon_Man]

The pitch=rhythm one was hilarious to me because it’s a deep dark concept for a musician, but I’m an Audio Engineer, so we work with frequencies rather than notes most of the time, so this is a fundamental concept for us😂 (I’m a musician as well)

[MusicalBasics]

The greatest music theory video I’ve ever seen. You deserve awards for the effort you put into this.

[ThatBish]

That pitch = rhythm thing was MIND BOGGLING

[crisoutoftune]

I love how the deeper he got, the less songs examples he had to explain the non common or weird music theory concepts, just proving how rare each level is.

[doodle]

The fact that every chord and all of harmony is just polyrhythms is crazy to me

[mnoradola]

This is the single greatest music theory explanation I've ever seen. It's very succinct and well explained and it should be Day 1 viewing in every single Music Theory 101 class going forward.

[henrychinaski]

Dude, where have you been my whole life? This is just what the regular Joes like me need. No nonsense, no bs, straight ELI5 explanations so we can get a grasp and then go deeper into it. Thanks a lot, subscribed now.

[jerryli]

interesting note about Deutsch's scale illusion: Tchaikovsky kinda used it with two violins in the 4th movement of his 6th symphony and its so

[vitalepitts]

my favorite part of music theory is being like "OH that's what that's called" when I've found something while playing that sounds wild

[corentinm.]

40:09 I hear absolutely no differences and that scares me

[cp]

I have to say that when this video came up I thought, "45 minutes? I'll just watch the first few minutes and then probably bail." But as you got deeper and deeper I was totally hooked on some absolutely fascinating concepts. Clefs are designed to specify the note that passes through them? Cool! Polymeter and swing ratios? Way more interesting than I had ever considered. And pitch = rhythm?!? Get the f*ck outta here! Brilliant video and extremely well presented.

[bradleydawson]

In my second college level music theory class (1976), I recorded a metronome on a reel to reel and sped it up to audible frequency for a class project. I got an 'A' and a WTF from the professor. From around the same time I heard my first shepard tone at the end of Pink Floyd's "Echoes". I did encounter several concepts in this that I have not previously seen or heard. Congratulations on a very complete explanation. It would make a great poster for music theory classes.

[fryeguymusic]

You explained neopolitans and augmented 6’s better in 30 seconds than my professor did in an entire semester

[Magic_carpet]

It's funny because a lot of the deeper concepts you refer to are actually stuff I learned with music production rather than music theory (overtones, polymeters, pitch = rhythm). If you follow it all the way down it becomes… basically pure math and you're entering the audio and electrical engineering realm.

[scotthamm]

I am deaf, profoundly deaf, which means I can not hear any sound at all. Zero.

I was raised learning about music through vibrations by physical contact like hands to the piano, drums, guitars, bass guitars, banjo, etc. I can understand the concept of various frequencies.

My mom got me started in rhythm when we sang hymns at Church using a book pointing out what word to speak, sustain the tone, or stop abruptly, etc.

So from there, I started to study notes from hymn books remembering the speed, rhythm, etc, and learned songs and music from there. That is how I got started into music.

I eventually started playing drums, moved to guitar, and then again moved to Banjo. I started enjoying the blue grass music due to the profundity of simple and pleasing rhythms. One of my favorite music is Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

So until I saw this video, I thought I knew everything, which is on the tip of the iceberg. As you led me down under the water, my mind is BLOWN. The simplicity of the explanation of each term listed here really made me more curious, for instance, hendrix chords, polyrhythm, mixed meter, shepard tone, and ESPECIALLY pitch=Rhythm!

Pitch equals to Rhythm has opened up my eyes to new things that I never thought has existed!

Your video has brought me into the abyss of music opening new opportunities to really enjoy and appreciate music!

Thank you, and keep up doing videos like those! You rock!

[antmonk]

The pitch = rhythm part is something I had seen explained before (possibly on an Adam Neely vid) but when you demonstrated the concept by turning a polyrhythm into a major triad, that blew my mind dude. Fantastic video.