Where to Begin - Polyphonic versus Homophonic

#musictheory #harmony #producer
Two basic styles of arranging music, polyphonic & homophonic, have roots in early European classical traditions, but remain useful today. We're using these ideas all the time already!
00:00 intro
00:53 basics
02:28 example 1
03:40 ex 2 block chords
04:32 ex 3 polyphonic melodies
05:50 characteristics of polyphony
07:36 other homophonic forms
09:12 recap
10:30 conclusions

#piano #pianotutorial #chords #chordprogression #harmony #songwriter #producer #cinematicmusic #epicmusic

[alexandrelevy]

You are really pleasant, tasteful, knowledgeable and your shorts have exceptionally beautiful chords and ostinato tips!! A big thank you for such quality teaching straight from a lovely Master!!

[FondueBrothers]

Thank you for explaining this so well. I wasn't aware what homophonic meant.

[gjb]

top notch content with the unmistakable nuance and clarity. learning a bunch from you!

[davidstein]

Thanks very much, Chris for your work & this fine video. I learned a lot.

[NeuroPete]

Thanks for the new music terms. By necessity, my piano playing using the chord-melody method is homophonic, as I never developed the skill to play independent melody lines in each hand. However, my DAW has no such limits, and, as a songwriter, I look forward to eventually trying some counterpoint or some other polyphonic arrangements.

[nenharma]

This channel is gold! Very well produced! Very well prepared content! This is amazing, thank you!

[davidstein]

Chris is explaining why my new dark cymbal sounds great & 'works', except IDK why.

[danielleohallisey]

A few years ago I was approached by a guy who was Mormon, but didn’t like the sound of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s arrangements. He had an in with an orchestra and choir (and very deep pockets) and was going to hire me to orchestrate and arrange a series of Mormon hymns.
I’m not Mormon but I can orchestrate and entered into what I expected to be fruitful negotiations over a contract.
(BTW, this is 100% true). Somewhere along the line he suddenly ghosted me and I couldn’t figure out why. I figured it might have been my liberal politics, like maybe he’d looked me up on Facebook or something?
Looking back over the email exchanges, I suddenly realized that I had used the word “homophonic “ to describe the MTC’s arrangements, which is absolutely accurate. And then it hit me; he thought I’d said they were “homophobic”! Which, come to think of it… 😂

[Ko-rcij]

Excellent as always, thanks so much. A very prosaic question: where did you get the cool keyboard desk?

[awi]

Different topic. If a piece calls for a C chord, but the melody throws in an F note, are we playing a Csus4 at that point? Sorry, I didn't know where else to ask this.

[pedrocatoira]

I don't understand how a song with so many motifs in each layer still sounds coherent. I don't know how each instrument has its own rhythm and works together. I've seen a lot about polyrhythm and the resulting rhythm, but it still doesn't make sense how the set of layers work together. Do they keep the pace and just change the intervals? Or do they hit a certain point that other instruments do, but add new hits at certain points that other rhythms from different layers don't have? Every tutorial I see on YouTube people treat it as if it were so natural and I don't know how they follow it during composition.
I don't know if it's a question of mix or octaves. I see people use FL Studio's function to show notes from other layers highlighted in the background and simply place notes or percussion where they think best, but I don't see how they make it sound coherent. I try to do the same thing and it's a mess.
Could anyone help me or point me to something that could help me understand, please?

[davidstein]

Yes, sometimes I feel like I'm a polyphonic guy living in a homophonic world. Lol

[davidstein]

O guess my cymbal is called Polyphonic because if its ruch, textured & complex presentation...In the way its tin
, high, 'pingy' sund contrasts with the deeper, bronze sound. Anyways, there's a lot going on with this moody cymbal.

[danderson]

You can't say anything without being called homophonic these days 😢