How To Build and Use Polychords Part 1

This is Everything Music Episode 8 called How To Build and Use Polychords Part 1. If you want to get even more in depth on Polychords or any of my other content, Please check out my Patreon link below. It will tell you how to get PDF's of all my video content. Thanks!

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[colepeterson]

About 75% of the time if I look up a music theory subject that I want to learn about you have a video on it nicely done rick.

[sonic]

Oh my lord... E Major over C Major sounds so grand!

[hevertonrocha]

Your channel is fantastic Rick, so many precious information. Thanks for sharing all these great things with us!

[dirtierdog]

Hey RIck. I really love what your channel has become. There are so many channels out there that teach the really really easy stuff, and the people who are music theory nerds tend to have cheap software and the videos are not engaging or don't come regularly. Your channel has became a favorite. Keep up the great great work.

[jules.b.h]

being able to see the keyboard would be very helpful
interesting video though

[yadinmichaeli]

Thank you so mucho for that amazing episode!

[gabrielheiser]

On your 5-year anniversary show today you played a snippet of the polychords video (maybe this one? not sure...), and I thought "Wow! I have to find that one!" I'm so glad I found it and watched it. Now, on to the other polychords videos!

[sonorstudio]

Wonderfull, here I really kick off somehow ! Beside the other great things this man has show me !

[DaveZula]

This channel is fantastic. Really just a wealth of useful information. These polychords on synth strings remind me of the outro on the long version of "Purple Rain, " (really more of a tag after the song ends.) I always wanted to transcribe that, but I have a hard time picking out individual notes in such dense harmonies. Guess I should head back to your ear training videos!

[giantessmaria]

great stuff Rick, thanks man...those poly chords kinda reminded me of Aaron Copeland's Apalachean Spring for some reason...

[zacharypaz]

Realizing that William Schuman’s symphonies are 80% just super dense polychords

[soundsgoodtome]

Great stuff! But notation is important. The slash character is used to indicate a chord played over a *bass note*, not a polychord. Polychords are notated traditionally with a *horizontal* line, but more recently the vertical separator character has become acceptable (e.g., A|C), perhaps because it's easy to type on modern keyboards. Finally, the caption for the polychord at 3:39 is incorrect. It's Eb|E (not Db|E). 😊

[fernandoro]

Hi Rick, I really like the stuff you are presenting. And I can follow you since I have harmonic training. But I wanted to tell you that I would like rather to see your hands, have you thought of a split image for your face and hands... or switching back and forth? I also suggest a link to a pdf or a site where the examples of your explanation are laid out. Everything would make sense much quicker, specially for people that may be put off by the jargon. I thought the same of the videos about phrygian and lidian chords.

[alexandermeadow]

Rick, these videos have been absolutely fantastic. What a wealth of experience and information! I'm relatively new to your videos. Is there any avenue through which one could make a request for something they wanted to be covered? Forgive me if this is not the appropriate forum, but I'd love to see/hear your analysis of various polychord uses in the post bop context (an analysis of Herbie's playing at the intro to Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum for instance).

[enriquecastaneda]

So my question Is, when you play a polychord, what scale do you play in? For example, if I'm playing a c major in my left hand and bm in my right, would I play the bm scale or something else like the Lidian mode

[riccardomura]

Hi Rick, I really love this lesson but I'm a bit lost and I wanted to ask you if the pdf about polychords is still available. Btw I bought your book and it was one of the best things I've done in my life. I've started getting into polychords recently.. Thanks Rick for sharing all your knowledges.!

[abdulalshibly]

I'm very late for this but I have some help for the people who kinda didn't understand this video it's an idea I got from another video(I hope you don't mind Rick for me bringing other information from another video) the concept is actually more like a jazz concept but you can use it in any genre of music
The concept is that you can take any scale and build a 13th chord with both hands you will see that you have in the right hand different chords combination for example in c major you will get chords like d minor chord b diminished chord and some 7th chords. If you play the root chord c major and add one of these chords in you left/right hand you get a different sound for every chord try to use different inversions, voicings try using cluster chords which sound amazing on strings and one more tip try using different chord tensions and you will get a lot of different chords. The possibilities of this concept is a lot try to find your own style in these chords have fun experimenting
P. S: I hope you don't mind Rick but this is just to help people
Another P. S: For the people who don't understand this comment I will recommend you to learn about chord extensions and chord tensions first than you know what I'm talking about

Edit: I think why people don't really understand what Rick means when he is mixing chords together because I think Rick thinks of these chords in a modal way which is a pretty good way that I will recommend you to learn after using chord extensions and alterations which is more of a jazz approach but it's (in my opinion) much easier way for people to understand about poly chords but as Rick said if you like a chord mix voice you can use it even if it doesn't belong theoretically together it doesn't matter. Rick didn't specifically said that but I believe that's what he meant

[Hari]

Hey Rick,
How do we create such harmonic resemblance? Like, you used D flat major / F major and E major/ C major? How do we come up with such pair of chords on your left and right hand? Thanks in advance....

[jackwaughmusic]

Hey Rick- when you pick these chords out are they random based on containing the notes your harmonizing (f, g, ab) or is there some system your using that you derive the chords from? Thanks!

[tunekeysus]

Rick in some sites says what polytonality it´s use of two or more different keys, so sometimes polytonality and bitonality are related ?