Is This Book Your Key to Anime & J-POP Music?

Exploring "Japanese Music Harmony" by Kayano Chino and how to use key fluctuations in your music.

A discussion of Multipolar Tonality & Key Fluctuations, a music theory concept found in the works of anime and video game music from Japanese composers like Joe Hisaishi.

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#musictheory #animeharmony #japanesemusic

0:00 Intro
0:53 What is Multipolar Tonality?
2:00 Analysis
5:08 RMT
6:23 DMT
9:11 PMT

[catsimus]

For the DMT example starting around 8:00, wouldn't the key be Gmin(IImin, Vmin) instead of IVmin?
Loved the video btw!

[jaredf]

I was watching an American YouTuber play one of their own songs on piano and i thought it sounded very very Japanese, but couldn’t figure out why. Later found out he went to music school in Japan.

[kovanova]

That minor part of "one summer's day" is the music equivalent of looking back at what you're leaving one last time.

[RitosM]

I've always wondered how some of the music in Breath of the wild felt so magical and I think this might be it. Thanks for the video, really interesting stuff.

[owengonzales]

Man the spirited away music always gets me. It’s like this beautiful bittersweet nostalgia and adds a whole new dimension to the movie

[chrisZalleus]

I've been trying to figure out this Japanese chord thing for so long I am really grateful to you for making this video.

[samuelhaney]

This reminds me of jazz, where you often do II V I changes in different keys (often relative/dominant/subdominant but often not). It also reminds me of modal change like that in jazz, but it is often one chord at a time (like in Herbie Hancock's Cantaloupe Island) (Modern jazz also changes around even more).

Also, great video, it's really interesting and opens up a lot of ideas.

[guillaumethibodeaux]

This really feels like a giant leap. After learning all the established "rules" of the Circle of Fifths and chord progressions, I come across this video teaching me how to "break" them.

[GuacJohnson]

I always heard DMT would expand my mind, thanks for this!

[peforce]

Man, this is super interesting. I'm certainly going to check that book and I look forward to more videos on the subject.

On a side note, I've recently had your channel recommended to me and it's honestly one of my favourites. I've been binging your content for a while now and I still have a lot more videos to watch.
Thank you for all the knowledge you share.

[Rise]

This video is extremely interesting, thank you so much for making it.
I've adored One Summer's Day and always been entranced by the way it flows outside of its key so effortlessly when I was learning it, I remember searching all over for Hisaishi's secrets, I never thought there'd be a video that so heavily delved into the concept not only, but the same song even.

[lorerecru]

OMG I was thinking about buying these books but I'd prefer to see if someone on the internet knew about them. And I couldn't find any info. And now, finally, one of my fav youtubers is doing a video about it. THANKS

[davidesonzini]

Very interesting, if you consider One Summer's Day to be in C major instead of A minor then all the chords in measure 4-5 can be seen as modal interchanges and Gsus2 as the dominant to go back to C but instead it goes to Am (V - vi cadence), to me the tonal centre of the piece sounds like C.

[funicon]

this is such a great book. and the examples are absolutely lovely. i had to read it literally 17 times but im finally starting to get it.

its funny, its deprogramming a lot of the "rules" id taught myself from years of jazz piano and classical theory. in doing so, ive expanded my harmonic vocabulary in a couple of days in amazing ways.

[yd_]

New sub! I really appreciate hearing theory being explained like this because I trudged through my studies when I was younger, just enough to pass exams, and admittedly retained way less than I should have.

[zoid]

I found your channel while writing music for guitar and because of you my Keyboard/Midi comes in the mail today!!

EDIT: Additionally, if anyone has good resources for someone familiar with theory but not as much with piano let me know. I'm a quick learner but also have about two hours every day I practice music so I'm not looking for shortcuts.

[sana-cmoc]

Love the suspended note in the 4th bar. 07:57 😊

[mrtoast]

I wonder if this is the reason so many sad Japanese songs are such bangers, the idea of introducing major poles into sad / minor songs is ingrained into their culture.

[MattCitrano]

Just awesome!! Excellent content. I’ve always loved the way multiple tonalities are incorporated in Japanese music, from their film music to anime openings and J-rock. Thanks for making it easy to digest!

[gavinleepermusic]

Loved this, Ryan! I didn't notice that One Summer's Day could be described using this framework. I also quite liked your original examples.