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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

A liberal called me satanic today sicko-satan

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Somehow I kept meaning to reply to this and then having it slip my mind, but better late than never!

Confession time, I was going off the memory of playing early in the morning while half drunk, haha. And I was particularly fixated on the exact phrase you called out as being in Bb major... that F works too well and was really calling out to me there. I do remember thinking "maybe G minor?" but I was so wrapped up in that hook!

No worries! I myself only just got started on really focusing on music theory these past couple of years. I was always more of an ear/memory player—I'd either figure out the song by ear through trial and error, or I'd read the sheet music, but only for long enough to be able to memorize it and then never look at it again. In either case, if you were to stop me at any moment in a song and ask me what notes I just played, I honestly wouldn't know. And even if I had known, it wouldn't have meant much. I knew the basics: how to build major and minor scales, as well as how to build basic triads and seventh chords, but beyond V resolving to I (e.g. G7 to C), I didn't really understand what made songs flow. It's been really gratifying to do transcriptions and analysis of my favorite songs and figure out what makes them tick—and then recognizing those same patterns in other tunes.

while I still get things wrong I still enjoy learning through the mistakes!

This is so important! At first when I was doing analyses I would leave stuff blank when I wasn't sure about how to name a chord or what function a chord had, but I realized I was robbing myself of a learning experience. By committing to an answer and then having someone more experienced look over your work, you can figure out what error in thinking led you to a particular mistake and refine your mental model bit by bit.

One YouTube channel I heartily recommend is 8-Bit Music theory. He does some really great breakdowns of music and covers all kinds of theory topics. You're not going to come out of a video having mastered any particular topic (which is true of any YouTube video, I suppose), but by watching his videos and getting that first exposure to topics I was able to recognize things and go, "Oh yeah, I remember 8-Bit Music Theory talking about this!" and then being able rewatch the relevant video or search for more information since I had a label for the phenomenon. I think that's especially true of his series on the major modes which I keep coming back to and gleaning a bit more each time, although they might be less relevant for you depending on the kind of music you're playing. A great video to start with that covers a smattering of different topics is his breakdown of "Baka Mitai". Another top-notch one is his analysis of the Dolphin Shoals sax solo, which really changed how I listened to (and played) solos. And of course, you can just scroll through and see if there are any topics or games that catch your eyes.

The Doo Wop progression is one of my favorites to play around with

That's another great one! One unexpected place that it shows up is the classic Stage 1 song from Sonic Adventure 2: "Escape from the City". A YouTube creator I follow played off of that and did a doo-wop arrangement of it, which is how I found out about it.

Okay, I've really got to stop myself, but one more shared chord progression: the choruses of "This Love" by Maroon 5 and "Cruel Angel's Thesis" (the OP from Neon Genesis Evangelion) are both in the same key and have the same minor circle of fifths progression: i-iv-VII-III (so in C minor that'd be Cm-Fm-Bb-Eb).

(sorry for rambling—I don't really expect a reply, but I just wanted to acknowledge your comment and nerd out a bit more!)

[-] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Haha this is too funny! 8-Bit Music Theory's Chrono Trigger video on Non-Functional Harmony was the exact thing that piqued my interest in really learning music theory. I also know that Dolphin Shoals video well, it affected me the same way. From there I found Signals Music Studio's channel to be the most useful for me in understanding these concepts. Something about that guy's teaching style just really clicks with me. I highly recommend checking out his stuff if you're not already aware. His videos helped me finally start to understand intervals, chord progressions, and modal theory. When modes started clicking for me it's like I literally felt my consciousness expand, haha. Like I'd been made privy to the secrets of powerful magic. You can just change one note of a scale and give your composition a completely different emotional context? And you can come at that with intent and purpose instead of mucking around on the keyboard until you stumble across something that sounds like how you feel? (not that there's anything inherently wrong with that!) Amazing stuff.

I've been so busy with work and life I haven't made time to follow all your links! Instead I found myself captivated by the next big song in Deltarune Chapter 2, My Castle Town. Extremely cozy version here. I had to make time to learn this and fast, so I looked up sheet music and just started playing. I really got into the A section's chord progression. It's very Hisaishi-coded to me, in context with the melody. Then I came back here, saw the last example in your reply, and had a good laugh. They're the same chords, Cm-Fm-Bb-Eb. I started wondering, is that section of My Castle Town in C minor or Eb major? Is it i-iv-VII-III, or vi-ii-V-I? That pull from V-I feels more compelling to me. I really feel like Eb is the tonic, and honestly I feel that way about This Love and Cruel Angel's Thesis, too. But then again, the key melodies in those sections of MCT and CAT both start on C, which is tricking me into thinking of that as the root of the tonic chord. I'd love to get your take please, but no expectation of a reply for me either!

You know something else, Cm/Eb has been my favorite scale ever since I heard The Girl Who Fell from the Sky from Castle in the Sky. I don't know what it is about those particular notes, but I always love seeing it turn up in other places. Love geeking out on music too, so thanks!

[-] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

Link 1:

Link 2:

this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
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