The Music Theory Iceberg Explained

Thanks to Hooktheory for sponsoring this video. Use this link to get 20% off your first year of Chord Crush. www.hooktheory.com/davidbennett 🎼

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

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

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."

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)

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!

That pitch = rhythm thing was MIND BOGGLING

I remember I basically sort of discovered the "pitch = rhythm" thing as a child when I tried to see how low I could possibly sing, and each time I tried to go lower it my vocal chords would essentially start fizzling out and sound like a quiet fast popping or tapping instead of an actual tone.
However, the polyrhythm -> chords thing was absolutely mindblowing, I had no idea thats how it worked!

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

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.

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

As somebody who knows nothing about music theory I don’t understand anything 😂

Wow, the chances of me watching a 45 minute video are nearly zero. I actually didn't realize how long the video was until someone pointed it out in the comments. Got totally hooked. Great job!

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

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.

I knew about the Pitch=Rhythm before seeing this, but I never knew about the ratios applying to the rhythms as chords so my mind was blown even more than it was when I learned about this

I have been through so many teachers who like to ignore the first couple layers of the iceberg and jump right in the deep. This has helped so much!!!!!!!!

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.

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 cooooooool

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

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.

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.

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.

Ive been studying music theory for the fun of it because of me wanting to major in music, and this gave me a huge help! Eight pages and one sore hand later, I have all of the knowledge needed for my AP Music theory class next year! Thank you!!

This may be the single most creepy iceberg video I've ever seen.
There is nothing more utterly surreal than listening to all these songs and tones with little context back to back.
You get to the bottom of the iceberg and it stops being references and familiar cultural norms, and things get absolutely absurd. Legitimately eerie and unfamiliar pieces of sound being illustrated by this solumn, yet adamant narrator.
Doesn't help some of these tones instill a sense of existential dread. These are the sounds you'd hear in like, a horror movie, or a game like Undertale. Real bone chilling pieces.
Most icebergs are creepy by kind of warping your nostalgia. This iceberg opens your ears to the most unusual sounds and concepts. It is indescribable.

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.

honestly this would also be a perfect "introduction to music theroy" video in my opinion. There is just so much good stuff here! :)

Pitch = Rhythm should be taught relatively early. I think it's easy enough for anyone to understand. One of the coolest concepts in all of music.

Pitch = Rhythm never fails to amaze me on a deep level. When I hear a rhythm sped up to pitch it feels like I’m hearing something coming to life. Like how we’re all alive despite being made up of “dead” matter.
It really gets me philosophical

That pitch and rhythm part blew my mind. Great video

The pitch = rhythm part blew my mind! It was incredible listening to it speed up and transition into a chord! Amazing!!

I'm not a musician or a musician fan, but how did you make it so entertaining for me and everyone?

pitch = rhythm absolutely destroyed my mind. it was something that I knew already but how you described it just left me with a smile on my face.

Great video as always.
One note: C double flat actually a B flat, not a B natural, so a d diminished 7 chord would be written as D-F-Ab-Cb, and not an example of a situation in which you’d use a double flat (unless it’s too early in the morning and my brain isn’t working).

A video about obscure music theory and you went fully 33 minutes without throwing up your hands and passing the baton to Adam Neely, nice job!

As weird and unrelated as this may sound, pitch = rhythm is literally the perfect explanation for why cars “vroom”. You see, a gas engine operates on mini controlled explosions, and each of these explosions has an audible “pop” sound. Well when a car can rev at 12000 rpm, that’s essentially just 200 “pop”s per second.

hands down the best video on mt that i've ever watched!! i do love geeking on the topic and i learned a lot as well as having my mind blown. your explanations are amazing - so clear, yet coherent and thorough!

small note: the melodic minor scale is actually #6 and #7 going up but natural 6 and 7 going down. This results in the ear being pulled to the tonic going up and to the dominant tone going down

I love how the relatively simple idea of "What if we play Lydian, but then just play another Lydian; and then another one?" was dubbed in a way that feels like pissing around while totally drunk.
"Duuuuuuuude...That's not even Ultra-Lydian anymore...It's like.......Super-Ultra-Hyper-Mega-Meta Lydian, Man!"

45min of full immersion in music theory. Outstanding!

I knew a lot of this stuff but there were a lot of things I did not know. And it was all explained so well, with excellent graphics that showed the concepts visually, and audio samples where you could hear it. Thanks, David.

I remember seeing some time ago a music genre called “Extratone.” I think it uses the pitch = rhythm idea in extremely high bpm songs.

The pitch=rhythm was to me by far the coolest concept here, really ties everything together

"Pitch = Rhythm" also has a very famous example which is "One" by Swedish House Mafia, the kick of the beginning of the song gradually turns into one of the synths and I do think this is pretty cool!
Aside from this, I loved this video so much, and I occasionally return here when I want to remember something! I am pretty glad I've found your channel some time ago!

All I’ve learned from this video is that I can press random piano buttons, and so long as it sounds weird and I can make up a fancy name, I can deem myself a musical genius

It's fascinating for an experienced musician to see a video like this one and determine how extensive my knowledge is on music theory. I recognise much of this content from stuff i'm presently doing or have done in the past and yet there is some content I have never heard of or only had an implicit understanding of. You've sparked a bit of curiosity in me my friend. Good stuff.

C bb = Bb, not B natural

I love these kinds of videos. Not because I am much into music theory, but I almost always seem to find at least one song I like enough to put on my playlist

This is so great - I love the way you presented so much, clearly and quickly - as I am slowly beginning to grasp some of these concepts - the wonder of music seems like a vast ocean, or, the equally apt metaphor: an iceberg. Thanks for sharing your knowledge & love of music.

rithm and pitch correlation has some incredible similarity to particle-wave nature of light

How far “deep” is an AP Music theory class in this iceberg in your opinion?
Edit: I took the class and exam, so I know the contents of AP. But since people could overestimate how much they know of an entire subject, I’m looking for answers from people that have studied all levels of the “iceberg”, not just AP Music theory.

My music theory professor demonstrated pitch=rhythm in my first semester theory class and it blew my mind. It’s such a cool physics/math thing that integrates with music.

i like how you say with some of the ideas that basically, most of the time people arent thinking about the concepts when theyre playing, just feeling it. Theres so much concepts in music theory and sometimes its so overwhelming that people forget you dont really need to know everything to utilize it. good video

It is interesting that different instruments allow direct (felt rather than understood) acces to different concepts - even to some of the lower tiers. Everybody ever using a synthesizer with a LFO going into audiorange will experience Pitch=Rhythm for instance, or people playing an instrument without fixed tuning will feel just intervals.

All the concepts were absolutely fascinating but I was blown away by pitch = rhythm. Such a seemingly nonsensical idea that actually makes perfect sense!

As someone who took advanced theory I was still able to find some new stuff like negative harmony and pitch=rhythm. Great stuff

This is the most comprehensive explanation of negative harmony I’ve ever heard. It actually makes sense now. THANK YOU!

This video was extremely well presented. Every time I was like "ok, but can we see it/hear it" we got a proper demonstration and it was incredibly satisfying apart from being really educational. The quality of your videos have honestly increased a lot, David. All the best!

This made me realize how deep can get the knowledge of something and how many stuffs I need to learn about music theory
Great iceberg ❤️

Thank you so much for the audialization of the equal temperament, meantone as well as Pythagorean tuning next to each other! I have had listen to music in meantone temperament, but it was the first time when I heard it right after equal temperament and I was in awe of how much brighter the chord was!
Also, pitch = rhythm is such a cool concept I wish I knew earlier when I was explaining overtones and temperation to my students!
Thank you very much for the video! :)

Fun fact: If you rotate a music sheet 180 degrees, you end up with another music sheet. Only things that are looking odd are:
Key signatures (If key is A minor or C major, it doesn't look odd)
Quarter rests
Dynamics
Articulations
Tuplets
Meters
Tempo
Clefs
Accidentals
etc.

Greatly enjoyed this, I learned things! Couple of little things: C clef is commonly used as tenor clef for cello trombone and bassoon. Just intonation is commonly used by instruments that can bend the pitch - ensembles such as string quartets will often tune the thirds of held chords.

Hey David! First, really-excellent summary video!
Regarding “Xenharmonic” vs. “Microtonal,” Ivor Darreg (my longtime mentor) originally coined the term “Xenharmonic,” in the early-1970s, IIRC. Speaking with the editor of the informal journal, Xenharmonikôn, his recollection was that Darreg had in mind the unusual-sounding tunings as “xenharmonic.”
“Xenharmonic” translates literally from Greek as “strange harmony.” I’m checking with a couple folks who worked closely with Ivor at the time to ask how the interpreted Darreg’s intended meaning for “Xenharmonic.”
However, I actually _really like_ your interpretation of the distinction between these two terms, if you generalize it _slightly_ to:
_Microtonal = tunings that continue and build upon the historical/cultural thought process that lead us to 12TET, to provide more Musical possibilities_ . So, 19TET, 31TET, 24TET, 53TET, etc., would qualify as Microtonal.
_Xenharmonic = tunings where you have no choice but to throw out the traditional rule book entirely and start over_ . So this would include tunings like 11TET, Carlos Alpha, octave-repeating harmonic-series-fragment tunings, Bohlen-Pierce, 88CET, and many others.
Tunings somewhat “on the borderline” between the two include 7TET, 10TET (my first break into the field), 17TET.

Practically entire year of concepts stuffed into a few minutes. You were born to do this. Thank you. My favorite new, weird and wonderful concept… Pitch = Rhythm… Rhythm = Pitch.

The part about Pitch=Rhythm was incredible!
Excellent video all round. One of your best.

One thing you can add in the Ocean floor, similar to the Shepard tone : While the Shepard tone affects an ever ascending pitch, the same principles can also be applied with Rhythm. It's called Risset rhythm, it's a piece that keeps getting faster and faster, apparently without end (like the Shepard tone, it's just an illusion).

(36:03)
Irrational Time Signatures are sadly rarely ever used, even in the more out there styles like Prog and Mathcore. The only example that I could find from a relatively popular tune was "Veil" by Haken. Around 10:30 into the song, the band suddenly switches from 7/4 to 7/12, then to 4/4. It comes out of nowhere and feels a lot less jarring that one would expect.

This is a very interesting video. There are so many different music theory concepts I was unaware notwithstanding what I have learned thus far. I will definitely consider using this in my compositions. Thank you so much for this video.

It makes me happy that I knew most of everything on the ice berg before watching the video. Im suprised you didn't add harmonic series as its own item considering how important it is to music everywhere. Super great and informative video, and I learned a few things that I didn't know in the past. I suppose a few items that could have been added would be comma pumps and benedetis tuning puzzles, PC set theory and 12 tone matrix, and maybe shenkerian analysis? (although I don't really like that guy too much)

Ooh, thanks for sharing Deutsch's scale illusion! I feel like that illusion really gets at why it can be hard to transcribe harmonies, or why two people trying to transcribe the same harmony vocals for the same song might come out with two different transcriptions.

37:39 Jacob colliers face gave me a good chuckle

the chord interval tone polyrhythm section is super well described! nice collection of ideas

28:24 this tune reminds me of the water sprayers that shake agressively before their heads turn.

It's remarkable how well and easy you explain so many concepts. Really fun to watch too, good video!

33:15 I love how you can see Jacob Collier haunting you in the background!

This was awesome! So much fascinating new stuff, but I was also encouraged to find that apart from perhaps the very deepest level, there was at least one concept on each level which was already somewhat familiar to me.

Thanks for this great video/lesson. As a composer I’m always keen on finding new tools to experiment with. I learned a lot from this video. 😊🎉

I love these kind of videos because it makes you realize how people in different times conceptualize things, makes theories and ultimately play with systems. It's great to see how this art evolves and gets involved with other areas of knowledge. Fun to see that there are actually a lot of concepts and we almost always see the most simple stuff in our day to day... Great video, kudos

The brilliance of this video can’t be overstated, it both reinforced my existing understanding, corrected my misunderstanding and explained new concepts (specifically Negative Harmony!).
Thank you so much David!

The alto clef is a C clef centered on the middle line of the staff. When it's centered on the line above that, it is called a tenor clef and is frequently used for the upper register of low-sounding instruments, such as the cello or bassoon.

Pretty much everything I wanna to say has already been said about this video, but I have to say it anyway: wow, what a blast to have all these subjects covered altogether! Amazing job!!

David, thank you for such an in-depth dive into music theory! 45 minutes have passed so seamlessly!

Whoa!!! Awesome write-up and video! This gave me so many memories and I was surprised that I already knew most (which made me enjoy the video even more haha) from times, during my final years of school, when I was obsessed trying to mathematically describe every and any aspect of music and harmony in math and chasing every relations of frequencies, overtones and so on trying to understand the spirituality music always gave to me. Writing whole notebooks full of diagrams from equations to frequencies to harmonies and their harmonic relations to the emotions they evoke, while learning so much on a journey to an answer that will probably never be truly found. Programming my own synths for several Xenharmonic scales and endavours before finally returning to focus on my music again, to find peace from a potentially eternal search, with which I'm to this day still fascinated about.
Anyone else ever had such obsession?

This was so interesting to watch. I hope I have a grasp on fraction of all the the information you started to present in there. It seemed like some of those thing were icebergs in themselves.

Bravo, you really outdid yourself with this.
I've been playing piano and singing since I turned 6 and am surprised I recognized any terms beyond overtones. I don't have all that much formal music theory education, but I have played my fair share of instruments and had many great musicians to learn from.
Taking physics and being a math major has also helped in my musical journey, I wish there were more science art educational integrations out there.

It's the first time I'm watching an iceberg and say I already understand most of the lowest layer. I'm very happy to see I know enough of music theory to never get lost. That said, it was very good to ear your explanations on some aspects of this iceberg.

i got all the way to negative harmony before I had to rewind, because it went over my head on the first listen/watch, amazing video, awesome stuff, surprised i was familiar with some deepest depth stuff too!

"Mu chord" was actually the first concept I wasn't familiar with and after that you got me again with "xenharmonic" music.

Legit one of the best music lessons i ever stumbled on. Thank you appreciate it!

That explanation of clefs just blew my mind. Here I was trying to memorize what line is what, literally being told "this is G" makes it so much easier

Very interesting video. Especially the final part about pitch and rhythm equivalence. Thank you.

"I shouldn't of taken the red pill. What have I gotten myself into?" - Me realizing I literally haven't even hit the tip of the iceberg.

Even the first point you mentioned has different versions which are quite popular. In Germany we tune on A=442/443 (as an oboist I prefer 443)

This is amazing David. So well done. Best thing about this is it gives a quick definition of concepts. I sat at the piano as you went through these and worked out examples. Then explored other videos ( often yours) on concepts I knew less about.

Man your channel is the best ... im watching EVERYTHING

When I was a kid I played Mario 64, and at one point in the game there was an infinite staircase that had a theme that used the shepard tone. It took me several days to figure out how it worked 😂

What a great video! Near perfect time spent on each subject. Thank you for all your time and energy in what you do!

Man, I'm trying to learn more about music Theory for a friend because they are really interested in the topic, thank you so much, this is extremely helpful for explaining everything

Amazing! thanks for sharing this knowledge

Great and very thought provoking video! your efforts are greatly appreciated!