How would Radiohead's True Love Waits sound if we reinterpreted it with microtonal harmony? In todays microtonal music theory deep dive and video essay, I, along with @stephenweigel and @braelen explore the xenharmonic world of 31 EDO (also called 31 TET) by transforming Radiohead's music microtonally through microtonal chord progressions using subminor 7 chords, sesquiflat chords, half flat chords, half sharp chords, supermajor 7 chords, and neutral chords. By explaining how to build microtonal chords and harmony we can stretch the fabric of western tonal harmony in ways that are exciting and new, while focusing on the fundamentals of good songwriting and musical story telling. This video is great for musicians who have a decent grasp on traditional western music theory, who want a "microtones explained" video. Also for anyone who wants to know how to modulate to a half sharp chord! We want to show you that anyone can incorporate microtones into their songwriting practically and easily. We'll take a look at 31 EDO scales, 31 EDO chords, advanced music theory concepts, microtonal singing, microtonal bass playing, microtonal jazz, microtonal piano and microtonal notation through edostep. Oh yeah, and we have a Lumatone. Gotta love those isomorphic keyboards. In our cover of True Love Waits, we hope to capture the depth and nuance of Thom Yorke's songwriting through this microtonal reinterpretation. Braelen and I sit down near the end of the video to discuss the finer points of the roll of songwriters, instrumentalists, composers and sound designers in "serving the song".
Stephen's links:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVxKPod3k3h1IObyq969cyw
https://www.stephenweigelcomposerperformer.com/now-and-xen-sevish
https://www.tiktok.com/@stephenweigelmicrotonal
Braelen's links:
https://www.youtube.com/@braelen
https://open.spotify.com/album/6ghrLDmunsgUbOYrBlvsrs
Levi's Links:
Levi McClain's Music & Free Samples: https://linktr.ee/levimcclainmusic
Levi McClain's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/levimcclainmusic
Levi McClain's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@levimcclainmusic
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Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Microtonal Music Theory
01:42 - What is 31 EDO?
04:05 - EDOSTEP
04:47 - Neutral, Subminor & Supermajor Chords
10:51 - Storytelling with Microtonality with Braelen
22:19 - True Love Waits Cover