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Song Spotlight's avatar

I especially like the version with IV in between V/V and iv, as heard in "When I Was Your Man" by Bruno Mars, because it has some nice chromatic voice-leading. Putting a 6 on the iv (and sometimes a 7 on the IV, which can also just be a held-over 9 from the V/V) makes it especially tragic IMHO

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ben's avatar

It’s beautiful, but I don’t know if I hear the same depth of sadness that you do. Maybe that’s a learned association? I hear it as wistful, gently sad, and the resolution back to the tonic at the end is calming.

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Ethan Hein's avatar

These things are always subjective. I hear it as calming too! It's just about impossible to tell where a person learns their emotional associations to music, and the reactions to the same tune can be wildly different between one person and another, or even the same person at different times. At some point I'm going to do an episode about a klezmer tune called "Der Gasn Nigun" which I always assumed was a funeral lament and which turns out to be a wedding march.

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Aaliyah Humphrey's avatar

I agree also that its gently sad and calming, but I learned something new about music theory. I love these lessons though.

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Marcella Carrera's avatar

Always learning something from you. Thank you

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