Negative Harmony

MarkKnudsen

Liver & Onions
Hi Griff!

I've recently seen this topic in various YouTube guitar lessons. Does "Negative Harmony" have any immediate or useful or fun applications to Blues? It seems like a way to add compatible chords or chord based soloing to standard harmony types of songs. Maybe you could comment about it or perhaps one of your future All Access - Theory webinars could discuss? Thanks! Mark
 

MarkKnudsen

Liver & Onions
Thanks, Norfolk Bill! Yes, this was one of the few Blues related applications I've seen on YouTube! Not sure it sounds all that bluesy, but given that the concept of negative harmony can determine interesting compatible chords, I wanted to find examples that directly related to Blues! Good example!
 

MarkKnudsen

Liver & Onions
Same here! I just thought, since it seems to be able to generate alternate chords that go well with a song, maybe it has some application to Blues! Might fit in with an All Access Pass - Theory session?
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
Hi Griff!

I've recently seen this topic in various YouTube guitar lessons. Does "Negative Harmony" have any immediate or useful or fun applications to Blues? It seems like a way to add compatible chords or chord based soloing to standard harmony types of songs. Maybe you could comment about it or perhaps one of your future All Access - Theory webinars could discuss? Thanks! Mark
I'm not Griff but... :)

First watch this video

https://www.musictheoryforguitar.com/Negative-Harmony-Guitar.html

It seems to be a pretty good explanation of Negative Harmony (I guess, since it is a new concept to me :) )

If that explanation is true then, since the standard blues progression is I7 IV7 I7 V7 IV7 I7, you'd be dealing with all V7 chords and Negative Harmony would be to change them to half-diminished chords. You could pick and choose which chords to convert to half-diminished, but I don't see that as different than tritone substitutions. A more advanced blues progression like the Stormy Monday changes or The Thrill Is Gone might sound cool. Give it a try!

The guy who wrote the book and created the term Negative Harmony is a Jazz guy and he wrote it as a way for jazzers to try something new (according to one source I read). I can see how it would be great against the "American Songbook" of jazz standards.

It could be an interesting theory session on its own but I don't expect too much from it for the blues. Thanks for asking about this, I learned something new!

Eric
 

MarkKnudsen

Liver & Onions
Excellent response, Eric! That's what I was hoping to hear as the video, while interesting, seemed to have fewer applications to Blues; more to jazz or even pop, possibly rock. I like Griff's Theory sessions, but hadn't seen anything related to this Negative Harmony concept which is new to me. Thanks for taking the time to explain and provide examples!

Mark
 
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