What Are Cush Chords?

Summary

In this captivating video by Open Studio, the concept of modal interchange is explored through the lens of "Cush Chords." These aren't your typical chords; they introduce a unique blend of major and minor to create profoundly emotional and impactful music. The tutorial delves into mixing C major with C minor, using famous examples from music history such as Nelly Barkley and classical pieces like Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune." By exploring the transformation of simple chord progressions into lush arrangements using Cush Chords, viewers are shown how to infuse their compositions with a deeper harmonic palette, making music that truly resonates.

Highlights

• Discover how Cush Chords create emotional impact with a mix of major and minor chords 🎹
• Learn about modal interchange and its role in transforming music compositions 🔄
• Iconic musical examples include Nelly Barkley and Debussy's 'Clair de Lune' 🎻
• Unlock a palette of 14 chords by blending C major and C minor 🎨
• Practice with parallel modes and expand your chord progression skills 💪
• The 'Cush Chord Game' is a fun way to explore harmonic creativity 🎲

Key Takeaways

• Cush Chords add emotional depth to music with a mix of major and minor vibes 🎶
• Modal interchange is a handy tool for creating impactful music 💡
• Mixing C major and C minor gives you a rich palette of 14 chord choices 🎹
• Famous examples like Nelly Barkley and Debussy highlight the power of chord interchange 🎷
• Practicing with parallel modes and cush chords expands your musical creativity 🎼

Overview

Welcome to the enchanting world of Cush Chords, where the magic of music composition unfolds through the dynamic blend of major and minor chords. In this tutorial, Open Studio walks us through the concept of modal interchange, showcasing how these chords can elevate a simple tune into a masterpiece. Get ready to discover why your favorite songs tug at your heartstrings in unexpected ways!

Dive into the heart of these transformative chords by embracing 14 unique chord options that emerge from fusing C major with its minor counterpart. Using famous examples like "Nelly Barkley" and Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune," you'll see firsthand how these musical giants leveraged the power of Cush Chords to craft unforgettable moments.

Practical exercises and games, such as the 'Cush Chord Game,' offer an engaging approach to mastering this technique. By using parallel modes, musicians can broaden their creative horizon, implementing lush and beautiful progressions that resonate profoundly with listeners. Whether you're a novice or an experienced composer, Cush Chords guide you towards making music that speaks to the soul.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction to Cush Chords The chapter introduces Cush Chords, describing them as some of the most beautiful and most played chords in music history, particularly in the key of C. These chords form a 145 progression commonly used in numerous compositions, tunes, and songs. Despite their timeless appeal, the author notes an observation that not all favorite songs follow this chord progression.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Modal Interchange Explanation The chapter titled 'Modal Interchange Explanation' delves into the differences in musical compositions that create a lasting emotional impact. It contrasts typical sounds with those that use a technique called modal interchange, which adds a distinctive and engaging element to the music, making it memorable.
• 03:00 - 07:00: Examples in Music The chapter 'Examples in Music' delves into the intricate use of chord progressions that blend major and minor chords, creating a dynamic contrast between dark and light, joy and sorrow. It highlights how these chord progressions, which can be powerful enough to be compared to a freight train, captivate listeners. The focus is on the concept of modal interchange, a pivotal tool for composing impactful chord sequences. The chapter also presents iconic examples from music history, showcasing how various composers and songwriters have effectively utilized modal interchange.
• 07:00 - 11:00: Practicing Modal Interchange This chapter focuses on practicing modal interchange through Kush chords. It emphasizes creating moods beyond words and transforming simple chord progressions into lush and beautiful ones. The basics of modal interchange are explained, particularly within the context of C major.
• 11:00 - 16:00: Kush Chord Game The chapter discusses the 'Kush Chord Game', which involves mixing two sets of musical chords to create a broader range of chord progressions. By combining the chords of E minor and the C natural minor (or C Aeolian), musicians increase their options from seven to fourteen. The chapter highlights the ability to mix these chord sets efficiently to expand musical creativity and variety in compositions.
• 16:00 - 18:00: Conclusion and Credits The chapter explores how musicians creatively blend C major and C minor chords. It includes examples, starting with the artist Narles Barkley, highlighting the transition from the major to minor key using music motifs such as the one chord, the three chord, and E flat.

What Are Cush Chords? Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] these are some of the most beautiful most played chords of all time it's a 145 in the key of [Music] C countless compositions tunes and songs use these Timeless chords they sound great they really do but I noticed something a while ago I know that not all of my favorite songs
• 00:30 - 01:00 sound like this a lot of my favorite songs the songs that I go back to again and again the songs that have made an emotional impact on me they don't sound like this they have something else going on they sound more like this [Music]
• 01:00 - 01:30 so good these ACC chords that mix major and minor dark and light joy and sorrow these are the songs that hit me like a freight [Music] train in this video we're going deep on maybe the most useful tool for composing impactful chord progressions modal interchange I'll show you some of the most iconic examples of modal interchange in music history and how composers and songwriters use this
• 01:30 - 02:00 device to create a mood that literally goes beyond words most importantly we'll take a deep dive into Kush cords giving us a fresh way to practice modal interchange this transforms simple chord progressions that you already play into the Lush beautiful progressions of your dreams let's get started so the basics for modal interchange are actually quite simple if you know about modes if you know that the chords in the key of C major are C D
• 02:00 - 02:30 Minor E minor f g a minor B diminished and c and you know that the chords for a c natural minor like a c aolan are C minor D Minor E flat major F minor G minor a flat major and B flat major if you know all that you can simply mix those two sounds together right so we have here instead of seven choices to make a chord progression you've got 14 Cho ches to make a chord progression
• 02:30 - 03:00 let's check out some examples of amazing musicians using these two c major and C minor together and mixing them together we'll start with narles [Music] Barkley this very much Min right the one the three E flat theat [Music]
• 03:00 - 03:30 and then a G major a G minor E flat [Music] major eight flat sixth cord and our five a sus does that still in c minor here right C natural minor crazy does that make me crazy
• 03:30 - 04:00 [Music] it's all good but this is great C major a flat major that's the six chord of C minor to E flat that's the three chord that's my only ad so that one C major that one time is insanely impactful it's so crazy impactful I realze the language I'm
• 04:00 - 04:30 using around this song but it really makes a huge difference That's The Power of modal inter oh hey there if you truly want to unlock the power of modal interchange go to Kush cs.com to download our beautiful PDF workbook let's get back to it let's check out an example on the polar opposite end of the spectrum but it's equally if not more impactful uh this is from uh a famous French composer uh in America we pronounce it cloud
• 04:30 - 05:00 DEC uh and I know French people love that uh this is Claire Delon and key of D flat major and this is the most impactful part of this piece in my opinion five chord A flat seven and then you have the one and the three and then what is that I'm sorry
• 05:00 - 05:30 what was that third chord again so we have you have a d flat major you have an F minor the three chord in the key of D flat and then you have this e major over G sharp also known in the score as F flat over a flat because we're in the key of D flat that my friends is borrowed of course from the key of D flat minor that d flat aolon and it does it again WC does it again and keeps going with it until
• 05:30 - 06:00 eventually WC will will completely modulate to the key of E from here and it's absolutely good if you go back and you watch YouTube videos of this song This Moment is always the most watched by far the peak of viewing because I think people's heartbreak when they hear it beautiful let's check out another version for our last example
• 06:00 - 06:30 Philadelphia is in the house Paul and oats this is I can't go for that no can do uh these guys love them modal interchange and this is a beautiful example we're just starting off here on our F minor 9 chord crazy great sounds setting up the vibe we go to the key Center C minor dare line you got the
• 06:30 - 07:00 now you Soul 6 and then from here C major and the whole the clouds part and the sky opens up and this beautiful light feeling to everything and yeah we'll just stay here and be happy for the rest song yeah no still can't go for that
• 07:00 - 07:30 love sting sometimes and M interchange tells that story okay let's talk about how to practice this great song so how do we use this information how do we practice this modal mix these two different modes at once it's a composition tool more than anything so it's kind of hard to just say well just compose with modal interchange but there are a few games that you can play that kind of help unlock how to use these you could literally do an exchange of the chords in the mode so if we take a basic
• 07:30 - 08:00 chord progression in C 2 3 and like a one a two a six and a five right C Major D Minor A Minor 7 and G7 it's a pretty standard kind of progression but I like it because it sounds good and it goes [Music] somewhere now what if we instead of playing this from the iian mode from the
• 08:00 - 08:30 c major mode what if we swapped out the natural minor the C AOL what would that sound like check it out everything but [Music] C so the C stays major everything else is from that C minor that c aolan right so we still have the one in major but the two is from C AOL the six a flat major the five G minor right C Major D Minor 7 flat 5 a flat major let's go back to the
• 08:30 - 09:00 [Music] major check out the aolon [Music] again so you can hear this is just it has a little bit more tension right it's not so sacony again back to C major this is very bright Everything feels kind of bouncy and happy same beat though aolan that a flatness that we're getting
• 09:00 - 09:30 there it makes everything just a hair darker okay let's go back to the major here's our original core [Music] progression again everything inside one more time what if we swapped it out for the C Fran right that third mode of a flat major check it [Music] out d flat major is the two a flat is of
• 09:30 - 10:00 course the six and the five is a a g flat sorry G minor 7 flat [Music] five the new note here is that d flat let's go back to our original from C major right one 2 C Fria again [Music] 1265 the one is always major for our purposes here today
• 10:00 - 10:30 all right back to the major is that [Music] something what if we did C Dorian take our C major progression here and we did a c Dorian let's see how that would sound here we go three [Music] and so our one is always going to be the c major the two is D Minor the six is a minor 7 flat five and the five is G minor right this is
• 10:30 - 11:00 borrowed from the key of B flat major so all of these chords besides the c major the tonic are from that key of B flat major but notice that all of the roots are the same right it's a c a d and an A and A G let's go back to the major even when we were doing like the frian or the aolon and it was like an A flat it's still an a right keep it going guys it's still an a right it's still
• 11:00 - 11:30 the same root movement okay so just using parallel modes here is a great way to practice taking a standard fairly like pedestrian chord progression 1 2 six5 and adding these tensions to it right I mean just having that a flat in the mix all of a sudden it opens up the harmonic color palette of the entire progression and you can you can really tweak that not every not
• 11:30 - 12:00 every chord has to be from the same mode you can just pull cords from different modes of that parallel C right so you got the ionian you've got the C Dorian you got the C Fran you have the cyan the C mixian C aolon and the C loan those are all the modes of a C major scale right and so you can parallel any of those with a chord progression in C major and it's going to sound pretty cool somewhere going to sound better than than others now this is fine this
• 12:00 - 12:30 is a great way to do it there's a way that I love even more it's a a game we've developed here at Open studio that we call the Kush cord game and I'll talk about why we call it cush cords at the very end it's the same principle so we're going to do the same three different scales the C aolian the C Fran and the C Dorian but instead of thinking about them as parallel C minor scales to C major we're going to think about them from their parent key so caolan right is the six mode of E flat major right that
• 12:30 - 13:00 c natural minor that's the relative minor in the key of A in the key of E flat there's an E flat an A flat and a B flat right that c aolon is just the E flat major scale C to C right so I like to think about what if we took parallel major keys so the key of C major and the key of E flat major and we kept the C the same but we use the same chord progression and moved everything but the C up to E flat major
• 13:00 - 13:30 so this isn't the same as using the parallel minor right if we did that r 1 2 6 5 and C we move everything but C up to E flat major well the two chord in the key of E flat is not D Minor 7 flat 5 it's F minor 7 right and the sixth chord is not a flat major like it is with a c aolon it's C minor right that's the sixth chord in the key of E flat and the five chord is a B flat 7 so let's
• 13:30 - 14:00 hear how our original chord progression sounds in the major just to get in our ears and let's hear that E flat Kush chord version two three [Music] uh all right here's the cush [Music] cord again with the Kush CS [Music] now all of these chords except for again
• 14:00 - 14:30 this first tonic chord they're from that c aolon right but we're thinking about it differently we think about using the same Roman numerals from E flat major it gets us a different chord progression and what I love about it is it keeps the structure of the original chord progression together but it just changes the key on us there's something really magical about this there's a reason that the Kush cord videos I've done here on YouTube are my most popular videos it's just so
• 14:30 - 15:00 [Music] fun let's go back to our original major one two six let's try it with our frian Kush chords right so we'll use from the key of a flat second page so one two in the key of a flat six in the key of a flat five in the key of a flat how great is that
• 15:00 - 15:30 [Music] back to our original that's dangerous we can play that all day honestly that could have been 10 minutes long but you just heard because it's so inspiring and finally we can try you know using our C Dorian but instead of thinking about it as the parallel C minor chord we think about it from the parent key of B flat and see what that does just the same degree the same Roman neutrals but shifting everything but the tonic C to B flat let's try it here we
• 15:30 - 16:00 [Music] go something kind of magical about that again it's one and then two in the key of B flat which is C minor six and five isn't that [Music] funny back to the original [Music]
• 16:00 - 16:30 that's the cush chord game you can do that with any chord progression let's go back to our our frian one I know that felt really good so we're going to go back to the frian cush cord here key of a flat everything but C goes to the key of a flat it's just a nice place to end it and we can talk about why we call them Kush cords the truth is we just made it up we were just sitting around here talking about what would be a good name for this
• 16:30 - 17:00 game cuz it is a game and someone mentioned the crush chords what if we called it the Cris chord games it feels like a very mellow sound and so we went with it and uh it's a good lesson because you know like all names it's completely made up out of thin air yeah B thank you for joining me here today put in the comments what your
• 17:00 - 17:30 favorite Kush cord game is a progression that you think sounds good taking through different Keys Give It Up to Caleb Kirby on the drums Bob De on the bass my name's adamis happy practicing [Music]