hey everybody my name is ixy and today i
want to break down the beautiful tense
harmonies of hide and seek by imogen
heap
[Music]
there are a lot of interesting things
about this song the lyrics are
particularly poetic and open-ended and
really really moving
and the vocoder uh aspect of this song
you know there's no drums it's just
vocal tracks
with a vocoder that she's singing
through makes it kind of a unique
landscape sonically but in this original
version
she is singing a melody and you can hear
her voice without really a whole lot of
effects maybe a little bit of reverb and
compression and stuff like that but it
doesn't sound robotic it's the vocoder
voices that are surrounding her melody
that have that sound there are
lots of basically duplicates of her
voice that are singing along with her at
the same time i've seen a recording of
her performing it live with a keytar
spin
so she's got the harmonizer going
through the keytar and so she's playing
the notes that she wants accompanying
her melody on the keytar but i don't
know if that's how she did it initially
she probably has a lot of different
methods in fact if you watch her tiny
desk performance it's a whole different
take on the song
[Applause]
[Music]
none of those things are particularly my
wheelhouse but what is my wheelhouse is
figuring out why certain harmonies and
note relationships and melodies are
making us feel things and i definitely
feel things when i listen to this song
i've always felt things the first time i
heard it i was like whoa whoa and there
are a few
moments in this song that always kind of
make me feel like
my heart stopped or i can't really catch
my breath this song is in a major key
using mostly major chords even though
it's actually kind of a
a bit of a bittersweet sad sounding song
you know this is it's beautiful but it
just feels like there's something
tugging at you and i've cried a lot of
times listening to this song and it
doesn't sound
happy so it's a great example of how you
can use a lot of major chords to create
something that is actually very
emotionally moving the chord progression
that's used for most of the song is a
really standard four chord pop
progression one five six four you've
heard it many many many times this is a
chord progression that is used a lot
because it works
[Music]
song is in a major
and the first chord is a major so it
starts off on this very solid footing
then it goes to the v chord
which creates an expectation
now we have what is called harmonic
tension
this chord sounds like it needs to go
somewhere else now to find resolution
whereas this one
that is the resolution that's our home
base that's our home cord where
everything feels settled this is the you
know the court that the song would end
on in a perfect world and then this one
comes along
which feels like okay now we gotta move
somewhere and the most logical place for
this cord to go next is to go back to
home
that's called a perfect cadence
but instead the song
goes to a related chord
a substitute so to speak
f sharp minor
everything's okay
that is not what i was expecting i think
we can all agree that there's a little
bit of a different feeling or actually a
kind of a big difference uh in feeling
between the minor chord
and
this major chord so the minor chord
itself even without any context of other
chords around it is a bit more fragile
people describe it as sounding darker
even sad which is an oversimplification
but it doesn't sound nearly as certain
and stable as a major chord
this one is just more insecure
and that line where are we
it's like oh i know where we are
and now i'm not 100 sure what the hell
right
and there's something she does to this
minor chord that's particularly
tear-jerking but we'll get there
so this minor chord is kind of nestled
in here it's sort of a deception like
we were supposed to go home
we went here instead
that's where
the d major chord comes in the d major
chord is related to the f minor chord by
also having two notes in common with it
and this beautiful major chord is called
the iv chord and it does also like to
point us back home
but in a less direct way than say five
to one
so it's
four
to one
it has a more holy sound because it says
the same cadence plagal amen cadence
that you hear in church music
also can you feel that there's a really
nice balance to this
that's the main chord progression for
the verse
but when she sings hide and seek it
changes a little bit and then for what
you say she takes those four chords and
just rearranges them so instead of
starting on a major
we start on
d major
then go to a
then to f sharp
and then to e
and then
start over on d
and that one works really well because
you still get the same flavors as the
original chord progression it still
sounds
like the same song you know they are the
same chords they're just telling a
slightly different story
but this time start on a chord that's
not the home cord so it's like you're
beginning your story away from home and
trying to find your way back
so there's tension created here
emotionally and
musically
and then there's the resolution but it
doesn't last long quickly overtaken by
that minor chord again
and then we just sink down a little bit
to the five the five is the one chord
that wants to go back home
but in this case it doesn't go home
once again our expectations are
subverted
and we go
down
further to the four chord
i love starting on the four chord all
right well i spent a lot more time in
the chord progression than i intended to
but let's keep moving
[Music]
already i have to mention i love this
choice of this long sustained note
and then what's called staccato
basically it's just this really short
kind of attacked we
there's this beautiful reverb that comes
out too right at that moment because you
can really hear all the space
right there's no other instruments here
it's just her and herself
so
beautiful contrast
okay
so this is the first of many
places in the song where imogen has
added more notes to these major and
minor chords that i was playing whenever
you add new notes to a chord you end up
creating
tension we get this feeling of like
it's rubbing up against itself there is
literal friction and you can feel that
acoustically
did you hear it
[Music]
it's faster but
that's called acoustic beating and
that's what happens when
frequencies that are similar but
slightly different are happening at the
same time and you can almost hear them
battling with each other
so
there's a really interesting resonance
that happens with tension and the
particular types of tension she uses are
usually
minor seconds
major seconds which are a little further
apart but still pretty close
and then something called a ninth
which is basically one of those tensions
i just played but spread out more the
other thing she's gonna do a lot are
tone clusters so that's at least my term
for when there's like three notes right
next to each other three or more notes
right next to each other so like this
[Music]
the note that she's singing in her
melody is the tense note that's being
added
it just wouldn't be the same if she
didn't do that if she just sang a note
in the chord like
[Music]
you hear it right i mean that's just so
incredibly beautiful because
it creates that friction that we really
want to release and she actually does
release it she goes
[Music]
this wants to resolve down so there's
all sorts of moments like that
[Music]
when she goes to this chord we also have
this moment of tension instead of just
playing
d major
she removes the major note in the chord
[Music]
the f sharp and instead we hear an e
higher
like that
okay so this is a much more spread out
kind of tension but it's still
tension and it's just kind of unexpected
[Music]
for those of you that do know some music
theory terms
both of the notes i've played so far
that were tense were the ninth and
that's going to keep coming back
[Music]
now little note about her melody here
so the first time where are we
that note is in the uh e major chord
it's the third of the chord but then the
second time what the hell is going on
this time she goes to the fifth of the
course so she went higher
and it's like little variations like
that that make a big difference and it's
very subconscious it's also probably not
something she was
very conscious of herself it probably
just felt right but this is giving us a
little hint that things are going to
start amping up right something is
starting to build and it is
[Music]
oh yeah okay so i forgot about this
this is called a sixth chord
we've got another note in here that's
creating tension
[Music]
to be honest with you i don't really
usually think about chords like right
away as sixth chords and seventh chords
and ninth chords i'm thinking more about
the spacing between notes
so all i know is that like yeah this is
a major chord and then
this note is
rubbing up against this one or here
these notes are rubbing up against each
other so that that's more how i think
about tensions
this interval
all of these tensions are creating that
emotional friction that we want released
there's another thing about this that's
worth noting is that
that note is in the chord that's coming
next
so this is almost like
part of her is ahead
of the rest of the song so there's a
there's a poll
[Music]
[Applause]
and then when the chord moves
we get our resolution but she didn't
have to move she just stayed there
[Music]
[Applause]
so this is so beautiful
now this to me sounds like a pattern
see if you sing it faster you can really
hear it
[Music]
i love that sinking
she goes up when she says sinking
sinking
there's this feeling of like
dissociation or detachment there
sinking because you just
you expect it to go down right but i
think we've all felt that feeling like
where our stomach flips over or
you know you like come out of your body
even though it feels like your stomach's
dropping spin
me
round again
spin me round
a few things have changed
so the chords are going to be a little
bit different but also the way she's
singing is different right instead of
like
it's kind of breathy
really light fluffy kind of um almost
husky
now
it's a lot more pure and projected and
she's sustaining the notes so things are
way more intense this time
but also the chord so instead of just a
major chord like spin it's actually
spin
[Music]
listen to the difference
that's a major chord
[Applause]
and that chord is neither major nor
minor we took out the note that makes
the chord major a minor and replaced it
with a nearby note that creates tension
and ambiguity
so oh i love that feeling don't you spin
[Applause]
that same beautiful tension is still
there but this time
there's another note
[Music]
if that chord couldn't get any better it
just did so now there's this note added
on top
and that creates this seventh
oh my god
[Music]
and then uh this time it's so cool these
little details i love them there's just
so much variation you know she's kind of
almost never doing the same chord twice
not never but she's often changing
things up because she has the
skill and the ear and the opportunity to
make this really nuanced
so instead of doing an a major chord or
this type of chord it's called
suspension
she puts them together
that's so absolutely beautiful
all those notes together
i love that so much
maya
add ninths to everything just add ninths
is
[Music]
would jesus to
hold their
heads heavy
[Music]
their heads heavy so again her lyrics
are all about things sinking and being
heavy
and every time her voice goes up and
this time oh it gives me chills instead
of going sinking
just singing the notes in the chord
feeling
she goes
so she went higher this time on that
high note and guess what
[Music]
it's the 9th
she probably again wasn't thinking about
it like that she's just thinking this
time i'm going higher
right and she hit that note and it was
like that's the one that's my guess
that's that's how most people write
music
just above where we're supposed to go
just above where we were before it's
almost like this is even worse this time
[Music]
okay now we get to the part where she
sings hide and seek and now the notes
that she had kind of lower in the
vocoder
are
are gone and it's just very tight little
clusters higher up hide
and seek hide
[Music]
this note comes in okay and that creates
a really
unstable feeling
but it's just for one's one word or one
syllable hi and on and
[Music]
it
creates this like curiosity almost this
feeling like we're not grounded like
we're floating
[Music]
seventh chord
she's singing the tense note
[Music]
that part is actually kind of uh jazzy
[Music]
so much tension
in fact this kind of chord makes it
really hard to tell where the bottom of
the chord is so it just has this feeling
of like
i'm suspended in in
in time
and space
[Music]
but then those ears
oh so pretty
[Music]
i don't know if i actually noticed that
before
but in that moment it's really sad
sounding does that sound wistful
and then
so that tense note is this one
and it just happens on
those on the top of those
and then
[Music]
and then everything releases on that
one minor chord again so the only minor
chord in the whole song is this f sharp
minor chord
i love that fall
from one note of the chord to the other
[Music]
so then
[Music]
lots of clusters here right it's very
breathy
just all right next to each other but i
got her melody separated enough that you
can actually hear
we'll get to here it's on the minor
chord but it doesn't feel satisfying at
all
[Music]
a lot of tension in that
on the third verse she starts to vary
her melody a little bit this is kind of
a hallmark of the song it's just all
these little variations all these subtle
little changes that make each repetition
so different and and give us all these
little things to hang on to
to look forward to
[Music]
this time she goes higher and this is
probably the highest note she's sung in
the whole song so far
so before the highest note was p
now it's
c
so she went higher
[Music]
than the same
then there's this dynamic change that
happens where she hesitates and
there's this big pause before she kind
of hits you with the rest of her lyrics
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
just oh so tense it's like it's just
it's like she's filling in the gaps
[Music]
sewing machines there's no wooden catch
me around here and that part is so
incredible
[Music]
but yeah that that movement oh you won't
catch me around here
she's kind of stepping down this ladder
but this ladder of tensions it's just
like this this isn't
[Music]
my overhead camera just stopped working
but that's okay
if you're curious what that is
it's a ninth chord
[Music]
remember last time she was like
okay so now she's got to up the ante
right because this just keeps building
and she keeps creating these more and
more intense variations
so she went from
a
up to e
and she does the scoop which is sort of
the opposite of the
falling right that she did before
[Music]
and then she
goes up
again and i don't know if i'm even gonna
be able to hit this note but thankfully
we have the piano here for that so
[Music]
are you serious
[Music]
well it sounds exquisite when she does
it
what is that that's my squeak
range oh my god
[Music]
now what you gonna do on the way down
[Music]
oh that is exquisite
and why is that so beautiful um
well it's the ninth of that chord so
for that reach
this is the root of the chord we're just
sorry we're just above it
and then she resolves it to a note in
the chord so there's just this temporary
moment
also i just feel like the ninth nestled
inside of a minor chord is especially
heavy sounding
then my favorite part well that might be
my favorite but my second favorite part
of the song is
they were here first
right after this whole like
almost anti-climax right because it got
very quiet it's almost like her voice
started to
vanish
you know like when you listen to like
you're doing a hearing test and you hear
that sine wave and it's going higher and
higher and all of a sudden it just kind
of
eeks out of existence to you right the
sound is still going our ears can't
perceive it but it's that feeling of
when so high it just like
is gone
so
and and everything moves up with her
right the vocoder it's not like she's
got these big like
cords down here while she's going
it's all up there so everything is just
getting smaller and smaller like she's
being squeezed like the life is getting
to squeeze out of her
[Music]
two they
were
so this
ninth she's singing that ninth so she's
singing the note that needs to resolve
and then she does
[Music]
what is it about that i mean that chord
by itself makes me feel a lot of things
it always has um out of context like i
can just play that chord and feel like i
have to cry
[Music]
this is that beautiful but uh in the
context i don't know there's something
it feels like it's building to that the
whole time
[Music]
clusters
that feeling of resolution that we
wanted
resolution
don't get it because she throws in a
note right next to
the note that we
wanted to just hear ringing out
this one she went also
so there's
that clash that is the clashiest of all
clashes
okay so
[Music]
and now
what'd you say
[Music]
now this section is quite different most
of these chords are just major and minor
chords so the tension isn't quite as
intense
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
that last note that she leaves us on
is tense against this chord of the f
sharp minor
but
it is in the next chord so we have that
same feeling like we did earlier in the
song where when the chord moves then her
note suddenly makes sense emotionally so
there's our resolution
tension
and resolution
i get this like ghost of the ninth with
that last note she sings
[Music]
it's the ninth again
just what we need
we need
shouldn't have to do that
[Music]
it's the ninth again
that ninth she holds it over
and that doesn't sound like a vocoder
actually sounds like a real vocal
harmony she recorded in to the track
later
[Music]
that's tense too
oh i love that
it's like the opposite would be resolved
resolved but she just reversed it so
it's
okay so this is a little detail again we
got um
what you say
so
she throws in this tense note on her
little
little trill hey
[Music]
[Applause]
and that's being harmonized right so
[Music]
what did you
[Music]
and that climaxes and oh okay so i'm i'm
done for about this point
then the outro to the song is an
interesting kind of contrast between
what she's saying and what we're hearing
right
you don't care a bit you don't care a
bit and yet the delivery is so gentle so
childlike the chords at this point are
a little tense um but they have this
overall very major sound
um it's probably still the same chord
progression but it's just
voiced in a way that's a little bit more
gentle
and more playful now the way that these
harmonies are probably made is that
there's like a lot of notes in the
vocoder that are just staying on the
same note
while others sort of just kind of move
up
so she's going down
[Music]
which sounds almost like a nursery rhyme
or something meanwhile the lowest note
is going
[Music]
i think it's the rhythm that really
makes it sound more like a nursery rhyme
and then on the top
[Music]
still taking every opportunity to kind
of add these
next door notes in to muddy the waters
and make things sound
more complicated but
again i think it's the rhythm
and the simplicity of the motion of the
rest of the lines that makes it sound so
childlike and then
[Music]
is kind of a callback to not only the
scooping and falling that she was doing
before but even those notes
[Music]
so those are just a few
things about the song that have always
really grabbed me and it's all to do
with the harmony but also her vocal
delivery turns out has more to do with
it than i realized if that seemed really
complicated to you and overwhelming and
you're like i want to do a cover but
what the heck just happened uh you don't
have to listen to anything i just said
just remember these four
chords
[Music]
so that's really all you need if you
just play those chords and maybe
embellish them here or there with some
of the notes that you picked out like
this you know like
like the ninth or maybe you might
sometimes wanna
play that ninth or something cool or
some of the suspensions
like that
great but you can also do a lot of that
just with your voice
okay that's all for now thank you so so
much for watching thank you so much to
my patrons for making videos like this
possible i could not do it without you
until next time
you