What is a Picardy Third? Video Lecture | Guitar: Become a Pro (English) - Music

today we're talking about Picardie
thirds off it confused with Captain
Picard's third which according to
official Starfleet chain of command
would be Lieutenant Worf but if a cardi
third is generally a classical music
term that is pretty interesting okay so
the definition of it is when you have
something and a minor key whole pieces
in a minor key and then it ends and
resolves in a major key so for example
if it's something in the key of E minor
all right
like let's just you a typical a minor
progression with a lot of minor chords
to kind of give it a minor sound so e
minor to G major
to be minor to a minor and then resolve
money a minor okay so that's just a
traditional kind of like II minor piece
if we were to end that with the Picardie
third to include that we would take that
a minor and make it a major okay so the
difference that would have is if we have
the E minor
- gee
be minor a minor
okay so it has a different type of
resolution that is maybe a little bit
unexpected a little bit happier fitting
really how you interpret that is up to
you but this is something that was
employed by baroque Renaissance
composers uh Johann Sebastian Bach was
somebody that really used the
relationship and kind of the ambiguity
of major and minor together to elicit a
certain response but I think it's
actually worth talking about because we
can incorporate that into maybe a more
modern compositional singer-songwriter
approach okay so and I think of what
what I think of as a Picardie third in
practice because again it's supposed to
be the end of an actual piece but you
can kind of use them in chord
progressions in like a smaller dose I
think of the song exit music for a film
by Radiohead okay
so it sounds like this very firmly in a
minor with the a - is better a suspended
- - a sus for eventually going to be
[Applause]
back to the sus4
and then eventually it ends up on that a
mate so I think that's really kind of
like a brilliant way to include what you
know I kind of think of that as the
spirit of what a Picardie third is just
kind of like having a peace move from
minor to major okay because no one key
will have the same tonic the same root
note a and as major or minor so it's
just kind of like you worth talking
about how you can do this so again like
maybe we can even do something a little
bit different let's do something in the
key of D or specifically the key of B
minor this really works well with a
relative minor of a key which happens on
the six note of any scale so again in
the key of D we've got the F sharp C
sharp and B okay so if we have those
chords any one of those chords in the
key of D or the key of B minor and
really hammer home on that B minor to
kind of make that a tonal Center even if
you just use those two for it's like B
minor to D
and then maybe we could also incorporate
like another minor chord like an E minor
to kind of give one like a somber tone
to that
okay right there they'll be taking that
minor chord and then just at the end of
the progression of the end of the piece
or whatever using it as a major chord
okay this is something the Beatles would
do a lot and their music they kind of
used something they like to do is use
what's called a minor four chord so
again an example of that which may be
like I think we'd be remiss to not talk
about the opposite of a Picardie third
so again like you know if we go back to
captain Carter is kind of like calm
stoicism and intelligence the foil for
that would be just kind of like a brash
courageousness which would be Captain
Kirk so this would be like a cookie
third and I guess I had the example of
that going from the opposite of like we
said doing something major and ending in
minor would be maybe like the Elliott
Smith song between the bars the chorus
of that or it's like an app to achieve
to an a minor
it's half major G
ah
a minor on
math major
[Applause]
and then going from that to F minor okay
so that would be a parallel minor type
deal where you just have like a major
chord and then you switch it to minor
again this one's specifically the minor
four chord that's just something that
the Beatles picked up you know and I
think just kind of playing around with
the idea of major and minor is something
that has like a really kind of dramatic
impact in songwriting because once you
stay in a key like a diatonic key or
something like that you almost kind of
know what to expect and your ears are
even if it's kind of a busier chord
progression it's not just more than just
a few chords if it's all staying in the
same key your ear is just so used to
what's coming that when you do maybe hit
like a minor four board or you take that
relative minor and all of a sudden make
it major that really is kind of an
impactful moment that stands out so
again that's something that composers
have been doing it you know since like
the dawn of music again Bach great
example of kind of using this Picardie
third the Beatles doing a great job of
using like a minor four chord Elliott
Smith taking stuff from the Beatles
again everybody kind of just you know
steals certain tips or tricks in their
songwriting from people that came before
them and I think the cardi third or just
generally thinking about blurring the
line between what's major and minor is
something that you should really just
kind of experiment and try playing
around with because you know what's the
worst it can happen again all these
music theory rules are made to be broken
that's why it's not like it's not music
law so definitely I just kind of
experiment with maybe where there is a
minor chord try forcing a major chord in
there and if it sounds too jarring there
are subtle ways that you can kind of
like make it less jarring again back to
that Radiohead song
we've got really just two courts aim
iron to E major and we end up on a major
okay so if it was just a minor B major
that that's you know to me that's not a
very creative way to do it we want to
kind of work our way to that a major so
again I think you know giant green I
think all those guys are brilliant
writers so one way that you could maybe
do that is take this a minor chord and
use a lot of suspensions because a
suspending chord is neither major nor
minor that third that we've been talking
about the whole time is really really
important so when we have an a minor to
an aim iron I keep saying am i suspended
that's out of a a sus to a minor to a
sus to a suspended for right there
we're kind of dancing around the a-minor
and then go to eat and then when we come
back we're on a suspended four and
that's a little bit of an easier
transition to get to that a major but
kind of having that suspended quote in
there first because even though our ears
are used to a minor by having those
suspensions in there it's not as jarring
as going from a and minor to a major
since you can also suspend a major chord
a suspension is a good way to kind of
maybe bridge that gap between major
minor and just kind of like you know
subtly play around with these chords to
kind of take it in a certain direction
and I think that's something that really
great songwriters tend to do is they
kind of use a progression or they use a
combination of how a melody interacts
with the progression to lead a listener
somewhere so I think the more thoughtful
you are about that stuff I really think
the better your own compositions and
songwriting is going to become so
something I just want to talk about got
a few questions on it and if you have
any comments or questions leave
something in the comments below hit me
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and I'll talk to y'all soon thanks a lot