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32 - From The Beginning (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) · Barracuda Breakdowns

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Man, I totally fell in love with this song.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: From the Beginning is a song written by Greg Lake from Emerson Lake and Palmer.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: I've always known the intro, because my dad always begged me to learn it and play it.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I never really got into the second half of the song, but I'm super into it right now.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: And the chords are amazing.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the intro to start off.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we got that's got the harmonics.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Low E.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: We're in the key of E right now.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: And then right?
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Love that slide.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: And then love that.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: It's all just E minor.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: That's the minor seventh to the octave.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: Landing on the fifth.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: Crawling out the minor scale.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: And now we hit the four chord, A.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful slide from the minor third to the minor sixth.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: And then we got this beautiful chord.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, nice.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: A minor nine, okay.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: That's just like zero, ten, twelve, open, open.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: Now this beautiful passage right here, just two fingers.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: And then they switch.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: Now they're very simple chords to play, just zero, eleven, ten, zero.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: And then zero ten eleven zero.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: But it's pretty um sophisticated.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: We got D add nine, and then this is crazy.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: D minor with a flat six, but still the nine.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: So D minor flat six slash nine.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: And it's fast.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: And then that's D minor nine.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: So if we were just at D add nine and that D minor nine.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: Just kind of hovers there for a second, and then the song kicks off.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: So that's A minor nine, just like it did before with that in the intro.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: That's the same chord.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: And then this is really nice.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: This is a form of D, okay?
2:15
SPEAKER_00: So D is the four chord of A minor.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: But they're doing a really cool uh voicing of D add nine add 11.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Look at that.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: But the bass is hitting the D.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: So it's like so it's like And it's uh because it's a D major chord, that means it's Dorian.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: In the key of A minor, when you play D, it should be, if you're staying true to A minor, it should be a D minor chord.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: But because it's D major, it's the Dorian mode, and the Dorian mode has like a kind of relief sound to it, and it really helps make the song feel very contemplative and kind of spacey.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: There might have been things I'm in.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: And then right away we get this beautiful new chords.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: But don't be unkind.
3:12
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: Don't be applied.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: Let's go back to that.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: There are minor things I'm in.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: And then that's just C, which is the relative major of A minor.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: Right?
3:32
SPEAKER_00: C.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: That's nice crawl down, C over B, makes a lot of sense, but then we jump to F, which is the sixth, which is the sixth chord.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: That's a regular G, which is the seventh chord of A minor, but back to the sixth.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: He makes it a F add nine.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: And then right here, D minor nine.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: And then we start again.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
4:05
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps like a thing or two.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: It's just a beautiful progression of chords, and I love that it's not too busy vocally, right?
4:13
SPEAKER_00: He just does like a simple kind of melody and it backs away because there's a lot of beautiful arpeggiating going on.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: Arpeggiating, by the way, is when you go You're like arpeggiating a chord, you're like outlining a chord.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Right?
4:28
SPEAKER_00: As opposed to strumming a chord.
4:30
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we got Perhaps there's a thing or two.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: I think of li I think of lying in bed.
4:40
SPEAKER_01: I shouldn't have said Aw beautiful, shouldn't have said.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: But there it is.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: So contemplative and s you see it so clear.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: You were meant to be here.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: My god, like what a beautiful chorus if you want to call it that.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: You see it so D minor seven.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: So G9.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, look at that.
5:15
SPEAKER_01: Back to it.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: You were meant to be here.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: So we go to the five chord, but he makes it super sophisticated.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: It's like an E sus with a flat nine, okay?
5:26
SPEAKER_00: Because we have that instead of E should have the F sharp, but now it has the F, okay?
5:31
SPEAKER_00: Like the flat nine, F9.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: It's like dissonant, but it's perfect.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: And then the bass.
5:41
SPEAKER_01: Right?
5:44
SPEAKER_01: From the beginning.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful passage of chords.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Let's continue on.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Second verse.
5:55
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there might have changed not been so cruel not been such a fool.
6:08
SPEAKER_01: Whatever is done is done.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: I just can't recall.
6:15
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter at all.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, that further accentuates Dorian because he's playing the major six right here.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: Really nice.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: So here's A.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: You got the flat seven.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: That's the major six.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Like so E is like the leading chord, right?
6:55
SPEAKER_00: It's like you could have just done E or like E7.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: You were meant to be here from the beginning.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: But it's not like tasteful enough.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: It's not the right chord.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm in like a hidden temple, man.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: From the beginning.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: And I love the It's so final.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Because when you go from the minor seven to the root, he adds that mystical major ninth.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying from the beginning.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Like it's so epic.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: From the beginning.
7:36
unknown: From the beginning.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Right here.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: When I first heard that, I was like, what?
7:48
SPEAKER_00: And then once you really learn it, it's like not as difficult.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: Like it sounds crazy difficult, but you do have to get some picking down.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: But essentially it's it's like 0234 on the bottom three strings.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: So it's like so it's like so it's like beautiful.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: And I don't really know the solo that well, but I know it's like it's like it kind of sounds like polythene Pam by the Beatles, like a similar tone, and then and then it takes his time.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful phrasing.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: The song is very mystical, it's very pensive, and a lot of it has to do with the minor root to the major D, but with the interesting passages, right?
8:47
SPEAKER_00: It's the Dorian sound, it's like kind of magical.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: It sounds a little blue to me.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: I totally love breaking the song down.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for tuning in to my breakdowns.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: And if you're interested in working together on a music production level and really work with me to define your sound, develop your sound, then just check out learn.dambaricuda.com slash own your sound.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to work with you on your music.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, guys, and I'll see you in the next episode.