From Indiana Jones to The Beatles - A Beautiful Songwriting Trick

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:02][music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> And now, a message from our sponsor.

[00:00:50]>> Hello chaps, I just want to butt in here for a second to let you know that if you're enjoying these videos, you can get them weeks, if not months in advance by signing up for the tier two level of my Patreon membership. Tier one at $3 a month gets you access to the tabs and jam tracks and so on that accompany the YouTube videos when they go out on YouTube. But if you can't wait and you want early access, tier two is what you need. $6 a month, you get early access to the videos and any associated tabs and so on. Plus you also get a twice monthly at the moment, although I'm looking to make it a little bit more frequent, Zoom hangout with me and the other tier two chaps. If you're not interested in an ongoing financial regular commitment each month, then fear not, you can also purchase individual pieces of content, a tab or a jam track or anything like that for $3 a pop. No ongoing commitment, no nothing. You can just buy it and it's yours to keep. And I think that's covered everything, so that's the shilling done with. Now, back to the show. Hello chaps, welcome once again to John Robson Guitar Tuition. As always, I do hope you're well. Now, a little while ago I made a video where I was talking about the song, a chord sequence, that when I first heard it, I thought, that sounds really good, but I don't understand it. It didn't make sense to me. It seemed to break in inverted commas, the rules when it comes to how how chords can and can't be put together. I've since learned that there are no such rules that you have to follow, but I you know, I thought they were at the time back in the '80s. Anyway, um what I then did back then was I sort of set about finding a way of making sense of this chord sequence and then all these years later, I made a video about that topic. And the one thing that I've learned from putting content, especially tuition content up on YouTube, is there's always somebody who's woken up that morning and wants to feel clever.

[00:02:48]And you know, they do that by you know, jumping into a comment section or a social media thread somewhere and castigating the person in question because they want to show that they know more than that person online. What a Yeah, anyway, that happened to me.

[00:03:04]Um and the the chap in question said, it's just a Neapolitan chord, um which was you know, the this mystery chord that I was that I was talking about that I couldn't make sense of in that context. Um and it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't a Neapolitan chord, but um it did trigger um a little kind of thought in me head to think, well, maybe I should do a video about Neapolitan chord. And that is what this is today. So, you've heard a little piece of music containing one.

[00:03:35]Um here is some information on what exactly it is and how it gets used. Here is the explanation. Quite simply, what you do to play a Neapolitan chord is play a major chord one fret above whatever key you're in. That's how it it presented itself to me when I first figured this out. I didn't even know it was called a Neapolitan chord at the time. Um so, if we're in the key of C like that piece of music earlier, there's your [music] C major chord. Play a C sharp or D flat as we're going to call it from here on in. Okay?

[00:04:10]Strictly speaking, that is your Neapolitan chord. If you're thinking in terms of a C major scale, C D [music and singing] E F G A B C, C is the first note, D is the second note. And you play basically a major chord built on the flattened second note. So, if the second note is D, flatten that, D flat.

[00:04:32]That's put a major chord on that, that's your Neapolitan chord. [music] And you would kind of think, well, how is that going to sound right? Why it's you know, you you can't get much more distantly related to C major than D flat. It's it's you know, it's it's nowhere near in terms of where where they would occur on the circle of fifths.

[00:04:56]But it works because um you know, if you think in terms of that sort of taking the four chords. So, if we're in the key of C, C F and G, there's your F chord there. That's your four chord.

[00:05:11]We're quite familiar with the idea of taking that major four chord and making it minor.

[00:05:18]>> [music] >> So, F minor resolving back to C.

[00:05:22]Noel Gallagher does that all the time in songs like Half the World Away and Don't Look Back in Anger, loads of songs.

[00:05:30]Right? So, let's have a look at the notes that are in that F minor chord.

[00:05:33]You've got F, A flat and C. Well, let's just change one of those notes, the C note, into a D flat.

[00:05:41]F, A flat and D flat, you've now got the notes of a D flat chord, F, D flat and >> [music] >> A flat. Okay?

[00:05:51]And what works really well is if kind of linking it back to that example of the F minor going to the C, if we keep the F note that's in, as we've seen, the D flat chord, if we keep that in the bass.

[00:06:02]Okay? So, there's there's my D flat chord there.

[00:06:07]Play the bass over here, this F note.

[00:06:10]>> [music] >> And resolve to C. That is a beautiful little resolution.

[00:06:17]>> [music] >> And um it quite often, not always, but quite often crops up before you go to the five chord. So, the five chord in the key of C would be G.

[00:06:31]So, have your D flat over F >> [music] >> to a G to the C. That's a lovely little set of chords, isn't it?

[00:06:44]>> [music] >> Okay. So, it's basically just going one semitone above the chord that of the key you're in, the tonic chord of the key that you're in.

[00:06:56]And playing a first inversion of that chord.

[00:07:01]So, what I mean by a first inversion is any chord, as you know, is made up of root, third and fifth.

[00:07:08]Well, the third >> [music] >> is the bass note that you need to create the first inversion.

[00:07:15]You know, when you play um just the root note of the chord in the bass, >> [music] >> that's not inversion. When you play the third of the chord in the bass, that's a first inversion.

[00:07:26]And when you play the fifth of the chord in the bass, that's a second inversion. So, yeah.

[00:07:34]Just [snorts] basically D flat over F, first inversion D flat chord >> [music] >> to let land us back on a C chord.

[00:07:42]Um for anybody wondering, why is this allowed? Um you know, that's a wrong chord. Why does it sound so good if it's a wrong chord? Well, that's basically looking at music theory in the wrong way. I can't remember who said it, but I wish I had someone to use it now. Music theory is not prescriptive, it is descriptive. It's not a list of what you can and cannot do. It's just a way of kind of cataloging and organizing stuff that sounds good. And if something sounds good and it gets used again and again and again like the Neapolitan chord, then it tends to get given a name. And the name in this case is the Neapolitan chord. That's how to include it in a chord sequence. In terms of how to play over it, couldn't be simpler.

[00:08:30]All I did in that little solo there, I was basing, as I always do, what I was playing around the basic pentatonic patterns.

[00:08:38]>> [music] >> So, there's my C major pentatonic and throwing in a few chord tones along the way and just just generally kind of um you know, doing what I do. Um um so, when it gets to that D flat chord, just go up to a D flat major pentatonic.

[00:08:56]Remember, the chord is one semitone above your tonic.

[00:09:02]So, play the pentatonic that is one semitone above the one that's everything's in. So, there's your C major pentatonic.

[00:09:11]Go to D flat major pentatonic just by >> [music] >> and then >> [music] >> resolve back into your C again like that. So, that's all I did in that solo.

[00:09:26]It sounds much more complicated and clever than it actually is. So, now you know what to do. Go away and have some fun with I hope that all made some kind of sense. It's pretty straightforward really once you get that notion out of your head that there are rules that tell you you can't use a C sharp or D flat chord in the key of C.

[00:09:49]You know, music theory isn't a isn't a rule book. That's the main thing to remember. And it took me quite a while to uh to kind come to terms with that.

[00:09:59]Um you know, but there it is. Anyway, that is the video of what today, folks.

[00:10:04]Um just a little expose, a little exploration of the Neapolitan chord.

[00:10:09]It's um it's a chord that's been used by everybody from John Williams when he wrote the Indiana Jones theme through to um David Bowie, the Beatles. It's just a songwriting staple. So, you know, um and plenty of examples of it in, you know, classical and romantic uh composers' works as well. So, there you go. Now you know what to do. As I've already said, go away and have some fun with it. But uh if you've enjoyed the video, please hit the subscribe button and the notification bell if you haven't already done so. And why not drop me a like as well while you're at it. And of course, don't forget the live stream every Friday 5:00 p.m. UK time where we drink beer and talk about music and guitars and whatever crops up, basically. Uh it's just um beer and chat on a Friday. Great way to kick off the weekend, I think. And I'd love to see you there if you can make it. But for now, I'll bid you all a good day and say thank you so much for watching. Thank you for your time. Look after yourselves, folks. Stay well. Stay safe. And above all, stay sane. Bye for now.

[00:11:10]>> [music]