Classic music can be thought of in terms of chords and chord progressions just like modern music! In this video we’ll be taking a look at a small bit out of Beethoven’s Sonata #8 (Pathetique) and break it down in terms of chords, progressions and chord voicings. Here is a great rendition of it by Daniel Barenboim, a fantastic pianist:

Although we’ll be focusing on a small part from the 1st movement, all three movements are fantastic and you should have a listen to all three.

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22 Replies to “Beethoven’s Chords: A modern harmony songwriting perspective”

  1. I really like these videos, i've been struggling to find good harmonic analyisis of bach, chopin, bethoven pieces and so on, i think they would make for some very good progressions for improvising over, they have something that regular standard jazz and blues chord progressions just don't have, so thanks

  2. This is incredibly valuable, and like others have commented, exactly what I have been looking for. It's very difficult to find this sort of analysis of classical music.

  3. Great stuff. If people didn't notice the lowest bass note of the chord voicings moves down by step or 1/2 step for a nice downward movement. eg Eb Db C Bb Ab G F Eb etc

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