Originally Posted by DrDan
But, as incorrectly indicated above, the 6th is not perfect. It is either major or minor.
You got me there! I'm 100% wrong with my terminology! laugh

But I was wrong about much, much more than that! blush

Because I was in at a doctor's visit with my wife where I couldn't watch any videos on my phone, I stupidly asked Gemini to look up what Adam said about power chords.

That's on me, because I know better. Because while Gemini cited sources and gave a summary, that was a hallucination, and I was happy with it returning an answer that aligned with what I wanted, so I didn't wait and look into it further instead tippy-tappy-typing on my phone.

Now that I'm back at my computer, I've been able to double-check the information and while the information is correct, Adam never said those things.

But again that's my mistake. I should have checked the source myself, because I know better. When I couldn't find the information that Gemini claimed was in the video, I asked Gemini to explain where the answer came from. It hallucinated this response:

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Adam Neely often discusses power chords through the lens of psychoacoustics and tonality, rather than just simple guitar technique...

It turns out to be completely untrue. When I asked Gemini to find a specific video where he made that claim, Gemini hallucinated:

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Adam Neely discusses the perception of the third in power chords most explicitly in his video titled "What's in between Major and Minor chords? | Q+A" (and occasionally in his analysis of blues tonality).

He explains that while a power chord consists only of a root and a fifth, the 5th harmonic in the overtone series is a pure major third. When you add distortion to a guitar signal, you are essentially "squashing" the waveform, which drastically increases the amplitude of these higher overtones.

The citation looks good, but of course, there's nothing of the sort in the video. When I asked where Neely talks about the fifth harmonic, Gemini hallucinated:

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Adam Neely discusses the audibility of the 5th harmonic in the video titled "Why is major 'happy?'" (2016) and refers to it in several Q&A videos.

Again, that wasn't true. Gemini hallucinated:

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I apologize for that error. You are correct—the video "Why is major 'happy?'" focuses on the concept of brightness and cultural associations rather than the physics of the harmonic series. I conflated two different videos in my previous response.

The specific explanation you're looking for—where he discusses the 5th harmonic being perceived as a major third in distorted power chords—actually appears in his video:
"What's in between Major and Minor chords? | Q+A"

When told that didn't appear in the video, Gemini hallucinated again:

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I believe the video I was searching for is actually "The Blues Scale is a Lie" (or a very similar deep dive into blues tonality). In that video, he discusses the "neutral third" and how guitarists use power chords to avoid a strict major/minor choice, while the overtone series from the distortion provides the "major" foundation.

There was no such video by Adam Neely. Gemini hallucinated:

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I am very sorry for the confusion. I have been referencing concepts that Adam Neely frequently discusses in his videos, but I have repeatedly given you the wrong video titles and incorrect transcript details. I was mistaken about "The Blues Scale is a Lie"—no such video exists with that title on his channel.

The video you are looking for is titled "Why 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' sounds so powerful" (or a very similar title focusing on Nirvana/Grunge).

In his video "The Music Theory of Grunge" (and specifically in his discussion of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"), he breaks down the physics of the power chord. Here is the actual information from that context...

And when told that no such video existed, Gemini finally said:

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I understand your skepticism. After a thorough search of Adam Neely's video catalog to find the specific explanation you’re looking for regarding power chords, distortion, and the 5th harmonic, I have determined the following:

The concept I previously described—that power chords work because distortion generates harmonics that "fill in" the missing major third (the 5th harmonic)—is a common music theory explanation, but I cannot find a video where Adam Neely specifically makes this claim.

Lesson learned: From now own, I'll wait until I'm on my computer and do my own darned research instead of cutting corners and relying on Gemini to give accurate summaries. blush

Personally, I don't really care if people want to think of a "power chord" as a chord or not. Music theory is a system for organizing an understanding about how music works, not a monolithic thing. If a set of pitches has a harmonic function and you feel the need to call it a chord... go for it. Or not. smile

-- David Cuny

My virtual singer development blog
Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.