Recently, I watched this video where Steve Cruickshank has covered ‘While my guitar gently weeps’ using negative harmony:

I’ve been using this technique to spice up a verse melody and chord progression in one of my songs that felt a bit clichéd.

Negative harmony is determined by deducing melody notes and harmony chords using the Circle of Fifths whereby melodies that were ascending become descending (and vice versa) and major chords become minor (and vice versa) by finding their opposite across an axis that divides the Circle of Fifths in two. There’s a few more principles involved than what I have described and is further explained in this Wikipedia article or this YouTube video:


Has anyone used this technique in their songwriting? What do you think of the cover by Steve Cruickshank?

Andrew