Galen DeGraf

32.4K subscribers

53 videos

A channel to explore creative, practical, and fun music theory. I am a theorist, composer, organist, drummer based in New York, with a Ph.D in music theory. ...

Latest Videos

Odd 4-Layer Salsa Recipes

Practical Skills Organists Might Need

The musical sequence that won Ludwig Göransson an Academy Award

A Melody Over a Place It Was Never Meant To Go

How to Compose a Classic Chord

music theory sets you free

When the composer is cleverilliant

The Tastiest Most Mindbending Rhythms

Interstellar Voice Leading, Heartbeats Between Stars

Why Baby Shark was viral and the U.S. National Anthem is terrible

How to Play a Keyboard Without Your Fingers

Adapting Music from one Meter to Another (Active Analysis)

The Cutest Instruments You Never Knew About

How to Compose a Rhythmic Paradox

How to Make Music Notation Better (score videos, custom backgrounds, cursor, scrolling)

The Colonial March (illustrated score)

Identifying Themes from Two Notes

How to Ear Train Post-tonal Trichord Set Classes

Post-tonal Theory Explained Using Film Music

Transforming a Theme, Lord of the Rings style (scalar mapping demonstration)

Sauron's Musical Disguises in Rings of Power

Why Some Lyrics Sound Awkward (text setting)

How to Practice Transforming Themes, Scalar Mapping

Game of Thrones style Happy Birthday (for Ramin Djawadi's 50th birthday)

How to Make a Musical Theme fit any Context

How to Add to Music by Taking Away from it

Transforming a Theme, Game of Thrones style (fragmentation and scalar mapping demonstration)

How to Transform a Theme (scalar mapping demonstration)

Amazing Grace Inverted Chromatically

McCreary’s Rings of Power changes how you’ll hear Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings