Galen DeGraf
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. I believe that animation and virtual orchestration software have extraordinary potential to enhance music pedagogy.
Making high quality videos is often very labor intensive, and, as a result, new uploads are not always so frequent.
Get more educational content (such as my post-tonal ear training materials, polyrhythm bundle, and tutorial on animating a score video) through the Patreon shop and help support my vision to make music theory more inspiring and accessible.
When the composer is cleverilliant
The Tastiest Most Mindbending Rhythms
Interstellar Voice Leading, Heartbeats Between Stars
How Baby Shark Hacked Our Brains
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
Bach, but the voices are all different meters
Musical Continuity Without Quotation (Rings of Power, Lord of the Rings)
Mozart style Variations on Happy Birthday
How to compose like Arvo Pärt, tintinnabuli style
Bach im Spiegel: Cello Suite no. 1 in the style of Arvo Pärt
Shostakovich style Prelude on Happy Birthday