How to practice transforming themes, scalar mapping

[@GalenDeGraf]

This video was a Patreon only video for the past couple months. I'm currently revamping and expanding resources on Patreon to be more user-friendly in the future by utilizing the Patreon shop. I anticipate my next two longform videos (one on post-tonal theory, and another on text settting) will require a 30-day review period with youTube, but they'll be available on Patreon as soon as they're finished, if you don't want to wait out the youTube process.

[@KlaviersAnthology]

My spine chills love you for this video!

[@strikingtwice]

Yet another example of "i went to four years of music school for composition and I wasn't taught this incredibly useful and simple to understand technique". Thank you for this video, really great and very well presented.

[@johncanthearyou]

And you paid for it too 😂😂

[@strikingtwice]

@@johncanthearyou for sure. Hell my university literally just closed down. Strange times.

[@claudiakramer4516]

School, especially music school is a waste of time when it comes to theory

[@GalenDeGraf]

I think an issue with music theory is that what it means to different people, and how it is taught by different teachers, varies widely. What music theory is today is also distinct from what music theory used to be. There is plenty of bad theory out there (and I started this channel in part to offer a counterbalance to that), but there‘s also a lot of great stuff that depends on the teacher and school (and the student!). If you like how I casually imitate many musical styles, for example, realize that that‘s the result of extensive formal education which I don‘t think was worthless. TL;DR Depends on school and teacher.

[@strikingtwice]

@@claudiakramer4516 I definitely disagree with that I think there is a lot more nuance to it than that, but in my particular school, I really had to carve my own way and find the teachers that I needed, rather than there being a lot more covered that I feel should have been general knowledge for composers. Like I shouldn’t have been getting the same theory classes as the performance majors most likely, where I was excelling and they (excellent performers) were struggling. It’s not a one size fits all

[@happilyisolated]

Do I understand any of this? No. Did I stay and listen to be amazed? Absolutely.

[@franciscoaragao5398]

Gostei do que você disse. Muito bem.

[@kateamanak]

That uncanny moment when KZbin recommends your undergrad music theory teacher... But as a KZbinr with thousands of subscribers. Amazing work!!

[@GalenDeGraf]

@@kateamanak You discovered my online alter ego! In addition to teaching college music classes and going on tangents about film music in them, I’m also…………. actually I guess online is pretty much the same (but with animations!)

[@Dante02d12]

That Harry Potter style is utter perfection. I'm not yet fluent enough in music theory to do it myself, but I'll bookmark this for later!

[@gaopinghu7332]

Legend says that Hagrid once said: "You have a lamb, Mary!"

[@GalenDeGraf]

Dang! Missed opportunity that I didn‘t call that one "Harry had a little lamb".

[@akahigematsumori4709]

​​@@GalenDeGrafThe magic of KZbin can empower you to make a short "Harry Had a Little Lamb" Edit: I guess the concept of your channel probably forbids you to reveal your magic to shorts-consuming muggles. I can totally understand that.

[@DaHoFaSho]

“I…Have a what???”

[@seaborgium919]

"It's easier to make an idea with less options" as someone who deals with indecision and analysis paralysis, thank you so dang much. I should not get into creating music (I don't have the background or resources) but like. this is definitely a subject I really like

[@CrankyOldNerd]

Holy moly sometimes the algorithm is creepy. I’ve been wondering how to do something like this. I had an idea for a series of songs. But each one would have a different emotional theme. Yet I wasn’t sure how that was accomplished. Then this scrolls by. I hadn’t even said this out loud. Yet here is the path start leading in the way I wanted. Wild stuff

[@GalenDeGraf]

Glad to hear it, and welcome to my channel! KZbin usually recommends this video first, but I actually made it as a follow-up to my "How to make a musical theme fit any context" video, which covers the theory in more detail.

[@mistaowickkuh6249]

Little touches of harp for the whole tone example was the diamond coating on the bit that drilled this idea into my brain.

[@Xilfhunter]

I didn’t understand much, but loved every second of it!

[@Low.Key.Music01]

A lot of KZbinrs explain music theory so much better than my music teachers

[@GalenDeGraf]

Thanks for the kind words! I still think of myself as more music teacher than youTuber. At the moment, I use this platform to experiment with how we can teach music theory online and improving music theory’s image to make people see it as more "creative pursuit" and less "set of rules." I hope this channel can inspire some *teachers*, though! The growth and interest in this channel has been amazing, so hopefully more teachers will see and adopt approaches I’ve been sharing here!

[@whoschiliisit1752]

A great example of this is the Super Mario World soundtrack. Nearly every song is a reworking of the same motif

[@ravensongstudios]

"Mary had a lydian lamb" That got a laugh

[@robinthomsoncomposer]

Most informative and interesting. Really loved the orchestration of the first chromatic example particularly.

[@adrianaslund8605]

I like the octatonic It's so simple. And sounds alien.

[@mostfunnestchannel]

This is good teaching, well explained, examples, understandable, and very high quality. Thank you, I have new ideas to play with!

[@HermanvanGelder]

Wow. Exactly what I want to see. Subbed right away! (I can hardly believe this is the same YT algo that fed me som much horrendous BS)

[@joeaquilino19]

That octatonic example sounded like a song from Alice in chains the break down part he is signing over the melody. Its really like it.

[@jacobmills3076]

This is brilliant and quite useful for both composition and creating new arrangements for existing songs. I've already applied some of the techniques for interval mapping in some of my classical guitar arrangements of video game music.

[@somarriba333]

Man! I wish they had a course like this in college.

[@noahshighlightreel]

Mary Had A Little Lamb chromatic is amazing! I need to start writing chromatic songs…

[@pneumachina]

this is incredibly useful! thank you very much, sir!

[@m4r_art]

Whole Tone rocking those Majora's Mask Great Bay vibes. ❤ favorite one

[@southamptonguitaracademy7470]

Wow! So much cool exciting music theory composition techniques in this tutorial!

[@BrentLeVasseur]

This is brilliant! Thank you.

[@MarcoAnteroMusic]

Amazing! Well done, dude!

[@BrentLeVasseur]

The Chromatic one sounds almost like a Bartok piece. Nicely done.

[@GalenDeGraf]

@@BrentLeVasseur Thanks! That one is based on Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta.

[@BrentLeVasseur]

@@GalenDeGraf That’s what I thought! And it’s one of my all time favorite Bartok pieces.

[@ArfooHuroo]

This is amazing and incredibly informative stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@EnriqueDominguezProfile]

This is brilliant! Tank you.

[@inguiable]

BravoooOooOo and Thank you from Argentina!!!

[@TheQuantixXx]

uhm what. this is incredible

[@kebman]

That last one could easily be a new theme for the Alien franchise. Or some other drama-horror flick.

[@ebonybass3473]

5:00, I didn't know mary had a little lamb could sound so beautiful 😭

[@billhasty5197]

Bravo, very well done. I just subscribed to your channel.

[@anandgodane8022]

Thank you so much sir 🎉❤❤❤❤

[@DihyatAlQolbi]

3:25 i let my guard down and fell asleep. i saw lucy of narnia talking to aslan the lion between the forest and the grassland. and i was behind her until 3 second before the music ends. i woke up. dang, the dream was so real.

[@slametal]

great!

[@felixfaster]

Dang, that first one turned a hymn into a new Star Wars theme.

[@saegusamayumi75yago28]

A wanna master all of this

[@Hunka777]

this is completely useless to me, but it was fantastic so i'm obligated thank you.

[@DivanProdOfficial]

super like button needed

[@wafflehouseco]

The minor version of amazing grace is very Howard shore

[@GalenDeGraf]

Absolutely! A great example of minor-melody-harmonized-with-only-major-chords is Howard Shore’s theme for “fellowship”.

[@TheClassicalSauce]

Cool.

[@aspirativemusicproduction2135]

I haven't red notation for many years and even I can tell every individual note I can't follow the melody. That's what's happening when you use piano roll for so long. That doesn't take away from how good the video is. I just wish things were more imediate for visal creatures🙂

[@radupopescu9977]

Interesting!

[@agorgedslug]

I've always heard Mary had a little lamb as not having a IV chord at all. Where you are playing the IV I always use 1. I still like the scaling idea though!

[@GalenDeGraf]

I don‘t think of that spot as a IV chord either. I wanted to add a little reharmonization to the original to keep the vid from getting boring there.

[@ipercalisse579]

That last Amazing Grace sounds like Musc for Strings Percussion and Celesta by Bela Bartok😂

[@eosborne6495]

Bartokian Amazing Grace is the stuff of nightmares! Maybe instead of Amazing Grace, it’s The Miraculous Grace?

[@Corai12]

Your awesome

[@JasonPruett]

if there were a plugin for DAWs that did this everyone would want to buy it.

[@GalenDeGraf]

I don’t like the idea of plugins just to avoid learning theory, but from a standpoint of streamlining workflow where possible, it seems like a pretty simple task to have something that will find and replace MIDI notes in a region. Going from C major to C minor would be a command to replace all A, B, and E MIDI with Ab, Bb, and Eb.

[@JesusSavesJohn3verse16]

Thank’s so much my friend 😊 The Lord’s love + grace be with you His Hope + peace, in Life, and beyond the grave Hope you are all well and resting in Jesus saving love + grace 😊 Warmest Love + blessing’s friends 😊

[@tomsisson660]

When you use scalar mapping to transform a theme, the music sounds completely different in many cases; the music is not the same, the music becomes something different. Tom Sisson

[@GalenDeGraf]

@@tomsisson660 As pedagogical exercises, these were designed to be maximally transformative by using not just scalar mapping but also reharmonization and big changes of orchestration. Scalar mapping without such dramatic changes of orchestration can be more tame. If you want to hear less pronounced transformations, check out the examples in my "How to make musical theme fit any context" video.

[@sky0kast0]

I may not call myself necessarily our ear necessarily great but the fact that I can transpose a song makes me think I have an ear for music

[@EulersIdentityCrisis]

Mary had a lydian lamb 😂

[@Tazer_BLACC]

My man is just talking about things he’s learned while working out; literally just information you can follow or not and ppl are PRESSED 😭😭 Insecurity is crazy

[@uuuuwwwwwwwwwoooooooo6164]

4:53 if you applied the 2x playback, you'll get a Pokemon Background music

[@JohnMisdreavous]

Any advice on how someone who is quite familiar with playing and hearing music but has little to no knowledge on music theory can get to a level that this is understandable? Cheers

[@GalenDeGraf]

I would recommend you at least learn 1) how to read notes in treble and bass clef, 2) all major and minor scales, 3) the notes of all major and minor triads. Once you‘re quick with those, I‘d recommend going through my playlist "how to transform and develop musical ideas“ in order. This video is the fourth video of the series so some things may not be clear here without seeing those previous videos first.

[@spencer0417]

In this video, for the heroic amazing grace, the original song is changed from f major to f minor,( and the content creator changed a couple note to make it sound better, i dont know the theory behind this) u can search what is major and minor

[@venusasaboy]

I think octatonic can sound moody but the default sound to my ear is like transcendental/ineffable. Thanks in no small part to messiaen probably haha.

[@MusArtVlad]

Somehow I don't think the 3rd and 5th examples have a small lamb at all :D

[@thisisscotts]

"You may need to watch another video first" Nope... I need to watch a year's worth of videos first!

[@robertporteles4697]

Do you have some classes in a platform like udemy?

[@GalenDeGraf]

@@robertporteles4697 I‘m looking into possibly making a larger formal course of some sort, but at the moment I‘m just posting supplemental content to Patreon. For my next video on post-tonal music I have a pack of 30 audio files and worksheet to practice non-tertian trichord ear training. I‘m hoping to have that video finished this month before classes start in September.

[@robertporteles4697]

@@GalenDeGraf thanks for answer , have a great Life!

[@SmokeyMaloy]

How do you remap a meoldy ??

[@GalenDeGraf]

See description, or watch just this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJvShnWVZaeCn6c

[@Ray_Wood_1984]

🙇‍♂️💓🍀🎶 😊👍

[@MixPv4]

The instrumentation has a smidge to do it with it tbh

[@GalenDeGraf]

More than a smidge I'd say! These exercises are designed to be maximally transformative by combining scalar mapping with reharmonization and orchestration. This is the fourth video of the series, but if you'd like scalar mapping with less dramatic changes of harmony/orchestration, I suggest checking out "How to make a musical theme fit any context"

[@TheNextDoorNeighboor]

I'm a little disappointed that you used some of the same pieces in this video that you used in a previous one

[@GalenDeGraf]

I was hoping this video offered more details about my approach to some of the exercises in the demonstration video which was released a while back. I actually did this video first, and used some material from it to do the channel trailer which then blew up. I don‘t plan on making any more channel trailers so the next stuff I‘m thinking about will all be new! This fall, I‘m toying with some Lord of the Rings style scalar mappings, post-tonal theory for film music, and a discussion of text setting.

[@TheNextDoorNeighboor]

@@GalenDeGraf Oh, alright 🙂

[@kalimbaUF]

Ничего толкового. Вокруг да около и ничего из перечисленного не в точку

[@ivonmorales2654]

You make a beginner's and non-storyteller's mistake. You think everyone knows what song you're using as a base. You should put it at the beginning, in the simplest and silliest way. And then hearing the "magic"... It's like me saying, We will make several reharmonizations of the song "Contigo Perú". I'm sure you don't even know it, but all Peruvians know it by heart. Greetings.

[@GalenDeGraf]

As I mention this in the video, this is not a standalone video. (It is actually the fourth video of a series.) The first video in the series does play Amazing Grace and that is found in the first video in the playlist "How to transform and develop musical ideas".

[@GalenDeGraf]

Here‘s that vid: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJaQcoangtOHbLc

[@ivonmorales2654]

@@GalenDeGraf So for distracted people like me, making a review like in the TV shows "Previously in the previous chapter", wouldn't be too much... I also want you to know that I really liked your video, and that my intention is for more people to see you, and I only give suggestions. Thanks my friend.

[@GalenDeGraf]

@ivonmorales2654 Thanks for the input!

[@ToxicTurtleIsMad]

"Non-storyteller" ? Who the f are you? Chekhov? Get a grip.

[@AzazeltheMystery]

It’s not dark enough and to your esteem it’s actually, light. Your wasting my time.

[@GalenDeGraf]

This video isn‘t really about going full evil, but if that‘s your goal you might consider 1) instrumentation such as synths and distorted guitar 2) harsher dissonance 3) jagged rhythms amd odd time signatures 4) more aggressive dynamics

[@bluefifth]

3:15 played and i immediantly went: star wars?