Educators

There are many educators out there making a great deal of good content, but it can often be hard to find something you don’t even know exists. Because of that, I thought it would be a good idea to make a compilation here for people to explore. I will organize these with categories, but not strictly: many could fall in several categories, and some have a hard time falling into any at all.

Cross-pollination is how communities grow, and ideas can be taken and assimilated from a variety of sources, therefore in the links I share below there is quite a variety in musical styles.

I will update this post if other resources come to mind, and if anyone reading knows any good educators I didn’t list, just leave them in the comments below for me to take a look at and possibly edit into the original post.

Without further introduction:

Partimento

Analyses

  • Richard Atkinson– This is an incredible channel. Mr. Atkinson very clearly breaks down a wide variety of pieces, with a wide variety of topics: from general appreciation, to specific compositional techniques. His videos include the score (with ample editing to make things extremely clear and easy to understand) as well as high quality audio examples over said score. Despite his subdued way of speaking, is passion for the music is very clear and easily rubs off on the listener. I enjoy his video on Neapolitan Chords in Mozart’s Music.
  • 8-bit Music Theory – As the name suggests, this channel focuses almost entirely on video games, both old and new. The videos have very knowledgeable discussion, clear sheet-music examples, and clear audio examples, and are fun educational snippets to either simply watch and enjoy, or to practically apply to one’s own composition or playing. The video on Iconic Opening Intervals is shows off the best of the channel’s combination of education and entertainment. Also, his video on Mario Music.
  • Ashish Xiangyi Kumar – This channel’s videos themselves are simply recordings and sheet music, however the descriptions almost always feature a thorough analysis of form (with time-stamps) and a description of the piece as a whole. Notably, he has an incredible series where he does this for All 32 Beethoven Sonatas. Extremely interesting and useful content is to be found here.
  • David Bruce Composer – This channel has a very eclectic variety of content, from analyses, to history, to composition tips, and many little one-off videos. His video on How Beethoven Writes for Orchestra represents some of the best of his channel, in my opinion. His video on Why is there no Saxophone in the Orchestra is an excellent (and tragic) historical journey.
  • Film Score Analysis – This channel does exactly what its name would suggests, and analyzes some of the best film scores out there. The video on Hedwig‘s Theme is a good example of the channel’s content.
  • Rick Beato – This channel focuses primarily on rock, both classic and modern. His series What Makes This Song Great does a great job of breaking down dozens and dozens of great songs in an intuitive way. He also has videos of a variety of other topics such as Ear Training and theory concepts like The Lydian Mode.

Theory

This section will be filled mainly with supplemental and fun material, not material meant to teach music theory from a-to-z.

  • David E. Farrell – This channel no longer seems to be active, but it has a good backlog of videos on various music theory topics. If one has trouble understanding something in their music theory class, it might be helpful to look for a relevant video from this uploader. He seems to be based on Kostka-Payne. His video on Enharmonic Modulation is a good showcase of his clear explanations.
  • Sideways – This channel has very fun-to-watch videos about general music concepts. His video on How Pixar uses Music to make you cry is pretty interesting, as is his video on How a Superhero Theme Works.
  • 12tone – This channel features short videos of bite-sized theory concepts. This video of his is an interesting breakdown on Augmented 6th Chords, and the conflict between classical and modern understandings of that harmony.
  • Onganku Concept – This channel is not that active as of late, but it has an interesting backlog of videos. It focuses on video game music mainly, but also anime and Japanese music in general. This video on the VGM Chord Progression is pretty interesting. This is a good video on the use of Predominant Chords.
  • Signals Music Studio – This channel features lots of bite-sized concepts explained very clearly with plenty of examples that one can apply immediately to their compositions or their playing. He is a guitarist, and teaches from that perspective, but the concepts are easily applied to any instrument. His video on Sounding sad in Major with Mediant Chords is a good example of his intuitive content. His video on “Dorian Dad Rock” is more guitar focused, but is another example of easily applicable concepts he covers. His video on “God Chords” is another short video on a little compositional trick.
  • Adam Neely – This channel is another one with a wide variety of eclectic content, so it’s very difficult to give an “example video”. Neely is a jazz musician, with a degree from Berkley, and that informs much of his perspective in his videos. His video on Scotch Snaps in Hip Hop is pretty interesting. He also partakes in reharmonizations from time-to-time, such as Thank u, next.

Piano Educators

Piano is a common tool for theory, and is a very common instrument, so I thought I should share some good piano educators.

  • cedarvillemusic – This is one of the absolute best online resources to learning classical piano. Dr. Mortensen is a very skilled, knowledgeable piano teacher at Cedarville University. His channel features broad advice on various topics, as well as detailed instruction on specific problems. His series on Getting Ready for College-Level Music Study is full of very good advice. For anyone interesting in classical improvisation (being able to make up something like this or this, his Patreon is an incredible resource. It’s not free, but it’s probably the cheapest place you will find such high-quality information on the subject.
  • Aimee Nolte Music – This channel focuses on jazz piano, and has plenty of content for absolute beginners as well as for more advanced pianists. This video of her’s is a good starting point for Jazz Piano: Where to Start. This is a very good wake-up-call for a lot of pianists on Melody. Her video on the Top 25 Jazz Standards to Know is a good practical list for aspiring jazz musicians, for any instrument (or voice) really.
  • Kent Hewitt – This is another primarily jazz educator. His channel is not that structured, but he certainly has some insightful content for aspiring jazz pianists. His video on the ii-V-I progression is a good start for beginners.
  • Nahre Sol – Ms. Sol is a very creative pianist and educator, and her channel has some excellent content. Besides her very creative, fun, and moderately education videos (like this video of “Happy Birthday” in various composers’ styles), she has plenty of more practical content. Notably, plenty of videos of Warm-Up Exercises, general Fundamentals of Practicing, and tips for specific piano techniques, such as Effective Ways to Practice Arpeggios.

Afterthoughts

It is good to have so many people in the world working so hard to create great content. As I mentioned in the beginning of this post: if there are any more creators that you know of, please let me know.

For now,

Happy learning~