Sideways440

Why Home Alone is the Best Christmas Soundtrack Ever

Well, this turned out way better than I had originally hoped for.
Thank you to everyone who suggested an idea, I'm going to do my best to work out a system going forward, but I think that requests offer a really great way for me to give back to you all.

I'm thinking that maybe as time goes by, if enough people have enough questions, I can make an extra video every few months just answering some of the questions that you guys have asked that might not be able to find their way in the...

Why Home Alone is the Best Christmas Soundtrack Ever

This is the early access post for "Why Home Alone is the Best Christmas Soundtrack Ever."  You should not be charged for this, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

So this was the first video that you guys requested and I'm really happy with how it turned out and I'm gonna wanna try it again (keep your eyes peeled for a January request post).

I honestly feel kinda bad that there were so many topics and that I can't get to all of them in any kinda spee...

Why "Spoken Word" Makes me Nervous

So here's a video that's been rattling around in the back of my head for a while.

Not just the poetry stuff, but also all the stuff to do with racist American history.

It took me a crazy long while to get everything together for this video, especially because I didn't want to mislabel anything or come off sounding like I ran the show.

And even though I can tell myself I did my best, I'm pretty sure there are going to be a lot of mistakes.

Nevertheless, I hope that in t...

Why "Spoken Word" Makes me Nervous

This is the early access post for "Why "Spoken Word" Make me Nervous."  You should not be charged, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

So, right off the bat, a few things.

1. This one's really long, I know I tend to say that a lot, but I think this is the second longest video I've made, and

2. This video is sort of off of the beaten path that I normally tend to go down.

The thing is that I've been seeing this kinda thing for a while, and s...

December Requests!

Ok everyone, we're going to try something new.

I've been seeing other YouTubers doing this kinda thing with a lot of success, and I figured it could give you guys something else with your extremely generous donations.

Having said that, I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to organize this.

Like, if I only take video requests from the upper payment brackets, or if I put everyone in a pool and pick from there.

I'm not sure, I'm open to ideas, but I think I'm going to star...

My Favorite Soundtrack and why I like it

Well this one's honestly been a long time coming.

I've been getting this question multiple times a week, every week, for over a year now.

So I'm kinda amazed at how long it took me to get around to it.
Honestly, I'd really love to be able to put together a massive video (or video series) breaking down the entire ring cycle.
But in the end of the day, there's just too much to go through.  There are massive academic papers on just individual scenes from the Ring cycle, let alone...

My Favorite Soundtrack and why I like it

This is the early access post for "My Favorite Soundtrack and why I like it."  You should not be charged, if you are please do not hesitate to contact me.

So this was remarkably difficult to make, not just because of all of the information, but because I had several drafts of this script that included as much detail as I could fit.

And as much fun as it would have been, I'm just not sure my channel is ready for a 40 minute video on opera.  Maybe one day.

Also, com...

When Soundtracks Repeat

When I went to go an see Deadpool 2, I really wasn't expecting to have something like this come up.

Like with a lot of other films rising up nowadays, I was honestly just expecting some Suicide Squad-esque musical jokes (like the Dolly Parton bit), but after hearing "Tomorrow" from Annie during a few select scenes, it forced me to re-evaluate what, why, and how music works in films the way that it does.

It's kind of a startling thought to think that we might just like the music in film b...

When Soundtracks Repeat

This is the early access post for the "When Soundtracks Repeat" video.  You should not be charged for it, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Well, this video was incredibly hard to make.

Not just because "On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind" is an incredibly complicated book, but also because almost all of my equipment has started dying all at once?

One of my HDMI cables stopped working.
My CPU fan will now only turn on every third reboot.
The left click ...

Ear Training and Sight Singing: The Superpower you get from Music School

This was one of the hardest videos I've ever made.

Not because I know that I'm not (or ever was) a great sight singer, or that there would be thousands of people with perfect pitch and tuners telling me I was all over the place, but because I didn't want to let my professor down.

On Monday August 20th my theory 1 and 2 professor Dr. Moody passed away in a sudden accident, and as a way of processing what had happened, I wanted to kind of preserve what he taught me in a video.

I...

Ear Training and Sight Singing: The Superpower you get from Music School

This is the early access post for the video "Ear Training and Sight Singing: The Superpower you get from Music School."  You should not be charged, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

This one was really difficult to make.

Last Monday (20th) my Music Theory professor suddenly passed away in an accident.

I originally had something else planned for the end of August, but sort of as a way to help me cope with the loss, I wanted to make a video of what he ...

Patreon Q&A July 2018

Thanks for all the questions guys, this was a lot of fun!

Lemme know if you'd want to have me do something like this again.

And I'm only linking this video here, so it's just something special for you Patreons!

Watchmen's Perfect Musical Choice

Video.























Ok, but all jokes aside, this was a video that kind of hit me out of nowhere.
I was literally just going through my old movies and wanted to re-watch watchmen (I used to watch it religiously) and when I went to look up the music part of the Wikipedia page, I saw that there was some Glass in it.

One thing led to another, and I'm really happy with how this turned out, even though I'm still no...

Watchmen's Perfect Musical Choice

This is the early access post for "Watchmen's Perfect Musical Choice.  You should not be charged for this, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I feel like in the spirit of the video I should keep this short and sweet.

Or maybe I don't get it and I already spoiled the sentiment by writing in complete sentences.

I'm gonna be completely honest, I'm still not 100% sure I understand Minimalism in music, most of the time when people talk about it they talk about t...

July Purge and Patreon Q+A!

Hi all, I don't know about you but I've been having the shittiest month I've had in a LOOOOONG time.
And it's only the 8th!

So as a means of celebrating, I thought I'd help move the channel in the right direction with a small purge of some of the videos I've grown to dislike over time, and I think it's time to do that Patreon Q&A I keep mentioning.

So first, the videos that I'm unlisting from the public eye:

Why Soundtracks aren't Taken Seriously
2018-07-09 04:39:48 +0000 UTC View Post

Why I Love Fantasia

This was definitely one of the more difficult videos I've made.

I spent a LOT of time researching the general debate between absolute and program music and how it came to be.  Hopefully that aspect of the video made sense!

But I really wanted to talk about this idea mostly because I feel like people tend to look at soundtracks from an absolute perspective, which I totally get, but I feel kinda misses out on some of the struggles that makes a soundtrack's success that much more impr...

Why I Love Fantasia

This is the early access post for "Why I Love Fantasia."  You should not be charged for this post, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

So as I mentioned in another post, this video's been kicking my ass all month long.

There was a shocking amount of information that I needed, and frighteningly little of it on the internet.

For example, almost all of what went into this video in terms of Beethoven's legacy and Characteristic/Descriptive Music had to come from tex...

I'm really, really, actually, really sorry

So I know I'm not the best with deadlines, but that's kind of the nature of this business.
I've had weeks where I've watched dozens of hours of film and find nothing to talk about.

Unfortunately, I'm sort of in a perfect storm of excuses right now.
The first video I was planning on making sometime around the 15th completely fell through, right before I went off to Denver Comic Con to try and have a fun time (spoilers, it sucked, they didn't have a gaming section this year and the ga...

How the Music in Black Panther Tells a Story

In all honesty, this was easily one of the best scores I've heard Marvel put out.  It feels like they have a really serious chance to win an Oscar or a Grammy for this soundtrack.

But this was a really interesting video to make.
When I first went out to break this video down I looked at each individual motif that Göransson used in the film.

It wasn't until I listened to his interviews when I realized that he constructed the motifs as parts of an entire theme, which almost comple...

How the Music in Black Panther Tells a Story

This is the early access post for "How the Music in Black Panther Tells a Story."  You should not be charged for this post, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Well, we all knew this one was coming.

I can vividly remember walking out of the theater thinking "yep, that's gonna be a video."

But I'm not gonna lie, it still felt a little awkward making this video because Göransson had already talked so much about it online.

Nevertheless, I still feel like I ...

How to Write a Theme

So here's a weird one.

I kept hearing newer Film, TV, and Video Game themes that weren't really themes.  Like, the main idea to an intellectual property wasn't really a complete musical idea, and I'd argue that that makes a piece of music overall more forgettable for the general public.  (Or maybe that makes it easier to remember for people who don't want to pay attention!)

I also think that this plays a substantial role in contemporary scores, like the Marvel Cinematic Uni...

How to Write a Theme

This is the early access post for my "How to Write a Theme" video.  You should not be charged for this post, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I constantly see this debate online as to what makes or breaks a good theme.

And not once have I seen anyone actually talking about what makes a theme or not.

Granted you see this kinda thing all the time in the highbrow, hoity-toity forums, but I think it's time we finally start talking about how and why a melody ge...

Update: Transformers and Steven Universe

So YouTube, for whatever reason, has suddenly started going through my channel and claiming videos.

"Transformers: What Could Have Been" and "Instrumentation in Steven Universe" have both been claimed.

So, as a means of not being forced to involuntarily work for studios (for free!) I'm moving both of those video to unlisted, so you should still be able to see the videos with a direct link, but they won't show up on my channel.

I've done something like this in the past with my Wond...

Transformers: What Could Have Been

Believe it or not, I actually had this one planned for a really, really long time.

It's strange that with all of the chaos surrounding the franchise that they would still have the foresight to reuse so much of the musical material throughout the series.
Like, it really stuns me that the franchise with metal testicles and a robot peeing on a guy somehow managed to come together with a more coherent series of film scores for their franchise than EVERY MARVEL MOVIE EVER.

AND THEY'RE OWN...

Transformers: What Could Have Been

This is the early post for the video "Transformers: What Could Have Been."   You should not be charged for this post, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

MAN, these films are LONG.

Each one is about 2.5 hours long.

Meaning that to watch all 5 back-to-back is 12.5 hours.
And I had to watch them all twice to get the leitmotifs, then once more to collect the footage.

Literally just getting through all of these films was like having a real life, full ...

How to take your Performance to the Next Level

Here's one that's the result of a LOT of people asking me for my opinion on the best way for them to learn how to play an instrument.

I can't tell you how many times I've had someone message me with "hey, do you have any tips for teaching yourself X instrument"

And the alternative to this video would have been me talking about friends of mine who were hurt because they started to develop improper practice techniques without realizing it.

I know one girl who ended up losing mo...

How to take your Performance to the Next Level

This is the early access post for "How to take your Performance to the Next Level."  You should not be charged for this post, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me.

One of the most common questions I've gotten since I started doing this whole YouTube thing, surprisingly, has been "how do I teach myself X instrument."
Which has always made me nervous, because in most situations, teaching yourself an instrument will hold you back in one way or another.

Hopefully th...

Memorias de Coco

Been waiting for an opportunity to make a video like this for a loooooooooooong, long time.

I remember walking out of the theater after seeing this film, turning to my girlfriend and saying "well, that's a video."

The interesting thing about neurologic music therapy is that it either works, or it doesn't.

When you hear the phrase "music therapy" a lot of people tend to think of a hippie type singing 'kumbaya' while someone aligns your chakras or something.

But when NM...

Memorias de Coco

This is the early access post for the video "Memorias de Coco."  You should not be charged for this video, if you are, please do not hesitate to contact me so we can remedy the situation.

This one was a LOT of work.

As it turns out, neuroscience is a really complicated field.

It gets even more difficult when you realize that most of the articles are damn near impossible if you aren't affiliated with some sort of scholastic institution...soooo yeah, this was a lot of long night...

The Clock Diagram

I wanted to make this video for a while, but I couldn't come up with a good time or reason to make it until now.

In looking up some topics for some other videos, I found out that Paul Metz, the guy who put this technique together, and my old music theory professor, had just retired.

So I figured that there wouldn't ever be a better time to make a video about his work.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.

It's a little dense, I know, but the whole point of a clock di...