How to watch Adam Neely, Rick Beato, etc

Cafe Society
1

I love watching videos by these two musicians. They are so passionate and so well informed. At least they appear to be well informed. My Dunning-Kruger gets in the way of fully enjoying these videos - I have no idea what they’re saying 80% of the time. An example of each (the quotes are within the early minutes of each video, so no need to watch the whole thing to see what I’m saying):

Rick Beato: Why Sting is UNCOPYABLE
Beato breaks down Sting’s “If I Built a Fortress”

Okay, so this riff here is over a bass line (playing along): G Dorian. Listen… First of all, that’s an incredibly cool riff: Dsus4, C5 - okay, C5 power cord - and then to a Bbmaj9-no 3rd. But this is all over a G bass note, so these notes are all from G Dorian.

Adam Neely: Q+A #48
Neely is asked about the function of one chord in Steve Wonder’s “Sir Duke”. He says there are three theoretical approaches to the chord.

The first way of looking at this is this Fm7 is the related II chord to the III in the key of B, which in this case would be D#m. So this chord right here (plays Fm7 on the piano) is related to a key that’s being tonicized. You see, in functional harmony what happens very often is you get these kinds of keys within keys."

Yes there’s jargon which, as in any complex specialized field, is shorthand language for people in the know to more quickly communicate with each other. As a software developer I get that.

What I don’t get is the presentation of chords, keys, modes as if that by itself means something. I know it does - I’m not saying it doesn’t. I just don’t get it.

It seems from my untrained perspective as meaningful as saying, “Hear that note? It’s at 440Hz. Amazing, amiright?”

Or put another way: These types of breakdowns/analyses are as meaningful to my ignorant understanding as an art critic saying, “And here the artist used blue, but look, over here she used red. Genius, amiright?” I see the blue. I see the red. If I plink at a keyboard long enough I could figure out that Sting used Dsus4 then C5, etc. After hearing Rick and Adam describe a chord or a chord progression I’m left with, “Yeah, so…?”

Is there a way for a mere mortal to understand what these videos are trying to convey? Or do I have to study for years at Julliard to get it?

2

I often find Beato to be difficult to watch because his thoughts are often not presented on a logical order and he piles on information without giving you the overall structure or context until the end. He could use some lessons on how to present information.

3

You don’t have to study for years but it is helpful to know what modes and scales are.

I am not very good at explaining those things, however, despite over 40 years of making noise with various musical instruments.

It basically has to do with the patterns of whole step and half step intervals between notes.

ETA: Yeah, Beato is a good producer and knows a lot of stuff but he’s not always good at explaining and he has a tendency to personalize. Adam Neely, being a trained musician, transcriptionist and composer, is much better at teaching music theory.

4

Rick Beato’s video titles are click-baity, and his explorations into what makes songs “great” or “uncopyable” rarely goes beyond “hey, I learned this song, watch me play it while I tell you the chords and scales.”

With him, you’re not missing anything; he rarely delivers theory or analysis of substance.

Adam Neely, while sometimes he goes a bit too deep into the academics of music theory for most musicians, does a great job of explaining. The bit you quoted would be clear to anyone who successfully completed a semester or two of music theory in college, and to plenty of other musicians who haven’t.

With Neely, it does help if you have a basic understanding of jazz theory and forms.

5

It’s weird I find that disappointing. Yet I still enjoy watching his videos. At least now I know my % understanding is higher than I thought.

Adam Neely, while sometimes he goes a bit too deep into the academics of music theory for most musicians, does a great job of explaining.

I had the sense I was unfairly lumping the two. Though I have a similar experience with each, letting the litany of chord names wash over me ungrokked, I did get the sense there was something deeper with Neely.

Are there other youtubers who similarly try to explain music - perhaps targetting newbies like me?

6

I’ve never heard of Adam Neely and the only Rick Beato videos I watch are What Makes This Song Great. Some of them get way too technical for me (as someone who knows next to nothing about the technicalities of music), but it’s still fun to listen to him pull the song apart a play the individual tracks. Demonstrating how some part of the song, buried deep in the background makes all the difference in the overall sound.

His other videos are a bit to ranty for me. I really don’t need another half hour live stream of him complaining about youtube or apple or The Beatles. One was more than informative.

Actually, there is one other type of video of his that I like his “best” videos. That is, 10 best bass lines or 20 best guitar riffs or 8 best keyboard intros. They can be kinda predictable but they’re good for just turning your brain off and listening to some music.

7

You might be right with the “What makes this song great?” series. That’s mostly him being a music nerd about certain songs and explaining why he thinks they’re great. Those videos use his music theory chops, but don’t explain them well.

However, if you watch the rest of his channel, it will become clear that “he rarely delivers theory or analysis” is an absurd claim. He was a college professor of music for many years, and wrote an entire book about music theory, and has plenty of theory and analysis content on his channel that is explained clearly in an educational way.

8

I don’t spend a ton of time scouring youtube for good channels, but a few that I enjoy are:

Andrew Huang - He’s a producer/composer, and a lot of his videos are about production and sound design techniques (and gear reviews), but he also has some content specifically focused on music theory. And, whether it’s theory, songwriting, or sound design, he does a really stellar job of making it all accessible and interesting and worthwhile-feeling to someone (like me) who is interested in those aspects of music but doesn’t have extensive experience.

Nahre Sol - A classical pianist. Her material is really pianist-focused, but I’ve linked to her “genre” playlist, in which she approaches genres she’s not familiar with, tries to make sense of them, and then performs in that style. Not always spot-on, but interesting for sure. And the rest of her content is good too, but maybe a little niche, depending on your interests.

12tone - A fun theory-centered channel where the guy doodles while explaining theory/music concepts. He moves quickly and clearly . . . not a lot of wasted time or words. This one is the most like “youtube version of a good textbook” of all of these. If what you like most about Beato and Neely is their sense of personality and passion, this one may not be your cup of tea.

9

Yes, he’s a pro musician, has decades of experience, and used to be a professor. Either his classroom teaching was much better than his youtube channel, or he was a bad teacher.

To pick a few videos at random:

Here’s one called “How To Write and Orchestrate for Strings - Score Study”. I get that this is a “score study” and so maybe not specifically instructional, but 10 minutes to say “Strauss arpeggiates a Dm chord over a string section in this measure. Also, some instruments hold longer notes while others play shorter notes.”

Ah, let’s learn about Music Composition - Counterpoint & Combining Multiple Techniques. There is nothing in this video at all about composing counterpoint. But, he does tell you the modes and chords he used to write the piece (which, apparently, he already talked about in a different video).

Techniques of Orchestration Part 1 | How To Orchestrate a Chord. Or, alternately titled, “let me just tell you what instruments played what notes in the opening chord of the Star Wars theme. Also, don’t double the third. Also, Bb major sounds good. And, some instruments don’t sound the notes that are written. Now you’re ready to orchestrate a chord!”

His “instructional” technique, which he also applies to his “why is this great” videos, is simply to identify notes, rhythms, and scales, and end there, with no explanation or actual dive into the theory or concepts. How do you write counterpoint? I used locrian scale! Why is Sting uncopyable? G dorian and Eb mixolydian! How do you arrange for strings? Here’s a chord that has instruments playing only in the ranges they’re capable of reproducing.

I’m sure he has some stronger videos (here’s one on chromatic mediants, for example), and maybe I just happened on some clunkers, it seems to me that most of the time he has very little to say about things he spends a ton of time talking about.

If someone like the OP observes:

. . . I’d say they’re spot on about the problem with most of Beato’s videos. He most often stops at a surface level analysis (of sometimes admittedly complex chords/scales), and then consistently fails to explain why they’re important, or to contextualize them.

10

He’s actually more popularly accessible than Neely, but Neely delivers a far more balanced and thought-out analysis. That said, Beato actually has made me notice subtleties in the music in his “What Makes This Song Great” series, but much of that is mostly surface-level stuff. Still, I do enjoy listening to broken down tracks. His work outside of the WMTSG series is somewhat interesting in a music geek sort of way (and is what got me into him to begin with; I’ve followed him well before WMTSG came out.) But, yeah, the things about him that annoy me is a bit of the “look at me play!” stuff and the bit of an oldster attitude he has about pop music. He gets a bit cranky. And, while he seems to know his theory, sometimes I don’t agree with his analyses.

Adam is far more accepting of a wide range of styles, non-judgmental (for the most part), and really can get into the geekery while still being accessible. And he’s way more into the weeds of music theory than Beato is. I view Rick more as “entertainment” and Adam more as “education.”

11

Rhett Shull interned in Beato’s studio a few years ago.

Rhett posted a series of behind the scenes, on tour videos. He plays in a couple bands. It’s very interesting to see the highs and lows of touring. He shows the drudgery of loading up a uhaul trailer with the instruments & Amps, traveling by car, and then dragging all that gear into the venue. The highs in the green room after a successful set are fun.

Touring isn’t for everyone. Especially the opening acts. They travel 10 hours by car just to play 10 to 15 mins. It’s better when the band tours on their own. They play to smaller crowds for over an hour.

12

Some of Beato’s What Makes it great are actually very interesting. I agree some are much too technical and I lose interest.

The Gordon Lightfoot WMTSG is very relatable. Beato explains his older brother challenged him to listen carefully for subtle things. It started Beato’s journey into studying music.

None of this stuff is very complicated.
(Beato explains)
Gordon’s guitar is heard in the Left speaker
The 2nd guitar is in the right and it’s playing fills.
He points out when the Bass comes in.
The fills come in the spaces where the singer pauses. You can’t help but hear them after their pointed out.

Beato does cover the chord progression. That’s the building blocks of any song. Non-musicians can just ignore that stuff if it doesn’t interest them.

All of these small details are what makes a successful song popular. It’s like baking a cake. You have to include everything in the right amounts. Too much salt and it’ll taste bad.

13

It sounds simple, but just pause when you hear something you aren’t clear about, and read on it… Also, scroll to the bottom of the YouTube links, hit CTRL-F and type out a word or phrase. Chances are someone else is explaining them more in-depth.

14

Beato’s listing of the music theory elements is a bit opaque, especially if you don’t know any such theory. In another thread, I posted:

And that is where the value is, not as much in the theory. And I say that having taken a series of music theory classes at school!

But breaking out the various tracks so you can hear the layered vocals, or how the ‘click track’ wasn’t really a click track, or the micro-fills, etc., is great. He has insider information on the songs from people who were there. He’ll point out melodic references to earlier songs…

I really like his What Makes This Song Great? series, although I admit that I only listen to the ones where I already know the song in question.

15

I’m a big fan of both channels. As a recreational guitar player a whole lot of the music theory stuff goes over my head, but I certainly enjoy the music appreciation bits that both Beato and Neely do. I think I get more from when they cover the songs I’m not already into than old favourites to be honest. I never would have guessed I’d be rivetted by half an hour on the Girl from Ipanema for instance.

I tend to skip the livestreams and Q+A videos though.

16

I don’t find that too bad. He focuses on stuff in his wheelhouse, but he seem reasonably open-minded about stuff that isn’t. I haven’t noticed him crapping much on other genres.

One guy I like, even though much of the music theory goes flying over my head, is Howard Ho. He deconstructs Hamilton. It all sounds very smart to me, but that may be because I’m only understanding about half of it: