David Bennett

YouTube Channel Review

Why do certain songs make us feel certain ways? David Bennett may be able to tell you.

On his eponymous YouTube channel, David Bennett hopes to interest viewers in music and music theory. He’ll talk about a variety of musical topics and provide examples for each to help solidify the idea in the listener’s mind.

After all, even your favorite modern music artists use music theory (even if they aren’t composing songs with it in mind). So don’t be surprised when you see Bennett use them to help explain his point.

Note: David Bennett was requested by a reader of Plugged In. Do you have a YouTube channel you’d like us to review? Submit your request by sending it to letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram so we can check it out!

POSITIVE CONTENT

Bennett offers helpful explanations on a variety of complex musical topics. Even those who are approaching music theory with little previous experience will be able to learn something.

Part of why viewers can understand Bennett’s explanations is because he provides examples from both older and modern songs across genres. Bennett also pulls the sheet music up, allowing the viewer to follow the song as it plays.

And Bennett makes learning music theory fun. For instance, he’ll help the viewer understand just what makes songs like The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” sound so, well, sunny. He sometimes showcases how songs would feel different had they switched a chord or a rhythm. And he even offers videos that assist in training the viewer’s ear to identify various chords or intervals.

CONTENT CONCERNS

The only content concern we heard was in Bennett’s video on rewriting Radiohead’s “Creep” as if it were written by The Beatles—and the song’s f-word and “h—” are heard. In another video, Bennett asks, “What the F is negative harmony?”

CHANNEL SUMMARY

You could learn about music theory in plenty of ways—and David Bennett’s YouTube channel might be one of the more enjoyable methods. There’s a lot of educational material here, and Bennett does a good job of connecting it to artists that many people will actually care about. However, it’s important to note that when an example song uses crude language, it’s not always removed. But while that discordant note is certainly there, the channel is overall educational and has few content concerns.