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Music Theory
Everything you need to read and understand the music you love. From the basics of the score to scales and chords.
Chapter 1
The Basics
How to read a score. The staff, the notes, note values and accidentals, the symbols you need to get started.
01 · The staff and the clefs
How notes are read on the staff, and what the clefs do.
02 · The notes in the treble clef
The 5 lines, the 4 spaces, and two mnemonics to remember the notes easily.
03 · Tones, semitones and accidentals
Tone, semitone, the sharp, flat and natural signs, and how they act on notes.
04 · Note values
Whole, half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth notes, and rhythm syllables.
05 · Rests
Silence in music has its own symbols too, one for every note value.
06 · Dotted notes and ties
How we lengthen a note's duration.
Chapter 2
Meter
How time is organised in music. The simple meters, and the mixed 7/8 and 9/8 of Greek popular music.
01 · Time signatures
The fraction at the start of every piece. The most common meters, 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4, and the strong beat.
02 · Simple and compound meters
How each beat subdivides. Simple (2/4, 3/4, 4/4) and compound (6/8, 9/8) meters.
03 · Mixed meters
The asymmetric meters, a combination of simple and compound.
Chapter 3
Intervals
The distance between two notes is the alphabet of scales and chords.
01 · What intervals are
How we measure the distance between two notes.
02 · Interval qualities
Perfect, major, minor, augmented, diminished.
03 · Interval inversion
How an interval flips into its complement, with the rule of 9.
04 · Finding an interval
Step by step: identifying and writing intervals.
Chapter 4
Western scales
Major and minor scales, their degrees, and the key signature that shows the key.
01 · The major scale
The best-known scale of all, and what makes it "major".
02 · The minor scales
Natural, harmonic, melodic. Three variants with different characters.
03 · Scale degrees
Every degree has a name and a role.
04 · Key signatures
Sharps and flats at the start of the piece, and how they show the key.
05 · Modes of the major scale
The same scale from another degree: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian.
06 · Modes of the minor scales
The six that get used, and which ones are hijaz and nikriz under another name.
07 · Other scales
Pentatonics, blues, whole tone, chromatic: scales with fewer or more than seven notes.
Chapter 5
Chords
What a chord is, how it is built, and which chords belong naturally to a scale.
01 · Introduction to chords
Triads: major, minor, augmented, diminished.
02 · Inversions
How a chord changes when the root is not the lowest note.
03 · Seventh chords
Five types, with one extra note that changes the colour.
04 · Diatonic chords
Which chords belong naturally to a scale.
05 · Cadences
How a phrase ends: perfect, plagal, half and deceptive cadences.
Keep learning with your teacher
Bring what you have been practicing to your next lesson. We can work on the sound, technique and musical questions together.
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