Learn Music Theory

If you came to this website then you probably want to learn something about music theory. You may be an absolute beginner or you may already know a lot of music theory already and want to learn some more advanced topics. In either case understand that learning music theory is one of the more beneficial things a musician can do and I hope you will continue the process.

Why study music theory?

Contrary to what some people may say learning music theory does not reduce your ability to enjoy music. In fact you may enjoy music even more after you learn some theory because the more you know about how music works the more you will be able to do as a musician.

There are many reasons to study music theory but the top reasons are:

1. You will be a better performer. - If you don't know much music theory and you are playing some music and you encounter a passage that has the notes C, E, and G, you would have to mentally process those three notes separately, and this will slow down your ability to perform. If a musician who knows music theory plays the same passage they would instantly recognize that the notes C, E, and G make up a C Major chord and they would play those notes more easily because it took less mental effort to understand the music. Music theory makes learning, practicing and performing much easier.


2. You will have more options as a musician. - All musical activities will be much easier. Performing, composing, improvising, arranging, teaching music, or getting a music degree will be much easier if you know music theory.

How to study music theory

• The first thing musicians should learn about music theory is notation: the staff, clefs, note names, rhythms, rests, intervals, meter and time signatures, key signatures, and dynamics.
• The next things musicians should learn are scales and chords (harmony).
• The next things to learn are melody, phrases, and musical forms.
• If you have you learned all of the above then you will have a firm grasp of music theory.

Polychords

Polychords are chords constructed from two or more separate chords. Composers and improvisers use polychords as a resource for rich and complex sounds in their music. Polychords frequently occur in jazz and modern classical music.

Examples of Polychords:

C Major/E-flat Major:

D Major/B-flat minor:

C Augmented/G7 Augmented:

C Major/F-sharp Major Polychord - "Petrushka Chord":This chord was used by composer Igor Stravinsky in his ballet Petrushka.

Polychord Video:

Basic Piano Chords

The chords every piano and keyboard player should know are the basic Major, minor, Augmented, and diminished chords, and seventh chords. These are the most common chords and are relatively easy to play.

These chords are shown with the root note C. Other root notes are possible by transposing these chords. For example, a C Major chord (C, E, G) can be transposed to D. This will result in a D Major chord (D, F-sharp, A).

These chords are constructed from musical intervals. Each chord has:

1. A Root note
2. A note a Major third (M3) or minor third (m3) above the Root
3. A note a Perfect fifth (P5), Augmented fifth (A5), or diminished fifth above the Root

• And seventh chords also have a note a Major seventh (M7), minor seventh (m7), or diminished seventh (d7) above the Root.

The basic chords:

• Major - Root, M3, P5
• minor - Root, m3, P5
• Augmented (Aug) - Root, M3, A5
• diminished (dim) - Root, m3, d5

The seventh chords:

• 7 - Root, M3, P5, m7
• M7 - Root, M3, P5, M7
• m7 - Root, m3, P5, m7
• dim7 - Root, m3, d5, d7
• half dim7 - Root, m3, d5, m7

Example:

If we choose a Major chord for example we begin by picking a Root note. We could pick any of the 12 notes but in this case we will choose G. The next note we need is a Major third (M3) above the Root, which in this case would be the note B. The final note we need is a Perfect fifth above the root, which in this case would be the note D. Now we have all three notes of our Major chord: G, B, and D.

For reference here is a diagram of the keyboard with the note names on it:

Now that you know these chords you might want to learn about chord inversion, chord symbols, or extended chords.

Basic Guitar Chords

The easiest chords to play on the guitar are the Major, Minor and Seventh chords in open voicings. These chords use open strings and no more than three fingers, and they don't go into the higher positions of the guitar. The ease in playing these chords makes them the best for beginners to learn. This article will show them in two different ways: fretboard diagrams, and tablature (Tab).

A quick review of chord symbols: Uppercase letters indicate Major chords, a chord with a lowercase "m" indicates a minor chord, and a "7" indicates that the chord is a seventh chord.

Fretboard Diagrams

• Open circles indicate open strings.
• Dark, filled in circles indicate the spots on the frets where you put your fingers.
• The "X" symbol tells you to not play a string.
  

Tablature

Music Theory: Transposition

In music, Transposition occurs when we take a group of notes and move that group up or down by a certain interval. For example, if we take a C Major chord (the notes C, E, and G) and transpose them up by a Major second we then have a D Major chord (the, notes D, F-sharp, and A).


The step by step process by which we transposed a C Major chord up by a Major second to become a D Major chord is as follows:

1. C Major chord: notes C, E, and G


2. Move the first note of the C Major chord, C, up by a Major second. We now have the note D.


3. Move the second note of the C Major chord, E, up by a Major second. We now have the note F-sharp.


4. Move the third note of the C Major chord, G, up by a Major second. We now have the note A.


5. The results of transposing C, E, and G up by a Major second becomes: D, F-sharp, and A, which is a D Major chord

As you can see all you need to do to transpose something is move each individual note in the group of notes by the same musical interval. With this method transposing becomes a simple process and we can then transpose any any note, chord, or scale.

Transposition Exercises - Try transposing each of the following:

• Transpose the note E-flat down by a Major Second.
• Transpose a D7 chord (D, F-sharp, A, C) up by a minor third.
• Transpose a C Major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C) up by a Perfect fifth.

A Few Words About Transposing Instruments:

Transposing instruments are instruments that automatically transpose when playing - the actual pitches they play are different from what is written in the music. For example, the B-flat Trumpet transposes down by a Major second. For a B-flat Trumpet, the written note C would actually come out as B-flat, because it is a transposing instrument.

All 12 Major Scales

(You may want to read the articles about Scales, the Major Scale, or Key Signatures first.)

There are 12 different Major Scales: One with no sharps or flats, 4 with sharps, 4 with flats, and 3 with either sharps or flats depending upon enharmonic spelling.

Major Scales with no sharps or flats: C Major

Major Scales with sharps: D, E, G, A

Major Scales with flats: E-flat, F, A-flat, B-flat

Enharmonic Major Scales: C-sharp/D-flat, F-sharp/G-flat, B-natural/C-flat

Learn about other Scales.

A Video About Chords

(You may want to review intervals, chord symbols and chord roots before reading this page or watching the video.)

The video demonstrates some of the most common chords: Major, minor, Augmented, diminished, and various seventh chords.

Major -------- root - M3 - P5
minor -------- root - m3 - P5
diminished - root - m3 - d5
Augmented - root - M3 - A5
Maj7 ---------- root - M3 - P5 - M7
7 ---------------- root - M3 - p5 - m7
min7 ---------- root - m3 - P5 - m7
dim7 ---------- root - m3 - d5 - d7

Learn more about chords.

Learn about extended chords.

Learn about chord inversion.

Quartal and Quintal Chords

Most chords are constructed from major or minor thirds. Quartal chords are chords that are constructed from fourths. Quintal chords are constructed from fifths.

Quartal Chords:

Quintal Chords:

Quartal and Quintal chords have a suspended un-anchored sound to them that differs form regular chords. This quality makes Quartal and Quintal chords very useful in a composer's chord vocabulary.

The French composer Claude Debussy was one of the first composers to use Quartal and Quintal chords regularly. Quartal and Quintal chords are now common in jazz, rock music and TV and film music. Quartal chords are also easy to play on the guitar due to the fact that the standard guitar tuning is mostly fourths.

Quartal chord on Guitar:

More information about Chords

Musical Form

If we label our musical materials, ideas, or sections with the letters of the alphabet we can show how musical forms are created.

Any single section of music, consisting of phrases or other musical sections, we can call A. This musical section can be repeated to create an AA form.

If we instead chose to add a new section, B, we would have the musical form AB. This would be two contrasting musical sections.

If we chose to add another A to an AB form, but this time with variation we would have the form ABA'. (The ' is used to indicate variation).

With the processes of repetition, contrast and variation there can be many musical forms.

Common Musical Forms:

• Strophic - AAA, etc.
• Binary - AB
• Ternary - ABA
• Rondo - ABACA, or ABACADA
• Arch - ABCBA
• Sonata Form - Exposition: (Theme Group 1 - Theme Group 2) --- Development --- Recapitulation: (Theme Group 1 - Theme Group 2)
• Sonata Rondo - ABA - C - ABA

Melody

Melody is the horizontal line of pitch and rhythm. Melody stands out in the foreground of music whereas harmony and accompaniment are usually background elements.

Examples of Melody:

Musical Dynamics

Musical Dynamics indicate the loudness of music. We use the Italian terms piano and forte to indicate soft and loud. They are usually abbreviated p and f.

We can also add the word mezzo (m) to p and f to create mp (mezzo-piano) and mf (mezzo-forte). Mezzo-piano (mp) is moderately soft and mezzo-forte (mf) is moderately loud.

More than one p or f indicates a softer or louder dynamic, such as pp or fff.

List of Dynamics:

• fff ---- louder than ff
• ff ----- fortissimo ------ louder than f
• f ------ forte -------------- loudly
• mf --- mezzo-forte ------ moderately loud
• mp -- mezzo-piano ----- moderately soft
• p ----- piano -------------- softly
• pp --- pianissimo ------ softer than p
• ppp - softer than pp

Roman Numeral Chord Notation

The chords of the Major and Minor scales can be indicated by roman numerals.

Major chord: I, II, III, etc.

Minor chord: i, ii, iii, etc.

Augmented chord: I+, II+, III+, etc.

Diminished chord: vi°, vii°, etc.

Half-diminished chord: vii^Ø7, etc.

Extended chords: ii7, V9, V13, etc.

Altered tones or chords: #iv, ii#7

Chords of the Major Scale:

Chords of the Natural minor scale:

Chords of the Harmonic minor scale:

Chords of the Melodic minor scale (ascending):

Other examples:

Chord Roots and Chord Inversion

Chord Roots:

The Root of any chord will be the note which corresponds to the letter name of the chord. For example, the root of a C-Major chord is C. If a chord is in root position, the root will always be the lowest note in that chord. The following chord is a C-Major chord in root position, containing the notes C, E, and G:

Chord Inversion:

If the root of a chord is not in the bass (the lowest note in a chord voicing) then that chord is said to be an Inverted Chord. For example, starting form lowest to highest, if you have the notes E, G and C, you have an inverted C Major chord. It is inverted because the C, the root of the chord, is not in the bass. It does not matter what in order the notes are arranged, as long as the chord has the same notes as the root position chord. For example, in the following chord we have the notes E, G, and C:

This is an inversion of the C-Major chord. It is still a C-Major chord, but just with the notes rearranged. Any chord with the notes C, E, and G is a C-Major chord, no matter what order the notes are arranged, because they all contain the same three notes. The following example shows a C-Major chord in root position and inversions:

If the root of the chord is in the bass then the chord is in root position. If the third of a chord is in the bass then the chord is in first inversion. If the fifth of the chord is in the bass then the chord is in second inversion.

The following example shows differently spaced chords in root position or inversion. It only matters what the lowest note is to make it in root position or an inversion. The chord voicing (arrangement or spacing of the notes) does not matter:

This principle of inversion applies to all chords, and also to chords with sevenths or other extended chords. The more notes a chord contains, the more inversions are possible. For example, seventh chords can have also have a third inversion, and ninth chords can have also have a third and fourth inversion.

Other Examples of Inverted Chords:

Chord Symbols

There are various Chord Symbols that can be combined to indicate many different types of chords.

Basic Chord Symbols:

• Letter Name (e.g., C) = Major chord
• m = minor chord
• + = Augmented chord
• o = diminished chord

Seventh Chords:

• 7 = minor seventh
• M7 = Major seventh
• Ø = half-diminished chord
• o7 = diminished seventh chord

Extended Chords:

• 9 = Ninth chord
• 11 = Eleventh chord
• 13 = Thirteenth chord

Altered Tones:

• b5 = flat fifth
• #5 = sharp fifth
• b9 = flat ninth
• #9 = sharp ninth
• #11 = sharp eleventh
• b13 = flat thirteenth

Examples:

• CM7 = a C Major chord with a Major seventh.
  
• Dm(M7) = a D minor chord with a Major seventh.


• Fm9 = an F minor chord with a minor seventh, and a ninth.


• C7#9 = a C Major chord with a minor seventh, and a sharp ninth.

Extended Chords

Extended Chords are chords extended past seventh chords.

If we stack a third upon any seventh chord we now have a Ninth Chord. If we stack a third upon any ninth chord we now have an Eleventh Chord. Finally, if we stack a third upon any eleventh chord we now have a Thirteenth Chord.

Examples of Extended Chords:

Learn about Basic Chords and Seventh Chords

Learn about Chord Symbols