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                    "description": "The diatonic chords of a key are the triads built on each scale degree, using only the notes of that key’s scale. In C major they are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and B°. The natural minor scale gives a…",
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                    "kind": "article",
                    "title": "Natural, Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales Compared",
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                    "title": "Chord Symbols Explained: Major, Minor, Seventh and Slash Chords",
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                    "score": 34
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                    "kind": "article",
                    "title": "The ii V I Progression in Major, Minor and Jazz Styles",
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                    "description": "One progression underlies more music than any other. The ii V I carries the full logic of tonal motion, predominant to dominant to tonic, in three chords, and it appears in Baroque arias, Mozart…",
                    "score": 33
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                    "kind": "article",
                    "title": "Reading Intervals at Sight: Generic and Specific",
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                    "description": "An interval is described by two properties at once, and readers who collapse them into one get stuck. The first is the generic interval: how many staff positions the notes span, counted inclusively…",
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                    "title": "Borrowed Chords: Modal Mixture in Practice",
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                    "description": "An F minor triad in C major requires an A flat, which the key signature does not give. Unlike a secondary dominant, the chord is not pointing at another key: F minor is the subdominant of C minor…",
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                    "kind": "article",
                    "title": "Church Modes From Dorian to Locrian: A Practical Guide",
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                    "description": "Major and minor feel like the only options until a melody settles somewhere stranger. The church modes name those other settlements: six diatonic rotations, each with its own final, its own color…",
                    "score": 31
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                {
                    "kind": "article",
                    "title": "Tritone Substitution: The subV7 Chord That Still Resolves",
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                    "description": "Every dominant seventh chord has a twin a tritone away that shares its restless tritone and resolves to the same tonic. Tritone substitution swaps one twin for the other, trading a leaping bass for a…",
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                    "kind": "article",
                    "title": "Modulation: How a Key Change Is Confirmed",
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                    "description": "A piece that ends in G major and began in C major has modulated. The change of key is not a single event on one beat but a process spread over several, and the process has a rule: a key exists when…",
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                    "kind": "article",
                    "title": "Secondary Dominants and How Tonicization Works",
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                    "description": "In C major, a D major triad contains an F sharp. The key signature does not supply it and the chord is not an error. For as long as it sounds, the music treats G as a temporary tonic, and the D major…",
                    "score": 31
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                    "kind": "article",
                    "title": "Pentatonic and Blues Scales: Patterns With a Purpose",
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                    "description": "Five notes should not be enough for a melody, yet some of the most sung tunes in the world use only five. The pentatonic scales explain why: remove the two most restless degrees from a seven-note…",
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                    "title": "Meantone and Well Temperament: Why Keys Used to Sound Different",
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                    "description": "A modern keyboard hides its compromise. Every key is equally in tune, which also means every key is equally out of tune, and a major third in C major is exactly the same size as a major third in F…",
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                    "kind": "article",
                    "title": "Equal Temperament: What It Costs and What It Buys",
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                    "title": "How to Transcribe Music by Ear: A Step-by-Step Procedure",
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                    "score": 14
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                    "title": "Roman Numeral Analysis: How to Label a Chord Progression",
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                    "description": "Roman numeral analysis labels each chord by the scale degree of its root, and the case of the numeral shows whether the chord is major or minor. In C major, the progression C, Am, F, G is I, vi, IV…",
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            "title": "The Major Scale Formula: Whole and Half Steps Explained",
            "dek": "The major scale is seven notes spaced whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. Here is the formula, four scales built from it, and the sharps and flats it forces.",
            "topic": "fundamentals",
            "topic_name": "Fundamentals",
            "tags": [
                "major scale",
                "scale",
                "intervals",
                "key signature"
            ],
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            "title": "Capo and Transposition: How a Capo Changes the Key",
            "dek": "A capo raises every open string by one semitone per fret, so a G shape played at fret 2 sounds in A. This shows how to find the sounding key and how to choose a capo position.",
            "topic": "guitar",
            "topic_name": "Guitar & Fretboard",
            "tags": [
                "capo",
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            "excerpt": "A capo is a clamp across the neck that acts as a movable nut. Placed at fret n, it raises every string by n semitones, so the shape you finger sounds n semitones higher than its name. A G-shape chord with the capo at fret 2 sounds in A. To find the sounding…",
            "score": 41,
            "partial": false,
            "snippet": "…movable nut. Placed at fret n, it raises every string by n semitones, so the shape you finger sounds n semitones higher than its name. A G-shape chord with the capo at fret 2 sounds in A. To find the sounding……"
        },
        {
            "slug": "cadences-and-phrase-endings",
            "title": "Cadences: How Phrases End in Tonal Music",
            "dek": "Authentic, half, plagal and deceptive cadences, and the real reason a close sounds strong: what happens in the bass, the top voice and the metre.",
            "topic": "harmony",
            "topic_name": "Harmony",
            "tags": [
                "cadence",
                "phrase structure",
                "tonality"
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            "level": "intro",
            "date": "2026-09-25",
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            "excerpt": "Music has punctuation, and it is made of harmony. A phrase ends when the harmony, the bass, the metre and the melody all agree that something has finished. That agreement is a cadence, and its strength is not a matter of taste: it comes from four or five…",
            "score": 40,
            "partial": false,
            "snippet": "Music has punctuation, and it is made of harmony. A phrase ends when the harmony, the bass, the metre and the melody all agree that something has finished. That agreement is a cadence, and its…"
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            "dek": "Diatonic chords are the triads built on each scale degree from the key's own notes. Here are their qualities in major and minor, worked out in C and A.",
            "topic": "harmony",
            "topic_name": "Harmony",
            "tags": [
                "diatonic harmony",
                "triads",
                "scale degrees"
            ],
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            "excerpt": "The diatonic chords of a key are the triads built on each scale degree, using only the notes of that key’s scale. In C major they are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and B°. The natural minor scale gives a different set, Am, B°, C, Dm, Em, F and G, and the harmonic minor…",
            "score": 39,
            "partial": false,
            "snippet": "The diatonic chords of a key are the triads built on each scale degree, using only the notes of that key’s scale. In C major they are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and B°. The natural minor scale gives a…"
        },
        {
            "slug": "what-are-cents",
            "title": "What Are Cents? The Unit That Measures Small Pitch Differences",
            "dek": "A cent is one hundredth of an equal-tempered semitone. Here is the formula, what the common intervals measure in cents, and what a tuner is showing you.",
            "topic": "tuning",
            "topic_name": "Tuning & Temperament",
            "tags": [
                "cents",
                "tuning",
                "pitch measurement"
            ],
            "level": "intro",
            "date": "2026-10-11",
            "updated": "2026-10-11",
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            "excerpt": "A cent is one hundredth of an equal-tempered semitone, so an octave contains 1200 cents and a semitone contains 100. The unit is logarithmic: the number of cents between two pitches depends only on their frequency ratio, not on how many hertz separate them…",
            "score": 39,
            "partial": false,
            "snippet": "A cent is one hundredth of an equal-tempered semitone, so an octave contains 1200 cents and a semitone contains 100. The unit is logarithmic: the number of cents between two pitches depends only on their frequency ratio,…"
        },
        {
            "slug": "scale-degrees-and-solfege",
            "title": "Scale Degrees Explained: Numbers, Names and Solfège",
            "dek": "Scale degrees number each note of a scale from its tonic, and solfège names the same positions do, re, mi. Degree names, movable and fixed do, and why degrees travel between keys.",
            "topic": "fundamentals",
            "topic_name": "Fundamentals",
            "tags": [
                "scale degree",
                "solfege",
                "tonic",
                "ear training"
            ],
            "level": "intro",
            "date": "2026-10-11",
            "updated": null,
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            "json_url": "https://musics.name/api/article.json?slug=scale-degrees-and-solfege",
            "excerpt": "A scale degree is a note’s position counted up from the tonic. The tonic is degree 1, the note the key is named for, and the fifth note of the major scale is degree 5, the dominant, whatever key you are in. Solfège attaches syllables to those positions…",
            "score": 35,
            "partial": false,
            "snippet": "A scale degree is a note’s position counted up from the tonic. The tonic is degree 1, the note the key is named for, and the fifth note of the major scale is degree 5, the dominant, whatever key you…"
        },
        {
            "slug": "natural-harmonic-melodic-minor",
            "title": "Natural, Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales Compared",
            "dek": "Three minor scales, three different jobs. What each form changes, why composers switch between them, and how to hear the difference.",
            "topic": "fundamentals",
            "topic_name": "Fundamentals",
            "tags": [
                "minor scales",
                "melody",
                "tonality"
            ],
            "level": "intro",
            "date": "2026-10-04",
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            "json_url": "https://musics.name/api/article.json?slug=natural-harmonic-melodic-minor",
            "excerpt": "Major has one scale and minor has three, which strikes beginners as unfair. The minor mode is better understood as a single flexible system where the sixth and seventh degrees move up or down depending on what the music needs. The three named forms are…",
            "score": 35,
            "partial": false,
            "snippet": "Major has one scale and minor has three, which strikes beginners as unfair. The minor mode is better understood as a single flexible system where the sixth and seventh degrees move up or down…"
        },
        {
            "slug": "chord-symbols-explained",
            "title": "Chord Symbols Explained: Major, Minor, Seventh and Slash Chords",
            "dek": "A chord symbol names the root, the quality, the extra notes and the bass. Here is how to read Cmaj7, C7, Cm7, C/E and C7b9, and the notes each one contains.",
            "topic": "harmony",
            "topic_name": "Harmony",
            "tags": [
                "chord symbols",
                "lead sheet",
                "seventh chords"
            ],
            "level": "intro",
            "date": "2026-10-11",
            "updated": null,
            "words": 1506,
            "reading_time_minutes": 8,
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            "json_url": "https://musics.name/api/article.json?slug=chord-symbols-explained",
            "excerpt": "A chord symbol gives the root, the quality, any extra notes and, after a slash, the bass note. C is a C major triad (C, E, G). Cm is a C minor triad (C, Eb, G). C7 adds a minor seventh (Bb), and Cmaj7 adds a major seventh (B). Each symbol is a short…",
            "score": 34,
            "partial": false,
            "snippet": "A chord symbol gives the root, the quality, any extra notes and, after a slash, the bass note. C is a C major triad (C, E, G). Cm is a C minor triad (C, Eb, G). C7 adds a minor seventh (Bb), and…"
        },
        {
            "slug": "ii-v-i-progression",
            "title": "The ii V I Progression in Major, Minor and Jazz Styles",
            "dek": "Why ii V I is the backbone of tonal music: voice leading, turnarounds, minor-key forms, and the jazz reharm toolkit.",
            "topic": "harmony",
            "topic_name": "Harmony",
            "tags": [
                "ii-V-I",
                "chord progression",
                "jazz harmony"
            ],
            "level": "intermediate",
            "date": "2026-10-04",
            "updated": null,
            "words": 1155,
            "reading_time_minutes": 6,
            "url": "https://musics.name/articles/ii-v-i-progression/",
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            "json_url": "https://musics.name/api/article.json?slug=ii-v-i-progression",
            "excerpt": "One progression underlies more music than any other. The ii V I carries the full logic of tonal motion, predominant to dominant to tonic, in three chords, and it appears in Baroque arias, Mozart sonatas, wedding gigs, and bebop heads with equal comfort. #The…",
            "score": 33,
            "partial": false,
            "snippet": "One progression underlies more music than any other. The ii V I carries the full logic of tonal motion, predominant to dominant to tonic, in three chords, and it appears in Baroque arias, Mozart…"
        },
        {
            "slug": "reading-intervals-at-sight",
            "title": "Reading Intervals at Sight: Generic and Specific",
            "dek": "Naming an interval at sight takes two passes: count the staff positions first, then judge what the accidental does to the size.",
            "topic": "fundamentals",
            "topic_name": "Fundamentals",
            "tags": [
                "intervals",
                "sight reading",
                "notation"
            ],
            "level": "intro",
            "date": "2026-09-25",
            "updated": null,
            "words": 1118,
            "reading_time_minutes": 6,
            "url": "https://musics.name/articles/reading-intervals-at-sight/",
            "markdown_url": "https://musics.name/articles/reading-intervals-at-sight.md",
            "json_url": "https://musics.name/api/article.json?slug=reading-intervals-at-sight",
            "excerpt": "An interval is described by two properties at once, and readers who collapse them into one get stuck. The first is the generic interval: how many staff positions the notes span, counted inclusively from the lower note. C to E is a third because three letter…",
            "score": 33,
            "partial": false,
            "snippet": "An interval is described by two properties at once, and readers who collapse them into one get stuck. The first is the generic interval: how many staff positions the notes span, counted inclusively…"
        },
        {
            "slug": "borrowed-chords-and-modal-mixture",
            "title": "Borrowed Chords: Modal Mixture in Practice",
            "dek": "Mixture borrows chords from the parallel mode. What the common borrowed chords do to a phrase, how they resolve, and where labelling fails.",
            "topic": "harmony",
            "topic_name": "Harmony",
            "tags": [
                "modal mixture",
                "borrowed chords",
                "chromatic harmony"
            ],
            "level": "advanced",
            "date": "2026-09-25",
            "updated": null,
            "words": 1541,
            "reading_time_minutes": 8,
            "url": "https://musics.name/articles/borrowed-chords-and-modal-mixture/",
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            "json_url": "https://musics.name/api/article.json?slug=borrowed-chords-and-modal-mixture",
            "excerpt": "An F minor triad in C major requires an A flat, which the key signature does not give. Unlike a secondary dominant, the chord is not pointing at another key: F minor is the subdominant of C minor, and C minor is C major’s parallel mode. The tonic has not…",
            "score": 32,
            "partial": false,
            "snippet": "An F minor triad in C major requires an A flat, which the key signature does not give. Unlike a secondary dominant, the chord is not pointing at another key: F minor is the subdominant of C minor…"
        },
        {
            "slug": "church-modes-dorian-to-locrian",
            "title": "Church Modes From Dorian to Locrian: A Practical Guide",
            "dek": "Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian explained by pattern and color, with hearing tips and modern uses.",
            "topic": "fundamentals",
            "topic_name": "Fundamentals",
            "tags": [
                "modes",
                "scales",
                "melody"
            ],
            "level": "intermediate",
            "date": "2026-10-04",
            "updated": null,
            "words": 1307,
            "reading_time_minutes": 7,
            "url": "https://musics.name/articles/church-modes-dorian-to-locrian/",
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            "json_url": "https://musics.name/api/article.json?slug=church-modes-dorian-to-locrian",
            "excerpt": "Major and minor feel like the only options until a melody settles somewhere stranger. The church modes name those other settlements: six diatonic rotations, each with its own final, its own color notes, and its own repertoire from chant to jazz. #The seven…",
            "score": 31,
            "partial": false,
            "snippet": "Major and minor feel like the only options until a melody settles somewhere stranger. The church modes name those other settlements: six diatonic rotations, each with its own final, its own color…"
        },
        {
            "slug": "tritone-substitution",
            "title": "Tritone Substitution: The subV7 Chord That Still Resolves",
            "dek": "Replace any dominant with the dominant a tritone away: why subV7 works, how it smooths bass lines, and where jazz standards hide it.",
            "topic": "harmony",
            "topic_name": "Harmony",
            "tags": [
                "tritone substitution",
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            "excerpt": "Every dominant seventh chord has a twin a tritone away that shares its restless tritone and resolves to the same tonic. Tritone substitution swaps one twin for the other, trading a leaping bass for a sliding one while the resolution lands exactly where the…",
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            "title": "Modulation: How a Key Change Is Confirmed",
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            "excerpt": "A piece that ends in G major and began in C major has modulated. The change of key is not a single event on one beat but a process spread over several, and the process has a rule: a key exists when its tonic has been confirmed by a cadence. Everything else…",
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            "excerpt": "In C major, a D major triad contains an F sharp. The key signature does not supply it and the chord is not an error. For as long as it sounds, the music treats G as a temporary tonic, and the D major triad is the dominant of that temporary tonic. Analysis…",
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            "snippet": "In C major, a D major triad contains an F sharp. The key signature does not supply it and the chord is not an error. For as long as it sounds, the music treats G as a temporary tonic, and the D major…"
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            "excerpt": "A modern keyboard hides its compromise. Every key is equally in tune, which also means every key is equally out of tune, and a major third in C major is exactly the same size as a major third in F sharp major. Before the nineteenth century the compromise was…",
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            "excerpt": "A piano cannot retune between two chords, so its tuning has to work for every key in advance. Equal temperament is the arrangement that does that, and it earns the ability by making every fifth slightly narrow and every major third noticeably wide. The…",
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            "excerpt": "Transcribe in layers, in the order the harmony needs them: key, bass, chord roots, chord qualities, melody, and rhythm last. Check each layer on an instrument before you start the next. Write the chords as Roman numerals so the result transposes, and keep a…",
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