Harmony
Harmonizing a Melody: How to Choose the Chords
Harmonizing a melody means choosing a chord for each strong beat that contains the melody note. This worked example uses the opening of Ode to Joy in C.
The archive
Articles
100 pieces on how music is built and how it is written down — with playable examples, tables you can check, and no filler.
♮ intro · ♯♯ intermediate · ♯♯♯♯ advanced — like key signatures, more marks means more to hold in mind
Harmony
Pedal Point and Ostinato Explained: Holding and Repeating a Bass
Pedal point holds one bass note while the harmony above it changes. An ostinato repeats a short pattern. This covers the kinds of pedal, how clashes resolve, and the ground bass.
Harmony
Chromatic Mediants Explained: Major Chords a Third Away
A chromatic mediant is a triad a third from the tonic that lies outside the key. For C major the four are E♭, E, A♭ and A major, and each one shares a note with the C triad.
Harmony
Diminished and Half-Diminished Sevenths Explained
The fully diminished seventh is four notes stacked in minor thirds, and the half-diminished seventh is a diminished triad with a minor seventh. This is how each one spells and resolves in C.
Rhythm & Meter
Triplets and Tuplets Explained: Dividing the Beat in Three
A triplet fits three notes into the time of two of the same value. This article covers the ratio, the counts and how triplets differ from compound meter.
Fundamentals
Interval Inversion and Compound Intervals Explained
Inverting an interval moves its lower note up an octave, and the two numbers add to nine. Compound intervals are wider than an octave and take a simpler name.
Rhythm & Meter
Calculate Loop BPM from Bars and Seconds, Even in 6/8
Work out a loop’s BPM from its trimmed duration, choose the right beat unit and calculate tempo-change ratios without confusing speed with stretch.
Acoustics & Sound
Room Modes in a Small Studio: Calculate, Then Measure
Find a rectangular room’s first bass resonances, read the mode numbers and understand what a frequency list cannot tell you about your listening position.
Acoustics & Sound
Sample Rate vs Bit Depth: Settings Before Recording
Separate time sampling from amplitude precision, choose a format for a real recording task and avoid mistaking larger files for recovered audio detail.
Guitar & Fretboard
String Tension in Drop Tunings: Pitch and Scale Length
Estimate how retuning and scale length change the same string’s tension, with a Drop D example and clear limits on gauge, feel and instrument safety.
Acoustics & Sound
WAV File Size: Calculate Storage for Tracks and Stems
Budget an uncompressed audio export from seconds, sample rate, stored bits and channels, then scale it to stems without double-counting stereo.
Fundamentals
Whole-Tone and Diminished Scales: Structure, Spelling and Sound
The whole-tone scale uses only whole steps, and the octatonic scales alternate whole and half steps. Here are their spellings on C and the chords they fit.
The ebook
Music Theory: the site as a book
The site's working library as a structured ebook: intervals, keys, harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, form, tuning, orchestration and the history behind them.
- 78 pages
- PDF format
- $2.87
- By The musics.name project
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