Fundamentals
Dynamics and Articulation Markings Explained
Dynamics set how loud a passage is, relative to its surroundings. Articulations set how each note starts and ends. This guide defines the common marks.
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
Fundamentals
How to Read Sheet Music: Staves, Clefs and Note Names
The staff, the treble and bass clefs, line and space names, ledger lines, and where the key and time signatures sit, with a table to learn from.
Fundamentals
The Major Scale Formula: Whole and Half Steps Explained
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.
Fundamentals
Relative and Parallel Keys Explained: Major and Minor Partners
A major key has two close minor partners. The relative minor shares its key signature, the parallel minor shares its tonic, and each pair connects keys in a different way.
Fundamentals
Scale Degrees Explained: Numbers, Names and Solfège
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.
Fundamentals
Tempo Markings Explained: Largo to Presto in Beats per Minute
Italian tempo words run from slow to fast. Approximate beats-per-minute bands for each, the modifiers and transitions that change them, and why a metronome number needs a time signature.
Fundamentals
Circle of Fifths Explained: Keys, Signatures, Changes
The circle of fifths organizes every key by signature and closeness. How to read it, memorize it, and use it for modulation and chord choice.
Fundamentals
Natural, Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales Compared
Three minor scales, three different jobs. What each form changes, why composers switch between them, and how to hear the difference.
Fundamentals
Pentatonic and Blues Scales: Patterns With a Purpose
Major and minor pentatonics plus the blues scale: the patterns, the blue notes, and why five notes carry so much melody.
Fundamentals
Key Signatures and the Order of Sharps and Flats
Sharps arrive in the order F C G D A E B and flats in reverse. The order is the circle of fifths written out, one signature at a time.
Fundamentals
Reading Intervals at Sight: Generic and Specific
Naming an interval at sight takes two passes: count the staff positions first, then judge what the accidental does to the size.
Fundamentals
Scientific Pitch Notation: What C4 Actually Means
Middle C is C4 in scientific pitch notation, C3 on some manufacturers' labelling, and MIDI note 60 in every sequencer. The numbering is a convention.
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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