Harmony
Figured Bass: Reading Intervals Above the Bass Line
Figures name intervals above the bass, not chords. What each shorthand means, how accidentals override the key, and what the player decides.
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Glossary
Articles
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
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
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
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
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.
Harmony
Modulation: How a Key Change Is Confirmed
A modulation is not a chromatic chord; it is a new key confirmed by cadence. The routes into one, and how to read them off the page.
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.
Orchestration
Transposing Instruments Explained: Written and Sounding Pitch
A transposing instrument sounds a different pitch from the one on the page. The intervals for common instruments, and how to transpose a part.
Harmony
Harmonic Sequences and Circle Progressions That Modulate
Descending fifths, ascending 5-6 patterns, Pachelbel loops: how sequences work, when they modulate, and how to write them.
Harmony
Roman Numeral Analysis: How to Label a Chord Progression
Roman numerals label each chord by the scale degree of its root and its quality. Here is a step-by-step method, with I vi IV V worked in C and G.
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.
Music History
From Ars Nova to the Renaissance: How Notation Changed Music
Rhythm took two centuries longer than pitch to notate. Mensural notation solved it with ratios, and the Renaissance then replaced black ink with white.
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.
Harmony
Diatonic Chords in Major and Minor Keys Explained
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.
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.
Harmony
Augmented Sixth Chords: Italian, French and German Types
Italian, French and German sixth chords: how each type is built, how they resolve to V, and their use in enharmonic modulation.
Fundamentals
Church Modes From Dorian to Locrian: A Practical Guide
Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian explained by pattern and color, with hearing tips and modern uses.
Harmony
Triads and Inversions: Root Position, Sixth, Six-Four
Root position, first and second inversion: how triad voicings shape the bass line, when to invert, and what the figures mean.
Harmony
Borrowed Chords: Modal Mixture in Practice
Mixture borrows chords from the parallel mode. What the common borrowed chords do to a phrase, how they resolve, and where labelling fails.
Harmony
Cadences: How Phrases End in Tonal Music
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.
Orchestration
Instrument Ranges for Arrangers: Playable, Comfortable, Usable
A playable range and a usable register are different facts. Transposition arithmetic, endurance, doubling, and the notes that are another instrument.
Tuning & Temperament
Meantone and Well Temperament: Why Keys Used to Sound Different
Quarter-comma meantone, the wolf fifth and the well temperaments in between: what keyboard tuning did to each key before equal temperament settled the argument.
Music History
The Rise of Functional Tonality: From Modes to Keys
Around 1600 the bass became the foundation of harmony and the modal system narrowed to two keys. What changed in the documents, and what the change cost.