Counterpoint
Types of Motion in Voice Leading: Parallel, Contrary, Oblique
Parallel, similar, oblique and contrary motion defined between two voices, what each does to their independence, and which one counterpoint prefers.
Search
Type a chord symbol or a scale name and go straight to it, or search tools, glossary terms and every article. Results are ranked by where the words appear.
Glossary
Articles
Counterpoint
Parallel Fifths and Octaves: Why the Rule Exists
Parallel fifths and octaves are voices that move together and keep a perfect interval. Here is why strict voice leading forbids them and where the rule bends.
Harmony
Voice Leading: Why the Rules Exist in Four-Part Writing
Parallel fifths, tendency tones, spacing and doubling, read as solutions to one problem: keeping four lines heard as four lines.
Counterpoint
First Species Counterpoint, Rule by Rule
Species counterpoint isolates one compositional decision at a time. First species isolates the hardest one: how to make two voices sound like two voices.
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.
Songwriting & Composition
Common Chord Progressions: Loops, Numerals and Why They Work
The chord loops that songwriters reuse most, in Roman numerals and in the keys of C and G, with the reasons they work and how to vary them.
Harmony
Seventh Chords and How They Resolve in Tonal Harmony
The chordal seventh falls, the leading tone rises, and the tritone at the centre of V7 resolves by step. What each diatonic seventh chord is for.
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
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.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
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.
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
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.
Music History
Gregorian Chant and Neumes: How Early Scribes Wrote Melody
Gregorian chant is unaccompanied Latin liturgical song. Neumes were the signs that recorded its melodies, first showing only the direction of movement and later placed on lines.
Music History
Baroque Ornamentation: Trills, Mordents and Turns
Execute trills, mordents, turns and appoggiaturas correctly: on-beat starts, national styles, and reading ornament tables.
Harmony
The Neapolitan Sixth Chord: Sound, Spelling, Resolution
The flat-II chord that darkens minor keys: how the Neapolitan sixth is built, voiced, resolved, and used from Bach to Schubert.
Harmony
Secondary Dominants and How Tonicization Works
A secondary dominant makes any chord a temporary tonic. How to spell one, where it turns up, and what cancels the effect.
Form
Rondo Form: How Refrains and Episodes Structure a Movement
Rondo form alternates a returning refrain with contrasting episodes. Learn classical key plans, sonata-rondo hybrids, and why refrains return altered.
Form
Theme and Variations Form: Ornament to Transformation
How variation form works: the fixed theme, ornamental and character variations, and strategies from Haydn to Beethoven.
Harmony
The ii V I Progression in Major, Minor and Jazz Styles
Why ii V I is the backbone of tonal music: voice leading, turnarounds, minor-key forms, and the jazz reharm toolkit.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
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.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
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.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
Harmony
Tritone Substitution: The subV7 Chord That Still Resolves
Replace any dominant with the dominant a tritone away: why subV7 works, how it smooths bass lines, and where jazz standards hide it.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
Songwriting & Composition
How to Write a Melody Over Chords, Note by Note
Put chord tones on strong beats, approach tension notes by step, and keep the line singable. A worked melody over C, G, Am and F shows each choice.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
Harmony
Non-Chord Tones: Passing, Neighbour, Suspension and More
A non-chord tone is a note that sounds over a chord without belonging to it. Here are the main types, how each is approached and left, and how to write them.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
Orchestration
Reading an Orchestral Score: Layout and a Method for First Reads
An orchestral score stacks every part on one page. This covers the standard order of the families, the brackets and clefs, and a first-read method.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
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.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
Harmony
Suspended Chords: Sus2 and Sus4 Explained
A sus chord swaps the third of a triad for the second or fourth. Here is what Csus2 and Csus4 contain, why neither is major or minor, and how they resolve.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
Orchestration
Brass Choir Voicing: Spacing, Balance and Dynamics
Score for trumpets, horns, trombones and tuba: open vs close voicing, dynamic balance, chorale style and fanfare writing.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
Counterpoint
Canon Types and Techniques: Rounds to Crab Canons
Strict and free canon, interval and time distance, inversion and crab canons: how canons work and how to write a singable one.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.
Rhythm & Meter
Syncopation, Accent and Groove: Rhythm That Pushes Back
Tied overbeats, attacked offbeats, hemiola and groove: how syncopation displaces accent and why the body keeps the score.
Partial match: some of your words are not in this article.