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.
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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
- PhraseA unit of melody or harmony, usually around four bars in tonal music, that ends with a cadence and forms a…
- CadenceA conventional pattern at the end of a phrase or section that gives a sense of closure, pause or continuation.
- HypermeterThe grouping of bars into larger metrical units, such as four-bar phrases, that the ear hears as strong and…
- SlurA curved line over or under notes of different pitches, asking for them to be played smoothly and as one…
Articles
Rhythm & Meter
Meter, Beat Hierarchy and Hypermeter in Performance
Meter is a pattern of strong and weak positions, not a time signature: how it is built, how it stretches past the bar, and where performance contradicts it.
Form
The Twelve-Bar Blues: Form, Chord Plan and Variations
Twelve bars of 4/4 in three four-bar phrases, moving through I, IV and V. The standard plan in C and F, the quick change, the turnaround and the minor blues.
Harmony
Functional Harmony: Tonic, Predominant, Dominant
Tonic, predominant and dominant describe what a chord does to a phrase rather than what it is. This is how the three harmonic jobs divide the work.
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
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.
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.
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.
Ear Training & Practice
How to Transcribe Music by Ear: A Step-by-Step Procedure
Transcribe by ear in a fixed order: key and bass first, then chords by root and quality, then the melody by scale degree, and rhythm last.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Orchestration
String Bowing and Articulation: A Practical Arranger Guide
Legato, detache, spiccato, staccato, martelé: what each bowing sounds like, how to mark it, and writing playable string parts.
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.
Music History
Romantic Chromaticism and the Expanding Tonic
Chromatic harmony widened a key without leaving it: the resources that do the work, the Tristan chord, and how to analyse it without over-labelling.
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
Binary and Ternary Form: Dance Patterns to Art Music
Simple and rounded binary, ABA and da capo: the cadence plans that define each section and how dances grew into art forms.
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.
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.
Counterpoint
Fugue Subjects and Answers
A fugue's opening notes commit the piece to more than a tune. The subject's shape and the answer's adjustment decide what can happen next.
Jazz & Popular Harmony
Chord-Scale Theory Explained: Which Scale Fits Which Chord
Chord-scale theory pairs each chord quality with a scale whose notes fit it. This article gives the pairings, the spellings in C, and the notes to avoid.
Rhythm & Meter
Compound Meter: 6/8 vs 3/4 and How to Hear the Difference
Six eighth notes per bar can group as 3+3 in 6/8 or 2+2+2 in 3/4. Accent, contour, hemiola and conducting show which grouping you are hearing.
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.
Rhythm & Meter
Time Signatures Explained: Simple, Compound and Beyond
A time signature gives beats per bar and the note value that counts as one beat. Simple meters split each beat in two, compound meters split it in three.
Rhythm & Meter
Swing Timing: What the Notation Does Not Say
Jazz notation asks for swing and leaves the ratio to the players, because the timing is tempo-dependent and a fixed written value would be wrong at most speeds.
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.
Ear Training & Practice
Ear Training for Intervals: A Method You Can Practise Daily
Interval recognition comes faster with a method: three intervals tied to a tonic, sung before they are named, and a short daily routine you can keep.