Music Theory
A music theory course from fundamentals through chromatic harmony, form, and counterpoint — explained with examples.
5 sections · 30 lessons
Fundamentals
5 articles- 01
Basic Concepts
Pitch, note names, the staff, octave registers, and accidentals — the foundation for reading and writing music.
- 02
Major Scales & Key Signatures
Half and whole steps, building the major scale from the W–W–H–W–W–W–H pattern, the 15 major key signatures, and the circle of fifths.
- 03
Minor Scales & Key Signatures
The three forms of minor (natural, harmonic, melodic), minor key signatures, parallel vs. relative keys, and scale-degree names.
- 04
Basics of Rhythm
Time signatures, note durations and rests, dots and ties, simple and compound meter, and tuplets — how music writes down time.
- 05
Intervals
Identifying and writing perfect, major, minor, augmented, and diminished intervals; number and quality, the intervals within an octave, inversion, and the tritone.
Chords & Diatonic Harmony
5 articles- 06
Triads
How triads are built from two stacked thirds, the four qualities, lead-sheet symbols, inversions, slash chords, and "sus" chords.
- 07
Roman Numerals & Cadences
Roman numeral symbols, diatonic chords in major and minor keys, and the four harmonic cadence types.
- 08
Seventh Chords
The five common seventh-chord qualities, how to write them as Roman numerals, and diatonic sevenths in major and minor keys.
- 09
Harmonic Progression & Function
The circle-of-fifths progression, harmonic rhythm, the four harmonic functions, and foundational progressions.
- 10
Non-Chord Tones
Passing, neighbor, suspension, appoggiatura, escape, anticipation, retardation, pedal point, and how non-chord tones are classified.
Melody, Form & Texture
5 articles- 11
Melodic Analysis
Motive, melodic alteration (inversion, retrograde, augmentation, diminution, sequence), fragment, phrase, and subphrase — how to recognize and develop musical ideas.
- 12
Form in Popular Music
Song sections and common forms — verse–chorus, AABA, ABAC, and the 12-bar blues — plus harmonically closed and open sections.
- 13
Phrases in Combination
Perfect and imperfect authentic cadences, the sentence, the period (antecedent–consequent), and asymmetrical and double periods — how phrases combine into larger structures.
- 14
Accompanimental Textures
Texture (monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic), chorale, arpeggiation, block-chord accompaniment, afterbeats, offbeats, bass lines, and clave — how accompaniment shapes a piece's character.
- 15
Creating Contrast Between Sections
The elements of music — melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture, register, articulation — used to contrast one section from another.
Chromatic Harmony
8 articles- 16
Figured Bass
Figured-bass inversion symbols placed after the Roman numeral, and the four types of six-four chords — including the cadential six-four with its dominant function.
- 17
Secondary Dominants
Tonicization and how to write and analyze secondary dominants — major or dominant-seventh chords that resolve to a chord other than I, with a chromatic note as the tell-tale sign.
- 18
Secondary Diminished Chords
Secondary diminished chords in major and minor — built on the target's leading tone, choosing half-diminished or fully-diminished based on the target's quality.
- 19
Mode Mixture
Mode mixture: chords borrowed from the parallel minor, the lowered scale degrees (♭6, ♭3, ♭7), the ♭VI deceptive cadence, and the Picardy third.
- 20
The Neapolitan Chord
Construction and use of the Neapolitan chord (♭II) — a major triad on ♭2, usually in first inversion (♭II⁶), with pre-dominant function resolving to V.
- 21
Augmented Sixth Chords
The three augmented sixth chords (Italian, French, German), the augmented sixth between ♭6 and ♯4, and how they resolve to V — plus the enharmonic equivalence between Ger+6 and a dominant seventh.
- 22
Modulation
Modulation vs. tonicization, closely related keys, and pivot-chord modulation (diatonic, chromatic, and without a pivot).
- 23
Enharmonic Modulation
Using dominant and diminished sevenths as enharmonic pivots to reach distant keys — V⁷ ≡ Ger+6 and the symmetry of the fully-diminished seventh.
Form & Counterpoint
7 articles- 24
Binary & Ternary Forms
Binary form, ternary form, the sectional/continuous/rounded variants, and how to tell ternary from rounded binary.
- 25
Sonata & Rondo Forms
Sonata form (exposition–development–recapitulation), the key relationships between themes, and rondo form with its five- and seven-part schemes.
- 26
Voice Leading Triads
Four-part (SATB) voice-leading rules for triads and their inversions: types of motion, avoiding parallels, ranges and spacing, and doubling.
- 27
Voice Leading Seventh Chords
Resolving the seventh downward, voice leading V7 to I with an incomplete I chord, and chains of circle-of-fifths seventh chords.
- 28
Voice Leading with Non-Chord Tones
Adding non-chord tones to a four-part texture to decorate the voices, and avoiding the parallels they can accidentally create.
- 29
Voice Leading Chromatic Harmonies
Voice leading secondary, borrowed, Neapolitan, and augmented sixth chords following the tendency of their chromatic notes.
- 30
Introduction to Counterpoint
Species counterpoint (the five species), invention expositions, and fugue analysis with subject, answer, and countersubject.