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Music Theory for Beginners
- 1331 16y agoA friend of mine here in Tokyo owns a small music company and recently launched a series of games to help with music training. They are flash-based, but I have been quite impressed with them and have enjoyed them quite a bit! He is using a freemium model, and you can try out the games on his website without even registering. (Free registration gives you progress tracking, and subscription gives you access to all levels and games.) For anyone interested in music training, I highly recommend them! http://trainer.thetamusic.com/ http://trainer.thetamusic.com/
- shawndrost 16y agoReally good stuff! Bug report: after I created an account, I was given a "Registration successful. You are now logged in." flash message in the middle of a "Cookies Required" page. It seems to have logged me in correctly, though. http://i.imgur.com/KMBPQ.png http://i.imgur.com/KMBPQ.png
- 1331 16y agoThank you for the bug report! I have passed it on.
- ThomPete 16y agoThree things 1. Send him this presentation: http://fury.com/2010/02/jesse-shells-mindblowing-talk-on-the-future-of-games-dice-2010/ http://fury.com/2010/02/jesse-shells-mindblowing-talk-on-the... 2. Tell him to do it for the iphone and ipad where people can also practice on the ipad. 3. Set up achievement levels Khan Academy for music education.
- icarus_drowning 16y agoI teach Music Theory (and piano) for a living-- this is an excellent introduction to the most practical concepts. I was somewhat disappointed that the OP showed us a C Major scale without really explaining what a "major scale" is-- a collection of whole and half steps-- especially since they used a keyboard as an example, which is laid out in exactly the right pattern for teaching the major scale. (Notice that the black and white notes are arranged so that you skip some keys-- whole steps-- but sometimes you can't: half steps). I always teach how to build scales based on this pattern- WWHWWWH. Using this pattern, you can build any major scale beginning on any arbitrary note-- including notes that are sharped or flatted, which is neat. From here, you can figure out all of the scales, and thus all of the keys. The advantage of learning in this fashion is that you can tackle intervals first, which are the distances between notes. (Note that major and minor intervals are named as such because they fit into our major or minor scales). Since a chord is simply collection of intervals, you end up with a more powerful understanding of them by learning which intervals (and which scale degrees) build which chords. All the same, I really think the more "practical" approach here is really interesting, because you can start writing music earlier, albeit mostly in C Major. Cool link, it really gives me insight as a fellow music educator.
- mycroftiv 16y agoI'm also a music theorist and educator. I'm interested in your perspective on whether it is a good idea to try to introduce students to the acoustic/mathematical derivation of the scale. To provide context for non-technical readers, the physical basis of harmonic intervals is integer ratios of frequencies, and European tempered tuning systems create scales and chords as a pragmatic adjustment of mathematically pure tuning to the necessity of using a finite number of predetermined pitches for instruments such as the piano. I am still unsure as to whether the deeper understanding of scales, chords, keys, tuning, and temperament is something I should push to make students study and understand. Many students have a negative reaction to even the simplest math, but other students get a lot of benefit from understanding exactly how and why a given set of pitches fit together to form chords and scales. In the context of group instruction, deciding how much time to devote to this material is a dilemma for me.
- mrspeaker 16y agoI recently had a short-term stay at a place which had a piano. It seemed like a waste to let it just sit there, so I did a bit o' googling and found this site: http://www.pianobychords.com/ http://www.pianobychords.com/ The information on music theory is similar to the post - but it also shows you how to play a few common songs. If you follow the fingering guide and play the same chords with both hands it sounds damn great! I thought only the guitar had that "pick it up, learn a couple of chords and you're good to go..." attitude! One of the songs on the site was "Let It Be". I remembered that that song was in the Axis Of Awesome song "Four Chords" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHBVnMf2t7w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHBVnMf2t7w - now I know how to play hundreds of party-friendly songs on the piano. Damn satisfying for an outlay of just a few hours practice!
- kranner 16y ago> I thought only the guitar had that "pick it up, learn a couple of chords and you're good to go..." attitude! Ralph Towner calls the guitar a "portable piano".
- roryokane 16y agoFor those curious what a “portable piano” would be like, see the keytar (guitar with keys) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keytar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keytar.
- jonp 16y agoThis is great. Can anyone recommend a "DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)" for Windows? Preferably with at least a free trial version. Thanks.
- frou_dh 16y agoAbleton Live
- MichaelGG 16y agoOne really appealing thing about Ableton, if you're just getting into music, is that the UI is simple, slick, and makes sense. The other software has way too much visuals and useless UI pieces. Ableton is direct and to the point. I'm not a musician and have never used "real" hardware, so all that visual overhead in the other programs is just noise.
- krig 16y agoReaper: http://reaper.fm/ http://reaper.fm/ is excellent, very cheap ($40) and has an unlimited trial. Unlimited both in time and scope, you get the full software. I use it, works great.
- MrJagil 16y agoReason
- mortenjorck 16y agoReason is great, but it's not a DAW; it's a synth package. For recording, you'll want to look at Reason's companion product Record.
- eagleal 16y agoI personally use FL Studio/Sibelius (FLS trial won't let you save your song in an editable format, but you can export in ogg/wav/midi/mp3). It depends on what you want to do, for music production Pro Tools/Logic Pro are a must (though it's more about the instrument library and external hardware quality). Consider looking at the See also section for a list of DAWs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Workstation#See_also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Workstation#See_a...
- whoeverest 16y ago"To write a simple melody in ‘C’" has to be the singe most important sentence in the whole text.
- thesystemis 16y agoon a similar note (and because there's some great links being posted here), this video by walter lewin covers the physics of sound and how it relates to music, it could be good secondary material for someone learning about music theory: http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/168 http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/168 what's great is that it's a serious physics lecture, but designed for kids, and there's plenty of funky experiments within the one hour.
- psykotic 16y agoIf you want to go beyond the basics, I found this book invaluable: http://www.maths.abdn.ac.uk/~bensondj/html/maths-music.html http://www.maths.abdn.ac.uk/~bensondj/html/maths-music.html
- ssharp 16y agoI hope the author turns this into a series, introducing additional theory. When I was first learning basic music theory, it was either all text or text along with notation. I took lesson on snare drum when I was younger, so I can read rhythms fine but never bothered to learn to read the pitches correctly. When I started playing guitar and piano, having something with embedded content and "piano roll" images would have helped immensely.
- sethg 16y agoIf you liked the Axis of Awesome’s four-chord medley, you’ll love the Pachelbel Rant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
- Qerub 16y agoIf anybody wants to learn some music theory and Haskell at the same time, I can warmly recommend this: http://cs.lth.se/english/course/edan40_functional_programming/programming_assignments/functional_music/ http://cs.lth.se/english/course/edan40_functional_programmin...
- Jun8 16y agoFascinating read, but definitely not for beginners, at least for people like me, who have difficulty naming the notes (I have to go through "doe a deer..." each time, there are seven of them, right?) My total music illiteracy really annoys me. However, whenever I try to pick up some knowledge I got held back by lots of questions that the usual music student (or teacher for that matter) has never thought about and no answer can be given. Here are a couple: * Why are there seven notes? Is this due to an property of the ear? * Ditto, for the octave concept, why should it be multiples of two? * Why are there black keys between some white keys on the piano and not between others? Is there a book that explains questions like these?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- msluyter 16y agoWhy are there seven notes? Is this due to an property of the ear? The 7 tones that make up a major scale are basically a cultural artifact of western music (which goes back to gregorian chant). Other cultures have more/fewer tones. Ditto, for the octave concept, why should it be multiples of two? Can you clarify this question? Octaves result from the natural harmonic series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(music) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(music) Why are there black keys between some white keys on the piano and not between others? Well, IMHO this is a purely arbitrary cultural artifact resulting from the evolution of the keyboard (first in pipe organs). Since the octave is divided into 12 chromatic tones, you could in theory devise a keyboard with alternating white/black keys. However, the organ keyboard evolved in the middle ages, when chromaticism wasn't fully developed, hence, it appears the "white notes" of the keyboard appeared first, then later, the black notes added at the appropriate positions within the chromatic scale. See this, along with the accompanying picture, which clearly shows a small keyboard with the white keys only: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_organ#Keyboards http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_organ#Keyboards
- Jun8 16y agoI think an octave up (down) means double (half) the frequency of the tone. The usual explanation, I think, is that the Pythagoreans who invented it found this to be the "most pleasing" ratio. I wonder if there are user studies to back this claim. I am also at such a low level, that part of your explanation just goes over my head, i.e. what is chromatic scale? Wikipedia says: "The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve equally spaced pitches, each a semitone apart. A chromatic scale is a nondiatonic scale having no tonic due to the symmetry of its equally spaced tones." Now very helpful. I thought there were 7 notes! And I don't know any other terms in that sentence (checking their Wikipedia entries doesn't help either, leads to a loop)
- pge 16y agoOne of the music theory things it took me a while to understand is why different major keys matter. In an idealized world, one can start a scale on any frequency and move up in whole and half steps (WWHWWWH) and have a scale. So why talk about the "key of G" vs the "key of C" if all that denotes is the frequency of the note we start on (which can be shifted up or down arbitrarily to suit the range of the instrument or vocalist)? The answer lies the physics of frequencies. The notes are not exactly the same from key to key because the whole and half steps are not exactly the same width. A perfect "fifth" (e.g., C & G played together) from a frequency perspective (meaning the two frequencies that resonate together creating a harmonic one octave above the lower) has a frequency ratio of 3/2 meaning the G is 1.5x the frequency of the C. The octave has a ratio of 2 (the high C is twice the frequency of the C below it). G is 7 half steps above C and the octave is 12 half steps. So if we walk our way up the piano in fifths, after 84 half steps, we would have a note (3/2)^12 = 129.75x the original frequency. But if we do the same on the octaves, we get 2^7 = 128x the original frequency, so the note we need to make all the major fifths sound right is different from the note we need to make the octaves sound right. The two are diverging slightly. So the result is that we can tune an instrument perfectly in one key only or we can tune it in a compromise of all the keys which sounds okay over a short range but sounds worse as we try to cover a wider range. If you're interested, there's lots of good reading on the subject (google "well-tempered" or "meantone"). EDIT: I realized I assumed a key concept in there. When two notes are played together, a third is heard (the "beat" frequency). If f1 and f2 are the frequencies of the notes being played, f2 - f1 = the beat freq. An octave sounds nice because the beat disappears (2f - f = f, so the beat is the same as the lower note of the octave). Other "pleasant" chord combinations are ones in which the beat does not clash with the first two note (e.g., is an octave of one of the notes).
- caryme 16y agoIf you're really interested in this, I highly recommend checking out the book How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care) by Ross Duffin.
- cynicalkane 16y agoAlmost every instrument nowdays is tuned in equal temperament. Tuning matters most for old keyboard music, as in, pre-Beethoven. The reason keys are important is because many instruments have different sound qualities for different notes. Keys close to E minor or G major allow guitarists to get that "twangy" open string sound. You can get a richer sound tuning up, or a thinner "heavy metal" sound tuning down. Keys close to B-flat allow brass players to use more basic tones on their instruments. All singers have certain sound qualities that are only available on certain notes. "Every Breath You Take", for example, would sound different even a semitone off, because Sting's transition from his creepy baritone to his high-pitched whine happens at a very specific part of his range, and the creepy quality of his voice contrasted with the high-pitched pleas for love is one of the most important qualities of the song. But, yeah, temperament nowdays is almost irrelevant.
- baddox 16y agoI would call this article "Songwriting for Beginners" as there is very little discussion of music theory in it.
- drbaskin 16y agoIt's only somewhat related, but This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics #234 discusses some of the math behind music theory. It's a nice article if you're familiar with basic group theory. http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week234.html http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week234.html
- TheSOB88 16y agoThis is cool, but I am kind of disappointed that you put the chords into inversions without explaining what you were doing.
- pinchyfingers 16y agoThis is so white! lol I can relate because it's how I first approached music, but most mature musicians in the Western world begin with rhythm, yet there is no mention of rhythm in this article. Rhythm is our soul, get some soul, crackers!
- tieTYT 16y agoI really love the idea behind this article, but I didn't like the execution. I was confused and intimidated after the "scales" section (and that's the first part). Also, I don't know what the difference between a key, note and a few other words mean. Trying to be constructive, I hope the article gets edited because I'm genuinely interested in learning these things.