How To Learn Music Theory

The majority of people imagine something dry and uninteresting when they think of music theory. Learning to draw a treble clef, struggling to read the black dots on a piece of paper, pondering what a Neapolitan Sixth is and what you are supposed to do with it, Most people give up eventually. Getting your instrument out and making some noise is more fun. In any case, that is why you began studying music. The music theory is not the real issue. The issue is that the majority of people are required to learn the incorrect music theory. You are a modern musician. You are a musician. You probably won't be able to achieve your musical goals by learning the C clef.

It’s All in Your Head

I've always had a great deal of interest in music theory. It's all in your head. I was one of the students who refused to accept a novel musical concept or idea until I understood how it worked in detail. Because of this, I was very good at music theory, and when I went to university to study music, the theory papers were easy for me. I would pass a class test in 20 minutes and leave my classmates to draw piano keyboards and charts on their test papers for another hour, struggling to finish on time. I had the advantage of being able to do everything in my head. I didn't have to use a chart or draw a piano keyboard on the page to figure out the answers to the questions. I'd been making music for more than a decade, and in that time, I'd become so accustomed to the language that I didn't have to think about it. The other benefit of having such a thorough understanding of music theory is the ability to begin incorporating it into your playing. You don't have time to think through the theory of what you're playing when you're playing your instrument. You need to know what's going on theoretically at any point in the song if you want to change the chords, start a solo, or play some sweet substitutions that you haven't practiced before.

Context is Key

I have tutored an introductory theory paper at the University of Otago for the past two years. Students who want to earn a music degree but haven't studied enough music theory to meet the requirements of the first-year theory papers take this exam. I remember noticing, right at the beginning of the semester, that the students were pretty uninterested, and the majority of them still didn't understand why studying music theory would actually benefit their musical careers. I decided to simply contextualize everything for the entire lesson. I talked about how knowing all of the keys, chords, and intervals not only makes it easier to understand music and learn songs faster, but it also lets you instantly transpose a song in your head. By playing a completely different chord to what the rest of the band is playing, you can create altered chords that sound amazing. Because you can see how a seemingly random collection of notes relate to one another, it enables you to write better music and instantly analyze a song's key. When you are able to do this, you will discover that you have significantly more musical freedom in your songwriting and playing. It gives you the vocabulary to explain what you hear and helps you understand what you hear. This makes use of music theory. Any musician should be aware of this. The class was pretty eager to begin learning some music theory once I had finished contextualizing everything. I gave them a simple exercise that would allow them to quickly reach the same level of music theory fluency that I had developed over ten years and told them how I had breezed through the university papers.

Applicable Music Theory

There are three essential elements of what I consider applicable music theory, and they are all related. In order to develop fluency with your music theory, so it becomes something you can use rather than a chore you have to do, you need to:

• Memorize all key signatures

• Understand how chords are constructed and where they fit in a key

• Be able to instantly name any interval from any root note

When viewed in that manner, this may appear to be an enormous undertaking; however, performing this one exercise will assist you in nailing all three points and demonstrate how they are all connected.

Before we begin the exercise, I will briefly discuss the three essential components as follows:

Learn All Key Signatures

To construct a major scale, we use the tone/semitone structure of a major scale (TTSTTTS) and play it starting at the root note. A key signature is the particular accidental (sharp or flat) combination we get when playing this structure from a particular root note. We can use the circle of fifths to see which accidentals are produced for each major scale.

The name of the circle of fifths comes from the fact that it begins at the top with C major and moves clockwise around the interval of a fifth every step. A sharp is added by going counterclockwise around the circle from C, and a flat is added by going anticlockwise around the circle from C. Sharps and flats are added in a specific order. You only need to remember how many sharps and flats are in each key if you memorize their order. Every time you want to learn a new scale, you don't have to try to remember a sequence of eight different notes! The order in which flats are added is the same as the order in which sharps are added, but in reverse. To help you remember the order, use the letters to create a sentence. A typical one is:

The name of the circle of fifths comes from the fact that it begins at the top with C major and moves clockwise around the interval of a fifth every step. A sharp is added by going counterclockwise around the circle from C, and a flat is added by going anticlockwise around the circle from C. Sharps and flats are added in a specific order. You only need to remember how many sharps and flats are in each key if you memorize their order. Every time you want to learn a new scale, you don't have to try to remember a sequence of eight different notes! The order in which flats are added is the same as the order in which sharps are added, but in reverse. To help you remember the order, use the letters to create a sentence. A typical one is:

• Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle

• for the order of sharps, and:

• Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles’ Father

• for the flats.

The number of sharps and flats in each key must be memorized after the sharps and flats order has been memorized. You should learn these at random, not in a particular order. Try to look at the chart for 30 seconds every day, and begin by naming two or three keys and indicating how many flats or sharps they have: C, no abrasives. D, two points. One sharp G Add another key the next day and carry out the procedure once more. Be aware that there is no hurry. Consistency is the key because the objective is to get to know them well. It should take you two weeks to memorize them all if you do this for 30 seconds each day and add a new key each time. However, work at your own pace. That's fine if it takes you a month.

The number of lines required to draw the letter of the key is another useful tool I've found for understanding the number of sharps in a key signature. This one requires some creative thinking, but I still found it useful.

I'll pretend that drawing a B takes five lines. For the key of F#, I'll pretend that drawing the sharp symbol, which is a small x2, takes three lines (six lines for six sharps).

Learn How Chords are Made and Where they Belong in a Key

By stacking thirds from a root note, a standard triad or seventh chord is created. The tonality of the chord is determined by the particular quality of each of these stacked thirds.

By counting through the C major scale, we can create a C major chord by stacking thirds:

C D E F G A B C

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

We end up using the 1st, 3rd and 5th scale degrees of the C major scale, so we can say that a major chord has the formula 1 3 5.

The formulas for all the other chords you will come across in this exercise are written below:

Major 1 3 5

Minor 1 b3 5

Diminished 1 b3 b5

Major 7 1 3 5 7

Minor 7 1 b3 5 b7

Dominant 7 1 3 5 b7

Minor 7b5 1 b3 b5 b7

All of these formulas are connected to the major scale of the chord's root note. Applying the formula for a minor chord to the A major scale yields the notes A, C, and E, which are used in this example.

There is a specific chord quality associated with each major scale degree. Major and minor triads can be constructed by stacking thirds from each scale degree.

The following chords are associated with each scale degree if we construct chords using seventh chords:

Immediately recognize any interval from any root note.

Each musical alphabet letter (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) must be represented in some way in every scale. Depending on the key signature of the scale, these letters can be flat, natural, or sharp (A#, Ab, or A).

You won't have to try to remember whether a fifth away from B is an F or an F# if you know the key signatures for each scale by heart. You already know that there is a fifth of a mile between any B and any F. Then you use your understanding of key signatures to figure out that B's key has an F#, so the fifth distance from B is F#.

Kindly note: The objective of this exercise is not to attempt to master every interval quality. For instance, the term "perfect fifth" refers to the space between B and F#, whereas "diminished fifth" refers to the space between B and F. Don't worry about it at this point if you don't understand what this means. The goal is to get you comfortable with your intervals to the point where, when asked, "What is a fifth above B?" You would immediately recognize that it was an F.

Perform this exercise to learn fundamental music theory.

Perform this Exercise to Learn Fundamental Music Theory.

To become proficient in music, you must use it consistently, like a language. I had to learn and practice music for ten years before the theory I was using became second nature because I had been in enough different musical situations. I wanted a way to accelerate this process while I was tutoring the class at university. I made them do this exercise because I felt that they needed to be exposed to scales, keys, chords, and intervals on a regular basis.

Practice this Exercise to Develop Essential Music Theory

To become proficient in music, you must use it consistently, like a language. I had to learn and practice music for ten years before the theory I was using became second nature because I had been in enough different musical situations. I wanted a way to accelerate this process while I was tutoring the class at university. I made them do this exercise because I felt that they needed to be exposed to scales, keys, chords, and intervals on a regular basis.

Step 1: Write Down a Major Scale

Step 2: Write Down the Notes in Each Chord

Step 3: Write Down the Chord Symbols for Each Chord

7th chords are used in this example. Only two rows in the "Chord Notes" section will be completed if you only use major and minor triads for this exercise.

You should finish this exercise in between 10 and 15 minutes, but you will get faster as you get better at it. Set a goal of doing this exercise four to five times per week. The consistency will have the effect.

It's true that it's not the most exciting activity. Daily practice is a little bit of a commitment, but the rewards are well worth it if you want to improve your musicianship!