
Music Theory for Beginners - r11t
http://www.whitakerblackall.com/blog/music-theory-for-beginners/
======
icarus_drowning
I 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
I'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.

~~~
icarus_drowning
I think it would be worth doing with older students as a supplement to the
curriculum. One of the bad things about my "major scale-centric" approach is
that I never explain _why_ a major scale is WWHWWWH, which is actually a
barrier to some students, who are either curious or who need more context for
their information.

I teach mostly middle-school and high-school kids, and we barely have enough
time to get through what I have, so I skip it. I wish I didn't have to.

~~~
nitrogen
Do you ever tell them something like, "There's a bunch of cool stuff you can
learn about this, if you go to the web site, or look for _____ on Wikipedia?"

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1331
A 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/>

~~~
ThomPete
Three things

1\. Send him this presentation: [http://fury.com/2010/02/jesse-shells-
mindblowing-talk-on-the...](http://fury.com/2010/02/jesse-shells-mindblowing-
talk-on-the-future-of-games-dice-2010/)

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.

~~~
1331
Thank you very much for the feedback! I have sent it to my friend via email to
make sure that he does not miss it.

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mrspeaker
I 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/>

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> \- 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
> 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
For those curious what a “portable piano” would be like, see the keytar
(guitar with keys) – <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keytar>.

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Jun8
Fascinating 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?

~~~
alexophile
People sometimes guffaw at this, but I can't recommend Donald Duck in
Mathemagic Land enough: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEVGQKwKeCc> They skip
over several centuries of shifting and tweaking between the triad and the
modern (western) major scale, but it's a great visual answer at least to your
second question.

~~~
Jun8
Funtastic! On behalf of HN, I award you, sir, with the best link posting of
the day award!

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pge
One 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).

~~~
cynicalkane
Almost 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.

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jonp
This is great. Can anyone recommend a "DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)" for
Windows? Preferably with at least a free trial version. Thanks.

~~~
RyanMcGreal
And also one for Linux that actually works. :(

~~~
joeld42
I've heard good things about Ardour <http://ardour.org/> especially and also
Renoise <http://www.renoise.com/> but I haven't tried them personally.

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Qerub
If 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_programmin...](http://cs.lth.se/english/course/edan40_functional_programming/programming_assignments/functional_music/)

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ssharp
I 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.

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whoeverest
"To write a simple melody in ‘C’" has to be the singe most important sentence
in the whole text.

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sethg
If you liked the Axis of Awesome’s four-chord medley, you’ll love the
Pachelbel Rant: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM>

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thesystemis
on 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>

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
If you want to go beyond the basics, I found this book invaluable:

<http://www.maths.abdn.ac.uk/~bensondj/html/maths-music.html>

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tieTYT
I 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.

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drbaskin
It'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>

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pinchyfingers
This 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!

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baddox
I would call this article "Songwriting for Beginners" as there is very little
discussion of music theory in it.

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TheSOB88
This is cool, but I am kind of disappointed that you put the chords into
inversions without explaining what you were doing.

