
Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory? - deanstag
I self taught myself a few things over the years and I can play my way through a lot of songs. But I&#x27;d like to dig deeper into music theory and have never been able to sift through a vast array of music theory blogs and tutorials to find something that made sense. I want a different perspective from the HN crowd. How did you teach yourself music theory?
======
karlstanley
Back in the early 2000s I quit my engineering job and went to music school for
a few years. We used Mark Levine's excellent "Jazz Theory Book" to cover the
theoretical aspects. It presents theory in the context of trying to understand
how to improvise over jazz harmonies - I found it very useful. It's a textbook
though: you're going to have to invest some time in it to get the most out of
it.

[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-
Levine/dp/188...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-
Levine/dp/1883217040)

Books aside, in my view the #1 thing you can do to help your music theory
understanding is to train your ear: if you can't reliably identify all the
intervals within an octave and identify major, minor, diminished and augmented
triads, as well as the basic 4-note chords (major 7, minor 7, dominant 7,
minor-7-flat-5) by ear, knowing a bunch of rules about tone-tone-semitone-
tone-tone-tone-semitone won't be all that useful. Back in music school days I
practised daily with EarMaster and within a couple of months had gotten solid
enough at recognising intervals and chords by ear that it made all the other
music learning I did subsequently much much easier. I am sure there are way
better ear training tools now!

~~~
pier25
I've tried doing ear training a couple of times in my life and it has been
always absolutely frustrating. All methods I've tried just ask repeatedly
which interval/chord/note it is you are listening without actually having any
sort of method on how to develop the skill on how to listen.

I'm trying again now with a new method which consists in singing the notes. In
a couple of days I've got better results than weeks of Ear Master or other
similar software. My hypothesis is that it works because when trying to
imitate a pitch with your voices you a) have to listen closely to the pitch
and b) you internalize some pitch "muscle memory".

~~~
lennydizzy
Is there any book/software you are using for the new "singing the notes"
method?

~~~
pier25
I play two notes at the same time and try to sing both notes. At first I
started with larger intervals and now I can hear and sing major seconds. Minor
seconds are still hard.

I also play one note and try to sing an interval above and below. So for
example I play G and try to sing a major third above and a major third below.
I then play those notes and check how close I was. I repeat a couple of times
until I get it right. I do that for different notes and with different
intervals.

I then play a triad and try to hear and sing the three notes. At first I could
only do it for the top note, but then I was able to hear the root note, and
finally after a couple of days I was able to hear and sing the middle note.

------
LessDmesg
Here's how I approach it: forget about all the historic naming like "perfect
fifths" and just think in terms of the modern 12-note equal temperament. Every
note is a number, e.g. 440 Herz = 69, the standard guitar tuning has strings
from 40 to 64, etc. Every interval is an integer, up an octave is +12, major
chord is a triple of {x, x+4, x+7}, minor seventh chord is {x, x+3, x+7, x+10}
etc.

Then, as a the second game-changer, learn the circle of fifths. Start with a
note like C, and keep adding +7 to it. You'll get FCGDAEBF#C#G#D#A# - note how
the sharped notes repeat the pattern of the nonsharped ones, easy to remember.
The "keys" and "modes" stuff is just intervals of seven consecutive notes on
the circle. Say you choose FCGDAEB, that's one key, then every mode is to be
found by choosing one note out of those seven, and hopping over one note until
you play all seven once: e.g. FGABCDE is one mode (Lydian afair), EFGABCD is
another one etc. The "major" and "minor" keys are just different names for two
of those seven modes. Pentatonic scales are those same modes with some notes
omitted. Blues and harmonic minor scales are those same modes with some notes
inserted. Overall modes, not keys or chords are the key to actually composing
music intelligently, so learn them and learn to play them.

This should give you a good start in practical music theory.

~~~
zozbot234
> Here's how I approach it: forget about all the historic naming like "perfect
> fifths" and just think in terms of the modern 12-note equal temperament.

You actually want to learn these names, because they characterize the
_diatonic_ scale. Basically, pick seven contiguous notes on the circle of
fifths, you get the pitch-class set of a diatonic scale. Then put the notes in
the set in pitch order, and pick a tonal center. The default, naïve choice
(pick the "flattest" note as your tonal center) is called Lydian mode. It can
be interesting, but it has a drawback in that it forgoes the subdominant
relationship. Picking the next-to-'flattest' note gives you Ionian, which
solves this (the fourth scale degree forms a "perfect fourth" with the tonic,
which is the flip side of a perfect fifth. Having more notes that can be
related to the tonic makes for more musical possibilities). This is one simple
explanation of the diatonic scale we ordinarily use.

One other quirk that also explains the "weird historic names": in traditional
music theory, sharps and flats are definitely not treated equally, the way
that would be implied by 12-equal temperament. The musically-relevant
distinction is simple enough to explain: taking one example, F# "wants" to
step up to G, whereas Gb "wants" to step down to F. This means that the
"circle of fifths" turns into more of a helix of sorts that can be extended in
both directions, in principle indefinitely. This difference cannot be "heard"
directly; it's all about characterizing how the notes "work" in a piece of
music.

After learning about the diatonic scale degrees, the next sensible step would
be to start learning about counterpoint, which is based on simple definitions
of consonance and dissonance between scale degrees. Then move on to
thoroughbass and harmony.

~~~
ses1984
Why does sharp or flat want to step up or down?

I took a few years of music lessons (granted light on theory) but I never
heard this idea.

Is this exclusive to notes that are not in the current key? For example the f#
in Gmaj doesn't want to step up to G any more than B wants to step up to C in
Cmaj.

~~~
Sharlin
But B _does_ want to step up (or _resolve_ ) to C, the tonic of the C major
scale. Similarly with F# to G in G major.

~~~
ses1984
So is it because it's sharp or flat or is it because of its position relative
to the tonic?

~~~
zozbot234
Yes. (The _local_ tonic, at least. It's no coincidence that the structural
feature which most often results in "extra" sharps and flats, outside the key
signature, is known as "tonicization".)

------
a_lieb
For this, I would highly recommend the music theorist/composer Dimitri
Tymoczko. His career project is to rebuild the basics of harmony from the
ground up from (mostly simple) rules, closely based on how people hear. A
catchphrase he uses a lot is "why does music sound good?"

He teaches a set of 2 comprehensive introductory music theory classes at
Princeton, and he makes the lecture notes public:
[https://dmitri.mycpanel.princeton.edu/teaching.html](https://dmitri.mycpanel.princeton.edu/teaching.html).
These are a really underrated resource and have now grown to be as complete as
a full intro theory textbook.

There is a _serious_ lack of stuff that teaches music theory from the ground
up (how a lot of us hackers like to learn). So much of the confusion around
music theory just comes from most theorists using using old, incredibly crufty
"data structures" to describe music, when the actual material isn't so hard.
Tymoczko is one of the few researchers pushing back on that. He is best known
for his higher-level, mathy research (he wrote the first music theory article
ever published in _Science_ ), but those lecture notes are a great way to get
started for anyone who gets frustrated with learning theory the traditional
way—which is pretty much everyone.

~~~
munificent
It's important to remember that there is no _real_ "bottom-up" when it comes
to music theory. Sure there's a couple of rough audio-acoustic rules like how
simple fractions of frequences sound more harmonious because there's less
beating, but those rules are few and don't get you far.

They're equivalent to noting that, say, vowel sounds with similar formants are
harder to distinguish. That's true, but there's no way to reason up from that
all the way to Shakespeare and Dickens.

The way to look at music theory is that it's like linguistics for sound. It
doesn't say "here are the rules that are required to generate X". It says
"people have already generated X, Y, and Z (using whatever intuitive cultural
processes and/or academic learning they had) and here are the patterns we
observe about the result."

People creating music are not outputting new provable theorems derived
generatively from the axiomatic rules of music theory. Music theory cannot
disprove a song.

People just make stuff they and others like (or don't). And then music
theorists try to find the common threads that link it to better understand how
the world of music fits together. It is descriptive and not prescriptive.

Knowing theory can help you write music because it can take information you
already have in your intuitive "ear" and move it to your front cortex or
somewhere more accessible to your hands. But many other musicians skip this
step entirely and just connect their hands straight to their intuition though
tons of practice. Either path is valid for producing beautiful music.

~~~
eslaught
Expanding on your comment about vowels, I don't think it's fair to say that
music is completely arbitrary in the same way as, say, language. Whereas for
language we can be pretty confident in saying that it really is truly
arbitrary, e.g. see the birth and development of Nicaraguan Sign Language:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaraguan_Sign_Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaraguan_Sign_Language)

To put this another way, two hypothetical languages developed in complete
isolation from each other would be completely different. Two musical
traditions developed in complete isolation would be different, but not
_completely_ different. There is still an underlying theory that unifies them
to some extent. This is why music theory exists as a useful topic of study,
even if it is not sufficient for writing aesthetically pleasing music. Whereas
I know of no equivalent for linguistics: linguistics is truly a descriptive
field, it can only describe what exists, not predict what properties a new
language can/should have.

~~~
PaulDavisThe1st
Your claim about linguistics here is subject a great deal controversy in the
linguistics world. The question of whether there is, for example, a deep
grammar that is shared across all languages, is a matter of long lasting and
deep debate (these days it seems to be leaning to "no", but the debate is not
over).

So... I agree with your point about music, but I'm not sure you're right to
try to contrast it with language in this respect.

------
Tade0
Check out Adam Neely on youtube.

He talks a lot about the _why_ of doing certain things in music.

His step by step "jazzification" of a pop song was an eye opener for me:

[https://youtu.be/lz3WR-F_pnM](https://youtu.be/lz3WR-F_pnM)

~~~
friendlybus
This is good stuff thank you!

------
fxtentacle
I would suggest that you look at the frequency relationships in logarithmic
space. +-2 = one octave, +-3 = C to G, +-5 = C to E.

So if you take any note and then go +0, +3, +5-2 in logarithm, meaning you
calculate f, f _3, f_ 5/2 then you get a major chord.

Once you're working on the frequency ratios like this, you will be able to
spot arrangements that can be mistaken for one chord, even though they
actually are the overtones of something else. That's called
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntonic_comma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntonic_comma)

The basis of good harmonic development is then to travel around the harmonic
space and then to deliberately produce these dual-meaning situations so that
you can use them to jump around in the harmonic space.

As an example, consider F-Major, f#-minor, B-major. Implicitly, you are
replacing the #f-minor with a g-flat-minor, which is why the jump to B-major
then makes harmonic sense.

Or as another example, consider F-Major, f-minor, Db-Major, a#-minor, Gb-
Major. Each pair shares 2 notes in the well-tempered tuning, but by following
this trail you are completely walking out of the C-Major scale that you
started with.

------
rajangdavis
I've played guitar for almost 18 years and bass for roughly 5 years and also
went to community college for theory and private instruction. Since then, I
have recorded, played shows in various genres, and have toured the US and few
places in Canada and Mexico.

You need to be able to find time to synthesize learning how to read music,
playing music that challenges you but is within reach of your ability, ear
training, and music theory.

You don't need to do this in a learning context, but playing with other people
(especially if it's music you are learning) is a great magnifier in my
experience.

I would recommend trying to learn new songs while also learning intervals,
major/minor pentatonic scales, basic modes, scales, modes, chords, and
arpeggios.

Counting rhythms is a little tricky to learn on your own. If you can, I would
take a theory class or 2 to learn this; however, YMMV.

I used to be obsessed with this stuff, but I feel like it's not really
important. It's sort of like the periodic table: you can memorize all of the
factual information, but I would argue that what is really important is
understanding the interaction of various elements. The table is a reference;
it is not chemistry itself.

~~~
ehnto
I imagine it's not really important to you now as you've turned the theory
into an intuitive understanding for music itself, over the years you've been
playing. Do you think you would have the same level of understanding had you
had instead played entirely by ear for all those years, or do you think the
theory helped you connect the concepts you felt better?

~~~
rajangdavis
I feel like theory helped me find the right way to label certain
sounds/harmonies and organize/internalize them in a way that made sense to me.
I don't think I could have figured that out on my own; however, I also had
friends that went to music school, so it's possible I could have just sponged
off of their learning.

------
codenesium
There are lots of complicated answers here. All you need is to be able to
build scales and chords using the circle of 5ths. Just learn how to write out
the notes for a scale like E major. Then learn how to write out the notes for
all of the chords in that key. If you do this and learn how to build scales
and chords everything will start to make sense. I have a music degree. This is
the key. This page is a good start.
[https://www.tempomusicards.com/lessons/chord-formulas-and-
th...](https://www.tempomusicards.com/lessons/chord-formulas-and-the-major-
scale/)

I would also add that to really use theory you have to know the notes on your
instrument. You can know them as audible intervals, letters and written
musical notes. Tab is worthless. I learned to read music for school and it
transformed my knowledge of the instrument.

------
nspeller
I wrote a course on it!

[https://www.lightnote.co/](https://www.lightnote.co/)

It's a bunch of short, interactive lessons to help you visualize the concepts.
Still going strong after about 3 years now.

If you check it out, I'd love to hear your feedback.

~~~
rimliu
I was going to recommend it. I did not go through the course yet, but it seems
very promising and I liked what I saw a lot. Thanks for doing it!

------
NikolaNovak
I'm in similar position; I've "Tinkered" with Guitar for many many years; and
with Piano/Synths more recently; but never gained an actual satisfying deep
level of understanding.

Went through all the typical self-learning resources: Udemy courses, Youtube
videos, books, blogs, tutorials, forums, etc.

In the end I followed the oft-given advice and got a teacher. I was explicit
that I did not want to necessarily follow standard curriculum - I wanted a
music equivalent of a "good math teacher" \- one with enough comfort and
breadth to go places with me if I have questions and explore areas of
interest. I am literally GIDDY with excitement now. The teacher is not my
_sole_ source of knowledge - maybe 30% - but provides direction, explanations,
motivation, ties concepts in, and honestly provides accountability ("I _will_
practice this scale / review this concept before next class") that keeps me
going.

I resisted it for much too long thinking that in this day and age there are
enough resources not to need an old-fashioned teacher; and indeed I wouldn't
recommend an _old-fashioned_ teacher; but a flexible and knowledgeable expert
for completely invaluable for me.

------
jongold
The most important thing is to relate the theory you learn back to your
instrument, and to use your ears as much as your brain.

I have a hunch that so many of my engineer friends are musicians because music
theory is happily systematic - it reminds me a lot of category theory & FP. It
meshes perfectly with my brain at least - but just knowing theory without
_feeling_ it is useless. Learn to feel.

~~~
pmoriarty
_" music theory is happily systematic"_

Funny, when I tried multiple times to learn music theory it seemed very
unsystematic to me, and more like the result of hundreds of years of accretion
by lots of people who thought their own way and did not have any kind of
coherent, overarching system or vision in mind.

If it was more systematic it would have been a whole lot easier to learn.

~~~
ehnto
It is actually pretty systematic, but with edge cases. The trouble I find with
music theory teachings is they don't have systematic approaches at all, they
use brute force memorization and some of the more shallow constructs. When you
dig deeper, you can see the underlying patterns that created the things that
get memorized.

------
jmpy
I really liek this channel
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRDDHLvQb8HjE2r7_ZuNtWA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRDDHLvQb8HjE2r7_ZuNtWA)

A lot of the videos are from a guitar-playing viewpoint, but they explain the
effect of the different music theory concepts.

One change of mindset I had to make from learning maths/compsci to learning
music theory is that starting at first principles is not always helpful. I
found it easier to just accept things like "minor sounds sad" without really
getting why, and keep playing songs and learning at the same time until the
picture gradually fills out.

------
impendia
I took a year-long course in music theory as an undergrad; I loved it, and
learned a great deal!

I recommend sitting in on a university music theory course if it all possible.
But, if not, I can at least recommend the textbook we used: Kostka and Payne's
_Tonal Harmony_. If you want to learn slowly, from the beginning, it's a great
resource.

Our instructor told us that, by the end of the first semester, we would be
writing four-part chorales and that we'd sound like Bach. That sounded
thoroughly ridiculous and I thought he was full of shit. But, no, he was right
-- after a semester I was able to do precisely this.

~~~
zozbot234
Kostka and Payne is not usually recommended. Knowledgeable experts tend to
prefer texts by Laitz, or Aldwell (previously, Aldwell & Schachter). Bear in
mind though that the latter authors do require some 'intellectual' effort, but
this will hopefully pay off in understanding. Kostka and Payne is the sort of
textbook that's preferred by instructors at a music dept, where the students
don't actually care _that_ much about theory - it tends to emphasize unhelpful
trivia, not what's most relevant.

~~~
pgbluster
I taught music theory for 8 years, and we used Laitz. It's a solid textbook.
The book I learned from myself was Walter Piston (!) which is extremely old-
fashioned, but unlike Laitz, Piston worked from a defined 'canon' of classical
music within which his theory was consistent. Laitz tries to incorporate many
different kinds of music, and then he often reaches quite simplistic
conclusions. Kostka and Payne is absolutely fine, though, if you want to know
'enough' and the pedagogical style is excellent.

------
indigochill
Others have posted some good resources like Lightnote which I also recommend
as an introduction. The only one I've gone all the way through, though, has
been Audible Genius
([https://www.audiblegenius.com/](https://www.audiblegenius.com/)). It's
similarly hands-on and only an introduction to the very basics (more material
coming at some point), but it will get you comfortable putting drum, bass, and
lead together for a simple progression over a single root note. Its primary
focus is training your ear to recognize rhythm and intervals and understand
them at an intuitive rather than theoretical level (although the theoretical
stuff will make more sense once you have the basic intuitive sense).

Although it is billed on a monthly basis which I'm not a fan of, I comfortably
completed all the current material in under a month so I found the value very
good and plan to resubscribe once more material is released.

(Tangentially, Audible Genius is from the same guy as Syntorial, which is a
very well-regarded hands-on course in subtractive synthesizer programming
which I also recommend if that's of interest, but that's not directly related
to music theory)

From there, there are tons of other courses that discuss things like chord
progressions which you can combine with this experience to be more deliberate
with your melody and harmony to communicate what you're trying to communicate
with your music.

The Signals Music Studio Youtube channel in particular I find to be
approachable for a theory novice but also inspiring to try new things and
stretch beyond the basics (for instance, dabbling in modes).

------
tarsinge
It really depends on your objectives. If you want to compose pop music
(including rock and electronic music) the risk is to lose yourself in
complicated harmony "rules" that are mostly irrelevant to the style you want
to play (on top of my mind parallel fifths prohibited in classical theory but
they are commonplace in rock/metal) and only useful to analyze classical
pieces.

Personally as a guitarist I kind of hacked my way into music theory to being
able to improvise over and compose pop/rock/electronic by only using intervals
and scale degrees. I can hear chords progressions, I know why a V I cadence
works, can identify and play in modes (dorian, lydian...), but I can't name
the notes so transcribing into a DAW is cumbersome but at least I can compose
freely. Not ideal but considering the minimal time I invested it's a very good
return for me.

Concretely the idea is to focus only on patterns and formulas. The steps would
be to learn to play and hear intervals, then construct chords, e.g. Major
chord is 4+3 semi-tones, minor is 3+4, another +3 is minor 7 or +4 for major
7. Then by using a scale (e.g white notes on the piano for key of C major/A
minor) it's easy to find the chord on each degree. After that learn a few
common chords progressions and being able to identify them in everyday songs
should come naturally. Finally practice composing melodies by targeting chord
tones and you are ready to start composing.

I found this video does a very good job at providing this overview:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgaTLrZGlk0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgaTLrZGlk0)
(edit: the second half of the video).

------
reilly3000
Oh man I've been waiting SO long to say this: get a music degree. I chose to
get a BA in Music instead of a CS degree. I've had many regrets around doing
so for the purposes of getting engineering jobs, but 15 years later I still
have a deep understanding of music theory, history, and acoustics.

That said, self-learning music is both viable and highly enjoyable. Here are
some topics you should probably cover:

\- Scales

\- Modes

\- Rhythm and time signatures

\- Musical notation

\- Chord Progressions / Regressions (this is extremely high value to learn)

\- Chord Voicing (using the same notes in different octaves)

\- Song Forms / Structure

\- Harmonics, resonance, and dissonance (this is all about ratios, and
typically very interesting to those who enjoy maths and physics)

\- Instrumentation, including the practical range of each instrument and
voice.

\- Writing and arranging music.

\- Non-western approaches to all of the above

In terms of the course of learning, I recommend: \- Get lessons from somebody
you respect and enjoy working with. They should be able to help with theory.

\- Learn multiple instruments. Just like learning additional programming
languages, adding another instrument furthers your enlightenment
significantly.

\- Play lots of music with consistent daily frequency.

\- Listen to LOTS of different kinds of music. Listen actively, picking apart
melody, rhythm, chords, and structure. It really helps to transcribe songs you
like to develop a critical ear.

\- Hang out with lots of different musicians.

\- Spend time in a good DAW / digital audio workstation. Like your IDE, it can
help you create music while giving you the power of a good linter and test
suite. Record simple melodies then practice editing them in a Piano Roll view.

\- Music doesn't move fast like programming. Some of the best educational
materials available today are 75+ years old.

\- Improvisation is one of the best paths towards discovery IMHO, but you have
to be learning other musical idioms to expand your own improvisational pallet.

Have fun. Music theory is very enjoyable to study, and any work in that
direction will improve your performance abilities far beyond what you might
expect!

~~~
tunesmith
It might be different now, but I actually found my music degree a net positive
in terms of getting computer jobs. It's probably only true when the job market
is hot, but hiring people tend to respond well - I've gotten lots of comments
from people over the years indicating they've seen a good correlation between
being a musician and being a good programmer.

------
wazoox
I recommend that you follow Kent Hewitt (piano), Adam Neely (bass) and Rick
Beato (guitar) on Youtube. They all talk about various aspect of music theory,
composition, etc. Kent Hewitt is providing more of a full-blown online jazz
course, Rick Beato makes incredibly interesting analyses of songs of all style
(mostly rock) but also talks a lot about scales, harmony, improvising, etc.
Adam Neely is all over the place :)

~~~
einr
Also recommended:

8-bit Music Theory (theory & analysis of video game music in an easy to digest
format)

12-tone (all over the place but always interesting, dissects popular songs
sometimes and also gets into some very weird fringes)

~~~
frabert
Also Signals Music Studios (great practical applications of music theory to
composition)

------
llcoolv
[https://www.hooktheory.com/](https://www.hooktheory.com/)

This is a very good place to start and at least validate that you have the
foundations. I mean both their courses and chord progression/melody database.

Also, playing around with their composer is a very very easy and pleasant way
to actually grok harmony.

Rhythm/dynamics/etc you would need to learn somewhere else, but most people
don't have a problem with that anyway.

Disclaimer: While hooktheory is a better resource than the ones posted by
others, I see that they have started marketing their product as 'Pro'. This
cannot be further from the truth - there is nothing 'Pro' about it - it is
pure schoolboy stuff, it is just very well done.

~~~
dundercoder
I really loved the roman numeral chord theory here. Helped me a ton.

------
Bud
Professional musician here with 30 years' experience.

I recommend my friend David Newman's YouTube channel as a great first start to
learning music theory basics and training your ear. His music theory and ear
training songs are ingenious.

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHJPt4PanqqHQcuUif88o0Q](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHJPt4PanqqHQcuUif88o0Q)

Once your ability to read music is trained up to a basic level, I also
recommend listening to classical music while reading the full orchestral
scores. This can vastly improve your skill levels with reading music. Scores
are available for free online from IMSLP, and in print at very affordable
prices from Dover Publications and others.

------
mathnmusic
I have been collecting links to high-quality learning resources here which you
might find helpful:
[https://learnawesome.org/topics/2a08a6c6-ac26-415d-a6a5-5e1b...](https://learnawesome.org/topics/2a08a6c6-ac26-415d-a6a5-5e1b6bfd3625-music-
theory)

I have also added many links from this thread so that the above becomes one
place to find them all.

------
sagdat
[https://learningmusic.ableton.com](https://learningmusic.ableton.com)

------
shealutton2
Here is what I do. Head to your local university bookstore, and buy the
course-pack for a music theory course. Read the syllabus, borrow the books
from the library and use the materials. You get a structured way to approach
the subject and you do the legwork to learn it. It usually costs ~< $100 to
get knowledge worth much more.

------
klodolph
My hot take: HN is probably one of the worst places to ask for advice on music
theory, because it has a fairly high concentration of people who reject
traditional music theory and want to come up with their own system. In
general, these people haven’t gotten very far in making up their own system,
so their advice is pretty worthless! My other hot take is that the existing
system of musical notation and terminology that we have is actually pretty
good, and it’s hard to figure out ways to improve it.

Music theory is a pretty broad subject and there are a ton of pathways through
music theory that take you to different parts of it. I would start by trying
to figure out a “map” of the different parts you are interested in.

Almost any course will start with major/minor diatonic scales, then intervals,
and then chords. If you combine notes with rhythm, you get a melody. If you
combine chords together, you get harmony. Figuring out how harmony works
usually starts with “functional harmony” which is where you learn about
tonic/dominant/subdominant chords and cadences. The main gotcha here is that
there are a couple competing systems for writing names of chords, and you
should at least be aware of them so you’re not surprised by a “V6 chord”
because that name means two different things depending on which system you
use.

This gives you a pretty good foundation for understanding music or writing
your own. It’s also not too hard to get this far on your own. Music will still
seem mysterious and weird, but that’s normal.

From there you can go in a bunch of directions—there’s atonal music, jazz,
traditional counterpoint, nonfunctional harmony, modes, alternative scales,
alternative tunings, etc.

I recommend the book _The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis._
Personally, I would go through the first chapters until it introduces strict
counterpoint, and then consider the rest of the book as a “menu” that you can
read in any order (kind of). For the second edition, that means doing chapters
1-8, and then you can feel free to skip around chapters 9+. Don’t just follow
the book with pencil and paper, actually play the exercises on a real
instrument and train your ear (and get an ear training app, if you think it
will help).

Finally, I recommend buying a stack of staff paper from the local stationary
store. It shouldn’t be hard to find. Alternatively, you can use a computer
program to write music, but the choices are a bit intimidating. I’m using
Dorico these days but it’s $100. Don’t rely on tabs if you want to improve
theory. Tabs are cheat sheets for performance, they make theory and analysis
harder.

~~~
zozbot234
> Alternatively, you can use a computer program to write music, but the
> choices are a bit intimidating.

MuseScore is free and open source. Totally fine for casual use.

~~~
pgcj_poster
When they say that a program is "intimidating," most people are talking about
the user interface and the learning curve, not the license.

------
atomack
Maybe I'm a luddite but I used books.

Any book on common practice harmony will help with most pop/rock and classical
up to 20th century. I used Harmony by Piston and happily recommend it. For
some jazz theory The Jazz Piano Book by Levine was good for me.

~~~
abruzzi
Agreed. I loved Piston, with the caveat that his book is about the "Common
Practice Period". It will teach you the standard approach to harmony used in
the 18th and 19th century. But its a grounding that helps to make all the post
19th century developments in harmony make sense.

------
smoe
I had a similar problem. In my opinion Blogs and tutorials are great for the
very beginning and probably for specific advanced/obscure topics. I picked up
interesting bits and pieces about theory and their application on Youtube from
12Tone, Ben Levin, Adam Neely, Nahre Sol, Sideways, David Bruce and 8-Bit
Music Theory which are all great educational and thoughtful channels.

But what I was missing was a coherent path from beginner to more advanced
levels without having to cobble it together myself which wouldn't work well
because I don't know what I don't know.

I endend up buying bundles of the 12-part (and growing I think) "Music Theory
Comprehensive" course on Udemy and it has been amazing value for the money so
far.

[https://www.udemy.com/course/music-theory-
complete/](https://www.udemy.com/course/music-theory-complete/)

I think one should start music theory with some free basic introductions that
are everywhere to see whether you actually enjoy learning about it. After that
I reckon the best way forward is to put some money down for either books or
courses.

------
scrdhrt
This is a great resource:

[https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/the-whole-
enchila...](https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/the-whole-enchilada-
set.pdf)

------
GistNoesis
I'd like to expand on the complementary facet that has not yet been approached
here. The physics/signal theory behind of it. It's a great way to learn for
scientifically inclined people. Try looking at how instruments are made, and
where does sound come from. Look at experimental instruments like waterphone,
bells, violins, strings, drums, winds, animal noises, natural sounds,
electronic music...

Try looking at the way the waves propagate and interfere, learn about
acoustics and how physical objects respond to incoming sounds by vibrating
themselves at specific frequencies which depend on their geometries.

This approach will give you the basis blocks upon which generations of
musicians have built a language and cultural norms that also take into account
understanding the listener and its emotions.

Try to find something which interests you and dig as deep as you like.

------
bodeadly
The simplified method: Take a guitar and transpose each mode to E. So start
with Phrygian since it's natrual key is E. But then transpose Dorian from D
down to E. Forget the key. Just learn the modes but from E. THEN, make up
chords for each note of each mode. For example, for Mixolydian you can make E,
F#m, A, Bm, C#m and D (and a weird G# - there's always a weird chord). Once
you memorize the 7 modes, you can deconstruct pretty much any song. Fool
around playing chords of a mode and you'll start to hear familiar note
patterns. Switch modes (especially for the "weird" chord) and things get very
interesting. You don't even have to learn all of the modes. I used 4-5 almost
exclusively. Of course it does create a communication problem if you normalize
everything to 5 modes and de-emphasize the key.

------
nerdomancer
This is probably not what you are looking for, but for beginners visiting this
page. This website gives you a nice start and shows how old hits can be
played:
[https://learningmusic.ableton.com/](https://learningmusic.ableton.com/)

------
anxtyinmgmt
The University of Edinburgh has a decent free course on Coursera:
[https://www.coursera.org/learn/edinburgh-music-
theory/home/w...](https://www.coursera.org/learn/edinburgh-music-
theory/home/welcome)

------
jv_dh
These are the notes that are used to teach Harmony at Berklee:
[http://valdez.dumarsengraving.com/PDFmusic/Berkleeharmony/Ha...](http://valdez.dumarsengraving.com/PDFmusic/Berkleeharmony/Harmony1.PDF)

------
atopos
I'm joining this conversation late. As a professional musician and music
teacher, though, I think that a couple of methodological recommendations could
help.

Whatever the tools (books, websites, etc) you use, never learn anything that
your ear can fully grasp. For instance, in learning Harmony, many apprentices
forget to put first their ear on the thing. Instead, they take an exercise as
a puzzle or abstract problem, just a matter of only applying the rules. Just
don't do this.

The second advise is as important as the first one. Learn basically from the
masters. I do really learnt what matters when I see and hear what the best
composers are always doing. Books are fine only with the real music in the
horizon.

------
tiniuclx
12tone's YouTube channel is amazing, especially his Building Blocks playlist:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTOOWe_yLwY&list=PLMvVESrbjB...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTOOWe_yLwY&list=PLMvVESrbjBWplAcg3pG0TesncGT7qvO06)

I'm also working on Harmony Explorer - a CLI tool that lets you hear any
chord. It's brilliant for seeing what a chord progression sounds like before
taking the time to play it on your instrument of choice:
[https://github.com/tiniuclx/harmony-
explorer](https://github.com/tiniuclx/harmony-explorer)

------
erik_p
Andrew Huang's Music Theory in 30 minutes is a pretty good starting point:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgaTLrZGlk0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgaTLrZGlk0)

------
billfruit
This isn't even vaguely related, but as someone who has never dabbled in music
but had a bit of skill at drawing/painting, I have always wondered if there
was some scheme to explain and produce music visually by drawing or painting.
For example in such a scheme one would compose a piece of music by creating an
aesthetically pleasing drawing in that visual formalism, rather than by how it
sounds to the ear as musicians do. Essentially a scheme of music creation
directed by the eye rather than ear. Is there something like that out there?

~~~
stazz1
Somewhat relevant, Lissajous Curves are a way of turning ratios of the
Interval into oscilloscopic lines

------
elldoubleyew
If you're okay with learning on a guitar Ben Levin's* "Music Theory from the
Ground Up is an excellent series. He breaks down everything into really small
pieces and its a lot of fun to learn from him.

Heres a link to the YouTube playlist
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3yqUeiMn_g&list=PLJTWoPGfHx...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3yqUeiMn_g&list=PLJTWoPGfHxQH5zdZN6UlMPwZerVApkqmk)

*I am in no way affiliated with this guy, and to my knowledge he does not charge for any of his lessons anyways.

~~~
zeroxfe
Ben Levin is an incredible guitar player.

------
tchaffee
My music school provides free theory classes if you take any weekly class to
learn how to play an instrument. The professors teaching you an instrument
know what theory you are learning - so they will then include that in the
music you are learning to play so you can see the theory in practice. If you
want to learn quickly, a good music school is going to be hard to beat. I'm
basing this on having tried teaching myself online and having had many private
teachers. Both of which work, but just a lot slower and with more limitations.

------
mrbrowning
I have a music degree but have also engaged in a lot of self-study, so
hopefully I can still make good recommendations for someone interested in
learning on their own. The general approach I'd recommend is trampolining
between on-paper theory and ear training, with the specific goal at each stage
being the ability to identify by listening the structures that you're learning
about on paper. The text I'd recommend is Aldwell's Harmony and Voice Leading,
which is very focussed on the techniques of classical Western concert music
but is still, along with its exercises, the best bet I can think of for
building a solid foundation of knowledge that you can bring to other musical
styles.

The most important thing I can recommend while starting out is to focus your
ear training on hearing scale degrees (e.g., if I play a C major chord and
then play a random note from the C major scale, you should be able to identify
which note that is out of C, D, E, F, G, A or B). A lot of naive ear training
resources recommend learning to hear intervals (e.g. a perfect 5th, which is
the interval between C and G or E and B), but intervals only really have
meaning in the context of a key, and so understanding them in that context is
much more important. A good app for training with this on iOS is Politonus:
it'll play a few chords to establish a key, and then it'll play a random note
from the key and prompt you to guess which one it was. As you improve with
this, you can have it play multiple notes at a time, or even notes outside of
the key.

------
pfarrell
This video “8 Facts About the Circle of Fifths You May Not Already Know” has a
click-baity title and the most clear, simple, understandable description of
why the Circle is like the periodic table of music. Highly recommend watching
it. Even just see the guy’s circle of fifths tattoo.

[https://youtu.be/50CpDZvTWks](https://youtu.be/50CpDZvTWks)

------
abraCadabstrax
Well, whose theory? If you wanna see some deep stuff, look no further than Al-
Farabi. But if you want more tempered things that feed into the achievement
culture, this thread is full of good suggestions. You could also go to a used
book store and just read old fake books. They usually had a primer or two as
to what's going on.

As for the good Western harmony? I personally just watch Ted Greene geek out
on the guitar. You could pick up his book Modern Chord Progressions and try a
few of his voicings--they're angelic. Chick Corea and Barry Harris have also
published extensively on different aspects of music theory. Both have monster
ears and an elegance for explaining. I also dig the whole Almir Chediak
"Songbook" series published by Lumiar editions. He's literally the guy that
transcribed the book on Brazilian music.

Stephen Feld's explanation of the "lift-up-and-over" prosody of Kaluli weeping
ceremonies may, however, just give you a sense of the many beautiful theories
of music might you or I learn.

------
tomduncalf
The Waay iOS app provides a nice intro:
[https://www.tenkettles.com/](https://www.tenkettles.com/)

There are a couple of books aimed towards electronic music producers I thought
were quite good, this one is fairly short but to the point with some good
examples of real world uses of the topics it covers:
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Theory-Electronic-
Producers-p...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Theory-Electronic-Producers-
progressions/), this one is more comprehensive:
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Computer-Musicians-
Michael-H...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-
Hewitt/)

Years ago (like 20 years ago), I remember printing off a really cool website
which had an intro to music theory, I think it was called something like
Lizard’s Guide to Music Theory, but that must be wrong as there are no hits -
does that ring any bells for anyone?!

~~~
gavinheavyside
The Ravenspiral guide?

[https://www.scribd.com/doc/5220863/Ravenspiral-Guide-to-
Musi...](https://www.scribd.com/doc/5220863/Ravenspiral-Guide-to-Music-Theory)

~~~
tomduncalf
That's the one! Amazing, thanks very much, I'm impressed you got that from my
description haha

------
brylie
Kate and Ray Harmony have an excellent YouTube channel and free ebooks under
the moniker Hack Music Theory

[https://hackmusictheory.com/home](https://hackmusictheory.com/home)

[https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCDKiHSPstsj0silp519gt6w](https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCDKiHSPstsj0silp519gt6w)

------
sansnomme
There are two ways of learning music: by ear and by sight. The first way is
often (but not always) associated with or referred to as the "jazz way" in
Western music. Either way works if you just want to play the music, the main
use for theory is composing music. (And to sound vaguely intelligent when
dissecting a piece of music but by itself that has little value unless you
work in a conservatory or art museum) There are plenty of YouTube channels
that teaches the core concepts of music theory. E.g. 8-bit Music Theory.

Let's be real here, there's no way to truly learn music theory without
practicing. It's like math, algorithms, you don't have to learn it to compose
(if you are talented you can easily cruise on raw talent) but you have to
practice with pen and paper (or computer or instrument) to actually learn it.
Many replies here focus on the mathematical patterns and relations, they are
useful observations but ultimately has little bearing on the actual usage of
theory.

~~~
palimpsests
another main use for theory is to communicate about musical concepts, for
example, a lead sheet in jazz:

gø | C alt | f-∆

or, to abstract this further:

ii ø | V alt | i-∆

~~~
sansnomme
Those are the ASCII notation for lead sheets?

~~~
palimpsests
no, these are chord progressions using standard notation in jazz lead sheets.
they both show a version of a very common and foundational progression called
a "two five one" or ii-V-I.

the first shows this progression in the key of F minor (really, F melodic
minor if you want to get into it).

the second describes this progression in roman numeral scale degrees, useful
for transcribing this progression to any key.

either are going to be pretty much second nature for all players except for
those at the beginning stages of their playing.

ø = half-diminished, or m7b5, comprised of scale degrees 1, b3, b5, b7

-∆ = minor-major, or mM, comprised of scale degrees 1, b3, 5, 7

alt = altered, or altered dominant. this type of harmony is ubiquitous in jazz
since the 60s. one of the most straightforward ways to look at this is through
melodic minor scale modal theory. the "locrian" scale in this mode, or mode
built on the seventh note in the (ascending version of this) scale, gives
scale degrees:

1, b2, b3, 3, b5, b6, b7

or, in the language of the upper structures used in jazz:

1, b9, #9, 3, #11, b13, b7

note the presence of the 3rd and the flattened 7th - these are the core
elements of a dominant chord. all of these other notes, with the exception of
the root, are "altered" e.g. raised or lowered by a half step from their
original position, relative to the major scale.

this mode is often referred to as the "super locrian" mode.

there are dozens of options for voicing an altered dominant chord, "alt" is
very general notation. when a player sees this, the context, their ear, their
experience, whatever other information there is in the song, will inform what
they actually play. at this point is where getting into some listening would
be quite helpful!

------
DavidPiper
[https://www.musictheory.net](https://www.musictheory.net) is an excellent
resource for getting started, and for maintaining practice.

There's also the Music Student 101 podcast, which many people recommend highly
(I've only listened to a few episodes).

The musictheory subreddit is also one of the best subs I've found, for all
levels.

~~~
sigstoat
musictheory.net is an excellent site, and buried distressingly far down this
comment page.

you can just click on the link and read for half an hour and you’ll have more
practical understanding than you’ll ever squeeze out of all of the comments
here that purport to tell you the one critical concept that makes it all fit
together. (or the ones that want to tell you how all the existing terminology
is dumb and should be replaced. ugh.)

------
MisterOctober
Former musician here --

A big +1 to the suggestion about ear training; I sure wish I'd pursued it more
seriously and earlier -- probably no other activity can transform one's
understanding and ability to the degree ear training can, not to mention it
makes one _much_ more able to play + improvise in a group setting --

Finding a beginning book / course / etc that engagingly + logically shows the
relationships between scales and chords, modes, etc, and addresses some
aspects of rhythm, was immensely helpful for me -- if it uses your instrument,
so much the better -- mine was Richard Chapman's "The Complete Guitarist"

Once you have the basics in hand, there are a lot of elucidating paths
available to follow, but one book on counterpoint that absolutely _turned my
head around_ is Joseph Fux' "Steps to Parnassus" also called "The Study of
Counterpoint" \-- total lightbulb --

I also strongly recommend Aaron Copland's "How to Listen to Music"

------
mial
The book "Music Theory for Computer Musicians" has helped me a lot. It is
quite easy to find as a PDF file online.

~~~
elymar
I second this. Great beginner's resource.

------
rocheio
I helped bridge the gap in my own guitar playing from “can play tabs” to “can
vamp and improvise from a scale” by making / using a random tab generator:
[https://www.asciitabs.com/random](https://www.asciitabs.com/random)

I think building the site helped more than using it... breaking the concepts
down into code helped me to see the broader patterns and abstractions more
than just reading about it.

I also like forcing arbitrary constraints during practice. Can you make a
simple song from only firsts and fifths in one key? Now add in sevens. Then do
a key change every 8 measures (but same pattern). Now invert part of the
pattern during the key change. Etc...

That kind of practice helped me intuitively understand what sounded good and
what didn’t, which helped me finally grok the theory / vocab i was reading
online but didn’t really get before then

------
swiley
If you want something structured like a math book, I learned from Walter
Piston’s “Harmony.” I can’t find a place to pirate it (actually I did find an
incredibly low quality scan somewhere after a week of searching) but it’s not
an expensive book. I found it used (signed by “dean Howard” I think) while
wandering around in my favorite book store in Lynchburg (Lynchburg and
Charlottesville both have amazing small bookstores if you live in VA I would
totally recommend checking them out.)

I think the only thing you’ll need to know going into it is how to read sheet
music.

It doesn’t really go too much into counterpoint or melody if I remember
correctly, for those there are couple YouTube channels I ended up watching
that are pretty much just a narrator analyzing other people’s music:

1) 8bit music theory

2) Richard Atkinson

There are others but those are my favorites.

------
ternaryoperator
I hired a tutor. Even with weekly lessons for 2+ years, it required a lot of
sustained effort and dedication. Like most everything in music, it requires a
lot of practice and there are no real shortcuts.

Nonetheless, you can definitely teach yourself the basics via books and the
websites recommended below. But once you want to go past the basics, you're
going to want some kind of expert/teacher/tutor to ask questions of and to
review composition exercises, so that you can understand harmony, voice
leading, etc.

That being said, if you're a musician, learning music theory is _enormously_
helpful. You understand what you're seeing on the printed page as much more
than a series of notes and chords, and your musical intelligence as you listen
is greatly increased. Good luck!

------
fauria
If you speak Spanish, I would highly recommend Jaime Altozano's YouTube
channel:
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrNRWzkImhnyDJYrUe2h0...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrNRWzkImhnyDJYrUe2h0KgpuPu4ovQKp)

------
sailfast
I haven't watched the whole thing but this lesson from Barry Harris (and the
whole Lincoln Center Jazz Academy) is pretty great for thinking about harmony,
solos, and improvisation / voicing:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8JJncSUdUU&list=PLReW5Mv77O...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8JJncSUdUU&list=PLReW5Mv77OKDMfbhJlOJHfA37id6t1BoL)

I've also enjoyed the Leonard Bernstein Norton lectures at Harvard in terms of
overall theory of why things sound good to our ears:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fHi36dvTdE&list=PLKiz0UZowP...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fHi36dvTdE&list=PLKiz0UZowP2V0mwtNv1lc1_zUSB2O65d7)

------
ehnto
I'm learning by slowly building a music theory site, or rather a site that
understands music theory so that I can ask it questions I sometimes find hard
to answer online.

The first part is a chord namer, it's live but not perfect, there are many
like it, but this is mine (I'll link below).

The second step which I'm part way through is creating a model to describe
musical scales based on patterns from the root note. You might have read for
example, that Major Scales all have the same pattern starting from the root
note, which is Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half.

We can represent that in code as an array of integer counts of half steps, eg:
[2,2,1,2,2,2,1]. From here, we can take an array of the note names, [ C,
C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab, A, A#/Bb, B ], then start on the index
of the root note of the Major Scale we want. Lets do that by removing the
notes not in the pattern below. We end up with the C Major scale:

[ C, -, D, -, E, F, -, G, -, A, -, B ](Returning to C for the final step in
the pattern)

You can do this starting from any note, using that pattern, and end up with
the right scale.

I was surprised to learn that while there are some edge cases, a huge portion
of musical scales follow a pattern you can use to generate a named scale from
the root note. It works for Major, Minor, Pentantonic scales, Harmonic Minor,
Melodic Minor and so on.

This was a breakthrough for my understanding of music, and made me realize
that memorizing scales is more about memorizing scale patterns, which
drastically decreases the amount you need to memorize and lets you use
foundational building blocks rather than arbitrary knowledge to play.

Another breakthrough for me while building the chord finder, was noticing that
much of music theory is like that. It's all about learning the building blocks
and applying it in real time, so that it sticks in your memory. All major
chords are made of the same pattern, so if you have the root note, the major
scale pattern, and the major chord pattern, you can quickly figure out any
major chord, and later any complex chords, from there.

Chord progressions are the same! They follow patterns based on the scale. So
when people say learning scales is important, they're not being preachy, it's
because they are the basis for all music theory patterns.

[https://whichchordisthis.com/](https://whichchordisthis.com/)

------
pocket_titan
I'm a huge fan of [http://openmusictheory.com/](http://openmusictheory.com/).
It's succinct, comprehensive and utilizes examples where relevant (such as
songs through embedded vimeo players - not exactly revolutionary, but it's
something a book can't offer). Did I mention it's open source?

EDIT: I also really like this YouTube series:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdEcLQ_RQPY&t=74s&ab_channel...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdEcLQ_RQPY&t=74s&ab_channel=CaseyConnor).
The videos are relatively short, so if you like fast-paced high-density videos
then you should enjoy this format.

~~~
zozbot234
OMT is a good resource, but it seems to have gone unmaintained
[https://github.com/openmusictheory/openmusictheory.github.io](https://github.com/openmusictheory/openmusictheory.github.io)
Someone should either get in touch with the authors or fork the project.

------
pgbluster
It really depends what you're trying to achieve. Music is like language. If
you want to write a novel that's different from if you want to visit as a
tourist. If you're interested in Jazz theory, then don't get a textbook on
classical theory (Analogy: if you want to learn Portuguese, don't study
Spanish instead, even if knowing Spanish will help). If you want to compose
original music, you don't need music theory. If you want to compose in a
particular style, then study that style and its conventions. If you want to
talk with other music theory people, err... why in the hell would you ever
want to do that? It will bring you no joy and will take over your life
nonetheless.

~~~
pgbluster
This sounds like a very flip answer, but I'm serious. tl;dr: not all music
theory is the same, and beware of 'universal' approaches that claim to explain
all music. What do you want to achieve?

------
Megranium
I'd say if you want to make it last learn how to apply it.

Music theory is one of these things I learned multiple times (even as a minor
in University) and forgot multiple times.

The theory I learned, though, was never really relevant to my artistic work,
whether it was playing guitar music or making electronic music. Whenever I
tried writing something based on the theory I learned, I found it to be super
boring. Thus, to this day, music theory doesn't make a lot of "sense" to me.

Thus, I'd say if you want to learn music theory, try to make it part of a
creative process. Learn something new and try to write a little piece based on
that, and so on. That way, it gives you creative tools instead of just being
boring.

~~~
scottious
> Whenever I tried writing something based on the theory I learned, I found it
> to be super boring. Thus, to this day, music theory doesn't make a lot of
> "sense" to me.

I personally don't think theory should be used in this way, but it is very
tempting to try to use it this way.

I think of theory as just a naming system and a way to chunk information. It's
DESCRIPTIVE, not PRESCRIPTIVE. When composing your ear should guide you first
and foremost and theory should just kind of be in the background... if you're
fluent in theory then it's just kind of there gently assisting you when you
arrange/compose/perform.

So for example, I might hear something in your head and play it at the piano
and think "I like that... good starting point". In the background my brain
says "I iii vi6 ii7 V with melody: mi re mi sol do mi re mi sol do do re do re
(etc)" that's all completely automatic for me, I get it for free. It's like
this automatic connection between what I hear in my head and what to label it
and they kind of feed off of each other (if that makes sense)

------
kfrzcode
There are a lot of very technical and quite good answers already, so I'll add
a different piece of advice: play with others as much as possible. I realize
you are specifically looking for theory advice, but even so - music theory is
only contextually useful when applied. If you strictly want to compose or
analyze, surely the grammar and syntax of the language will be imperative for
you to master. However if you're looking to be a better _player_ , absolutely
nothing else compares to having conversations with others. Music is the purest
language, a distinctly human form of expression, and as whole is much more
than the current meta-theory-craft. Alas, I digress.

------
tonfreed
I learned it from my guitar teacher as an adult. Started with scales and ear
training, then onto what chords were, modes and then chord substitutions and
things like that. Most of the weird stuff I know about music comes from
YouTube videos, though, and I'd recommend Adam Neely or Rick Beato because
they'll probably have a video in their catalogues that you'll enjoy.

Learning the basics will be boring, not going to mince my words on it. Treat
it like a pattern exercise, since that's what most of it is. The theory is
stupidly dry, as useful as it can be, but I don't think there's really any
other way to learn it beyond wrote learning.

------
DanielBMarkham
Can you play your instrument? By that, I mean can you think up your own song
(perhaps by hearing it on the net or something) and then sit down and play? If
you're a pianist, at least at first, that'll probably involve some sort of
arpeggio in the left hand (that's the rolling or rhythmic motion that
underpins a lot of music)

If you can do that, you have an entry into music theory that will resonate
much better. In our piano example, what are the cords you're playing? Learn
how to chart them out.

Then keep playing.

Over time, you'll develop a feel for how chords and notes work together. As
you develop that feel, go back to music theory and see what the official names
for what you're doing. Then you get to learn tonics, and how V7s "feel right"
resolving into tonics, and so forth. But you really need to already know it,
in your bones. Otherwise it's just so much math.

As I was learning piano, I was required to read a lot of music theory. I guess
I got it, but I didn't really get it. It was just a bunch of patterns. When I
stopped playing for other people, relaxed and started just playing for myself,
I got it. I understood the material in such a fashion as not to think about
it. Now if I'm riffing on some stuff, I might feel for an augmented minor II
or something, and I'll recognize that's what I'm doing. I can tell you the
name. But unless I'm in a weird key (perhaps doing realtime key transposition)
I don't sit back and do the math in my head as I play. I have a subconscious
mastery. Note: although I took lessons for 12 years, I'm no expert. I don't
even play the piano anymore. I play _at_ the piano, that is, I use the piano
to sing. But it was that mental relaxation that was necessary for me to have
all of the pieces come into place.

The wrong way, for me at least, was thinking that music theory was some kind
of programming language, where you start with patterns and work towards songs.
If I had mastered my instrument, yeah, but that would be after many more years
of playing. You don't construct music, you feel it. If you're Beethoven, you
can do both. I'm not Beethoven.

Hope that helps!

------
josephorjoe
As someone who has spent too much time on music theory and not nearly enough
time on learning to play songs, I'd congratulate you for doing this in the
right order.

I've mostly learned music theory by a haphazard procedure of following my
interests, which I would not recommend. :p

But one concept that really opened my eyes when I was learning music theory
(from the perspective of a not-so-good guitar player) was how "everything" can
be built from a scale, or more precisely -- a pattern for spacing a set of
notes.

So, C major scale:

C D E F G A B C

half tones between 3rd/4th notes and 7th/8th notes. whole tones everywhere
else. Begin with any other note, and follow that pattern, and you have the
major scale for that root note:

D E F# G A B C# D

G A B C D E F# G

F G A Bb C D E F

Write any major scale vertically, then next to it rewrite it beginning with
the 3rd note then again with the 5th note. Read it horizontally and you have
the primary chords in the key for that scale

CEG c major

DFA d minor

EGB e minor

FAC f major

GBD g major

ACE a minor

BDF b minor flat 5 (i think... was always fuzzy on this one)

Of those chords, the famous "3 chords" for a folk/blues/rock song will be the
1st, 4th, and 5th (the 3 majors) with the 6th (relative minor) or sometimes
the 2nd or 3rd thrown in fairly often as an extra or replacement.

Write another vertical column there starting on the 7th note and you will get
the notes in the 7th chords for the key (although rock/blues traditionally
will use some variations on those).

"Rotate" that list to begin with a note other than C and you are defining a
new mode (and there is one for each possible starting note). Begin with A and
you have the Aelion mode (aka A Minor).

The pentatonic scales are just subsets of this scale (e.g., minor pentatonic
is the minor scale without the 2nd and 6th notes, so ABCDEFGA becomes ACDEGA)

------
colund
Lear to play chords and scale modes based off of C major. Raise and lower
notes and see what happens. Read any book or website on music theory. It's not
rocket science. I meanmajor/minor scales have 7 notes. And there are only 12
notes in different octaves to choose from and combine in pleasing ways. Don't
limit yourself by theory but study it to grow.

I recommend studying the basics in any book and also watch Barry Harris on
YouTube when you understand the basics to get some cool a-ha moments.
[https://youtu.be/F8JJncSUdUU](https://youtu.be/F8JJncSUdUU)

------
samvher
There is a Yale course that covers quite some of it:
[https://oyc.yale.edu/music/musi-112/lecture-1](https://oyc.yale.edu/music/musi-112/lecture-1)

------
burmer
In college, but now I try to stay with it. If you’re thinking classical,
writing simple 4-part harmonies over a melody line or studying simple scores
could be good. Try to learn about one new chord/progression/cadence at a time
working from basic to esoteric and look for examples of how it’s used or
figure out his to use it yourself in simple harmonies. I don’t have a good
example textbook, but I’m sure you could find something. To me, being able to
pick out certain chords or bass notes by ear is the coolest part, so maybe
just follow whats motivating you in the first place.

------
marcAKAmarc
Before I knew very much music theory, I tried building a music generator. I
learned TONS of music theory along the way, and the generator project sort of
served as a testing ground for new concepts that I've learned, as well as a
driving force that compelled me to learn about new aspects of theory in order
to make improvements to the generator.

This is definitely not the most efficient way to learn music theory, but for
me it always helps to have a project running alongside whatever I'm studying
in order to immediately reap the benefits of new knowledge.

------
yodsanklai
I would recommend this book from Keith Wyatt who is a _great_ guitar teacher.

[https://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Theory-Essential-Musicians-
In...](https://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Theory-Essential-Musicians-
Institute/dp/0793579910)

I went through a lot of resources and this is the one that worked for me.

My advice would be to pick one good source, stick to it, and _spend time_ to
learn the material. It's easy but one has to devote some time and work. Use a
pen and paper, do the exercices, be focused.

------
avetisk
You should definitely check reddit
[https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/](https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/)

There are specific resources given for beginners.

Personally I went with the large The Complete Musician by Laitz as most
recommended it, and I’m quite happy with my choice.

It goes very deeply into all aspects of playing and composing music as well as
understanding it.

The style Is a bit academic but the overall level is quite accessible and very
clear.

------
deltron3030
I've stumbled upon a music teacher on Reddit and YT with a very different
approach to music theory. He basically builds something like a framework
around music theory that makes it more intuitive to learn.

Here one of his free videos that got me interested:

[https://invidio.us/watch?v=v7l6Y6fTPDw](https://invidio.us/watch?v=v7l6Y6fTPDw)

or

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=v7l6Y6fTPDw](https://youtube.com/watch?v=v7l6Y6fTPDw)

------
kolleykibber
I would highly recommend How Music Works by John Powell. I've been playing
piano since I was a kid, but, being technical, having music explained in
scientific terms was the one thing that really upped my game. Everything
before this book always seemed like religious teaching and I could never
really find a place for the knowledge to hang on to in my mind.

There's also a book with the same name by David Byrne, but I can't comment on
that one.

~~~
wedowhatwedo
The David Byrne book is great but it doesn't cover music theory. It covers
music in general with a focus on how the music industry works. I highly
recommend it but it will not teach music theory.

------
jdmoreira
I'm reading the book at
[https://www.howmusicreallyworks.com](https://www.howmusicreallyworks.com)

It has been really helpful to me

~~~
coldpie
I'll throw in a 2nd recommendation for this. It's a great starting point to
learn the basics and the terminology, which will then unlock a lot of other
resources.

------
lwhalen
I use Edlys Music Theory for Practical People with my students.

Don't discount the ability to fast-track your progress with a good teacher,
too.

------
jressey
Lots of people are talking about reading, but I think ear training,
particularly interval identification, is the fundamental skill to
understanding music theory. You ultimately want to map combinations of
frequencies to emotions, and that can only be done with the ear.

The 'theory' part is important too, so follow any of the advice of these other
folks.

------
haywirez
There are endless resources, but the most important thing is to pursue the
playful goal-free explorative learning part of it first. Just discover
relationships between pitches and sounds yourself. (It’s not the same, as
pitch is a perceived quality.) Also worth to study Debussy scores and check
harmonic constructs note-by-note, later.

------
adrianledger
The Music Of Miles Davis by Lex Giel
[http://amzn.eu/157pL3z](http://amzn.eu/157pL3z) Ear opener and enough theory
to understand the compositions and solos of the master. Pleasant to read and
whatever your level, if you reached the end, you have dug deeper into music
theory.

------
scottious
Oh man, I've been learning and studying music theory for the past SEVEN YEARS.

TLDR: I think the single best way to learn music theory is to learn to play
piano, and work with a teacher on weekly lessons. Do a harmonic analysis of
every single song you learn and check it over with your teacher. THERE IS
SIMPLY NO SUBSTITUTE FOR LEARNING WITH A TRAINED AND EDUCATED MUSICIAN. I
learned this the hard way.

> [I] have never been able to sift through a vast array of music theory blogs
> and tutorials to find something that made sense.

I like to think of music theory as a LANGUAGE. Sifting through blogs and
tutorials is kinda like googling "how do I learn Chinese?" yeah there's
probably a lot of resources out there but it's not going to feel very
productive to just dive in in this way. You wouldn't feel confident about
learning Chinese using online resources so why would you feel confident
learning music theory in this way?

The real problem with trying to learn from online resources on your own is
that there's no feedback... you will absolutely have gaps in your knowledge
and persistent misinformation that cannot be corrected because nobody is
monitoring your progress.

Also learning from online resources can often feel hollow. For example, I can
teach ANYBODY what a major scale is in 15 minutes. However, to truly and
deeply understand the major scale can take years, it's more than just the
rules about how to construct one. You have to really go over ideas many times
and a teacher will be able to know your strengths and weaknesses and how to
improve.

If you learn piano from the ground up (use a book series like Alfred's Adult
All-In-One) with a teacher, I guarantee that after those 3 books (which will
take years to get through), you will have a decent grasp on theory. Don't try
to tackle these books on your own, there's a lot of stuff that's not
explicitly covered in these books. If you try to tackle it on your own I
guarantee you that you will not get the full benefit and you will very likely
teach yourself incorrect technique and you will be left with a lot of
misinformation. You need to do harmonic analysis of every song with a teacher
and get comfortable doing them yourself.

------
arvinsim
I have tried learning music theory and got as far as learning how to construct
scales and chords.

For me, the theory was fairly easy. But it was still hard for me to translate
theory to actually composing music.

It did help me in a way to narrow down the notes to play. But it left me
feeling that I am missing something.

------
sheinsheish
Rick Beato on YouTube. Look no further.

------
suhail
What I’ve done:

Hooktheory is more modern:
[https://www.hooktheory.com/books](https://www.hooktheory.com/books)

Learn an instrument & go through the level 1-5 theory books. Be sure to play
the notes while you work through the book.

Make songs & apply what you’ve learned.

------
abannin
Music theory is really a domain specific language. Like all languages (not
programming), the only way to really learn is to converse with others. I don't
think you can learn theory alone, it only makes sense when you talk about
music using music theory with other musicians.

------
h13g
There's a great tutorial from Decypher Media (who's a software developer I
think).

Part 1/4:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyXqcoEzX70&t=419s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyXqcoEzX70&t=419s)

------
kiliantics
I studied music theory as a requirement alongside classes at a music school
and we used the "AB Guide to Music Theory" which I remember being pretty
great. It's quite a short book too, most music is based on a pretty small set
of rules.

------
Dumblydorr
Play the piano, it's the best music theoretical instrument, as it lays before
you every note once in order in easy to operate form. You can easily construct
chords and add bass notes and that is a vastly important foundation for music
theory.

------
amanaplanacanal
I found this site: [https://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-
lessons/](https://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-lessons/) extremely
helpful, if you haven’t already seen it.

------
govg
[https://trainer.thetamusic.com/](https://trainer.thetamusic.com/)

This is a really nice app that takes you through a lot of music theory. I
would recommend using it with a good pair of headphones though.

------
ajna91
Can't recommend this highly enough. First time chords ever clicked for me.

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1302D94F247600CD](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1302D94F247600CD)

------
davidajackson
Follow the Tristano method. Grew up with that methodology and learned from one
of Tristano's students, Ed Paloantonio. Very rigorous. Somewhere Palantonio
has a website with a book you should can buy, totally worth it.

------
pfarrell
Rick Beato, a YouTuber and former Atlanta music producer and teacher, has a
lot of deep content as well as a really great “Beato book”. I’ve known many
concepts, but listening to him really brought a lot together.

------
ntoll
[https://us.abrsm.org/en/our-exams/music-theory-
exams/](https://us.abrsm.org/en/our-exams/music-theory-exams/)

You're welcome. ;-)

~~~
theli0nheart
This is a link to what looks like a music certification exam. Where is the
learning material?

~~~
ntoll
A brief look around their website will reveal a wealth of high quality
educational resources.

~~~
theli0nheart
I admit, I did a brief look, and all I could find were some syllabi and other
test prep materials.

------
anon176
I took music theory in HS and had a really good teacher. Books may work well
but nothing beats having an instructor and access to instruments. I'd look
into local community colleges possibly.

------
drhodes
Berklee has a course on edx

[https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-music-
theory-2](https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-music-theory-2)

------
akuji1993
I thought that "Music Theory for Dummies" was a good start for that. From that
I went on to YouTube channels to learn more about the specifics that I was
interested in.

------
throwmamatrain
My favorite resource:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgaTLrZGlk0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgaTLrZGlk0)

------
samirillian
Fwiw, I recently found this resource, which is pretty nice:

[http://openmusictheory.com/](http://openmusictheory.com/)

------
iQuercus
Put down the books and websites and articles. Write music.

~~~
kossae
I've done it this way for the whole 15+ years I've been playing and producing
music. The problem is, I learned by ear (which seems to be a valued skill),
but I can't for the life of me tell you which chord I just played or
communicate effectively with more classically trained musicians.

This has led me to start learning music theory myself, as there is definitely
value in the 'by-the-book' method as well. I believe the combination of both
by-ear, and by-theory can increase the possibilities of composition. However I
have also seen classically trained musicians not willing to step outside of
the box because of the classical music theory mindset, too.

~~~
iQuercus
I think it’s better to know it in your bones and then go back and formalize it
with theory and terminology.

------
luaybs
This video helped me out

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdEcLQ_RQPY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdEcLQ_RQPY)

------
bigred100
Get something like music theory for dummies and read it

------
tinco
I'd start just practicing scales and intervals. Without knowing how they feel
when you make the movements yourself it felt kind of empty to me.

------
tejaswidp
I found "Composing music a new approach by William Russo" a good start this.
It is a pretty Nifty guide to the topic.

------
DrNuke
Get a cheap instrument like guitar or harmonica and start again from scratch
with a good theory book?

------
taylodl
Check out Rick Beato on YouTube. He has several videos dedicated to music
theory.

------
soVeryTired
justinguitar.com has a (paid) course on beginner music theory for guitar. I
don't know what level you're at, but I found it enlightening to know how
chords are constructed, and how they relate to scales.

------
brylie
One thing to notice is that the elements of music, rhythm, melody, and
harmony, are based on relationships between periodic impulses. E.g. drum
patterns, vibrating strings, musical sequences, and melodic intervals.

Here is a small yet information-dense book:
[https://woodenbooks.com/index.php?id_cms=8&controller=cms#!M...](https://woodenbooks.com/index.php?id_cms=8&controller=cms#!MUS)

Keeping the fundamental unity of musical elements in mind, build a framework
of knowledge and practice including the following concepts.

Harmonic series as the basis of musical intervals
[https://www.oberton.org/en/overtone-singing/harmonic-
series/](https://www.oberton.org/en/overtone-singing/harmonic-series/)

Intervals as ratios, and how the simplicity of ratios relates to consonance:
\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_ratio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_ratio)
\-
[http://legacy.earlham.edu/~tobeyfo/musictheory/Book1/FFH1_CH...](http://legacy.earlham.edu/~tobeyfo/musictheory/Book1/FFH1_CH1/1M_RatiosCommas1.html)
\- [http://hyperphysics.phy-
astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Music/mussca.html](http://hyperphysics.phy-
astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Music/mussca.html)

Polyrhythms as simple intervals (3:2, 2:3, 3:4, 5:4, etc.) \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyrhythm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyrhythm)
\- [https://www.musical-u.com/learn/making-sense-of-
polyrhythms/](https://www.musical-u.com/learn/making-sense-of-polyrhythms/) \-
[https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/polyrhythmBeatGenerator.ph...](https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/polyrhythmBeatGenerator.php)

Ear training to recognize intervals and notes \-
[https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Music_Theory/Scales_and_Interv...](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Music_Theory/Scales_and_Intervals#Mnemonic_memorization_examples)
\- [https://tonedear.com/ear-training/intervals](https://tonedear.com/ear-
training/intervals)

Building chords from intervals \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_(music)#Intervals_in_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_\(music\)#Intervals_in_chords)
\- [http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-lessons/the-
basic...](http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-lessons/the-
basics/chords-intervals/) \- [https://tonedear.com/ear-training/chord-
identification](https://tonedear.com/ear-training/chord-identification)

Building major key from intervals (R, M2, M3, P4, P5, M6, M7) \-
[https://www.howmusicworks.org/202/The-Major-
Scale/Intervals-...](https://www.howmusicworks.org/202/The-Major-
Scale/Intervals-of-the-Major-Scale) \-
[http://onlineguitarlessons.co.uk/major-scale-intervals-
and-t...](http://onlineguitarlessons.co.uk/major-scale-intervals-and-theory/)
\- [https://tonedear.com/ear-training/scale-
identification](https://tonedear.com/ear-training/scale-identification)

Stacking chords from scale tones \-
[http://www.jazclass.aust.com/scales/scastc.htm](http://www.jazclass.aust.com/scales/scastc.htm)

Extended chords to add color and emotion \-
[http://www.simplifyingtheory.com/extended-
chords/](http://www.simplifyingtheory.com/extended-chords/) \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_chord](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_chord)

Major key chord function \- [http://hubguitar.com/music-theory/chord-
function](http://hubguitar.com/music-theory/chord-function) \-
[http://openmusictheory.com/harmonicFunctions.html](http://openmusictheory.com/harmonicFunctions.html)
\- [https://www.jazzadvice.com/chord-
function/](https://www.jazzadvice.com/chord-function/)

Circle of KEYS as a compositional tool showing diatonic chords for each key
and common modulations \- [https://harmoniousapp.net/p/d9/Circle-of-Fifths-
Keys](https://harmoniousapp.net/p/d9/Circle-of-Fifths-Keys) \-
[https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/music-
theory/what-i...](https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/music-theory/what-
is-the-circle-of-fifths/) \- [https://blog.landr.com/circle-of-fifths-
infographic/](https://blog.landr.com/circle-of-fifths-infographic/)

Other geometric representations of musical elements \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonnetz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonnetz)
\- [https://imaginary.github.io/web-
hexachord/](https://imaginary.github.io/web-hexachord/) \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_rhythm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_rhythm)
\-
[http://www.groovemechanics.com/euclid/](http://www.groovemechanics.com/euclid/)
\- [https://dev.to/erwald/euclidean-rhythms-and-
haskell-5ecj](https://dev.to/erwald/euclidean-rhythms-and-haskell-5ecj)

Rotating major scale to get modes (and how diatonic chords relate to modes) \-
[https://blog.landr.com/music-modes/](https://blog.landr.com/music-modes/) \-
[http://www.jazclass.aust.com/improvisation/im12.htm](http://www.jazclass.aust.com/improvisation/im12.htm)
\- [https://onlineguitarbooks.com/2012/01/06/functional-
harmony-...](https://onlineguitarbooks.com/2012/01/06/functional-harmony-the-
relationship-between-chords-and-modes/)

Chord substitution (functional, modal, and tritone) \-
[https://lotusmusic.com/lm_chordsub.html](https://lotusmusic.com/lm_chordsub.html)
\- [http://www.simplifyingtheory.com/chord-
substitution/](http://www.simplifyingtheory.com/chord-substitution/) \-
[https://mixedinkey.com/captain-plugins/wiki/easy-chord-
subst...](https://mixedinkey.com/captain-plugins/wiki/easy-chord-
substitutions/) \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borrowed_chord](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borrowed_chord)
\- [http://www.simplifyingtheory.com/borrowed-
chords/](http://www.simplifyingtheory.com/borrowed-chords/) \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritone_substitution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritone_substitution)
\- [https://jenslarsen.nl/tritone-
substitution/](https://jenslarsen.nl/tritone-substitution/)

Modulation \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation_(music)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation_\(music\))
\- [https://www.musicnotes.com/now/tips/a-complete-guide-to-
musi...](https://www.musicnotes.com/now/tips/a-complete-guide-to-musical-
modulation/) \- [https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-art-of-modulation-
part-1](https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-art-of-modulation-part-1)

Compositional forms \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_form](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_form)
\-
[https://courses.lumenlearning.com/musicappreciation_with_the...](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/musicappreciation_with_theory/chapter/binary-
form/)

Some excellent musicians/teachers \- Jacob Collier \- [https://www.imusic-
school.com/en/music-theory/lessons/jacob-...](https://www.imusic-
school.com/en/music-theory/lessons/jacob-collier-masterclass/) \-
[http://brightonjazzschool.com/jacob-collier-
masterclass](http://brightonjazzschool.com/jacob-collier-masterclass) \-
[https://www.youtube.com/user/jacobcolliermusic/playlists](https://www.youtube.com/user/jacobcolliermusic/playlists)
\- Kate and Ray Harmony \-
[https://hackmusictheory.com/home](https://hackmusictheory.com/home) \-
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDKiHSPstsj0silp519gt6w](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDKiHSPstsj0silp519gt6w)
\- Nahre Sol \- [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8R8FRt1KcPiR-
rtAflXmeg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8R8FRt1KcPiR-rtAflXmeg) \- Jazz
Duets \-
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqimxUbWsE26KSpx2_OcmmA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqimxUbWsE26KSpx2_OcmmA)
\- Signals Music Studio \-
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRDDHLvQb8HjE2r7_ZuNtWA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRDDHLvQb8HjE2r7_ZuNtWA)
\- David Bruce \-
[https://www.youtube.com/user/davidbrucedotnet](https://www.youtube.com/user/davidbrucedotnet)
\- Benn Jordan \-
[https://www.youtube.com/user/angeldvst](https://www.youtube.com/user/angeldvst)
\- Omri Cohen \-
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuWKHSHTHMV_nVSeNH4gYAg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuWKHSHTHMV_nVSeNH4gYAg)

------
adamnemecek
I'm working on an IDE for nusic composition, I'm launching soon
[http://ngrid.io](http://ngrid.io). I'm hoping you won't need to know music
theory, the app will guide you.

~~~
byproxy
Looks cool, but this person specifically requested resources to learn music
theory.

~~~
adamnemecek
It will be a resource of sorts.

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jacquesm
This thread is absolute gold. Thanks to all contributors.

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CuriouslyC
Learnmusictheory.net, also hack music theory on youtube

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umvi
Buy beginner music theory books and work your way up.

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devin
Read Wayne Krantz’ Improviser’s OS 2nd edition.

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steve1977
How about those ancient things called books?

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kaffeemitsahne
Have you tried Ravenspiral's guide?

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ptah
what is your goal? the goal will determine the best approach

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finnjohnsen2
YouTube is underrated

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nhlx2
Know and practice your scales.

