An Introduction

Browsing through the audio portal, I found that many of the audio submiters knew very little, if any music theory! This kind of disgusted me and I was a little sickoned by it because I knew that if those submiters knew even a little more music theory then they already did, their music would be SO much better!!! So what am I going to do about it??? I'm going to make a thread where I teach a little about what I know as a composer about theory (this thread). I mean my things to be very brief; to just touch on my different topics.

I didn't want to get TO advanced so all I will cover will be rhythm, pitches, enharmonics, intervals, key signature, scales, chords, how melodies fit with chords, and then secondary dominants. Not that hard, so let us begin!

Rhythm

Rhythm is the building block of all music. Without it, music would be one constant note that would go on forever. It is obvious that we have many notes played in are music (not counting the modernistic song "Silence" which is silence for two minutes and some seconds) so thus we have rhythm.

In music, rhythm is oranized in beats. How fast the beats are is determined by something we call tempo. The tempo of a piece tells how many beats per minute a certain piece of music will go. For instance, if the tempo for a piece is 160 (Allegro for you nerds out there) that would simply mean that there would be 160 beats per minute. Tempos can also change in between pieces.

Then there are different "note shapes" or symbols that represent how many beats a certain note would get. The basic rhythms are as follows. They are not that specific, but you can get more information elsewhere.

16th Note - filled circle with a line and 2 flags attached - 1/4 of a beat in 4/4 time
Eighth Note - filled circle with a line and a flag attached - 1/2 of a beat in 4/4 time
Dotted Eighth Note - filled circle with a line, flag attached, and a dot - 3/4 of a beat in 4/4 time
Quarter Note - filled circle with a line - 1 beat in 4/4 time
Dotted Quarter Note - filled circle with a line and a dot - 1 and 1/2 beats in 4/4 time
Half Note - Empty circle with a line - 2 beats in 4/4 time
Dotted Half note - Empty circle with a line and a dot - 3 beats in 4/4 time
Whole note - Empty circle - 4 beats in 4/4 time

Beats are then organized into measures. A measure is represented by a line through the staff. How many beats a measure gets is determined by a time signature. A time signature has two numbers to it; one on the top, and one on the bottom. The top note simply tells the person playing your music how many beats per measure there will be. The bottom note tells the person what note will equal one beat!
For the bottom number, a four means a quarter note, a two means a half note, an eight means an eighth note ect... Time signatures can also change

So as one last example for rythm... If you are in a 2/2 signature and you have an quarter note when the tempo is 120, the quarter will last for 1/4 of a second because a quarter note is half a beat in a 2/2 time signature and when there are two beats per second (because of the tempo being 120, you can do the easy math of .5 x .5.

Pitches

A notes pitch is how high the frequency of a certain note is. We tell the person reading your music what frequency to play by putting a ryhthm symbol (such as a half note) on a staff. A staff is a series of 5 lines placed perpendicular to each other.

On the staff you can write one of three basic (there are many wierd cleffs that I won't talk about like the "Alto Clef") different clefs. The three clefs are the Treble Clef, Viola Clef, and the Bass Clef. The bottem most line of the staff in Treble Clef is an E, for Viola Clef it would be a F, and for bass it would be a G. Going up to the next space you would get the next letter of the alphabet, and then going up to the next line would then bring to the next letter. However, when you reach G you will go back to the beggining of the alphabet at A.

Each advancing of a letter is what we call raising (or lowering) a full step (with the exception of 4 notes that I will explain in my next section "Enharmonics). To raise it by a half step you put a sharp behind the note which looks like this: #. To lower it by a half stem you put a flat that looks like this: b.

I know this section has been a little brief, but I hope you get what I am trying to say. For more information about pitches feel free to do a Google search.

Enharmonics

Enharmonics is very simple, but can be confusing to some people so listen up! Before I teach you enharmonics, I have to tell you that the exception of whole steps, which I mentioned earlier, is between E and F and between B and C. They are half steps.

So, enharmonics is simple. An enharmonic, is a note that has two names with the same sound. For instance, C# and Db are enharmonic because they have the same sound. Think: 0 + .5 = 1 - .5. I hope you understood that.

Now why I had to mention the exception is because I had to tell you (because of when you learn scales and chords later in this thread) E# is enharmonic to F. Think: 0 + .5 = .5.

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST (please don't post in this thread yet)

Key Signatures & Scales

I put joined these two topics because they go together like my penis and your mom. A key signatures is a group of sharps and flats that go in the beggining of your grand opus. Since (unless you are writing a non-chordal song) your song should be based on a scale, the scale will often have sharps and flats which will only be rarely changed when you make a dominant seven chord or augmented first, or whatever.

The sharps come in a standard order and can be remembered by this mnemonic devise:
Fat cats get donuts after eating breakfast.

The flats also come in a standard ordered and are rembered this way:
Bob eats and digests good Chinese food.

You pretty much have to memorize how many sharps flats go to which scale. But, they are always in same order, so that's a relief! For example D major has these sharps: F# and C#. E major has these sharps: F# C# G# D#. I hope you get the idea. Here is a list for how many sharps and flats each major key has:

C# - 7 sharps
F# - 6 sharps
B - 5 sharps
E - 4 sharps
A - 3 sharps
D - 2 sharps
G - 1 sharp
C - No sharps or flats
F - 1 flat
Bb - 2 flats
Eb - 3 flats
Ab - 4 flats
Db - 5 flats
Gb - 6 flats
Cb - 7 flats

To find the scale (if you havn't memorized it which you should) you write down the letters (for my example I'm using Ab major):
A B C D E F G A

Then you just add the flats in:
Ab Bb C Db Eb F G Ab

To find the key signature for a minor key, just lower the third sixth and seventh by a half step. You'll understand why later in the intervals section.

Here are some examples of me changing major, to minor:

F G A Bb C D E F
F G Ab Bb C Db Eb F

D E F# G A B C# D
D E F G A Bb C D

B C# D# E F# G# A# B
B C# D E F# G A B

If you want to be really funky, you can make something called a harmonic minor (as a apposed to the natural minor I just taught you). All you do, is that you take your natural minor and raise the seventh up a half step.

You can even do a modal scale by keeping the same key signature of a scale but moving the starting note around such as C dorinan...

D E F G A B C D

but that is a little advanced and you could always Google it.

Intervals

Now this is very important for building chords so make sure you understand this!!! That being said, intervals are the distance between two notes in a chord. There are basically five different types of intervals. They are diminished, minor, major, augmented, and perfect.

All major intervals can be taken directly out of a major scale. To find the major 3rd of a note you simply take that note and write out the scale (if you can't do in your head). So, for an example, I'm going to find the major 3rd of D. I can do it in my head, but I'll write it out anyway: D E F# G A D C# D

Based on that scale, the major 3rd would be F#. To find the minor 3rd of D, you can just simply write down the D minor scale (D E F G A Bb C D) or just lower the major 3rd one half step down where you get F natural. Similarly, to find the diminished 3rd (which you would hardly need to find when writing non-classical music) you lower the minor 3rd by half step where you would get Fb. To make an augmented 3rd you would just need to raise the major 3rd by a half step were you get Fx (F double sharp).

You can do this for 2nds, 3rds, 6ths, and 7ths, but not the 1sts, 4ths, 5ths, and 8ths. The reason why you can't do the lowering for the 1sts and 8ths because it's the root and octave. You can't lower the root because it would lower the whole chord. The reason why you can't do the lowering half steps for the 4ths and 5ths is because they are what we call perfect intervals. They are not affected by the changing from major to minor scales like the 3rd, 6th, and 7th and thus they can not be minor. Lowering them would make them directly diminished, and raising them would obviously make them augmented.

Chords

A chord is a blending of two or more notes together. There are a billion different types of chords out there, but I will tell you the basic chords. Here I will tell you the different intervals for the different chords, the names of them, and an example in C major.

Major Chord
Root, Major 3rd, Perfent 5th
C E G

Minor Chord
Root, Minor 3rd, Perfect 5th
D F A

Diminished Chord
Root, Minor 3rd, Diminished 5th
B D F

Augmented Chord
Root, Major 3rd, Augmented 5th
C E G#
(There are no notes in the C major scale that naturaly make an augmented chord, so you have to raise the fifth "artificially" to make an augmented chord)

Major 7th Chord
Root, Major 3rd, Perfect 5th, Major 7th
C E G B

Dominant 7th Chord
Root, Major 3rd, Perfect 5th, Minor 7th
G B D F

Minor 7th Chord
Root, Minor 3rd, Perfect 5th, Minor 7th
E G B D

Half Diminished 7th Chord
Root, Minor 3rd, Diminished 5th, Minor 7th
B D F A

Diminshed 7th Chord
Root, Minor 3rd, Dimished 5th, Diminished 7th
B D F Ab
(There are no notes in the C major scale that naturaly make a diminshed chord, so you have to lower the seventh "artificially" to make a diminished 7th chord)

Another thing to take note of, is that composers use roman numerals to represent where the root is in the scale. An uppercase roman numeral means a major chord, an uppercase with a plus sign is an augmented chord, a lower case means minor, a lower case and a circle means diminished, a lower case with a slash in it means it is half diminished, and a 7 means that the chord has some type of seventh. Some examples in F major:

IV F A C
iii A C E
viio E G Bb
I+ C E G#

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST (please don't post in this thread yet)

Chord Tendencies

Now, you might be going right now, wow!!! There are so many different types of chords and I can do them on any note... how do I decide what chords to put in what order! Luckily for you, I can say that withough a doubt, people tend to like to here chords in certain orders and I will tell you some of them. We call chords that like to other chords chord tendencies.

The most powerful chord tendencies we have in music we call cadences. They are as follows:

Authentic Cadence
IV to I

Plagual Cadence
V dominant 7 to I

Deceptive Cadence
V to vi

Full Cadence
I to IV to I to V dominant 7 to I

However, you DO NOT, i repeat, DO NOT have to always do these chords in those orders. If you do your music will be boring and that isn't good! Those are just the most powerful chords tendecies. Less powerful chord tendencies that still sound OK are chords moving in 2nds, 4ths, 5ths, and sometime (but usualy not) 3rds. Examples of what I mean:

2nd Chord Tendencies
I to ii to iii to IV to V to vi to vii to I
(I will explain later why the vii is not diminished)

4th Chord Tendencies
I to IV to viio to iii to ect...

5th Chord Tendencies
I to V to ii to vi to ect...

3rd Chord Tendencies
I to iii to vi to ii to ect...

Also, one more fact is that the I chord can go to any other chord, but NOT everything can go to the I chord.

Now of course you mix the different tendencies and cadences up to whatever fits your melody, but you can mess with that in your own time.

There are four basic reasons why you would add in accidentals (sharps and flats) not in the key signature. Those are non-chordal tones (which will be discussed later), secondary dominants (which will be discussed later), modulations (when you change the key of the piece in the middle of the piece), and because of alternate chord tendencies. One of these wierd chord tendencies, is the viio going to the I. Many people DO NOT like hearing that sound, so usually, you will raise the fifth to make it a minor chord getting vii to I. Another one is I+ to IV, people like hearing that sound. I really don't know why.

After deciding which chords you want to choose, spread the note chords on different instruments to make what people call a chord.

Bass Lines

Bass Lines are very easy to do. All you have to do is put the chord's notes played randomly in a cool rhythm you like. Have fun with that. (Dang! What a short section)

Melody/Non-Chordal Tones

So after you've got your chords in order, which composers call a chord progression, you need a melody to it! You really have to use your brain, and make something that fits the different chords and sounds good. However, the melody does NOT have to have only the notes in the chord. You can put non-chordal tones, which is obviously tones not in the chord!!! Here are the four basic different non-chordal tones you can do:

Passing Tone
Passes between notes in the chord by one whole or one half step. For example, in a G major chord, part of melody can go G A B.

Neighboring Tone
Goes either one step up then one step back down when passing through chord or one step down then one step back up. For an example, if I have a F major chord for one quarter note in 4/4 time going to a C major whole note, I can make the eighth notes C B C or C D C.

Appoggiatura
Starting from a note in the chord (aka chordal tone) jumping up many steps higher to a non-chordal tone note and then going one whole step down to a chordal tone. For an example, if I have a C major chord, I could do C A G.

Retardation (he he he)
Just the opposite or an Appoggiatura. Starting from a chordal tone jumping down many steps lower to a non-chordal tone note and then going one whole step up to a chordal tone. For an example, if I have a C major chord, I could do G B C.

Secondary Dominants

These are a special type of chord tendency that take a lot of expaining, and so that is why I separted it from the rest.

Before I tell you what a secondary dominant is, I have to tell you that are ears, for some reason love to hear V7 to I (the plaugal cadence). However, we love this a little TO much. We can have it as VI dominant 7 to or I dominant 7 to IV or II dominant 7 to V or ect. because it is still basically starting with a dominant 7 chord going down five chords.

However we have a special way to call these things. For instance, a II dominant 7 to V would be called a V7/V because it is temporarily functioning as a V dominant 7 chord or a five chord. If you don't get what I just said, think about it, you'll get it.

There are other functions for secondary dominants, but they are very advanced and would only be used in classical music so I won't waste my time boring you gies with it.

In Conclusion

WOW!!! I have spent so many hours writing this.. it's crazy!!!

Well anyways, you've learned everything as basic as rhythms where some learn in third grade to advanced materaial like secondary dominants which are only taught in High School AP Theory or College. I hope you enjoyed it... I spent a lot of time writing this and even learning it through the years of writing music in my life. I hope this article would help at least one person out there make their music, maybe just a little better, and if it does, that would make me so happy!

You are now ready to make a coolz opus afta reading dis shit!!!

If you have any comments or questions regarding musical theory, please feel free to e-mail me at ianianlee@hotmail.com. I just love getting e-mails asking me about stuff.

If you want to see my music, go to the Finale Music showcase. My user name is Ian Lee.

YOU MAY POST NOW (you assholes)

WOW!

I'm more used to seeing the red word from you Khuskan, but much deserved this time. Well done on taking the effort to write so much and explain it so clearly.

I will be reading this time and time again for it will be of great help to me. Thank you for taking you time to put up this invaluable information on here.

Please sticky :O

Indeed. Sticky, it needs to be.

This means I love you

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

sticky please!!!! >:(

I need to read this fully one day.

Damn slow reading-ness...

At 6/20/06 06:56 PM, Deflektor76 wrote: I have no need of this,cause i learn music(and theory) for at least,fourteen years.So,i wanted to say this a VERY great job.This is very hard to explain all of this to rookies.So,i say it,bravo!

You've been learning music theory since you were six years old?

At 6/20/06 07:37 PM, Khuskan wrote: You've been learning music theory since you were six years old?

I did, just that I chose to give up.

Baaaad move on my part.

I don't think I could READ when I was six.

At 6/20/06 12:40 AM, EmoNarc wrote: Chords

A chord is a blending of two or more notes together. There are a billion different types of chords out there, but I will tell you the basic chords.

A chord can't be only two notes. A chord is by definition a combination of three or more notes together.
As for the second sentence, that's a hyperbole, right? lol
just making sure

At 6/20/06 07:58 PM, Winterwind-NS wrote: A chord can't be only two notes. A chord is by definition a combination of three or more notes together.

indeed...a power chord is not a chord at all...it's a 5th

At 6/19/06 08:41 PM, EmoNarc wrote: On the staff you can write one of three basic (there are many wierd cleffs that I won't talk about like the "Alto Clef") different clefs. The three clefs are the Treble Clef, Viola Clef, and the Bass Clef. The bottem most line of the staff in Treble Clef is an E, for Viola Clef it would be a F, and for bass it would be a G.

If I'm correct, isn't the Viola clef another name for the Alto clef? lol
cuz they both are C in the middle line of the staff and the note on the
bottom line is F for both.
Everything else is about right

At 6/20/06 07:58 PM, Winterwind-NS wrote: A chord can't be only two notes. A chord is by definition a combination of three or more notes together.

Thats a triad chord. A chord CAN be any two notes.

Yup, the viola clef is the alto clef in disguise. Clever bastards they are.

At 6/20/06 09:10 PM, Khockskan wrote:

At 6/20/06 07:58 PM, Winterwind-NS wrote: A chord can't be only two notes. A chord is by definition a combination of three or more notes together.

Thats a triad chord. A chord CAN be any two notes.

nope, google the definition of Chord. I'm sure any liable source would agree
that a chord can only be 3+ different notes that combine and work together
harmoniously. See for youself, don't confuse the readers out there if you're
not sure lol

At 6/21/06 01:41 AM, Winterwind-NS wrote:

At 6/20/06 09:10 PM, Khockskan wrote:

At 6/20/06 07:58 PM, Winterwind-NS wrote: A chord can't be only two notes. A chord is by definition a combination of three or more notes together.

Thats a triad chord. A chord CAN be any two notes.

nope, google the definition of Chord.

If two notes played together is not a chord, then what is it?

Maybe I'll add my own thread about atonality, but I really don't think that anyone would be that interested in it since most "everyday" listeners would probably say that atonal music sounds like shit, but its still pretty cool stuff to know. I'll have to read this first and see if it inspires me to post something of my own...

Also...I noticed that you didn't talk about modulations/key changes which are so closely related to secondary dominance (which leads into atonality).

Actually its kind of strange because if I had to say what I learned in theory, it would be all this stuff that you have talked about, but at the same time it is also none of this. The truth of the matter is that (to me) theory is not really actually all this technical jargon, but rather is merely an explanation of why music sounds good, what is going on in music, and why you like it. Its like learning another language. You hear it, but you don't understand it really, but after you learn music theory, its like you know how the language works and how to speak it better.

The funny thing about music theory though is that after you have "mastered" it, you can actually push it so far that it no longer makes sense.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not the only method of musical analysis

Yeah, i'm with zenon on this, if two notes together isnt a chord, and they fit into an overall melody, what the hell is it?

At 6/21/06 05:43 AM, SpamWarrior wrote: Yeah, i'm with zenon on this, if two notes together isnt a chord, and they fit into an overall melody, what the hell is it?

Two notes together arnt a chord, because on their own they are not a single key.

For example, if you play C and E, it can either be C major or A minor, and is impossible to tell which unless you have more notes playing on other instruments, at which case it becomes more than 2 notes in the chord.

Basicaly speaking, a chord is a group of notes that you can use to dertermine the key that they are being played in, and this has to be more than four (and usually less than 10)

At 6/21/06 01:53 AM, -ZENON- wrote: If two notes played together is not a chord, then what is it?

At 6/21/06 05:43 AM, SpamWarrior wrote: Yeah, i'm with zenon on this...what the hell is it?

It's a diad.

It's not really a chord... well... sort of - if you want to call it a "power chord" then fine but traditionally only triads or greater get to be called "chord" (I think)

But since diads are modal - you really can't say it's a chord without at least one more note.

but just remember kids, ljcoffee is full of shit!

Niiice dude... Way to go with the explaining... Ive gott atake my Grade 5 theory exam before I can take my gr.6 singing exam... REVISION NOTES!!!

At 6/21/06 08:01 AM, LJCoffee wrote:

It's a diad.

It's not really a chord... well... sort of - if you want to call it a "power chord" then fine but traditionally only triads or greater get to be called "chord" (I think)

But since diads are modal - you really can't say it's a chord without at least one more note.

but just remember kids, ljcoffee is full of shit!

Well, it doesn't necessarily have to be a traid to be a chord, but it has to be at least three notes played together to be a chord. Also, a diad? Is that what it's called? I always just referred to them as intervals haha. You know...5th...perfect fifth...stuff like that.

now let's all congregate back to my thread

At 6/21/06 08:01 AM, LJCoffee wrote:

but just remember kids, ljcoffee is full of shit!

'cept he's not. He's totally right. :D

At 6/21/06 08:21 AM, Rowan00Ring wrote: Niiice dude... Way to go with the explaining... Ive gott atake my Grade 5 theory exam before I can take my gr.6 singing exam... REVISION NOTES!!!

well that must suck, i only need grade 5 for my grade 8 exam!!

next year~ :D

At 6/21/06 01:53 AM, -ZENON- wrote:

If two notes played together is not a chord, then what is it?

well, two notes can imply a chord, given further musical context...