Music Theory

Music Theory

Music Theory can be thought of as the body of thought and and practice that is commmon among all instruments, voices, and ensembles, within a given musical tradition.

Fundamentals

The baseline fundamentals that constitute literacy in the Western music tradition have not changed in well over a hundreds years. The basic vocabulary for reading and writing music includes: note names, clefs, key signatures, rhythms, time signatures, repeats and song forms. As such, there are plenty of places to get acquainted with these basics, and we often point to musictheory.net to help develop these skills. What provides value in this instruction is explaining how the ideas of harmny flow from the basis in the Harmonic Series. This is close to both how Western music developed historically, as well as explains how it is organized. It describes sound as it comes from nature, and why certain combinations of notes reinforce one another, and sound pleasing; This is the basis for all further qualification and description of sound, in terms of tension and release.