Music Theory Explains How Music Works
The structure beneath your favorite songs reveals how they accomplish what they do.
However, music theory can also point you in the right direction.
Learning theory is an essential element of any musician’s education.
With so much information, it can be challenging to get started with music theory at first.
This article is a primer to learning music theory to comprehend the principles quickly and apply them to your music.
What is the definition of music theory?
The way musicians explain and describe the phenomena perceived in a musical piece is through music theory.
Music theory is a system that allows musicians to express their ideas by defining the fundamental elements of music.
To learn more about the fundamentals of music theory, use the navigation bar on the left.
Advantages of studying music theory
Music theory may appear to be a stuffy academic pursuit that turns music production into a crossword problem.
The opposite could not be further from the truth. Learning some areas of music theory can be beneficial to all musicians.
Understanding the fundamentals of music theory is essential for improving your instrument, producing better songs, and breaking through creative obstacles.
Relax; you don’t need a classical conservatory or an expensive teacher to master it. Just remember that theory sinks in only if you practice.
You can acquire the essential components of music theory by learning on your own and applying the concepts to your regular music practice.
In this essay, I’ll go over the fundamentals of music theory and present some resources to help you get started learning about it.
Learning the fundamentals of music
The bare basics are the greatest place to start with music theory.
I’m referring to the fundamental elements that all musical compositions share.
Even if you don’t know what they’re named, you can intuitively understand these music theory principles.
The following are the fundamentals of music theory: Melody, Harmony, Rhythm
Music theory fundamentals
The rudiments are the first stage in learning music theory.
“Rudiments” is a word that may conjure up images of formal music instruction, but don’t be put off by it.
Rudiments are music theory in action—the theory underlying the musical movements you employ on a daily basis, regardless of what instrument you play.
The following are the fundamentals of music theory: Scales, Chords , Keys, Notation
If your goal is to produce better songs, each one is a broad topic with relevant subtopics to investigate.
Learning to read music notation
The way you analyze music theory topics is through music notation. Understanding how music is written lays the groundwork for expanding your knowledge of theory.
Even if you never play or perform music from a written score, the visual representation of music on a page aids in connecting the dots between what you hear and what you play.
Shortening the time to transfer your ideas from your imagination into your tracks begins with developing that link.
Reading music is one of the finest methods to work on music theory, whether you want to jot down your ideas, perform sheet music, or grasp what’s going on in a song.
Every aspect of musical notation was created to aid in the comprehension of what you hear.
Chords are the connections between notes
You can dig into the pillars of musical practice once you’ve established a foundation for gaining theory knowledge.
Individual harmonic components are known as chords. When a set of consonant pitches is sounded together, they form.
An interval is a relationship between the pitch of two tones. The quality of a chord is determined by the type of intervals contained within it.
The two essential chord characteristics, major and minor, may already be recognizable to you. But there’s a lot more to learn.
The way pitches interact inside a chord’s structure and how distinct chords interact are defining aspects of a song’s identity.
One of the most fundamental aspects of songwriting is putting chords together in sequences. A chord progression is a musically attractive set of chords.
Learning music theory can help you enhance your ability to build different chords and arrange them together.
To execute it successfully, you’ll need to understand numerous chord principles.
Scales are the foundation of all melodies.
Scales are the building blocks of tunes. A scale is used to construct any melodic musical passage with a singable song.
A scale is a set of notes with a defined pattern of tones and semitones played in order.
The sound of the scale and how it’s employed in songs are determined by this pattern.
Varied scales provide a work of different moods, feelings, and qualities and different melodic options.
The major and minor scales are the two basic scales. The major scale follows the tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone
The minor scale follows the tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone-tone
But that’s just the start. There are numerous scales available, each with its distinct melodic signature.
When it comes to defining a song’s musical character, scales are equally as crucial as chords.
The main rudiments you need to learn to start composing music are scales and chords.
Music’s keys and key signatures
A musical key defines the group of pitches that will be employed in a musical composition.
It establishes the pattern that makes up the song’s main major or minor scale and harmonic “home.”
A piece of music’s key signature is a pattern of sharps or flats (accidentals) that determines the key.
A key signature appears at the start of a line of music to indicate which notes must be changed to meet the key.
Keys give a framework that helps musicians know what notes to play when playing with each other by providing a harmonic and melodic context for the activity in a song.
A song may begin in one key and end in another, or it may travel to a different key before returning to the original. This is referred to as a key change.
Following the pattern of sharps and flats defined in the circle of fifths, you may determine the key’s name and root note.
The pulse of a song is referred to as rhythm
Rhythm is a fundamental part of the music as well as a complex subject in and of itself.
We went over the foundations in detail in our review, but because rhythm is such an essential part of current music, it’s worth focusing on it more.
A good understanding of rhythm may take you to new places. Groove and feel can lead you a long way, but a solid sense of rhythm can take you to new places.
Beats are just rhythms expressed on your DAW’s piano roll. Here’s how to make your first beat in your DAW if you don’t know how to arrange a rhythm in your DAW.
You may also use the DAW swing to bring back some of the human feels in a beat.
Most beats and grooves are built on standard straight rhythms; however, polyrhythms are how you push your rhythmic sense to the next level.
Polyrhythms are a type of hybrid groove that combines several different rhythmic patterns.
It may appear complicated at first, but our detailed explanation makes incorporating polyrhythms into your composing a breeze.
