I teach Music Theory (and piano) for a living-- this is an excellent introduction to the most practical concepts.<p>I was somewhat disappointed that the OP showed us a C Major scale without really explaining what a "major scale" is-- a collection of whole and half steps-- especially since they used a keyboard as an example, which is laid out in exactly the right pattern for teaching the major scale. (Notice that the black and white notes are arranged so that you skip some keys-- whole steps-- but sometimes you can't: half steps). I always teach how to build scales based on this pattern- WWHWWWH. Using this pattern, you can build any major scale beginning on any arbitrary note-- including notes that are sharped or flatted, which is neat. From here, you can figure out all of the scales, and thus all of the keys.<p>The advantage of learning in this fashion is that you can tackle <i>intervals</i> first, which are the distances between notes. (Note that major and minor intervals are named as such because they fit into our major or minor scales). Since a chord is simply collection of intervals, you end up with a more powerful understanding of them by learning which intervals (and which scale degrees) build which chords.<p>All the same, I really think the more "practical" approach here is really interesting, because you can start writing music earlier, albeit mostly in C Major.<p>Cool link, it really gives me insight as a fellow music educator.
A friend of mine here in Tokyo owns a small music company and recently launched a series of games to help with music training. They are flash-based, but I have been quite impressed with them and have enjoyed them quite a bit! He is using a freemium model, and you can try out the games on his website without even registering. (Free registration gives you progress tracking, and subscription gives you access to all levels and games.) For anyone interested in music training, I highly recommend them!<p><a href="http://trainer.thetamusic.com/" rel="nofollow">http://trainer.thetamusic.com/</a>
I recently had a short-term stay at a place which had a piano. It seemed like a waste to let it just sit there, so I did a bit o' googling and found this site: <a href="http://www.pianobychords.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pianobychords.com/</a><p>The information on music theory is similar to the post - but it also shows you how to play a few common songs. If you follow the fingering guide and play the same chords with both hands it sounds damn great! I thought only the guitar had that "pick it up, learn a couple of chords and you're good to go..." attitude!<p>One of the songs on the site was "Let It Be". I remembered that that song was in the Axis Of Awesome song "Four Chords" <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHBVnMf2t7w" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHBVnMf2t7w</a> - now I know how to play hundreds of party-friendly songs on the piano. Damn satisfying for an outlay of just a few hours practice!
Fascinating read, but definitely not for beginners, at least for people like me, who have difficulty naming the notes (I have to go through "doe a deer..." each time, there are seven of them, right?)<p>My total music illiteracy really annoys me. However, whenever I try to pick up some knowledge I got held back by lots of questions that the usual music student (or teacher for that matter) has never thought about and no answer can be given. Here are a couple:<p>* Why are there seven notes? Is this due to an property of the ear?<p>* Ditto, for the octave concept, why should it be multiples of two?<p>* Why are there black keys between some white keys on the piano and not between others?<p>Is there a book that explains questions like these?
One of the music theory things it took me a while to understand is why different major keys matter. In an idealized world, one can start a scale on any frequency and move up in whole and half steps (WWHWWWH) and have a scale. So why talk about the "key of G" vs the "key of C" if all that denotes is the frequency of the note we start on (which can be shifted up or down arbitrarily to suit the range of the instrument or vocalist)? The answer lies the physics of frequencies. The notes are not exactly the same from key to key because the whole and half steps are not exactly the same width. A perfect "fifth" (e.g., C & G played together) from a frequency perspective (meaning the two frequencies that resonate together creating a harmonic one octave above the lower) has a frequency ratio of 3/2 meaning the G is 1.5x the frequency of the C. The octave has a ratio of 2 (the high C is twice the frequency of the C below it). G is 7 half steps above C and the octave is 12 half steps. So if we walk our way up the piano in fifths, after 84 half steps, we would have a note (3/2)^12 = 129.75x the original frequency. But if we do the same on the octaves, we get 2^7 = 128x the original frequency, so the note we need to make all the major fifths sound right is different from the note we need to make the octaves sound right. The two are diverging slightly. So the result is that we can tune an instrument perfectly in one key only or we can tune it in a compromise of all the keys which sounds okay over a short range but sounds worse as we try to cover a wider range. If you're interested, there's lots of good reading on the subject (google "well-tempered" or "meantone").<p>EDIT: I realized I assumed a key concept in there. When two notes are played together, a third is heard (the "beat" frequency). If f1 and f2 are the frequencies of the notes being played, f2 - f1 = the beat freq. An octave sounds nice because the beat disappears (2f - f = f, so the beat is the same as the lower note of the octave). Other "pleasant" chord combinations are ones in which the beat does not clash with the first two note (e.g., is an octave of one of the notes).
If anybody wants to learn some music theory and Haskell at the same time, I can warmly recommend this:<p><a href="http://cs.lth.se/english/course/edan40_functional_programming/programming_assignments/functional_music/" rel="nofollow">http://cs.lth.se/english/course/edan40_functional_programmin...</a>
I hope the author turns this into a series, introducing additional theory. When I was first learning basic music theory, it was either all text or text along with notation. I took lesson on snare drum when I was younger, so I can read rhythms fine but never bothered to learn to read the pitches correctly. When I started playing guitar and piano, having something with embedded content and "piano roll" images would have helped immensely.
If you liked the Axis of Awesome’s four-chord medley, you’ll love the Pachelbel Rant: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM</a>
on a similar note (and because there's some great links being posted here), this video by walter lewin covers the physics of sound and how it relates to music, it could be good secondary material for someone learning about music theory:<p><a href="http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/168" rel="nofollow">http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/168</a><p>what's great is that it's a serious physics lecture, but designed for kids, and there's plenty of funky experiments within the one hour.
I really love the idea behind this article, but I didn't like the execution. I was confused and intimidated after the "scales" section (and that's the first part).<p>Also, I don't know what the difference between a key, note and a few other words mean.<p>Trying to be constructive, I hope the article gets edited because I'm genuinely interested in learning these things.
It's only somewhat related, but This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics #234 discusses some of the math behind music theory. It's a nice article if you're familiar with basic group theory.
<a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week234.html" rel="nofollow">http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week234.html</a>
This is so white! lol I can relate because it's how I first approached music, but most mature musicians in the Western world begin with rhythm, yet there is no mention of rhythm in this article.<p>Rhythm is our soul, get some soul, crackers!