New to Music Theory ....

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calculus New Member Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Bangalore, India New to Music Theory ....     Could anyone help me out with the theory of Music ? Could I find related documents on the Internet ? How do I start learning those ??? Thanks in advance ... Cheers !! Sun Feb 12, 2006 11:31 am

allen New Poster Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Posts: 2 I'm right there too...i don't know how to translate this theory to my guitar playing. Thu Aug 10, 2006 3:13 am

Paul Tauterouff Jammer Joined: 13 Nov 2006 Posts: 51 Location: Binghamton, NY Guys, Start out by learning the major scale and its modes. Pretty much everything in music is named based on comparing it to the major scale. Once you learn all of the modes, then harmonize each one to create chords. You will find a certain order of chords occurs when you harmonize the seven modes: Major, minor, minor, Major, Major, minor, and diminished. I know this isn't a whole lot of info, but it's a starting point. _________________ Thanks, Paul Tauterouff http://paultauterouff.com http://myspace.com/paultauterouff Tue Nov 14, 2006 5:55 pm

Ryan Buckner Jammer Joined: 13 Nov 2006 Posts: 41 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Paul has some great ideas for a starting place..you guys should definitely take his advice. In the past when I was first learning music theory, I began learning about Intervals(the distance between pitches) and how to construct chords. Also I began learning how to identify these intervals with my ear. Other good starting things to learn are how to read rhythms, learning meters, as well as key signatures. There are countless sites you can go to. I would recommend taking a class on music theory if there is a local college that offers it. A teacher is always better than just a book or text off a site. However, here are a couple good sites- http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory1.htm http://www.teoria.com/ Good luck! Tue Nov 14, 2006 10:32 pm

Jonathan Vipond Jammer Joined: 19 Nov 2006 Posts: 41 Learn about the chromatic scale as well! Mon Dec 11, 2006 10:02 pm

Lee Carlson Jammer Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 41 Location: Alberta Canada You can get a work book called rudimentary elements of music which also helpsas you actually have to write in your answers. _________________ www.leecarlsonmusic.com Tue May 08, 2007 6:24 pm

John Freiberg Roadie Joined: 24 Jul 2007 Posts: 13 Location: Brisbane Calculus and Allen Yes do as Paul and Lee suggest. I would add that you should write out the major scale in each key, in order of 4THS, ie. C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab etc...Have the chromatic scale in front of you, and also the tonal pattern of the major scale - TONE, TONE, SEMITONE, TONE, TONE, TONE, SEMITONE. With this info you will be able to construct all the major scales. If you do this enough you will come to learn them off by heart. By doing this in 4ths you will see that one flat is added each time. When you come to the sharp keys, one sharp is removed each time. Find a Cirlce of 4ths/5ths somewhere on the web. Then build your chord scales from these major scales by stacking 3rds, ie. every second note of the scale. I would do these things before worrying about the modes. You need to know, for example, that the D major scale contains the notes D E F# G A B C# to see why when we harmonize the C Major scale, our second chord is D minor. The third (F) is a flat 3rd with respect to the 'parent' D Major scale, where we have an F#. You will then see the qualities of the modes and how they relate to the chords when you look at the scale formulas, eg. Dorian = 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7; D Dorian = D E F G A B C; the F and C are flat with respect to the parent D Major scale. Hope this helps rather than confuses. John Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:56 am

Justin Armstrong Roadie Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 11 Location: Victoria BC Here's a great place to start: http://www.thenextstepguitar.com/lessons/theory.html _________________ "The greatest tragedy of the average man is that he goes to the grave with his music still inside him." -Longfellow Tue Nov 20, 2007 7:39 pm

mikeyBoab Jam Master Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Posts: 163 Location: Glasgow, Scotland Excellent site, thank you. Very comprehensive. Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:34 pm

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