There are 15 different key signatures in music so how do we figure out which ones have sharps and which ones have flats? How do we know how many sharps and flats they have? And where do the minor keys fit in? We’ll answer all these questions and others like them thanks to a few …
In total, there are 12 major scales because the major scale pattern can begin on any of the 12 notes of the musical alphabet.
There are 3 minor scales, or more precisely, 3 variants of the minor scale because of how harmony and melody interact in tonal music. Composers change some notes of the minor scale to achieve a specific sound for a particular style.
There are two ways to tell whether a song is major or minor: by ear and by sight. When doing it by ear, listen to the major vs. minor qualities in the music. When reading the sheet music, the answer is in the key signature and in notes and chords are used.
No, not every song has a chorus. While most songs do have a chorus, there are plenty of great songs without one. These songs are just as effective and prove that is not necessary for a song to have a chorus.
No, the tonic is not the same as the root. While the tonic is the fundamental, ‘home’ note of scales and keys, the root is the fundamental note of chords and arpeggios.
‘Tension and release’ refers to the build-up of musical intensity that eventually dissolves and relaxes. For the listener, a moment of unrest in the music creates an expectation for its resolution and an anticipation for the drama to resolve. Tension and release keeps the music moving forward.
The cadential 6 4 is a melodic and harmonic formula that often appears at the end of phrases in music of the common practice period. Typically, it consists of a decoration of the dominant chord by displacing both its third and fifth by a step above.
This short, fun video from medici.tv went viral some time ago. It features the Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer criticizing the well-known tune. “I think it’s a very poor melody” he says, “it’s not written well” and then goes on to recompose it.
Tonality (also known as ‘tonal music’) is music that has a tonic – that specific note on which music is the most stable and at rest. In general, tonal music works by establishing a tonic, moving away from it and then returning to it.
Four-part harmony is a traditional system of organising chords for 4 voices: soprano, alto, tenor and bass (known together as SATB). The term ‘voice’ or ‘part’ refers to any musical line whether it is a melody sung by singers, a long note played on an instrument or anything in between.
I’ve probably watched hundreds of TED talks over the years but as a composer and a music teacher, a great talk about music can really make my day (if not my week!). I love sharing inspirational stuff with my students so here some of the best TED talks about music. In no particular order, here are my 10 favorite TED talks about music.
The ‘technical names’ in music are a set of 7 terms that give a label to every note of the scale. Every note is assigned a different technical name that reflects its position in the scale.
What is wrong is that the notes of a perfect fifth blend so well together that they almost sound like one note rather than two. This makes parallel fifths out of style IF that style demands independence of voices.
The difference between 3/4 and 6/8 is in the number of beats per bar and in their accents (the strong beats). In 3/4, we get three quarter note beats (out of which the first one is the strongest). In 6/8, we get two dotted quarter note beats (out of which the first one is the strongest).
Here’s a list of 60+ of the best music theory and composition YouTube channels with enough material for a lifetime of learning.
A student recently asked me whether his music is really beautiful and I had to think long and hard about what to say. If you’ve ever had doubts about your own music or you want some ideas for how to judge your own work fairly, these thoughts are for you too. First off, let me …
Tone painting is the technique of shaping vocal music according to the meaning of the words. For example, we’d write a melody that goes up on words such as ‘rising’, ‘uphill’ and ‘climbing’ or have the music go really quiet on words such as ‘soft’, ‘peaceful’ and ‘calm’.
Welcome to the first of the School of Composition’s Analysis series. Today we’re looking at the incredible motivic development of Beethoven’s 1st movement of the 6th Symphony. In the video below I show you how Beethoven uses his beautiful theme to build the whole of this first movement: I have color-coded the music so as …
Welcome to a new music composition challenge – we’ve got an exciting one in store! For this month’s challenge, we’re partnering up with Crescendo Phoenixville, which in their own words is “a community music organization that provides high-quality music education to children who might otherwise not receive it.” (Check out their website here). The program is run …