All the articles
Each text explains a concept with objects that sound, and says what to read before it and what comes after. They are in the order the graph puts them — from what depends on nothing to what depends on nearly everything.
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The start
depend on nothing- Articulation and dynamics, the layer of the score that is neither pitch nor durationHow a note is attacked and at what intensity; the signs that say so on the staff, the few that cover almost everything at first, and why a chart does not write them.
- Enharmonics, and why the same sound has two namesTwo spellings for the same sound, and why the choice between them is not arbitrary; a note's name carries its function.
- Intervals, and why the spelling mattersThe distance between two notes has two independent measures, and confusing them is the mistake that stalls everything else in theory.
- Key signatures, and the order that never changesThe accidentals gathered at the start of the staff, the fixed order they appear in, and the trick that reads the key in a second.
- Modes, and the chord that holds each one upThe seven rotations of the major scale, each with its own centre and colour, defined by the degree that changes against major or minor; a mode is heard through the chord that holds it, not through the scale it came from.
- Notes and semitones, and why seven names are enoughTwelve sounds to the octave, seven letters to name them, and the rule that decides which letter to use in each case.
- Pentatonics, and the scale where nothing sounds wrongFive notes instead of seven, chosen so that no combination clashes; the scale of almost everyone's first solo, and the reason it is so safe and so directionless.
- Recognising intervals, and the skill every ear rests onIdentifying the distance between two notes by ear, the method that actually works for learning it, and why to train the descending and harmonic forms too.
- Relative and parallel keys, and the two ways major and minor are relatedA minor key can be related to a major one by its key signature or by its tonic; they are different relationships, with different uses, and confusing them is the commonest mistake in reading a signature.
- Rhythm and meter, counted in fractionsNote values worth half of the one before, bars that group beats, and the reason the subdivision matters more than the top number.
- Scale degrees, and the names that describe relationshipsThe seven places in a scale, each with a name saying what it does in relation to the tonic; thinking in degrees instead of notes is what lets you play the same piece in any key.
- Score navigation, and the order the music is read inRepeats, first- and second-time bars, da capo, dal segno and coda — the marks that make a two-page piece last five minutes, and the order each is read in.
- Syncopation, and the accent that lands where the pulse is notThe accent displaced off the pulse, which only exists against an established metre and is the rhythmic mechanism of nearly all Brazilian popular music.
- Tempo, and why it is not the same thing as grooveThe speed of the pulse, written in Italian words or in beats per minute, and the difference between playing fast and playing with the right groove.
- The circle of fifths, and the map it drawsThe twelve keys laid out by fifths, in a circle that explains the order of the accidentals, measures how closely keys are related, and shows where chord sequences prefer to walk.
- The guitar fretboard, read as a rulerSix strings, one fret per semitone, and two rules that spare you memorising the two hundred and some notes of the neck.
- The major scale, and the formula that defines itA fixed sequence of tones and semitones which, applied to any note, produces that note's major scale, and determines its whole spelling.
- The staff, and middle C as the starting pointFive lines, four spaces and a clef that decides which pitch each position stands for; everything is counted from a single note, middle C.
- The three minor scales, and the problem each one solvesNatural, harmonic and melodic are not three matters of taste; they are three answers to the same structural defect.
- The tritone, and the interval that cannot sit stillThree whole tones, the interval that splits the octave exactly in half; the only symmetrical one, the one that makes every dominant ask to resolve, and the one that sounds tense even to someone who never studied.
- Ties and rests, and the silence that counts tooHow to hold a note longer than any single note value allows, and how to write silence so that it fills the bar like any note.
- Triads, and the four possible qualitiesThree notes stacked in thirds, and why only four combinations exist, all of them determined by the intervals, not by anyone's choice.
Scales and chords
depend on the start- Brazilian rhythms, and what tells one from anotherSamba, baião, xote, maracatu and frevo read by what distinguishes them — where the accent falls and how the pulse divides; each has a clapping pattern that fits in two bars, and that is where you start.
- Cadences, and how much each one concludesThe formulas that end a musical phrase, from full stop to comma, and why each one sounds as conclusive as it does.
- Chord symbols, and how to read one without memorising anythingThe songbook's notation read by fields, root, quality, extension, alteration and bass, each one answering a question.
- Diminished chords, and the symmetry that erases the rootMinor thirds stacked until the chord turns symmetrical, with no settled root; the same chord has four readings, and the spelling chooses which one counts. It is the passing chord of choro.
- Extensions, and the thirds that keep going above the seventhNinth, eleventh and thirteenth are the stack of thirds continued past the seventh; they are colour, not structure, and the practical rule is knowing what to drop when you run out of hand.
- Figured bass, and the numbers that describe what sounds above the bassThe Baroque notation for chords, numbers under the bass line indicating the intervals to play above it, and why it is not the same thing as analysis by degree.
- Functional ear training, and hearing the degree instead of the chordHearing which degree a chord occupies in the key, and not only its quality; the skill that lets you accompany a song you have never heard, and the trick of singing the tonic while it plays.
- Harmonic function, and the three places a chord can beEvery chord in the harmonic field plays one of three roles — rest, departure or tension — and it is the role, not the name, that decides what it can do in a song.
- Harmonic rhythm, and how fast the chords changeHow fast the harmony changes is a decision separate from how fast the music goes; speeding it up before a cadence is one of the most reliable signals that a phrase is ending.
- Inversions, and why the bass decides the weightThe same three notes with a different note underneath are still the same chord — but they do not weigh the same, and that is why a sequence of chords sounds like music instead of blocks.
- Minor key harmony, and the field that is not one fieldThe minor harmonic field comes from three scales, not one, which is why the same degree turns up with different chords; the major fifth degree is the choice that brings the music home.
- Non-chord tones, and what the melody does between the right notesThe melody notes that do not belong to the chord, classified by how they arrive and leave; much of what sounds like a strange chord is only a passing note over an ordinary one.
- Recognising a chord's quality, and the note that decidesHearing whether a chord is major, minor, diminished or augmented without counting notes; the third is the only note that changes between major and minor, and the difference is enormous.
- Roman numeral analysis, and the chord described by the place it holdsRoman numeral notation describes a chord by the position it holds in the key, not by the note it sits on; the case of the numeral carries the quality, and thinking this way is what lets you transpose a whole song in your head.
- Seventh chords, and the tritone that moves harmonyA fourth stacked note turns the chord from a state into a direction, and a single internal interval explains why.
- Sixth chords, and the rest the seventh does not giveA sixth added to the triad, which sounds like rest where the major seventh would sound like colour; the ending chord par excellence in bossa and choro, and the chord charts confuse with the relative's minor seventh.
- Suspended chords, and what is left when the third goesThe third replaced by the fourth or the second, which leaves the chord neither major nor minor; it almost always resolves to the third straight after, and when it does not it becomes a colour of its own.
- The blues scale, and the note that is only for passing throughThe minor pentatonic with one note added, the diminished fifth between the fourth and fifth degrees; it sounds good while it moves and harsh if you stop on it, and that is what makes the blues sound like the blues.
- The II–V–I, and why three chords are enoughPreparation, tension and rest in three chords; the most frequent sequence in popular music, what makes it work, and how to spot it in any chart.
- The major diatonic fieldSeven chords born from a single scale, and the reason each quality lands exactly where it does.
- Transposition, and the music that changes pitch without changingMoving the whole piece by a fixed interval, preserving every internal relationship and every spelling; if it sounds different, something was transposed wrong, and thinking in degrees is what makes it automatic.
Harmony and repertoire
depend on nearly everything above- Altered dominants, and the tension that strengthens the resolutionThe dominant chord with altered extensions — flat ninth, sharp ninth, raised fifth — which increase the tension without changing the function, because each alteration is one more semitone pointing at the arrival chord.
- Bossa nova harmony, and a wider vocabulary for the same grammarExtensions as the norm, frequent modal interchange, chained II–V–Is and voice leading that barely leaps; it is functional harmony with more vocabulary, not another harmony, and analysis by degree still holds.
- Choro harmony, and tonal grammar taken to its limitChained dominants, passing diminished chords, a bass always in motion and modulation between sections; the Brazilian repertoire where nineteenth-century functional harmony survived most intact, and why memorising the form is worth more than memorising the chords.
- Four-part writing, and the rules that keep the voices audibleHarmony spread across soprano, alto, tenor and bass, with the rules of doubling, spacing and movement that exist so that each voice keeps being heard as a line.
- Modal interchange, and the colour that comes from the parallelChords taken from the parallel key, which change a degree's colour without changing centre; the minor fourth degree in a major piece is the most frequent one in Brazilian song and the easiest to hear.
- Modulation, and what separates changing key from passing through oneThe change of tonal centre, confirmed by a cadence; without one, a chord from outside is just a chord from outside, and the listener feels the step without needing to analyse it.
- Musical form, and the music heard as a wholeHow sections are organised and repeated; nearly every song fits into a few letters, and knowing the form is what lets you play a piece by ear after two listens.
- Pedal point, and the harmony that moves over a note standing stillA sustained note while the chords change above it, creating dissonance without losing the centre; the dominant pedal builds tension, the tonic pedal settles, and both are everywhere.
- Pivot chord modulation, and the chord that is two at onceA chord read in two keys at the same time, serving as a hinge between them; how to find it, how to write it with two Roman numerals, and why it is the gentlest way into a new key.
- Secondary dominants, and the chord that arrives a bar earlyChords from outside the key that work as the dominant of a degree that is not the first, and why they make the next chord sound inevitable.
- Species counterpoint, and the method that isolates one variable at a timeThe classical method of writing independent lines against a cantus firmus, one restriction at a time — first pitch alone, then rhythm, then dissonance; the school where voice leading was formulated.
- The turnaround, and the return that sounds like a consequenceThe short sequence that closes a section and hands the music back to the beginning, and why a well-chosen return makes the repeat feel inevitable instead of like starting over.
- Tritone substitution, and the bass that falls by semitoneSwapping a dominant for the dominant a tritone away, which shares its inner tritone; it is what turns a II–V–I into chromatic downward movement in the bass.
- Voice leading, and why the smallest movement is usually the bestHow each voice moves from one chord to the next; common tones stay put, the rest move by step wherever possible, and the dominant's tritone resolves by contrary motion.