First steps in theory
For anyone who has never studied theory. From the names of the notes and counting time to the seven chords of a key, with a keyboard (real or on screen) as the ruler and ear practice wherever there is something to hear.
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1. Before anything else
- Notes have names, and the names have a rule
Twelve sounds per octave, seven letters, and the keyboard as the place where the distance between two neighbours is always the same.
- Counting time
Each note value is half the one before, the bar groups the pulses, and counting out loud comes before reading anything.
2. Distances and scales
- The distance between two notes
An interval has a number, which comes from the letters, and a quality, which comes from the semitones; the ear learns both.
- The major scale, from any note
A fixed sequence of tones and semitones which, started on any note, produces the major scale of that note, with the right spelling.
- Reading the key in one second
A scale's accidentals gathered at the start of the staff, in an order that never changes, and the trick that reads the key at a glance.
3. Chords
- Three notes, four chords
Three notes stacked in thirds, and the four qualities that can result, all decided by the intervals.
- Reading a chord symbol
The letter is the root; everything after it describes what was stacked on top. A chord symbol is read in parts, not memorised.
4. The first harmony
- The seven chords of a key
The scale gives the notes, the triads give the stacking, and the result is seven chords in an order of qualities that never changes.