Path
What to study before Altered chords
Chords built by raising or lowering a diatonic note, always leaving a diminished third inside. Below, the concepts that come before, in the order in which one explains the next. Signed in, you see the same path minus what you already hold: your path.
Properties of sound
The four properties every musical sound has at once: duration, intensity, pitch and timbre.
Note
The seven pitch names, and the sign that puts one of them on the page.
Tone and semitone
The smallest distance Western music uses, and the whole tone built from two of them.
Interval
The distance between two sounds, counted by note names, melodic or harmonic, simple or compound.
Interval quality
Perfect, major, minor, augmented and diminished: what separates two intervals that share a number.
Triads
Three-note chords stacked in thirds, and the four qualities that result.
Accidentals
The five signs that raise or lower a note without changing its name, and how far each one reaches.
Altered chords
Chords built by raising or lowering a diatonic note, always leaving a diminished third inside.