Grammar of Music

Path

What to study before Chord inversions

The same notes over a different bass: the same identity with a different weight and a different voice leading. 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.

  1. Properties of sound

    The four properties every musical sound has at once: duration, intensity, pitch and timbre.

    Level 0has practice

  2. Note

    The seven pitch names, and the sign that puts one of them on the page.

    Level 1

  3. Tone and semitone

    The smallest distance Western music uses, and the whole tone built from two of them.

    Level 1has practicelesson Notes have names, and the names have a rule (First steps in theory)

  4. Interval

    The distance between two sounds, counted by note names, melodic or harmonic, simple or compound.

    Level 1lesson The distance between two notes (First steps in theory)

  5. Interval quality

    Perfect, major, minor, augmented and diminished: what separates two intervals that share a number.

    Level 1has practicelesson The distance between two notes (First steps in theory)

  6. Triads

    Three-note chords stacked in thirds, and the four qualities that result.

    Level 2has practicelesson Three notes, four chords (First steps in theory)

  7. Chord inversions

    The same notes over a different bass: the same identity with a different weight and a different voice leading.

    Level 3lesson The letter after the slash (Functional harmony for people who play)

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