Grammar of Music

Path

What to study before Motive and theme

The short, recognisable cell a piece keeps returning to, and the larger theme built out of it. 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 0

  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 1lesson 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. Scale

    A series of successive notes separated by tones and semitones, ascending or descending.

    Level 4

  6. Melody

    A succession of sounds of different pitch and value that follows a musical logic.

    Level 5

  7. Motive and theme

    The short, recognisable cell a piece keeps returning to, and the larger theme built out of it.

    Level 6