Path

What to study before Pentatonic scales

Five notes instead of seven, chosen so that no combination can sound wrong. 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.
Level 0has practice
Note
The seven pitch names, and the sign that puts one of them on the page.
Level 1
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)
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)
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)
Major scale
Seven degrees built on a fixed sequence of tones and semitones, and the reference everything else is measured against.
Level 1has practicelesson The major scale, from any note (First steps in theory)
Key signatures
The fixed accidentals at the start of the staff, their invariable order, and the circle of fifths that organizes them.
Level 1lesson Reading the key in one second (First steps in theory)
Minor scales
The three forms of the minor scale — natural, harmonic, and melodic — and what each alteration solves.
Level 2has practicelesson Three minor scales, and one problem each (Harmony for people who play)
Pentatonic scales
Five notes instead of seven, chosen so that no combination can sound wrong.
Level 2lesson The scale where nothing is wrong (Colour and change)