Grammar of Music

Path

What to study before Phrase and period

The unit of melodic sense that ends in a cadence, and the antecedent and consequent that pair them. 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. 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)

  8. 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)

  9. Triads

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

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

  10. Diatonic harmony

    The chords that arise from stacking thirds on each degree of a scale, and why each quality lands where it does.

    Level 3has practicelesson The seven chords of a key (First steps in theory)

  11. Harmonic function

    The role each degree plays — tonic, subdominant, or dominant — and the tension that moves one to the next.

    Level 4lesson Seven chords, three roles (Functional harmony for people who play)

  12. Cadences

    The formulas that close a phrase, and the degree of finality each one delivers.

    Level 4lesson How a phrase ends (Functional harmony for people who play)

  13. Phrase and period

    The unit of melodic sense that ends in a cadence, and the antecedent and consequent that pair them.

    Level 6