Grammar of Music

Path

What to study before Species counterpoint

The classical method for writing two or more independent lines, one restriction at a time. 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. Consonance and dissonance

    Intervals that rest and intervals that move, and the perfect, mixed and imperfect consonances between them.

    Level 1

  6. 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)

  7. Triads

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

    Level 2has practicelesson Three notes, four chords (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. 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)

  10. 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)

  11. Voice leading

    How each voice moves from one chord to the next, and why the smallest motion is usually the best one.

    Level 5lesson The smallest movement (Writing and analysis)

  12. Species counterpoint

    The classical method for writing two or more independent lines, one restriction at a time.

    Level 5lesson One variable at a time (Writing and analysis)

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