The minor scale has an identity problem — a productive one. Unlike the major scale, which has a single fixed formula, the minor scale comes in three versions…
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Relative and parallel keys are the two ways one key can be a close cousin of another, and understanding both is the foundation of fluent modulation.
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There are four triad qualities in Western music, and each has a distinct acoustic character — a personality, really — that the ear recognizes immediately.
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If rhythm is the time dimension of music and melody is the pitch dimension, then harmony is the depth dimension — the vertical stacking of pitches that gives…
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Every interval has a mirror image. Take a third and flip it — move the lower note up an octave, or the upper note down — and you get a sixth.
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Syncopation is the art of landing where the listener does not expect you to land. In a normally accented rhythm, the heaviest emphasis falls on the beat itself…
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Two eighth notes look identical on a page. But how they are played — and how they feel — depends entirely on the style of music and the instructions (explicit…
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Tool Number Three is a diagram. It looks like a clock — twelve positions arranged in a circle — but instead of hours, it shows key signatures.
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A scale is not a melody. It is an ordered inventory of the pitches available in a given key — the pool from which melodies, harmonies, and progressions are…
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An interval is the distance between two pitches. It is the most fundamental measurement in music theory — the unit from which melodies are constructed…
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