Music Theory Online

Why should you learn some music theory online? Being familiar with what's behind the music isn't absolutely essential for songwriting. However, if you have no idea about music theory, it really makes your job a lot more difficult than it should be. So do yourself a favor and start familiarizing yourself with it. And these days it's easier than ever. You can find plenty of books and other resources on this topic where the information is incredibly deep, well-organized and understandable. Or you can learn music theory online, right here and now. This way, you can save years of music college education by reading these "music theory online" pages here.

✓ The most basic thing you should know is how to get around the mighty musical staff. What's treble clef? What's bass clef? How do you find Middle C on the staff and the keyboard?

✓ Once you know which note is where on the musical staff, the next step is to learn the value of different notes. There are a couple of kinds of note lengths: whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes and rests.

✓ To make mastering music theory easier, I suggest that you learn the keyboard notes. It's enough if you know where C is on the keyboard and it couldn't be simpler from there. If you know which note is which key, you'll be able to memorize the structure of music much faster than without.

✓ Trying to read all those different notes after each other would be an exhausting task without musical bars. Measures and musical bars are the devices that divide music into smaller pieces so that you can read it more easily.

✓ Learning how to read music notes is quite important for songwriters. It'll help you understand and write music more easily.

✓ Music intervals are important to know to be able to communicate effectively with other songwriters and have a thorough understanding of music theory.

✓ Music scales are also important to know. They help you decide about the pitch of your songs and stay in tune.

✓ Are you confused about musical modes and musical scales? Why does one choose one musical mode and not the other? You'll find all the answers on this page about musical modes.

✓ Some musicians don't like to or can't read traditional sheet music. Others just prefer a simpler method. Fortunately, the Nashville Number System has been invented. It helps musicians putting music on paper fast and easy. It also gives players much more freedom for improvisation and creativity.

✓ The next step in learning music theory online is reading some information about key signatures. They help you read, play and understand sheet music.

✓ Being familiar with music clefs can help you a lot in reading sheet music. You've probably seen the treble clef and the bass clef - they are the most common ones - but there are cases when an alto, tenor, neutral or some other kind of clef is used.

✓ When you know what key signatures are, it's time to learn about the circle of 5ths. With the help of this little tool you can easily remember the organization of key signatures.

✓ If you want to play the piano a little and would like to use it for songwriting, you should definitely look at a piano chord chart to see what popular songs are made of.

✓ To be able to write amazing songs, you should know what the chords that sound good together are. There are only a few rules and they are easy to remember.

✓ Great music isn't made up of I, IV and V chords only. To make your music express feelings even more intensely, it's worth spending a couple of minutes learning how to do chord substitutions.

✓ And if you have a couple of minutes, you can learn the rules that help you make thousands of chords.

✓ There are also slash chords. They are special chords that you use when there is a bass note that is added to or different from the base note of the chord.

Have fun learning music theory online!

And if you would like even more information on these topics, I recommend the following books:Chordmaster Chord Theory for Keyboard, The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences or Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory.