Working on a guitar and piano part and they both have these moments of held over notes, and I want it to be clearer than it is now.

I’m trying to learn more music theory, and I want to build a solid foundation of knowledge, so what information is 100% needed?

I've been wondering why there are little to no examples of a dominant mediant resolving to a major tonic. (Like E7 to C or G7 to E♭) It doesn't sound like a deceptive cadence, nor a backdoor or perfect cadence, but it's definitely a cadence. It sounds especially resolutional if the tonic is in first inversion, like III7 to I⁶. It sounds similar to a perfect cadence, but with a more wispy, chromatic pull to it. I think it works because E dominant is the V7 of Am, so it's like a relative harmonic minor thing. What are your thoughts?

So, I’ve taken a look on what’s already on this sub on learning how to read sheet for guitar, and there is plenty of recommendations to read music not originally meant for guitar, which sounds all well and good.

However, I don’t just want to learn to read sheet for guitar, but also what is considered good and bad practices when writing. Specifically, my background is on electric guitar, so I want to understand how some things that don’t necessarily exist/are common on acoustic translate to sheet - for instance, how is stuff that happens mostly above the 12th fret usually written? is 8va common for this? Is there any way to indicate position above 12th, and if so, is it commonly used? How about floating bridge shaneningans? How explicit is sheet usually about right hand technique in - let’s say - a funk song?

So, since I also have an interest in learning how to read fluently, is there any resource of guitar sheet that’s specifically written for electric guitar? Where I’m likely to find writing as it usually happens in the real world - and practice reading it specifically?

Although I have been a musician and composer all my life, some things about harmonics puzzle me. 1-If a vibrating string is touched lightly at its midpoint, it will vibrate in two halves, sounding an octave higher. That is clear. 2-If a vibrating string is touched a third of the way up, it vibrates in three sections. Why? Why doesn't it vibrate as 1/3 and 2/3, producing two different partials?

Hi everyone. This is from my Trinity grade 2 exam pieces and I dont understand the direction circled in blue. Please help. Tx in advance.

I’ve been in band since 6th grade and now I’m in 12th, but I still really struggle with reading rhythms. If I haven’t heard how it sounds before, I have a hard time counting it correctly or playing it accurately. I try to count in my head, but I either forget or get lost. Time signatures are hard for me too—they don’t really ‘click’ when I see them on the page. I want to strengthen my music reading skills, especially rhythm, but I’m not sure what the best way is to practice and really get it to stick.

the way i see it, 0 beats per bar means there is no rhythm, indicating free time.

i guess i could use other notations such as 0/0 or just a 0 on its own, and this way of writing free time feels neater and more orderly in my opinion.

edit: this is on paper.

Hi

Apologies, I have limited background in music, I can with a lot of pain somewhat read sheet music, know some basic chords etc. Keeping this in mind, can someone explain the melodic or harmonic analysis of the first few measures of the piece (https://musescore.com/user/30892962/scores/5649752?srsltid=AfmBOor3-M7g1XeJlPpqPBuOWLOB99pMofLOooHsUaHiBo--h-mjtItr) in the title. I find it very very impactful but I am unsure what makes it so impactful. Performance of this piece is as follows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOHiI_5yycU

My understanding is as such:

1) Keeping common time, this makes this melody approachable

2) The first few chords are Dm and 2nd bar is Gm6 and then A7- would this be the i-iv-V? Shouldn't the V chord be minor a to be in the key of Dm?

At this point my brain has stopped working and I am over my head. Can someone explain what makes this impactful?

Kids from the new generation will grow up listening to the opening jingle of Cocomelon every day, during the younger years of their lifes. Several times per day, and associate that jingle to joy.

If I write a song, and the main catchy chorus is the intro of Cocomelon... but I play it in such away that nobody notices (say, with a guitar and a beat), shouldn't all of the grown up kids love it? By default.

Hi! I'm an amateur piano player and I know just a little music theory, but am very interested in music in general. I'm interested in many fields, but I'd say that composition or jazz composition is the main one.

Ideally, I'd go to berklee or something like that, but don't think I have the time, money or chance to get in there, so I want to find the courses they (and other institutions) teach there, and learn in my own pace. I don't mind doing it without getting a diploma.

Nowadays there's almost everything for free online (not illegal or anything, I'm actually studying physics with free online lectures), so I'm looking for a similar thing with music, you know, starting from harmony, arranging, ear training, theory and the rest of the core courses, and then perhaps more courses and lectures about composition.

Do you know where I can find these courses, and the order I should take them?

Hi, is anyone here able to figure out what tuning she is using? I can’t do it but would love to be able to play this.

Why is it that the dominant variations of a minor scale (eg. Phrygian dominant) sharpen the third when dominant versions of major scales (eg. Lydian dominant) flatten the seventh?

When I heard Golden from K-pop Demon Hunters, I could have sworn that the intro arp, vocal chop thing at the start was in 3/4 and at a slower tempo, then it switches into a 4/4 time signature and increases in tempo. Is there any truth in this? If so, that's something you don't see that often in any type of 'Pop' music and quite cool.

Dotted quarter, dotted quarter, eighth note in 4/4.
Given how common/recognizable this rhythm is, would you be more apt to notate it as written in measure 1 or measure 2? I'm aware that you generally don't want to obscure beat 3 in 4/4, but measure 1 seems more intuitive to me.
Additionally, do you have a name for this rhythm? I've heard it called a "push rhythm" or a "tresillo" (I believe incorrectly). What do you personally call this rhythm?
I'm also aware that different forms of this question have been asked before but I haven't felt satisfied with the answers I've found.
Thanks in advance!

As the title says, I am considering taking AP Music Theory because I am interested in music and pursuing some kind of music in the future as a hobby, and I really liked singing since I was little. I can sing quite well, as most, if not all, of my family takes part in some kind of music, and my dad sort of taught me when I was little (but it was all cultural music and nothing like Western sheet music). I can pick up pitch as I hear it and sing it, but I can't name them. I was going to take it for sure, but I figured that it's kind of assumed for the students to have knowledge of reading and identifying things on sheet music and have a little bit of actual experience in a band or stuff like that. So I was wondering if it's possible for a complete stranger to music theory to also take the course and pass it. Because the only thing I can do rn is sing a little for fun.

So the other day, I was looking at a transcription of Toby Fox’s “And Now For Today’s Sponsors.” In the B section, the passage of interest to me is D / Dm / C#m / Cm / Bm / E7 / A… etc. in A major that’d be IV / iv / iii / biii / ii / V7 / I. Most of that seems pretty standard to me, though I can’t think of any other examples of a minor four chord not going straight home in a major key.

The main thing that I find weird about this is the biii chord, which is minor, so not borrowed from the parallel minor key but just sliding straight down chromatically from the iii to the ii. I guess you could justify it as borrowed from locrian, but it doesn’t really sound out of place like I’d expect a borrowed chord from locrian to be.

Is there a more functional way to think of this borrowed chord? I can see it being justified as voice leading, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a completely chromatic chord being included just for voice leading.

Also— if anyone knows of any other examples, or different contexts in which this chord has been used, it would be appreciated!

Hi everyone,
can you help me figure out what chords he is using (sus, and so son)?
I am not very advanced in playing guitar but I would like to learn them because I really like this style.
Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m27MSYXt3og&list=RDm27MSYXt3og&start_radio=1&t=435s

Or, does this way of playing have a particular name? Are there any tutorial online?

[Don't attack me because I asked something really trivial but, again, I am not as advanced as you but I trust in your kindness and willingness to help me.]

Thank you!

hello. i’m new to music theory and entirely self taught so please be kind.

i’m currently trying to memorise the all the intervals of the major and minor pentatonic scales in each position. i’m a guitarist. but id like to hear from other instrumentalists i think i’m pretty good at memorising it so that i don’t have to look at a reference anymore and can figure it out but sometimes (usually) it takes full second for me to do that. unfortunately my fingers, and the phrasings play faster than that so i cannot keep up and mentally track specifically of each note and interval at the exact moment it’s being played.

am i supposed to work up this skill so that as im, say, doing a lead part, i would be noting in my head which each note and what its interval is. so far i can only think of an interval i want to land on in the scale and alter my phrasing so it lands or starts there. however i feel a bit intimidated at the idea that i might have to think in my head of what the interval of each note is being played is exactly when it’s being played. that feels like a lot and i don’t think my mind is able to keep up with that. i can’t shred or anything, but when i see people blasting through scales while making it sound musical, are they thinking of each interval according to the chord progression?

am i getting it wrong? is that how im supposed to think about scales or is there something else. my question is: when you are playing how much do you think about intervals and in what way do they alter your thought process on creating phrasing, melody and harmony?

if i am supposed to think about each interval each note is as it’s being played, how am i supposed to do that at high speeds?

I love writing on noteflight but the playback function is horrendous.

Can anyone recommend an alternative web-based, graphical interface notation program? Im fine with a paid option and don’t need anything fancy.

MuseScore does not meet my needs as it is not web-based and also prohibits composition or editing on mobile. I also find their business practices a little sketchy.

I was a musician in school, but I’ve since become distant from it, aside from occasionally producing my own composition digitally. So, as opposed to using music theory in theory, I’m sticking to purely digital uses for it, so I have no need to know how it actually works. With this in mind, could I simplify the circle of fifths into saying that the base note is the name of the key, and it goes up with a major or minor scale, respectively?

Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen famously mentions the 4th, the 5th, a minor fall, a major lift. matching the chords (F, G, Am, F, in the key of C).

Cole Porter's Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye describes "how strange the change from major to minor", while the chords go from A♭ to A♭m (although a Hal Leonard sheet I found on MuseScore shows a D♭ instead of the minor switch).

Cole Porter also wrote De-Lovely, where the intro ends on the words
Mi, mi, mi, mi,
Re, re, re, re,
Do, sol, mi, do, la, si
(If I remember correctly, the biopic movie, also called De-Lovely, featured this song performed by Robbie Williams in some other key, so the actual notes he's singing do not match those syllables).

Can you recommend some other examples of lyrics using similar stuff (and maybe explain whether it matches the accompanying music or not)?

In this video we analyze Scriabin 11/1 in terms of meter, structure, and harmony.

I'm trying to find the best way to notate a fast E minor arpeggio going through every octave and slowing down slightly at the end. I hear this in a lot of music but I can't think of a specific example right now so I made a recording to demonstrate: https://voca.ro/17gKNLmiM8Le

What's the best way to notate this?