I GIVE HELP in Music Theory

[SetFree]

I'm available for help in Music Theory. I did not attend a conservatory, but I have studied and played music for over 40 years, and have a Certificate from Berklee School of Music (online). My main instrument is guitar.

 

[Lamb]

That's a nice offer!! I play flute but don't know much about music theory. My flute teacher talked about it but my ears never picked up on what she was saying!!

What are some of the basics a beginner should know?

 

[SetFree]

That's a nice offer!! I play flute but don't know much about music theory. My flute teacher talked about it but my ears never picked up on what she was saying!!

What are some of the basics a beginner should know?

Depends on what the student wants to achieve. At the most basic level, it should be how to write music in their style of choice (except I don't do Heavy Metal, Rap or Hip-Hop), understanding how the chords are built, and how scales, progressions, and modulations, etc., all work in basic songwriting.

My music education from Berklee School of Music gave me a certificate in Orchestration for Film and TV, but I don't think I'd want to go that deep here. It would take a lot of time.

But if someone is just wanting some help with learning how to write songs, or write music tracks to be used for commercial play at music libraries, that's OK.

 

[SetFree]

That's a nice offer!! I play flute but don't know much about music theory. My flute teacher talked about it but my ears never picked up on what she was saying!!

What are some of the basics a beginner should know?

Here's some basics needed to begin songwriting (just the music part, I don't do lyrics).

1. know the Major Scale, the heart of western diatonic harmony.
2. understand how to spell the 12 Keys (sharps and flats in the keys)
3. understand the Intervals of the Major Scale, and how they sound.
4. learn to spell chord triads (harmony means stacked notes, like chords. Harmonize the 7 tones of the Major Scale, which will produce chord triads).
5. understand the Circle of 5ths and the V-I resolution.
6. understand the anchor notes of the Major Scale, and the other note's resolutions to them.
7. learn to harmonize the Major Scale into 7th chords.
8. learn the common tone relationship within the Major Scale harmonized chords.
9. Learn the minor scale (6th degree of Major Scale, called Natural Minor).
10. Learn how to write chord progressions (the I - IV - V and the ii - V - I progressions being the most used. Learn other popular progressions (will reveal how to play the chords to thousands of popular songs.)
11. Learn other Scales (Pentatonic and Blues), and chord prog. (8 bar and 12 bar Blues).
12. Learn chord notation (i.e., Cm7 = Cminor7 = C-7, etc. C/E = a C Major chord with an E note in the bass, called a 1st Inversion of a chord. Learn Roman numeral system for labeling chords, like large Roman numerals for Major chords, and lower cast Roman numerals for minor chords (I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - vii).
13. Learn the Nashville number system. Useful for mapping out the composition of a song's chords. Also used at gigs to define a song to musicians for hire on the spot. You describe the chord progression using the Roman numeral system, then the style, and they got it (like a slow I-IV-V Country Blues in G Major).
14. Learn to read the notes on the Treble and Bass music clefs.

That's what I'd recommend for those interested in learning basic songwriting, and some skills in order to be able to play with other musicians.

 

[SetFree]

For those interested in a deeper musical study, I suggest Musical Interval Theory Academy (M.I.T.A.) I've been studying with them.

The best way I can explain what they are teaching, is that the normal Diatonic system of western harmony teaches theory based on only 7 notes of the Major scale representing them as Degrees. In reality, there's actually 12 notes of the Major scale, the notes in between those 7 notes are either sharps or flats. This system I call a PLANETARY SYSTEM.

But the Interval system, it treats theory involving all 12 notes of the scale as separate Degrees of the scale. This Interval system, I call a SYSTEM COVERING THE WHOLE UNIVERSE.

To study with MITA, one needs to be able to read music in the SATB clefs (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass), and have a fairly good grasp of basic Diatonic music theory and harmony.