Basic Music Theory

By David Yzhaki Piano-Play-It.com

Hi guys, this is David here.

In this article I'm going to focus on some basic music theory.

As a piano teacher I think it's important for every producer to have some knowledge on the foundations music is based upon.

You don't wanna be caught in a professional conversation off guard right?

Instead, you'd like to have a solid opinion on what's good for your music and to explain the reason for it in a professional way.

So, straight to basic music theory. In this article I'll take it for granted that you can read piano notes and that you recognize the different piano keys. If you don't just go to my website and you'll learn it in a splash.

The Foundations of Music

Well, to begin with, one must understand how sounds are connected to each other in music.

I can think of three main ways...

1. Rhythm

Sounds are often connected in rhythmic patterns. Babies first respond to rhythm if you think of it.

Just like the heart is beating, music is beating and our tendency to count those beats (even if we're not aware of that) makes us identify with the music, once we understand how the different sounds are divided into a logic pattern that speaks to us.

A quarter note lasts one count for example. A half note lasts two counts and a whole note lasts four counts.

The beats are divided to groups of four or three (sometimes they are divided differently but let's take it one step at a time).

Each group is separated by a bar line. The first beat after the bar line is the most important and heavy one.



Bottom line, the beats help us to measure the different tone lengths.

2. Melody

We're all touched by certain songs. What often stands in a song is a decent melody. Melodies are basically made of a line of notes located at different intervals from one another.

We'll discuss the musical interval in detail in a moment. The different intervals create moods in the melodic line we're hear or create.

We measure the intervals with half tones which is the distance from each piano key to the next one (it doesn't matter if it's a white one or a black one).

This handy image demonstrates the different musical intervals and their impact...

The Musical Scale

Now let's take these musical intervals we learned and arrange them in a certain way.

By doing so we'll be creating musical scales which act like the skeleton upon which we can form both melodies and chords, based on a certain scale.

There are many different music scales but in this article I'll introduce you to the main two.

The Major Scale

This is the formula of the major scale...



If you start climbing on the piano, starting from middle C up through the white keys you'll be basically sticking with the major scale. This scale is often used in happy, and optimistic tunes. (However, some beautiful sad melodies are written in the major scale as well so every rule has its exception).

The Minor Scale

The minor scale is basically a major scale starting from its sixth step.

Take C major for example: Its sixth step is A.

So let's climb through the white keys starting from A and we're going to hear a more mellow scale. That's the minor scale...



All music theory starting from basic music theory basically leans on musical scales.

3. Harmony

As opposed to a singer, or a saxophone which often plays the melody, the piano and guitar usually play the harmony since they can play a few notes at the same time. They create musical chords. (However both the piano and guitar could be playing the melody as well).

A chord is combination of at least three notes, creating a certain impact.

Take the major chord for example: It is built out of two intervals; the major third and the minor third. It is often interpreted as an optimistic chord.

The minor chord however is built the other way around. So we'll be playing a minor third and on top of that a major third.



Now, one may ask himself where chords derive from and the answer lays in the degrees inside musical scales.

Scale Degrees

If we take the notes of the major scale and decide that we will build chords upon those notes with the use of notes that exist in the scale we'll get a family of chords which belongs to the major scale. These steps are called scale degrees.

Let's take C for example: C is the first note in the C major scale. What we're going to do is skip one note and go to E, skip a note again and press on G as well.

The first chord in C major scale will be the C major chord.

This is our home base chord, the tonic.

In this last scheme you can see all the scale degrees in C major...



These chords share a beautiful relationship but if you'd like to know more about it, you'll have to check out my website.

So, I trust I helped you to get a decent clue about basic music theory. I have to warn you though...

Once you start exploring music theory you're never satisfied. There's always more to discover!

Music theory will improve your musical ear, your musical sensitivity and the way you write, sing, play and produce.

If you'd like to learn more about music theory you can click here to go to The Piano Theory page at Piano Play It.

Author Bio:

A few words about the guy who wrote this article, mmm? me!

I'm a piano teacher living in Israel. I lived in the Netherlands for five years where I've studied jazz piano in the Utrecht conservatory for music with some amazing teachers. At the moment I'm following my second degree in composition in Jerusalem.

When I came back to Israel I decided to dedicate my life to teaching piano.

I tried to look for a way to approach as many people as I could.

The internet seemed like the right way for me (I give private piano lessons as well).

That's how Piano Play It was born. In my website you'll find beginners piano lessons, free piano tutorials and loads of information on basic music theory.

It's all for free so if you're into studying an instrument seriously, this is the place for you.