Serialism
An Introduction to Serialism The 20th century was a time of great experimentation and serialism (or twelve tone music) was a “20th century revolution in composition” (The Oxford Dictionary …
Category: understanding music
Sonata Form
Sonata Form (sometimes known as Compound Binary Form or Sonata-Allegro or First Movement Form) is one of the most difficult forms of music to understand. However, do not be …
Fugues
A fugue is a contrapuntal composition for a number of separate parts or voices. e.g. “a fugue in 4 parts”, “a fugue in 3 voices”. Each part/voices enters in …
The Circle Of Fifths
The circle of fifths is a brilliant musical tool, but can be confusing when you first look at it. It is a fantastic tool for understanding and working out …
Modulation
Modulation describes the process where a piece of music changes from one key to another key. When you start writing a piece of music one of the first things …
Arpeggios
Arpeggios are an amazing musical technique which you will come across all the time in lots of different styles. The music theory term arpeggio (or broken chord) simply describes …
Chord Inversions
Chord inversions add a richness to a chord progression and are a great tool for composers to use. I am going to show how easy chord inversions are to …
Chord Progressions
The term chord progression simply refers to the order in which chords are played in a song/piece of music. Play a few different songs/pieces and you will see that …
Seventh Chords
Seventh chords are the most common extension of the basic 3-note triad you come across. A seventh chord is built by adding an extra note to a triad which …
Secondary Chords
In the last lesson we looked at the primary chords. These are the most common chords you will come across and are a great starting point for composing music. …
Primary Chords
The primary chords are the 3 most commonly used chords in music. Lots of songs and many pieces of music that you will hear will be built around them …
Introduction to Chords
An understanding of chords is vital for any musician – understand chords and you are well on the way to being able to compose and perform some great music. …
Triads
Chords and Triads Triads are made up of 3 notes played on top of each other. You will often hear people describe triads as chords. They consist of a …
Canon Music
Canon A canon is a piece of music where a melody is played and then imitated (one or more times) after a short delay. It is a contrapuntal technique …
Rondo Form
Rondo Form Rondo Form is a natural extension of the 2 forms we have looked at already – Binary Form and Ternary Form. If Binary Form is A-B and …
Ternary Form
Ternary Form A musical structure where the piece is divided into 3 distinct sections. The 1st and last sections are exactly the same as each other and so the …