Understanding Music

Syncopation Definition Syncopation is the accenting of a note which would usually not be accented. Syncopation is often described as being off beat. The time signature of a piece …

Semitones Definition A semitone (or half step) is the distance in pitch between a note and its nearest neighbour on a piano keyboard. Have a look at this keyboard: …

The term modes in music describes the scales which dominated European music for over 1,000 years up until 1500 and continued to be heavily influential for another 100 years …

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 …

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 …

Fugue Definition A fugue is a contrapuntal composition for a number of separate parts or voices. Usually a composer chooses to describe or define a fugue they have composed …

The circle of fifths is a fantastic tool for understanding and working out key signatures in all the major and minor keys and helping us understand the relationship between …

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 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 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 …

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 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 …

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. …

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 …

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. …

What is a Triad? 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 …