Understanding 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 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 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 …

Binary Form Binary Form describes the structure of a piece of music which is divided into 2 different sections. The 2 sections are usually labelled A and B. The …

Theme and Variations Theme and variations is a very common musical structure you will come across, especially in classical music. The structure is built upon a musical idea called …

Pedal Point A pedal point is a sustained note during which the harmony above it changes in some way so that the overall sound becomes dissonant. As with a …

Relative Keys Relative keys have the same key signature (number of sharps or flats). For every note in the chromatic scale there is a relative major key and a …

Pulse Pulse or beat is a crucial element of music. The presence (or absence) of a pulse in a musical composition will have a direct impact upon its success. …

Musical Structures Lesson 1 Structure is a crucial element of music. It describes how the different sections in a piece of music are positioned together to form the composition. …

Musical Intervals The difference in pitch between two notes is called the interval. You will mainly come across this as musicians in 2 ways: 1. Harmony – when two …

The Blues Scales Explained I am always getting asked by piano players, guitarists and solo instrumentalists to show them the blues scale. They think that learning the “blues scale” …

The Degrees of the Scale Every major and minor scale has 8 notes. These individual notes are called degrees of the scale. We could number them 1-8, but this …

The Minor Scales Explained The minor scale is the scale which sounds negative – it is used by composers to depict sad, melancholic or even angry/dramatic moods. However, there …

The Major scale Explained The major scale is the scale which sounds positive – it is used when a composer wants to depict happiness, hope, joy or even a …