Music School
Learn music theory by hearing it and doing it. Lessons with exercises, a piano and a guitar to play, chords, a tuner and a voice lab, free and in your browser.
What is inside
- Voice Lab: the vocal tract in 3D — A teaching model of the head, throat and larynx. Hover any part to see its name and role, rotate and cut the 3D view open, and move the sliders to see how the shape of the tube sets the formants.
- Tuner and voice analyser — Sing into the microphone and see pitch, spectrum and formants as you sing. Everything runs locally in your browser.
- Practice — Play the piano or the guitar fretboard with the mouse, touch or a MIDI keyboard.
- Music theory lessons — Short lessons with exercises you can hear and check.
- Chords — Build a chord on the fretboard or the keys and see its name.
- Sources — Where to read further.
The course (46)
Fundamentals (27)
- Notes and Octaves
- The Major Scale and Scale Degrees
- Intervals: Seconds and Thirds
- Intervals: Fourths Through Octaves
- Key Signatures and the Circle of Fifths
- Minor Scales: Natural, Harmonic, Melodic
- Rhythm and Meter
- Triads: Major, Minor, Diminished, Augmented
- Diatonic Triads in Major
- Diatonic Triads in Minor
- Seventh Chords
- Chord Inversions and Figured Bass
- Non-Chord Tones
- Cadences
- Voice Leading Basics
- Functional Harmony: Tonic, Predominant, Dominant
- The ii-V-I and Other Common Progressions
- Secondary Dominants
- Modulation to Closely Related Keys
- Modal Mixture and Chromatic Harmony
- Modes and Modal Color
- Phrase Structure: Motive, Phrase, Period
- Musical Form
- Tension and Release: Consonance, Dissonance, Expectation
- Music Perception: Tonal Hierarchy and Tendency Tones
- Applying Theory to Songwriting
- Capstone: Analyzing a Progression From Scratch
Composition & Arrangement (12)
- Melodic Development: Sequence, Inversion, Retrograde
- Counterpoint Basics: Independent Voices
- Advanced Modulation: Common-Tone, Chromatic, Enharmonic
- Instrumental Ranges and Timbre
- Voicing Techniques: Close, Open, and Drop Voicings
- Writing for the Rhythm Section
- Bass Line Writing
- Countermelody and Harmonic Fill
- Arranging Texture and Register
- Song Arrangement Structure: Builds, Drops, Transitions
- Writing for Horn and String Sections
- Capstone: Arranging a Lead Sheet for an Ensemble