Idiot's Guides - Music Theory Read online

  No one likes a know-it-all. Most of us realize there’s no such thing—how could there be? The world is far too complicated for someone to understand everything there is to know. So when you come across a know-it-all, you smile to yourself as they ramble on because you know better.

  You understand that the quest for knowledge is a never-ending one, and you’re okay with that. You have no desire to know everything, just the next thing. You know what you don’t know, you’re confident enough to admit it, and you’re motivated to do something about it.

  At Idiot’s Guides, we, too, know what we don’t know, and we make it our business to find out. We find really smart people who are experts in their fields and then we roll up our sleeves and get to work, asking lots of questions and thinking long and hard about how best to pass along their knowledge to you in the easiest, most-accessible way possible.

  After all, that’s our promise—to make whatever you want to learn “As Easy as It Gets.” That means giving you a well-organized design that seamlessly and effortlessly guides you from page to page, topic to topic. It means controlling the pace you’re asked to absorb new information—not too much at once but just what you need to know right now. It means giving you a clear progression from easy to more difficult. It means giving you more instructional steps wherever necessary to really explain the details. And it means giving you fewer words and more illustrations wherever it’s better to show rather than tell.

  So here you are, at the start of something new. The next chapter in your quest. It can be an intimidating place to be, but you’ve been here before and so have we. Clear your mind and turn the page. By the end of this book, you won’t be a know-it-all, but your world will be a little less complicated than it was before. And we’ll be sure your journey is as easy as it gets.

  Mike Sanders

  Publisher, Idiot’s Guides

  Publisher: Mike Sanders

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  Third American Edition, 2016

  Published in the United States by DK Publishing

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  Copyright © 2016 Dorling Kindersley Limited

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  Published in the United States by Dorling Kindersley Limited.

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  ISBN: 9781465451675

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  eISBN: 9781465454102

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  Contents

  Part 1: Tones

  1 Pitches and Clefs

  Understanding Musical Tones

  Tones Have Value

  Tuning Into a Frequency

  Play by Numbers

  Do Re Mi

  Tones Have Names

  Learning the ABCs

  Notes on a Piano Keyboard

  Notes on a Staff

  Above—and Below—the Staff

  Different Clefs

  The Treble Clef

  The Bass Clef

  The Grand Staff

  Specialty Clefs

  The Percussion Clef

  Exercises

  2 Intervals

  Be Sharp—or Be Flat

  Steppin’ Out

  A Matter of Degrees

  First Things First

  Major and Minor Intervals

  Perfect Intervals

  Augmented and Diminished Intervals

  Beyond the Octave

  Intervals and Half Steps

  Mod-12

  Exercises

  3 Scales

  Eight Notes Equal One Scale

  Major Scales

  Minor Scales

  Natural Minor

  Harmonic Minor

  Melodic Minor

  In the Mode

  Ionian

  Dorian

  Phrygian

  Lydian

  Mixolydian

  Aeolian

  Locrian

  Exercises

  4 Major and Minor Keys

  Keys to Success

  Using Key Signatures

  Determining the Key Signature

  Major Keys

  Minor Keys

  The Circle of Fifths

  Accidents Will Happen

  Changing Keys

  Exercises

  Part 2: Rhythms

  5 Note Values and Basic Notation

  Taking the Measure of Things

  Taking Note—of Notes

  Whole Notes

  Half Notes

  Quarter Notes

  Eighth Notes

  Sixteenth Notes

  Taking Count

  Taking a Rest

  Taking a Note—and Dotting It

  Taking Two Notes—and Tying Them Together

  Taking the Beat and Dividing by Three

  Exercises

  6 Time Signatures

  Measuring the Beats

  Quarter-Note Time

  Eighth-Note Time

  Half Time

  Changing the Time

  Grouping the Beats

  Exercises

  7 Tempo, Dynamics, and Navigation

  Taking the Pulse

  Beats per Minute

  Italian Tempo Terms

  Speeding Up—and Slowing Down

  Hold That Note!

  Getting Loud—and Getting Soft

&
nbsp; Dynamic Markings

  Changing Dynamics

  Play It Harder

  Finding Your Way

  Repeating Sections

  Repeating Measures

  Repeating Notes

  Repeating Rests

  Exercises

  Part 3: Tunes

  8 Melodies

  Combining Tones and Rhythms

  Common Melodic Techniques

  Dvořák’s New World Symphony

  Bach’s Minuet in G

  “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore”

  Pachelbel’s Canon in D

  The Building Blocks of Melodic Form

  The Motif

  The Short Melodic Phrase

  The Long Melodic Phrase

  Composing Your First Melody

  Exercises

  9 Chords

  Forming a Chord

  Different Types of Chords

  Major Chords

  Minor Chords

  Diminished Chords

  Augmented Chords

  Chord Extensions

  Sevenths

  Other Extensions

  Altered, Suspended, and Power Chords

  Altered Chords

  Suspended Chords

  Power Chords

  Inverting the Order

  Adding Chords to Your Music

  Exercises

  10 Chord Progressions

  Chords for Each Note in the Scale

  Creating a Progression

  It’s All About Getting Home

  One Good Chord Leads to Another

  Ending a Phrase

  Perfect Cadence

  Plagal Cadence

  Imperfect Cadence

  Interrupted Cadence

  Common Chord Progressions

  I-IV

  I-V

  I-IV-V

  I-IV-V-IV

  I-V-vi-IV

  I-ii-IV-V

  I-ii-IV

  I-vi-ii-V

  I-vi-IV-V

  I-vi-ii-V7-ii

  IV-I-IV-V

  ii-V-I

  Circle of Fifths Progression

  Chromatic Circle of Fifths

  Singing the Blues

  Chords and Melodies

  Fitting Chords to a Melody

  Chord Writing Tips

  Writing a Melody to a Chord Progression

  Exercises

  11 Phrases and Forms

  Parts of a Song

  Introduction

  Verse

  Chorus

  Bridge

  Ending

  Putting It All Together

  Exercise

  Part 4: Accompanying

  12 Transcribing What You Hear

  Training Your Ear

  Listening—Actively

  Developing Super Hearing

  Hearing Pitch

  Hearing Intervals

  Hearing Rhythms

  Hearing Melodies

  Hearing Keys

  Hearing Chords and Chord Progressions

  Writing It All Down

  Exercises

  13 Accompanying Melodies

  What’s the Score?

  Working from a Lead Sheet

  Working from a Chord Sheet

  Working from a Melody

  Working from Nothing

  Working the Form

  Playing the Part

  Block Chord Accompaniment

  Rhythmic Accompaniment

  Arpeggiated Accompaniment

  Moving Bass

  One Good Strum Deserves Another

  Exercises

  14 Transposing to Other Keys

  Move Your Notes Around

  Why You Need to Transpose

  Four Ways to Transpose

  Step-Wise Transposition

  Degree-Wise Transposition

  Interval-Based Transposition

  Software-Based Transposition

  Exercises

  Part 5: Embellishing

  15 Harmony and Counterpoint

  Two Ways to Enhance a Melody

  Living in Harmony

  Voicing and Inversions

  Making Harmony Parts More Melodic

  Voice Leading

  Making a Point—with Counterpoint

  Keys to Successful Counterpoint

  Creating Your First Counterpoint

  What to Avoid

  Exercises

  16 Chord Substitutions and Turnarounds

  Extending a Good Thing

  Altering the Bass

  Two Chords Are Better Than One

  One Good Chord Can Replace Another

  Diatonic Substitution

  Major Chord Substitutions

  Minor Chord Substitutions

  Dominant Seventh Substitutions

  Functional Substitutions

  Turnarounds

  Exercises

  17 Special Notation

  Throwing a Curve

  Ties

  Slurs

  Phrases

  The Long and the Short of It

  Tenuto

  Staccato

  When Is a Note More Than a Note?

  Grace Notes

  Turns

  Trills

  Glissandi

  Arpeggiated Chords

  Getting Into the Swing of Things

  Getting the Word

  Exercises

  Part 6: Composing and Arranging

  18 Musical Genres and Forms

  Classical Music

  Classical Music Through the Years

  Classical Forms

  Blues and Jazz

  The Blues

  Jazz

  Popular Music

  Exercises

  19 Composing Your Own Music

  How to Become a Composer

  Different Approaches to Composition

  Learning How to Write Your Own Music

  Composing with Chords

  Using Chord Leading

  Establishing a Harmonic Rhythm

  Fitting Melodies to Your Chords

  Making Memorable Melodies

  Center on a Pitch

  Make Sure You End Up at Home

  Go Pentatonic

  Find the Hook

  Create Variations

  Make It Move

  Take Small Steps

  Stay in Range

  Set Up—and Resolve—Tension

  Follow the Words

  Fitting Chords to a Melody

  Try the Obvious

  Use the Melodic Outline

  Work Backward

  Exercises

  20 Arranging for Voices and Instruments

  Vocal Arranging

  Voice Characteristics

  Vocal Ranges

  Instrumental Arranging

  Instrument Characteristics

  Transposition

  Good Keys and Bad Keys

  Choosing Instruments for an Arrangement

  Common Ensembles

  Choir

  Symphonic Orchestra

  Chamber Orchestra

  String Orchestra

  String Quartet

  Concert Band

  Marching Band

  Big Band (Jazz Band)

  Rock Band (Rhythm Section)

  Exercises

  21 Lead Sheets and Scores

  Follow the Rules

  Take the Lead

  Make It Simple

  Chord Sheets

  The Nashville Number System

  Sing It Loud

  Jazz It Up for Big Bands

  Strike Up the (Concert) Band

  Make the Big Score—for the Symphonic Orchestra

  Use the Computer

  Exercise

  Coda

  Appendixes

  A Glossary

  B Music Theory Ear Training Course

  C Answers to Chapter Exercises

  Introduction

  Back when I was in high school and college (a long time ago, and getting longer every day), many, if not most, of my fellow stud
ents regarded music theory as only slightly more fun than listening to paint dry. I didn’t share that opinion, and still don’t; I think music theory is interesting and fun and an essential part of any serious music education.

  Still, if all you live for is to play your instrument (or to sing) 24 hours a day, taking time out from practicing to move a bunch of notes around on paper might not be tremendously appealing. In fact, I believe introductory-level music theory classes are the second most-skipped classes in college music schools, with only music history classes being less well received. (Some enterprising soul is bound to combine the two classes into a “Theory of Music History”—or “History of Music Theory”—course, thus creating new levels of student apathy.)

  I’m not sure why so many budding musicians are so down on theory. Maybe it’s because of the way it’s presented. (Let’s face it: Some instructors can be fairly boring when they present this material, and most music textbooks are stultifyingly dull.) Maybe it’s because of the way music theory resembles sentence diagramming and other dreary grammar-related stuff. I don’t know; maybe to some people, it just seems like a lot of work.

  But the fact remains: every musician needs to know some music theory. That’s a bold statement, and one that you might take issue with. After all, you’ve gotten this far in your music studies without knowing theory—why do you need to start studying theory now?

  Music Theory Is Important

  Most musicians, if they want to communicate with other musicians—to play in a band, or teach them their songs—have to know at least the basics about how music works. These basics—notes, chords, and so on—are what we call music theory.

  Notes and chords are the building blocks of the language of music. Music theory defines the many different ways you can arrange those blocks into songs and compositions. Without the theory, all you have is noise; applying music theory, you can create great works of art.

  Musicians apply music theory every time they sit down to play or sing—whether they know it or not. When you read a piece of music, you’re using music theory. When you write down a series of notes, you’re using music theory. When you play a chord, you’re using music theory. When you sing a harmony line, you’re using music theory.

  Even musicians who don’t have any formal training use music theory. When they put their hands on the piano, they might not know that they’re playing a major ninth chord with the fourth in the bass, but they do know that those notes fit together well, even if they can’t tell you why, or the strict chord construction.

  Now, if they did have formal training, they could go beyond just playing the notes to sharing those notes with others. Instead of pointing at their fingers and saying “play this,” they could actually write their notes and chords down on paper, in a format universally understood by musicians the world over. After all, it’s a lot easier to tell someone to play a CM9/F chord than it is to say “put your first finger here, and your second finger here,” and so on.