Music Theory in 90 Minutes: Practical Skills for Musicians

Learn how scales reveal all notes in a key, unlock chords and harmony, and apply a pattern-based approach—even for the chromatic scale.

Define chromatic and diatonic, with chromatic meaning all the color, and diatonic meaning a subset of notes that form scales in a key with a tonic.

Explore how a scale is an ordered pitch class collection, using the C major scale, and learn that pitch class means all octaves of a note.

Explore the chromatic scale using all notes and sharps or flats, then shift focus to diatonic scales for practical pop and dance music, with emphasis on finger strength.

Explore whole steps and half steps, learn the difference between major and minor seconds, and see how intervals like a fifth relate to the major scale.

Learn the major scale pattern whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half and apply it to any major scale, with examples in F major and E major.

Explore tonic as the root of a scale and the home pitch that defines key. See how F major, C major, and A minor illustrate tonic's role in signaling scale.

Practice music theory with downloadable worksheets, identify areas you struggle with, rewatch videos, and ask questions as you move toward scales and melody writing.

Explore using major scales to craft melodies by emphasizing the tonic, dominant, and leading tone, start and end on tonic, and apply steps, skips, and leaps.

Learn how to craft melodies in d major by using steps, skips, and leaps, vary the rhythm, and keep to two leaps or fewer for a singable line.

analyze this melody's features within music theory, including a fifth leap, steps and leaps, and a leading tone returning to the tonic, illustrating a well-constructed melody.

Learn what chords are, from two-note dyads to three-note triads, and how adding more notes yields jazzier sounds, with a focus on triads for pop music and identifying chord tones.

Build triads from a major scale by taking every other note—the first, third, and fifth—to form C major and other chords, including minor variations, and learn the root concept.

Identify the root of a chord as the pitch the chord is named after, distinct from the tonic. The root applies to the chord alone and is not the tonic.

Explore the diatonic chord progression in C major by stacking the scale to reveal all major, minor, and diminished chords.

Learn the chord pattern and how it maps to any key using the major scale, shown with E major; explore diminished chords and roman numerals.

Learn the four triad types: major, minor, diminished, and augmented, and how intervals form major and minor thirds. Augmented triads don’t occur in diatonic progressions; they appear with some scales.

Learn how the third differentiates major and minor triads, altered by a half step to transform chords. The third acts as the magic note that defines major versus minor sound.

Learn how octaves and inversions affect chords without changing chord names, recognize root position versus inversion, and rearrange notes by octave to find the root.

Learn to use the circle of fifths as a practical songwriting tool that links major keys to relative minor, shows diatonic chords, and reveals key signatures by counting fifths.

Learn how diatonic chords in a key always work, then use the circle of fifths, modal borrowing, and closely related keys to reach outside the key for cooler sounds.

Compose a verse and chorus chord progression in the key of C using whole notes and circle of fifths ideas like C major, F, G, E minor, A minor.

Explore constructing a verse melody in C major using steps, skips, and leaps, with chords C major, E minor, A minor, and G, including suspension and tying.

Explore chorus chord progressions in C major by moving through chords like G minor, D minor, F major, and C major, marking sections with double bars and composing a melody.

Craft a chorus melody that borrows from G minor over a C major verse, using rising half notes, faster figures, and chord tones to reach a dramatic high note.

Explore music theory beyond the basics with online materials and a deep sequence. Thank you for taking the class and I hope you enjoyed it.