Music Theory for Songwriters Masterclass

Learn to read music by identifying notes in chords like E major seven, using counting tricks, and recognizing rhythm on a lead sheet; practice with imslp.org scores to improve sight-reading.

Compare score, lead sheet, and chart formats, then see how staves, clefs, piano reduction, and chords with tempo and endings guide vocal entry and form.

This lecture explains two main pitch naming systems—letter names and solfege—regional differences, and shows how treble and bass clefs anchor notes like C, G, and F, with mnemonic aids.

Explore octaves and registers; notes like C, D, E, and F repeat across the keyboard and sound harmonious when shifted by an octave. Learn to read octave numbers like C5.

Create and practice songwriter oriented worksheets in pdf form to identify pitches and learn pitch notation, with answers at the bottom to check your work, no grade.

Explore how time is notated in music, from note shapes and beams to rhythmic values, and compare the US quarter-eighth-half note system with global naming variants.

Learn to identify the beat and master fundamental rhythmic divisions—whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes—see how four notes form a measure and explore beams, rests, and dots.

Learn how dots extend note durations by half their value, from dotted quarter to dotted eighth notes, and how rests and beat-based groupings shape rhythm reading.

Master how rests represent silence to fill each measure, with whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth rests and dotted variations, and learn how bar lines and time signatures shape rhythm.

Learn how time signatures set beats per measure and define the beat, with examples in 4/4, 6/8, and 3/4, noting most pop songs stay in 4/4.

Learn how ties extend rhythmic value across bar lines by holding, not reattacking, notes, and distinguish ties from slurs in common meter contexts.

Learn how triplets squeeze three notes into the space of two, creating a rushed feel, with eighth note triplets, beamed with a three and bracketed, plus practice tips.

Practice note identification using musictheory.net exercises, turn off accidentals, and compare note positions to build rhythm awareness and understand symbols and conventions for music notation and writing music.

Explore accidentals, including flat, sharp, and natural symbols, and learn basic score conventions for understanding notated music without needing to master it, with a piano reference.

Learn how sharps raise a note by a half step, identify accidentals, and read the sharp symbol, with examples like C sharp, G sharp, and A sharp on the piano.

Flats lower a note by a half step, as in b flat or d flat, and black keys have names like c sharp or d flat, guided by the key.

Explore how accidentals stay active through a measure and reset at the bar. See how natural signs switch them off and how enharmonic spellings influence chords and lead sheets.

Identify key signatures and how sharps and flats apply to all notes in a piece. Explain dynamics, repeats, and coda instructions, including first and second endings and ds al coda.

Explore musictheory.net exercises to identify notes with accidentals, practice identifying F flat and C sharp, and prepare with a follow-up worksheet before delving into lead sheets and deeper music theory.

Discover practical ways to practice reading music using imslp.org scores, see handwritten and typeset Mozart scores, and use landmarks to count notes and improve note literacy.

Two great ways to practice: play the music on your instrument to improve reading, or print the score and write in the notes to strengthen note recognition.

Explore how to listen to a song, identify what works, and apply it to your own writing through scales, notes, and chords, beginning with staff familiarity.

Discover how scales outline all notes in a key and guide which notes fit a G major chord. Define chromatic and diatonic terms to explore their roles in building scales.

Explore chromatic and diatonic concepts by contrasting chromatic 'all notes' with diatonic 'subset of notes' within a key. See how songwriters use notes to sound harmonious.

Discover scales as ordered pitch class collections that span all octaves and move from low to high. Compare chromatic and diatonic patterns and see how a practical scale omits notes.

Master the chromatic scale by applying its pattern instead of memorizing scales, then connect to major scales and build any key using sharps or flats.

Explore half steps and whole steps, including semitone and whole tone, to understand major scales and underpin chords and harmony for songwriting.

Learn the whole-step half-step pattern for constructing major scales, memorize the pattern rather than every key, and apply it to C major and E-flat major with proper sharps or flats.

Identify the tonic as the scale's home base, the note that feels like a stop or beginning point, such as C in C major and E-flat in E-flat major chords.

Practice scales by identifying whole steps and half steps in bass and treble clef notation, spotting scale fragments and major scales, and using this knowledge to write melodies.

Explore how major scales guide melody writing, from writing melodies first to adding chords and words later, using step skips and leaps to analyze melodies.

Compose a melody using the C major scale with steps, skips, and leaps. Start on the tonic and end on it to establish the key and explore scale notes.

Analyze a pop melody from the flowers lead sheet by Miley Cyrus, identify the a minor tonic, and map steps, skips, and leaps to inform your own melodic writing.

Explore how to determine the key, including that there is no definitive key, and how to identify the tonic, navigate key changes, and write songs in different keys.

discover how keys and scales determine which notes and chords sound good, using A minor and C major examples, and learn to identify key signatures to write faster.

Identify key signatures by the fixed order of sharps and flats and the last-sharp-up-a-half-step trick. Understand major and minor keys and note exceptions like C major and F major.

Discover multiple clues to identify a key: key signature, last sharp, first and last chords, title cues, a sustained pitch, and how a melody starts and ends.

Define chords as groups of notes, focus on triads as core guitar chords, and explain major and minor chords. Explore how different triads sound on open strummed chords.

Learn to build a major triad from a scale by selecting the first, third, and fifth notes, using C major and F major examples; seventh chords are noted for later.

Identify the root as the note a chord is named after, akin to the tonic in a key or scale. Then learn how the root underpins the diatonic chord progression.

Learn the diatonic chord progression in major keys by stacking thirds in the C major scale, outlining the pattern major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished, and its chords.

Label chords with capital roman numerals for major and lowercase for minor to show each chord’s function, including progressions like 1-4-2-5 and 5-1 and the diminished vii°.

Analyze piano man’s verse chords in C major, highlight the 1–3–6–1 progression (C–E minor–A minor–C), and show how to transpose and use it in your own songs.

Explore the 1564 chord progression in C major (C, G, A minor, F) to learn diatonic structure, then examine triads and non-diatonic ideas to broaden harmony.