Articles
Plain answers to the questions people ask about music, from reading notes to learning songs by ear and playing with others — each one ending in an exercise.
Chord, Scale and Key: What Is the Difference?
A scale is notes in a row, a chord is notes at once, and a key is a home note plus the scale the music draws from. How the three fit together.
How Many Notes Are There in Music? Why Twelve
Western music uses 12 notes, 7 with letter names and 5 sharps or flats, repeated in every octave. Why twelve, and what other traditions do.
Interval Reference Songs: Rising and Falling Intervals in Songs You Know
Well-known songs whose opening notes form each interval, rising and falling, from the minor second to the octave, and how to use them to learn intervals.
Sharp vs Flat: Is C♯ the Same Note as D♭?
A sharp raises a note one semitone and a flat lowers it one. C♯ and D♭ sound the same; the key decides which name is right.
6/8 vs 3/4: How to Tell Them Apart by Ear and on the Page
Both hold six eighth notes per bar. 3/4 groups them in three beats of two; 6/8 groups them in two beats of three, so you tap three times or twice.
Tempo, Rhythm and Beat: What Is the Difference?
The beat is the steady pulse you tap your foot to, tempo is how fast that pulse goes, and rhythm is the pattern of long and short notes played over it.
Treble Clef vs Bass Clef: How to Read Both
The treble clef marks G above middle C on the second line, for higher notes; the bass clef marks F below middle C on the fourth line, for lower ones.
What Is a Chord in Music? How Three Notes Become One Sound
A chord is three or more notes sounding together and heard as one sound. The basic chord, the triad, stacks a root, a third and a fifth, like C–E–G.
What Is a Chord Progression? The Four Chords Behind Countless Songs
A chord progression is the order of chords in a song, like C–G–Am–F. Why they are written as numbers, the common ones, and how to write your own.
Why Does Minor Sound Sad? Acoustics, Learning and What Research Shows
Minor sounds sad to Western ears mostly through learning. The acoustic differences are real but small, and the research does not show a universal link.
How to Figure Out a Melody by Ear, on Any Instrument
Sing it first, find home and the first note, get the rhythm, then ask two questions of every note — which way did it go, and was it a step or a leap. Why melodies mostly move by step, and how hearing in scale numbers turns guessing into a short list.
How to Figure Out the Chords of a Song by Ear
Find the key, follow the bass, decide major or minor by the third — and use the fact that a key only has seven chords to skip most of the guessing. What to do when the bass is not the root, and when a chord is not in the key.
How to Find the Key of a Song by Ear
Find the note the song comes home to, check it against the bass, hum it and find it on any instrument, then decide major or minor. Why that note sounds like home, and the traps that fool people — relative keys, songs that end elsewhere, borrowed chords and modes.
How to Start Improvising, on Any Instrument or Your Voice
Play over one chord with three notes, make the rhythm do the work, then open up to the five notes of the major pentatonic and land on the notes of the chord. Why each step works, and how question-and-answer phrases and a repeated motif turn noodling into music.
How to Learn Songs by Ear, Step by Step
Find the home note, then the bass and the chords, then the melody one short phrase at a time, singing each note before you look for it. The method for any instrument, why each step works, and what to train when one of them stalls.
10 Movies About Music Worth Watching, and What Each One Teaches
Ten films about music, from The Sound of Music to Tár, chosen because each one shows something true about how music works, such as tempo, harmony, hearing or playing in a band, and paired with the lesson on this site that lets you practise it.
Perfect Pitch vs Relative Pitch: What Each One Does
Perfect pitch names a note with nothing to compare it to; relative pitch hears how notes relate to each other. What each one does when you tune, play by ear, sing in a choir, transpose or improvise, why almost every musician works with relative pitch, and an honest way to find out which one you have.
The Benefits of Playing in a Band: What It Teaches You About Music
Keeping time with people instead of a click, playing a role and playing less so the parts fit, listening while you play, knowing where you are in the song, moving a song to the singer's key, and carrying on through a mistake. What a band teaches that practising alone cannot, and how to start before you feel ready.
The Greek Modes: One Scale, Seven Homes
Dorian, phrygian, lydian and the rest are not seven scales to memorise — they are one collection of notes with a different note treated as home. What each one sounds like, and why the note you start on is the whole story.
Can You Develop Perfect Pitch as an Adult?
Almost certainly not — and it is not the skill you are missing. What perfect pitch is, why the adult training claims do not hold up, what it would cost you if you had it, and the ability worth training instead.
Do Re Mi or C D E? Three Ways to Name the Same Notes
Letter names, fixed-do solfège and the German H — where each is used, why they all name the same twelve notes, why none is more correct, and how to choose the one this site shows you.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Music Theory?
There is no number, and this article says why instead of inventing one — what changes over weeks, months and years, and the two habits that decide how fast any of it arrives.
How to Read Sheet Music: Where to Start
Where to begin with sheet music — pitch before rhythm, one clef, a few anchor notes, and short daily doses that turn counting into reading.
Major vs Minor: One Note Apart
The whole difference is the middle note of the chord, one semitone. Why that is all it takes, why the happy-and-sad labels are a convention rather than a rule, and how the same two words apply to scales and keys.
How to Memorize the Fretboard, One String at a Time
Why a fretboard chart does not stick and what does — one string at a time, the two E strings, the 5th, 7th and 12th frets as landmarks, and the octave shape that fills in the rest.