Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music

Basic Music Theory

Part II: The Clefs

Chapters 6-9. The party continues. In this section you’ll find more
symbols (no, not cymbals) used in written music. Chapter 6 covers
general information about clefs, and Chapters 7-9 give you the specifics
of the bass, treble and percussion clefs. In four easy lessons you’ll
understand what these signs tell you.

Interlude: Musical Terms

Chapter 10. Time for a break. This Interlude is all about musical terms,

most of which are in Italian. You’ll learn the terms, what they mean, and

what they tell you to do.

Part III: You Got Rhythm

Chapters 11-17. This is the longest Part with 7 chapters, in which you’ll
learn about note lengths and how they’re related to each other, several
different rests, time signatures, a method for counting rhythms, what a
dot does to a note, and triplets.

Interlude: To Play or Not to Play

Because that last part was so long, we’ll take another short break. This

Interlude is all about practice. How to go about it, how to structure it,

how to record it in a journal and on a tape recorder, equipment you’ll

need and how to use it, and how to do what must be done to become a

better player.

Part IV: See Sharp or Be Flat

Chapters 18-21. Once you’ve got the basics of reading music down, we
go into more advanced concepts. This section shows you how to use the
piano keyboard, covers whole steps and half steps, sharps, flats, and
naturals, the chromatic scale, enharmonic notes, and key signatures.

Part V: Intervals and Minor Scales

Chapters 23-26. In this section you’ll learn how to measure the interval

from one note to another, and using that information you’ll learn how to