This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Music is one of my main hobbies and one of my fields of translation. I made an interactive tutorial on Western tonality and thought this would be a good place to share it with others. So here it is:
Interactive Tutorial On Western Tonality
This tutorial differs from most music theory courses in the following ways:
1. It is made entirely from links to other websites, so it does not always flow smoothly and a lot of information is redundant.
2. I emphasize tonal structure throughout and omit or delay information that is not necessary for understanding tonal structure. For example, the only classical form that I introduce is sonata form because it is one of the simplest examples of how classical form relates to tonal structure. Although many important aspects of music such as counterpoint are also interdependent with tonal structure, I omit them completely since the only goal of this tutorial is to introduce the concept of tonal structure as quickly and easily as possible. Once you understand the concept of tonal structure, hopefully you will find it as exciting as I do and be motivated to pursue other topics in tonal (or atonal) music by yourself.
3. This tutorial is based on the philosophy that tonal structure is the common element in almost all Western tonal music, be it Baroque, Country, Bebop, Metal, Hip-hop, you name it. Many music theory courses focus almost exclusively on classical music, but I am trying to avoid that approach. Classical music has developed tonal structure to a more sophisticated level than any other genre, but I have used genres other than classical as much as possible, especially where they have contributed ideas not found in classical music.
4. This tutorial is meant to be experienced more than read. I tried to avoid links to reading material as much as possible. I want you to experience tonal structure with your ears and eyes through sound clips and animations.
Contents
Main Sources Used For This Tutorial
Reading Music
Scales, Keys and Key Signatures
Intervals
Triads
Roman Numeral Analysis and Figured Bass (triads only)
You can skip this section if you already know how to read music. I would rather have omitted this section, but unfortunately it's difficult to learn music theory without reading notation.
Although this section also contains some fundamentals of music notation, you might want to go through it anyway even if you can already read music. It may contain some information about music theory that you don’t know and that will be necessary for subsequent sections.
Roman Numeral Analysis and Figured Bass (triads only)
Baroque notation is useful for analyzing more than just Baroque music. The basic concept, if not the notation, is necessary for understanding all types of Western tonal music. This section only deals with triads.
Introduction to baroque Chord symbols (triads only)
Whole-tone scale. Note that the 1st, 3rd and 5th scale degrees correspond to an augmented chord, just as the same degrees of a diminished scale correspond to a diminished scale.
This webpage refers to the overtone series, but don’t worry about that. If you are interested in the overtone series, I have oodles of information about it on my own music webpage
There are three sections. When you finish one section, there’s no menu to go back and start the other sections, so you might want to return to this page and click the link again
There are six sections. When you finish each section, there is no menu to go to the other sections, so you might want to go back to this page and click the link again. Be sure to check out the section on tritone substitutions used in jazz improvisation
There are five sections. When you finish each section, there is no menu to go to the other sections, so you might want to go back to this page and click the link again.
Tonal Structure and Form
This is where it gets really interesting!
The purpose of this section is to demonstrate the relationship between tonal structure and form, not to explain form per se. Although form is a deep and complex subject in itself and there are many types of classical forms, this section will only cover sonata form because of its simplicity and ubiquity.
Not everything is spelled out here, but if you have been paying attention you should be able to see how it relates to the material covered so far. The chords are written at the bottom and match the numbered measures of the sheet music. You can see the typical tonic à dominant à tonic progression of the entire piece as well as within the phrases (you have to identify those yourself since they aren’t labeled). In other words, you can see how tonal structure operates at both the phrase level and the level of the entire composition. Note the use of a secondary dominant chords to modulate to the dominant key and then back to the tonic key.
More Harmonic Analyses
Now that you are a pro at harmonic analysis, here are some challenging analyses of real compositions.
This analysis includes extended chords as well as pentatonic scales.
Medieval Church Modes
The Medieval church modes are generally used in any of the following three ways or combinations thereof: In Medievel church music melodies were built from the modes without relation to chord progressions (chord progressions hadn't been discovered yet!). In impressionist, neoclassical and modal jazz music, chords are built on or from the degrees of modes. In some types of jazz and rock (especially heavy metal), modes are played over their corresponding diatonic chords, for example, a Dorian mode over a minor 7 chord.
Finally, I recommend listening to Miles Davis' "So What!" from "Kind of Blue" for an example of pure improvisation (the recording is a first take) based on two alternating Dorian modes and accompanied by piano chords built in fourths (rather than the usual thirds) from the modal degrees.