Free Websites to Help With Music Theory or Music Rudiments

A guide to some useful websites available online to help musicians, students and teachers with music theory assignments, exam or college preparation.

Musical theory knowledge gives musicians a deeper understanding of the music they are playing. In his article for the Easy Music Theory website entitled "Why You NEED Music Theory", Gary Ewer, B. Mus. says that music theory allows "you to communicate your musical ideas, and to explore music in ways you have never experienced before."

Once music students reach the intermediate level of their musical studies, music theory is a co-requisite to their music examinations. Recognized music conservatory such as the Royal Conservatory of Music/National Conservatory of Music of America, Conservatory Canada, London College of Music or the Canadian National Conservatory of Music offer theory examinations from Preliminary Rudiments to Advanced Harmony and Analysis. Recognizing the importance of music theory, many of the beginner method books currently on the market incorporate music theory at an early stage of a student's musical development.

The following is a compilation of some websites available on the Internet to help with music theory:

Music Theory Tutorials, Trainers and Music History Websites

Two websites that offer numerous tutorials, trainers and information are Ricci Adams' Musictheory.net and Music Notes' Music Theory.

Software engineer Ricci Adams developed and launched Ricci Adams' Musictheory.net in 2000. The site offers flash presentations under "Lessons", covering various areas of Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Music Rudiments as well as Beginning Music Harmony. Lessons are broken down in the following sections: Staff and Clefs, Note Values, Dots, Ties, Time Signatures, Accidentals, Scales, Key Signatures, Intervals, Diminished Chords, Augmented Chords, major/minor chords, Half Diminished Chords, Seventh Chords and the Circle of Fifths. The covers material in Preliminary Rudiments up to Advanced Music Harmony. It also includes Trainers and manuscript paper. The note reading trainers are good for beginner students.

Music Theory is site offers tutorials on preliminary to advanced rudiments: Note Reading, Pitch, Values, Meter, Intervals & Scales, Key Signatures, Figured Bass, Chords and Symbols and Expression marks. The glossary is helpful to both music students and teachers alike. This site goes one step further than Ricci Adams by including information on musical styles, history, professions, instruments and games.

For visual learners, The Music Theory Minute is extremely useful. It offers free one-minute video tutorials on music theory. This site is ideal for visual learners. It covers the basic core principles as well advanced theory tutorials on Secondary Dominants, Cadences, Suspensions and modulations. Students can even email Dr. Jack a theory question and he will reply.

Free and Subscription Music Theory Resources Online

There are several music websites that offer free and subcription services to music teachers and students. Emusictheory and Teoria are two such sites.

Emusictheory offers 10 theory concepts that students can explore online for free under "Free Resources", including: Note Names, C-Clef Note Names, Piano Keys, Guitar Frets, Violin Fingering, Viola Fingering, Double Bass Fingering, Intervals, Chords and Scales. The creators are working on Key Signatures, chord functions, support for bass and treble clef, just to name a few. Under the "drills" section, students can study key signatures, intervals, scales, chords, chord functions.

Teachers can purchase an account that allows them to register students in Emusictheory, as well as assign, mark and track online theory assignments.

On the web since 1997, Teoria is the 2006 MERLOT Classical Award in music. It offers tutorials on: Reading Music, Intervals, Scales, Chords, Harmonic Functions and Musical Forms. Where this shines is in the interactive exercise section where students can do drills in all areas of music theory, from beginner to advanced, and from classical music theory to jazz music theory. There is also a musical reference section and articles on analysis and theory, analysis by composer, and instruments.

Students and teachers can become a member (there is a cost for teachers) and teachers can assign, mark and track assignments. Purchasing a membership makes all tutorials available.

This list is just a sampling of music theory websites. The websites listed contain a wealth of information to aid in understanding music theory, from preliminary rudiments up to advanced theory subjects such as counterpoint, harmony, history and analysis. These sites are of great benefit to music students studying for a theory examination, applying to a post-secondary music program or recreational music students. They also benefit music teachers by providing supplemental material to use for assignments and music theory lessons.

Originally published on Suite101.com on April 14, 2010. All rights reserved by Rhona-Mae Arca.

Practicing Away from Your Instrument

Some of my students have come into their lesson this week, saying "Sorry, I didn't have much time to practice. I was really busy." Well, that just sums up everyone's life these days, doesn't it? There are several ways that you can practice music when you are busy. I've already touched upon speed practicing. 

Another thing you can do while you are in transit or while you are working on your schoolwork is to listen to recordings of either you playing your pieces and/or someone else performing them. I was working full-time in an office while I was preparing for my ARCT in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music. Practice time, while working all day and living in an apartment was quite limited. 

During the day, I popped in CD's of of piano repertoire into my computer and plugged in my earphones. Even though I was busy writing articles or sending out correspondence, some part of my brain was listening to my pieces and dissecting them. I would also listen to them on my commute home. 

Sometimes, I employ this technique now with my Japanese language studies. I'll listen to our class recordings while completing my studio paperwork. Or, I'll listen to recordings of my students' pieces to refresh my memory before heading into lessons. Another thing I did frequently was scorestudy, that is, to study the musical score. At lunchtime, I would I would sneak off to a quiet corner for five to ten minutes after eating to frantically tap out the complex rhythms in my pieces. The third idea is courtesy of one of my students and applies for to music theory and ear training. It took her a long time to memorize her Circle of Fifths. I was impressed when she told me that she set the Circle of Fifths as her iPod wallpaper. "I had to look at it each time I unlocked it," she told me. As far as ear training and music vocabulary go, there's an app for that!

Music Practicing 101 - Transposition Demo

Approximately a third of my students are working through the Conservatory Canada syllabi. One way it differs from the Royal Conservatory is that keyboard harmony and transposition are built into the practical examinations.Regardless of which music conservatory you're following (if at all), being able to transpose at sight is a valuable skill to have in your "musician's toolbox" It's practical music theory! If you play for vocalists, I can guarantee you that you will need to transpose at some point - with very little preparation time.Here's a quick demo on how to practice transposing at the keyboard. 

A New Twist to Ear Training

If you're looking for a way to spice up your ear and rhythm training, try music transcription. Several weeks ago, my student K, a seven-year old beginner, walked in with a CD to share with me. On it are three Indi pop songs he would really like to learn. They are quite catchy. He asked if I would be able to transcribe the notes for him as no sheet music is available.

The thing with these catchy foreign pop songs is that the rhythms and harmonies are rather complex. Polyrhythms are quite common. The harmonies aren't your standard I-IV-V-I progression. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Remember S? He's my talented 12-year-old student who fell out of music last month? He's doing all right now. I assigned him a quick study several grades below his current level. Last week, I also paired him up with the student who comes after him so he can coach her on a song.

Back to K's catchy tunes. To my surprise, I have discovered that S has near to perfect pitch. The discovery inspired me to enlist S to help me transcribe K's Hindi pop songs. Today, I tried the same exercise with G, another talented 10 year-old intermediate student. He enjoyed the project immensely. I have since decided to ask all my intermediate and senior students to "assist" transcribing K's songs.

I doubt any of my students realize that I'm asking them to do rhythmic and melodic dictation, two activities associated with transcription. I didn't learn these until university so I want my students to start while they're young. For the time being, they just know that it's a cool application of ear training, that they are learning about the music of a different culture and helping a junior student.

Someone will definitely have to perform one of these songs at an upcoming recital.

(c) 2007 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Friday Fun Link #26

Hi all, This week's fun link is theory related (a tribute to all theory students writing exams this weekend). It's Something's Fishy About These Scales. Enjoy!

(c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.