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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)

Voicing and Arpeggiation

7th Chords

More Scales

Phrases, Cadences and Chord Progressions

Melody

Mode Mixture, Tonicization and Modulation

Chromatic Chords

Tonal Structure and Form

More Harmonic Analyses

Extended and Altered chords

Medieval Church Modes

　

　

Main Sources Used For This Tutorial

www.musictheory.net


www.teoria.com


www.smu.edu/totw


　



Reading Music



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.



The staff, clefs and ledger lines

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id10_en.html


Note duration

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id11_en.html


Measures and time signatures

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id12_en.html


Rest duration

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id13_en.html


Dots and ties

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id14_en.html


Simple and compound meter

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id15_en.html


Odd meter

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id16_en.html


Steps and accidentals

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id20_en.html




Summary of accidentals

http://www.teoria.com/reference/intervals/14.htm






Scales, Keys and Key Signatures



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.



Major scale

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id21_en.html


Whole and half steps in scales, with an example of a melody built from a scale

http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/scales/02-steps.htm


Minor scales

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id22_en.html


http://www.teoria.com/reference/scales/03.htm


The above link mentions dominant and seventh chords, but don't worry about those now.


Relative Scales

http://www.teoria.com/reference/scales/04.htm




Tendency Tones and Minor Scales

http://www.smu.edu/totw/minor.htm


Redundant with the above minor scale webpages, but explains the varieties of minor scales based on tendency tones


Names of scale degrees

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id23_en.html


Key signatures

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id24_en.html


Key signatures

http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/reading/15-ks.htm


Identifying key signatures

http://www.teoria.com/reference/scales/06.htm


Key signature calculation

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id25_en.html


Building key signatures

http://www.teoria.com/reference/scales/07.htm


Scale constructor

Do the major and minor scales and skip the others for now

http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/scales/sc-tool.htm






Intervals


Generic intervals

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id30_en.html

http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/intervals/02-name.htm


Specific intervals

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id31_en.html


Interval inversion

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id33_en.html


Interval constructor with inversions

http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/intervals/10-const.htm


Interval identification and construction alternate methods

http://www.teoria.com/reference/intervals/13.htm


http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/intervals/11-id.htm


Interval exercises: identification, construction and ear-training (based on differing scales)

http://www.teoria.com/exercises/intervals.htm" target=abc>www.teoria.com/exercises/intervals.htm






Triads


Introduction to triads (major, minor, augmented and diminished)

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id40_en.html



Identifying triads

http://www.teoria.com/reference/chords/07.htm




A Melody with chords

http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/scales/04-melody-chords.htm



Triad inversion

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id42_en.html




Chord constructor

http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/chords/ac-tool.htm



Diatonic triads

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id43_en.html




Triads and Minor scales

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id50_en.html




Summary of Triads and Scale degrees

http://www.teoria.com/reference/chords/06.htm



Triad chord symbols in jazz

http://www.teoria.com/reference/chords/jazz.htm






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)

http://www.teoria.com/reference/chords/symbols.htm


Roman numeral analysis (triads only)

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id44_en.html




Baroque chord symbols (triads only)

http://www.teoria.com/reference/chords/baroque.htm



Figured bass triad symbols (triads only)

http://www.teoria.com/reference/chords/triads.htm


Alterations in figured bass (triads only)

http://www.teoria.com/reference/chords/alterations.htm


Analysis example

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id52_en.html






Voicing and Arpeggiation



Voicing chords (triads only)

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id51_en.html




Chords in Musical Practice

http://www.smu.edu/totw/muspract.htm




7th chords

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id45_en.html




7th chord symbols in jazz and pop music

http://www.teoria.com/reference/chords/jazz7.htm



Diatonic 7th chords

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id46_en.html


7th chord inversion

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id47_en.html



Do the triads and 7th chords but skip extended chords for now

http://www.teoria.com/exercises/chords.htm






More Scales

Diminished scale

http://www.teoria.com/reference/scales/15.htm


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.

http://www.teoria.com/reference/scales/14.htm




Sound clip of a whole-tone scale at the beginning of Stevie Wonder's "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life"



Chromatic scale

http://www.teoria.com/reference/scales/13.htm




Pentatonic scales

http://www.teoria.com/reference/scales/12.htm






Phrases, Cadences and Chord Progressions



This is where it starts to get interesting


Phrases and Cadences (important concept!)

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id55_en.html




Circle Progressions

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id56_en.html


Common Chord Progressions

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id57_en.html




Basic Harmonic Function

http://www.smu.edu/totw/function.htm


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



Cadences

http://www.smu.edu/totw/cadences.htm


Redundant with the above webpage on cadences but contains additional information and refers to harmonic function


Composing with triads in First Inversion

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id60_en.html


Composing with triads in Second Inversion

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id61_en.html




Chords in Inversion

http://www.smu.edu/totw/invert.htm


Redundant with the above webpages on composing in inversion but contains additional information and examples



Principles of Part Writing

http://www.smu.edu/totw/partwrit.htm



Nonharmonic tones

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id53_en.html




Non-chord tones

http://www.smu.edu/totw/nct.htm


Similar to the above Nonharmonic tones but with additional information and examples


Analysis example

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id62_en.html






Melody



Basic Melodic Principles

http://www.smu.edu/totw/melody.htm






Mode Mixture, Tonicization and Modulation



Mode mixture

http://www.smu.edu/totw/modemix.htm




Tonicization

http://www.smu.edu/totw/tonicize.htm




Modulation

http://www.smu.edu/totw/modulate.htm






Chromatic Chords



Secondary Dominant Chords

http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/hf/domaux.h


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

Exercises: Secondary Dominants Identification

http://www.teoria.com/exercises/secdom-id-eng.htm


Exercises: Secondary Diminished 7ths Construction

http://www.teoria.com/exercises/secdim-const-eng.htm


Exercises: Secondary Diminished 7ths Identification

http://www.teoria.com/exercises/secdim-id-eng.htm




Augmented 6th Chords

http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/hf/6aum.htm


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




Other Chromatic Chords

http://www.smu.edu/totw/chromat.htm


Redundant with the above Augmented 6th Chords webpage, but introduces additional types of chromatic chords.



Neapolitan Chords

http://www.teoria.com/tutorials/hf/6nap.htm


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.


Tonal structure in a Bach’s Menuet in E major
http://www.uwsp.edu/music/jsobaski/b-intro.htm


This analysis really ties together all of the information introduced so far so you can see the point of it all.



Sonata Form in Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.

http://library.thinkquest.org/22673/forms2.html


This is just a simple introduction to sonata form to make it easier to understand the next link.


Sonata Form in Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusikk.

patriciagray.net/musichtmls/flash/mozart.html


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.



Analysis of Chopin’s Prelude # 4

http://www.teoria.com/articulos/analysis/chopin4/index.htm




Analysis of Chopin’s Prelude # 8

http://www.teoria.com/articulos/analysis/chopin8/index.htm






Extended and Altered Chords



This section is especially relevant if you are interested in jazz or impressionist classical music



9th chords

http://www.teoria.com/reference/chords/14.htm




11th and 13th chords

http://www.teoria.com/reference/chords/15.htm




Augmented and diminished 5th chords

http://www.teoria.com/reference/chords/16.htm




Extended chord construction

http://www.teoria.com/exercises/extchord.htm




Harmonic analysis of Debussy’s La fille aux cheveux de lin

http://www.teoria.com/articulos/analysis/debussy8/index.htm


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.



Gregorian modes

http://www.teoria.com/reference/scales/10.htm




Jazz modes

http://www.teoria.com/reference/scales/11.htm




Jazz modes and chords

http://www.teoria.com/exercises/chord-scale.htm




Jazz modes and parent scales

http://www.teoria.com/exercises/mode-scale.htm






Sound clip of Dorian mode in part of "The Drunken Sailor"
(link temporarily broken)



Sound clip of Lydian mode in some of "The Simpson's" Theme
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Highrise/6554/#SECTIONS

Sound clip of Mixolydian mode in The Beatles' Norwegian Wood
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/2729/index2.html


Sound clip of Mixolydian mode In Gregorian Chant
(link temporarily broken)


Sound clips of Dorian, Lydian and Mixolydian mode in Debussy's Fetes.
www.empire.k12.ca.us/capistrano/Mike/capmusic/modes/modes.htm
Scroll down to the bottom of the webpage to find these sound clips



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.