If you are just starting to learn music theory, it can be difficult to know what exactly you need to be learning. This is especially true if you are teaching yourself. So in this guide, I want to give you the information you need to teach yourself basic music theory and prepare you for more advanced topics.
This guide is part one of a three part series. In this series, I break music theory concepts into 10 different levels to help guide what you might learn next. Read more about this level system and what is covered at each level in my master guide to learning music theory.
Basic Music Theory Levels
The first 4 levels of this system are less about making music and more about understanding the tools musicians use. Strictly speaking, none of these 4 levels are critical to making music. You can play chords or scales without ever knowing where they come from. However, having a solid understanding of how musical concepts are constructed have several key benefits.
I highly recommend not skipping this section.
First, more advanced concepts all build upon these fundamentals. You can certainly learn more advanced ideas with them. But knowing the fundamentals can help you make more informed decisions in your music and understand why those decisions work.
Second, you’ll be able to work quicker and practice more efficiently if you aren’t constantly having to look things up. Much of music is actually pattern based. Understanding these patterns will make things significantly easier.
And finally, if you have any plans to play with or have your music played by live musicians you will need to be able to communicate using their language. These are the tools they use. The better you communicate with them, the easier it will be for everyone.
Be sure to check out all my basic music theory articles to learn how to use tools like reading musical notation, intervals, major and minor scales, and diatonic triads.
1.) How to Read Musical Notation
When learning to read or communicate in a new language, you first need to learn the alphabet. Music is its own language with its own alphabet and grammar. The way musicians read and write this musical language is called notation.
To be able to effectively understand later concepts, it helps to be able to read and write musical notation. Especially if you plan on having your music performed by live musicians, it is imperative you learn how to communicate properly to them.
It isn’t required to understand every little nuance of notation. But at a minimum, I recommend learning the following:
- How to identify treble and bass clefs
- Note names on treble and bass clefs
- Accidentals (flats, sharps, and naturals)
- Basic rhythm notation (note values, rests, dots, and ties)
- Time signatures and meter (4/4 and 3/4 at minimum)
- The concept of key signatures (although I recommend memorizing all the key signatures in level 3)
- As a bonus, begin learning to read ledger lines (notes above or below a staff)
Be sure to check out all my theory level 1 articles. Here I give you tips, tricks, and other interesting information about reading musical notation.
2.) Intervals, Consonance, and Dissonance in Music
Once you are comfortable reading notes on a staff, the next step is to determine the distance between any two notes on that staff. We call this distance between two notes an interval.
Both scales and chords (which we’ll talk about later) are identified by the intervals they contain. While you don’t need to know intervals to play scales or chords, you’ll need at least a basic understanding of intervals to fully understand these concepts and apply them in your own music.
Start by learning generic interval names (thirds, fourths, fifths, etc) and how to identify them. Afterwards, learn the five qualities (perfect, major, minor, augmented, and diminished) and when to properly use each of them. Finally, learn to put them together to create the specific interval (major third, perfect fifth, etc).
Once you understand how to form intervals, the next step is to understand which of the specific intervals are considered consonant (harmonious or pleasant sounding) and which are considered dissonant (lacking harmony or not pleasant sounding).
A thing to note, just because an interval is dissonant does not mean it should be avoided. Learn them anyways and we’ll talk about the specifics of when to use each later.
You can begin ear training once you know all the specific intervals (and I highly recommend you do this). If you want to learn to play by ear or compose music away from an instrument, this is a crucial skill to develop. The sooner you can start, the better.
Be sure to check out all my theory level 2 articles. Here I give you tips, tricks, and other interesting information about the intervals, consonance, and dissonance.
3.) Major and Minor Scales
After you have a solid understanding of the intervals, you are ready to begin learning about the most commonly used constructs in Western Music: the Major and Minor scales. And let me specify, we want to learn the inner workings of them (not just how to play them).
Scales follow a pattern of intervals, and this interval pattern doesn’t change. More importantly, the interval pattern is helpful in learning how and why later concepts (like chords) give a certain musical effect.
Begin this level by learning the interval pattern of the Major scale. Commit this to memory before moving on. It is the basis for much of music theory.
Afterwards, learn the intervals of the natural Minor scale. This is the first of 3 variants. The other 2 variants, the melodic Minor scale and harmonic Minor scale, both make small tweaks to the natural Minor scale. Learn the interval pattern for these 2 only after learning natural Minor.
After memorizing the interval patterns, there are two other things I recommend learning. First, learn the scale degree names. Particularly the tonic, dominant, and leading tone as they are heavily utilized in later concepts. And second, I mentioned early about learning key signatures. Doing so here will also help commit them into your memory permanently.
If you are a musician, you can also use the level to memorize all your major and minor scales. While technically not necessary for music theory, learn them in conjunct with this level to make it much easier to develop the long term muscle memory for each of them.
Be sure to check out all my theory level 3 articles. Here I give tips, tricks, and other information about the major and minor scales.
4.) Diatonic Triads
Chords (alongside scales) make up the vast majority of our modern musical language. In particular, chords made up of 3 notes (called a triad) are the foundation of nearly all Western music genres. So having a solid understanding of these triads is crucial.
There are 4 basic triad types: major, minor, diminished, and augmented. Similar to the scales, each of these triad types is constructed using a different arrangement of intervals. Begin by learning how each type is constructed. Make particular note of the differences and similarities between triad types.
Once you can construct triads of each type, attention can be turned to learning specifically what triads to utilize. And this process is made significantly easier when used alongside the scale.
Using only the notes of a scales, you can actually create a chord-scale system that tells you exactly which triads can be played within a certain scale. For each scale, there are 7 possible triads (for now, I’m only referring to the major and minor scales covered). The collective term for these triads for a certain scale are the diatonic triads.
Take the time to learn how these chord-scale systems work. Be able to use this system to construct the triads for any given scale. And just like scales follow a pattern of intervals, the diatonic triads follow a pattern. Learn this pattern and understand where it comes from before moving on to the intermediate levels.
Here, we learn what triads to use. In level 5 (intermediate level), we’ll start looking at when and why to use which triad.
Be sure to check out all my theory level 4 articles. Here I give tips, tricks, and other information about the diatonic triads.
Final Thoughts on Basic Music Theory
Music truly is its own language. And these first 4 basic levels of music theory are meant to help you begin communicating that language. To understand basic music theory, you should have a solid understanding of:
- Music Notation
- Intervals, Consonance, and Dissonance
- Major and Minor Scales
- Diatonic Triads
In the intermediate levels, you’ll begin using these fundamental ideas to begin actually making music. Be sure to check out the intermediate music theory levels in part 2 to get started.
If you found this guide useful, make sure you don’t lose it! Be sure to bookmark this page so you can easily find it (and the other levels) later.
