Introduction to Music Theory

Music theory is not a set of rules. Rather, it is an attempt to analyze music, discern patterns and conventions, and then discuss everything using a consistent set of terms.

Do I use music theory? To be honest, I don't really understand the question. I don't see how you couldn't, if you're a musician who writes and performs together with other musicians. Let's consider this example. Alice has written a song and wants to show it to her fellow musician Bob. This might be what Alice says before demonstrating the song to Bob:

The song is in G major. 4/4 time, about 130 beats per minute. The chords in the verse are G, C and D. In the chorus section, I go to E minor. The middle-eight is in C. Then there is a solo section in E minor that I'd like to you improvise over.

Alice just expressed the musical concepts of key, rhythm, chord theory and form using distinct terms. She used a theoretical way of talking about music. In a sense, she "used music theory". If Bob has a similar theoretical grasp, he will know not to finger chord shapes for, say, B♭7−5, F♯13 and Emmaj9, unless of course he's feeling exceptionally harmonically adventurous. He will also not be completely confused if Alice sings a B♭ or E♭ somewhere in the verse, or introduces an F chord in the chorus. If music theory truly sets out rules, then it also leaves plenty of space for exceptions.

Music theory is a language that allows musicians to communicate clearly with each other. Just like natural human language, it has agreed-upon conventions. Yes means yes, not no. I encourage anyone who asks to at least learn the basics of it, because it makes collective music-making that much easier. I would even go so far as to recommend learning the rudiments of music notation. Not only can you record and share your ideas that way, a whole world of music study opens up before you.

I learned music theory because there was no way I couldn't. When I get into something, I want to know how it works, I want to know what I'm doing. I realized early on that music was going to be a big thing for me. If that's the case, I wanted to be able to talk to other musicians on other musicians' terms.

Along the way, I've managed to arouse a fair bit of curiosity about certain things: questions that have led to more questions, a deeper understanding, and finally the ultimate realization: that there is so much more to learn than any one person can absorb in a lifetime. On a general level, I was inspired to learn more about music theory when leafing through a music dictionary and feeling left out because there was so much of the lingo that I just didn't understand.

Another thing happened when I started playing in bands, and got to know other musicians who had picked up bits and pieces of music theory and knowledge, and shared them with me. To put it simply, I did not enjoy not knowing. I felt like it was my duty to find out, if nothing else then for my own personal enrichment.

It is actually possible to pinpoint particular musical riddles that I spent quite some time chasing. I remember a guitar player on TV demonstrating what musicians mean when they talk about sixth chords, seventh chords and so on. But I was never able to get just why there was a B♭ in a C seventh chord, or a D in an E seventh chord. That note doesn't belong in the key, it would seem. Another deep mystery was when a guitar-playing friend informed me that I shouldn't tune my guitar via the 5th- and 7th-fret harmonics, without being able to elaborate on exactly why. I eventually took it upon myself to learn the actual truth, and when I did, and this forum opened up for me, I decided I want to dedicate my personal slice of the web to passing my knowledge on to others.

Before we proceed to actually talking about music theory, it is worth mentioning what exactly it is that I'm talking about. When I speak about music theory, it's the knowledge that was codified and disseminated in the Western world, chiefly by dissecting art music during what's known as the common practice period. In other words: what we nowadays collectively refer to as "classical music". Such music was written between about 1650 and 1900, basically the lifespan of major/minor tonality. Both earlier and newer music requires a different theoretical framework, and so does for instance popular and folk music, or even classical music from other cultures. My focus is on Western music theory, and any other theories of music, fascinating as though they might be, are firmly beyond the scope of my site.

A word of warning is not totally out of place before we bring this introduction to a close. This site was written by a guitar player, chiefly for other guitar players. In order to limit the scope of a collection of articles that could otherwise run on towards epic proportions, I have decided to purge my writings of anything that is not of immediate relevance for understanding central concepts about guitar chords, scales and exercises. The guitar does not use its own specific subset of music theory that is different from, say, the oboe. But that which is not completely essential might not have a natural place on this site as it currently stands.