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 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. It is just how I do things. I am curious about how things work, and when I get into something, I want to know what I'm doing. There have also been individual little events and occurrences that have motivated me. I remember leafing through an old music dictionary and feeling left out because there were a lot of musicological terms I just didn't understand. If I wanted to be a musician, then I had better get cracking on learning the lingo.

When I got into playing the guitar and formed bands, I came upon concepts that remained throughout the years as mysteries to be unravelled. It might not have been a quest that drove me in my everyday life. But I will admit that a lot of the impetus behind getting into music theory, first on my own, then at university level, was that I wanted the answers to two burning questions:

The answers to both those questions are here, in this set of articles.

It is also worth mentioning that what I have studied, and am talking about on my site, is music theory as codified and disseminated in the Western world, chiefly by dissecting art music during what's known as the common practice period. I.e. 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 Indian classical music or Balinese orchestral music. 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.

Last but not least: this is not the utterly complete be-all-end-all guide to everything musical and theoretical. As I am a guitar player writing a site chiefly for other guitar players, I have decided to limit the scope of my music theory articles rather drastically. The guitar does not use its own specific subset of music theory that is different from, say, the oboe. But in a huge field, I have elected to trim away that which is not strictly necessary to learn in order to develop an understanding of the basics behind my more guitar-centric articles.