kyle g wrote:Like i said, im really interested in learning the theory behind music, scales, chords, keys etc. Where would you reccomend is a good place to start? I have thought of getting piano lessons, but i dont really have the time, im getting a midi keyboard soon, so maybe i could do home schooling via a youtube tutorial. But will that teach me about hearing notes, and understanding scales? What would you recommend to get started? So far I know the major and minor scales, and like you said the chords with in that scale are 1st 3rd and 5th notes, or 3rd, 5th and 7th etc (maybe?).
The best advice I can give you is probably what to study and in what order so you won't be confused.
You'll want to get an understanding of intervals and how to invert them. This will help you with coming up with different voicings of chords.
Then learn all about key signatures, which is basically describing what parent scale the song is played in. The basic concept is pretty easy, memorizing all the sharps and flats is incredibly boring. You don't have to have them all perfectly memorized, as long as you understand the intervals in a major scale you'll be able to figure it yourself.
After that, building chords and chord formulas. You've already got the basis of this down, you just stack thirds on top of one another for the most part. You'll find it useful to know how to spell out chords though and know exactly what it is you're playing.
In tandem with learning chords you should look up church modes. This is left out of a lot of basic theory programs because it's really practical in jazz improvisation and many don't think it's necessary to the budding musician.
However if you learn this at the same time that you're developing an understanding of chords and you understand how each mode has a chord that is built from its root note, not only will chord theory make a lot more sense, but when it comes to composition you won't be so confused with harmony. Like I said the modal approach is what a lot of jazz improvisers use as it helps them to easily move from different chords, progressions and keys. Really useful way of thinking.
After that you'll want to explore different chord progressions and how they work. Just explained a lot about this in this
thread. Bookmark that ish and come back to it if you like.
At this point though you're well past basic theory. Once you get the linkage between scales and chords down, you'll be able to write out all the harmony you want.
If you google each of these things you'll find loads of tutorials on them. You could always just pick a theory site and go from front to back but if you learn things in the order above you'll have a really solid foundation of harmony. You'll probably notice that I didn't mention anything about rhythm. You'll want to supplement all this with some lessons on that but most of it will just be notation which isn't really that useful for someone who doesn't need to play other people's music or transcribe their own. With your sequencer you'll be able to work things out just by visually drawing in the piano roll. However, you'll find topics like syncopation, shuffle, swing, triplets and other tuplets invaluable for any kind of groove. This
will require some of the basic notational knowledge so you'll want to learn it at some point. You will most likely find it easier to concentrate just on harmony first which is why I recommended jumping around a bit instead of doing all the lessons from a particular site in order.
Some places might not explain something in a way you understand so just keep googling till you find someone who's teaching compliments your learning style.
Geez my posts have all been of epic length lately. Giving peoples' scroll wheels a workout
