One of the fundamental concepts underlying Western music is harmonic function. Within this system, chords fall into one of three...

Music can be understood as a language. The better one understands the principles and functional relationships of music...

Music is created from pitches, specific points on the spectrum of sound frequency which we measure in Hertz. Octaves are distances...

Just as notes are related to one another in terms of pitch, the other main component of music, rhythm, concerns how notes occur in...

Each major and minor scale has seven notes which are determined by the scale’s pattern of intervals from the starting note. Scale degrees...

The most basic form of music is the melody, a singable, linear succession of pitches. Melody has existed since humans began adding...

While intervals can occur between two successive notes within a melody (melodic intervals), they can also occur simultaneously (harmonic...

Groups of three or more notes can be classified as chords. Chords built from notes of a major or minor scale are known as diatonic...

The I chord: the tonic Just as the tonic note is the most stable note of the key, the major chord built on the tonic, called the I chord,...

The ii chord: the supertonic The diatonic triad built from scale degree 2, called the ii chord, is a minor predominant chord. It consists...

One of the fundamental principles behind compelling music is the balance of expectation and surprise. Music which is very predictable is...

Along with its melody, music can typically be analyzed as series of chords. Often these chords occur in repeating progressions. In...

All live music involves elements of the unknown, as anything which is created in real-time carries a level of unpredictability....