Music theory

Music theory is a way to think about music. Basic music theory elements include the following topics:

Music notation

Musicology

Musical pitch and tuning

• The harmonic series
• The mathematics of the Western music scale
• Musical tuning and temperament
• Microtonal music

Melody

• Counterpoint in its various species
• The musical scale
  • diatonic
  • modal
  • chromatic
  • diminished
  • whole tone
  • tone row

Harmony

• The chord
• The interval
• The tritone
• The key
• cadence
• inversion
• harmonic progressions
• counterpoint
• harmonic accompaniment
• figured bass

Rhythm

• Meter and the time signature.
• The measure.
• hemiola
• syncopation

Timbre

• Musical instruments
• 'beating' of frequencies
• Electronic musical instruments (oscillators, MIDI gear, etc)
• Psychoacoustics

Orchestration

• Arrangement
• Instrumentation

Books The AB guides, written by Eric Taylor, are published by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music[?], famous for their graded music examinations.

• The AB Guide to Music Theory, Part I; ISBN 1854724460
• The AB Guide to Music Theory, Part II; ISBN 1854724479

External links

• Music Theory Online (http://www.societymusictheory.org/mto/)
• Computing in Musicology (http://www.ccarh.org/publications/books/cm/)
• Journal of the Royal Musical Association (http://www3.oup.co.uk/roymus/)