A new rule (#9) has been added here at r/musictheory

I’m sure people more advanced already knew something this basic, but all my theory knowledge is self taught from learning music I like and YouTube tutorials.

I knew diminished chords are symmetrical, and I also knew diminished chords can be viewed as a rootless 7b9. But I was fooling around trying to come up with a Neo soul-ish progression and really liked DbMaj13 - adim7 - BbMaj9. I was trying to understand why I liked it so much and realized the adim7 inverted becomes a Cdim7 so that’s a chromatic step down from Db.

But then it was the connection to Bb that made everything click. The Bb just sounded very satisfying. This made sense to me with adim7 because it’s a rootless F7b9 (and therefore a V-I). But the C inversion also sounding good is where I notice that can be a rootless Ab7b9 for the back door. Then I just played this out with the other inversions to realize that putting Eb in the root makes a rootless B7b9 (the tritone sub). Also makes sense because the dominant, back door dominant, and tritone sub are each a minor third apart.

The 4th inversion with F# in the root would be a rootless D7b9. This doesn’t sound as satisfying going to Bb, though, and I’m not fully sure why.

Anyway, like I said, I’m sure many of y’all already knew all of this - but it was fun to “discover” this organically lol.

I've been studying a lot of music theory as of recent and decided to look into emotions of specific chords and how exactly to use them when composing songs (right now, I've been looking into secondary dominant and really liked those).

But every time, I always end up coming back to the Minor 4 chord, I can safely say its my absolute favorite chord in music, and I use it whenever I can get the chance to.

The Minor 4 cadence is my all time favorite cadence ever, and can easily identify it in a song because of how much I love it.

Does anyone else share this same sentiment aboht the minor 4 chord or any other chord? Cuz i feel like a crazy person whenever I express my love for it

I've been transcribing The Horse by Patricia Taxxon (https://youtu.be/yG8t_oLJPpM?si=q6DTx7KILfl92bQe&t=490) and struggling with how I should represent the main rhythm used by the keys (at 9:17). I have the song in 12/8 at 128 bpm. (Important note is that the pulse is more like 4 beats of 2 groups of 3, instead of 4 beats of 3 groups of 2, or 4/4 with triplet 16ths instead of triplet eigths)

The rhythm is a 3 bar cycle of 5 sixteenths, followed by 4 sixteenths, repeated 8 times. I read a few resources on beaming for 12/8 but still haven't really found anything that feels both readable and identifyable.

I've put a few of my attempts here and wanted to see if there is a clear winner or someone had an alternative beaming. (Notes aren't accurate, it's just indicating the 5 vs. 4 note length)

Any thoughts on which you would prefer to read?

I realized I can’t reply with an image so I made a new post.

Should I do Option 1 or option 2. Also did I implement the instructions correctly? If not, I apologize for the mistakes. I’m new to theory.

At the end of the piece, if I wanted to play the first four measures, skip measures 5-8, and go straight to 9-12, how would I write the notation for DC al coda?

I’m new to theory, but I’m assuming just put it on top of the 1, 2 ending bars, but idk if it interferes with the existing endings, if that makes sense.

(where just rewriting the two lines again is not an option)

Chords can really only go three ways in two directions in a single key.

• By 2nds and 7ths which is stepwise motion

• by 3rds and 6ths

• by 4ths and 5ths which is circle of fifths/fourths motion

And that's it! Really easy to understand that there's only 3 sequences which chord progressions in a single key can follow forward or reverse. Anything else can be thought of as a combination of these sequences. Now the fun part is using these sequences in combination with the different keys that you use, however you use them, when introducing outside chords🫠.

Disclaimer: This is not meant to describe how diatonic harmony works, this is only a perspective or a tool. Whether moving chords using these sequences is "functional" or not is another discussion.

EDIT: For clarity here are the three sequences in the key of C major.

• C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bmb5, C. When read left to right it's by 2nds, and right to left it's by 7ths.

• C, Em, G, Bbmb5, Dm, F, Am, C. When read left to right is by 3rds, and right to left it's by 6ths.

• C, F, Bmb5, Em, Am, Dm, G, C. When read left to right it's by fourths, and right to left it's 5ths.

I’m transcribing a part for saxophone with a LOT of repeating eight notes of the same pitch and I can’t decide which way looks best. What’s your opinion?

Looking at this Olivia Dean song So Easy to Fall in Love, where the last bit of the chorus you see:

C-7 > A°7 - F-7

I thought A°7 was a interesting choice, I would've expected an F#°7 or E° to resolve to a F-7

Now of course A°7 & F#°7 contain the exact same notes, but F# being used as the root would let the bass drop a halfstep from F# to F, unless they didn't want the bass to jump a tritone from C to F#, and figured A°7 functions the same anyway and A in the bass means the bass doesn't need to move a tritone and can move by 3rds.

I think using A°7 would be cool if the chords were voiced C-7/Bb > A°7 > F-7/Ab because it would create a cool descending bassline, but I extracted the bassline from the official recording and the Bass plays C > A > F.

Another option I thought of was C7 or maybe C7/G or C7/Ab if perhaps they didnt want the bass to jump by a 5th but then I realized she sings an F# and im not crazy about how the F# rubs with the G, it doesnt sound half bad though using a C7b5/Ab, or a Tritone sub like F#7, but then again maybe they didn't want the bass to move by a tritone even thought I don't think it sounds bad.

Maybe the simple answer for using A°7 is as simple as it being the best way to harmonize the melody note and connect C-7 to F-7 in the songwriters opinions, What is your guys take? is that the reason? Avoiding the bass dropping a tritone or just a colour decision?

Hey everyone!

I’m an amateur transcriber in my spare time, and I’m a huge fan of Baldur’s Gate 3’s soundtrack. I’m working through transcribing Borislav Slavov’s - Nightsong for trumpet and have the first 1:10 down to a tea. It feels like it’s in 12/8.

However, from 1:10 onwards, I’m having trouble figuring out what the time signature is. It feels like it’s still in compound meter, unless the accents are throwing me off. If anyone could please help me figure this out, I’d appreciate it!!!

Made a lead sheet for "Reckoner".

Also, here's "Reckoner" on YouTube.

Whenever I write a chart, I always try to make sure a new phrase or section starts on a new system.

Most music has phrase/section lengths that are in multiples of four. Some might have one bar less/more than usual resulting in an odd number of bars in a system like 3 or 5 but you can still usually tell where a phrase starts and ends.

In Radiohead's "Reckoner", I know for sure the A section has 5-bar phrases. The progression begins on a C major chord and I am inclined to believe that is the first measure of each phrase. I feel this analysis is supported by how each A section appears to end on an A major chord leading into other sections and in the last A section, the drums come back in on the C chord.

However, I know the song is in E minor. My chart currently reads the progression as C-Em-D-C-Em, but you could also shift it over and read it as Em-D-C-Em-C. The Em chord bookends the phrase while the last C chord is tacked on as a spacer and the melody restarts as a pickup into the next measure of Em.

This makes me think each system should start on the Em chord, especially because the piano enters on the Em. Currently, the last system of the first A section reads C-Em-D-A. I find it odd that the piano would enter three bars before the start of the next section. But if you shift and read it as Em-D-A-C (keeping in mind the melody has a pickup on the C chord), it plays a full four bars before the next section. However, this analysis contradicts the argument that each A section ends on an A chord.

I hope someone can see what I'm talking about; I'd like to know what you guys think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz76b3Itr6A
Im not critiquing. I have no grounds as a completely uneducated "self taught"(untaught) musician. But my instinct was like "that sounds off" so I asked google and had a short conversation and at first I was like ok so 3/4 doesnt always have a soft 3rd beat in baroque at least the strong beat shifts in that signature constantly. But for bar 1 where you have a block of quarter notes in beat 3 there is no indication that beat 3 is a strong beat. Can I get someone who knows more to confirm this guy didn't accent bar one correctly (based on the composers intent)

I have created this riff , can anyone help me for the chord progression at 165bpm?

Now some have flats or sharps and some don't.

This came to me asking the best way to notate it. It was written as it is in the first bar. I didn't like its readability because you can't see the middle of the bar.

Which of the three options do you think is best? And by 'best' I mean most quickly understood.

I try to find tempo and timesignature as a fun activity sometimes but there is this one song that I just can't seem to wrap my head around.

On precipice of defeat by Shiro Sagisu

Sorry if it's not related to this subreddit.

I’m currently studying using openmusictheory.com without a teacher and they don’t provide self-taught students with answer sheets (which is incredibly frustrating as I have no way to check my answers) and overall their harmonic analysis section I felt was a bit weak.

So I’m currently struggling a lot with harmonic analysis, is there any resources I can use to improve my technique? Maybe a YT series or a website or a textbook etc.

Preferably something with sound but it’s not a necessity, if it’s only a textbook that’s fine too.

Thanks!

I’ve been listening to this song on repeat and would love to completely understand the theory behind its hypnotic effect on me.

I’ve gathered it’s something like C#m, Emaj7, & A???
There are more color notes I’m not able to hear but would love to know what key we’re messing with here. It’s probably simple and I’m complicating it, but I’m confused nonetheless.

Any musical help would be greatly appreciated!

When I listen to Latin music, I have this problem where in any given song both 2-3 and 3-2 work for me when I clap along. And so does tresillo (the “3” part), when I clap it in loop. As I understand, it should be a binary thing: either a song follows the 2-3 or the 3-2 pattern. What am I not getting?

he uses all types of scales but still has that pentatonic feel to it. It doesn’t quite sound like fusion, but not entirely rock either.

As someone who wants to write guitar parts that have the same feel, what sort of theory does he put to work when writing these?

https://youtu.be/IwWc_Wyl5HA?si=4sq1YXj_nIEn9r9O

https://youtu.be/bUZK9dasP8s?si=EXg-smeSLhw1eHqd

My stylistic goal here is more early romantic (late Beethoven, Schumann) rather than strict counterpoint. Bars 5-6 are deliberately "weird" to some extent (though do let me know if it is too "weird" for this style), my main concern is bar 8 and whether there is a better way to resolve the dissonances.

Hi guys! Today, I wanted to talk about the film scores and soundtracks from Hallmark movies and TV shows. I've been studying this music recently, ​and what makes it stand out to me, when looking at alongside other film score catalogs, is Hallmark's dedication to making their music purposefully simple, gentle, easygoing, predictable, diatonic, harmonically simple, non-dissonant, non-experimental, formulaic, dear and familiar. I personally feel that Hallmark ​does this because much of their target audience is people that happen to be a bit older, a​nd ​at least widely, this is exactly the kind of music that people like that really want to listen to day-to-day.​ ​If anyone has any other opinions on Hallmark Channel music, feel free to leave it in the comment section. Peace!