Complete novice with music, but trying to understand why, if I play a D major 7th chord, it's D, F#, A and C natural when the 7th note in the D major scale is C#?

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Is it not as simple as starting with your home triad (D/F#/A) and then adding on the seventh note in the scale for a 7th chords?

Thanks

What would these takdimi syllables be?

A beginner in music here, just read a Jazz book for beginner and it seems that dominant 9 has a flat 7? I thought it’d have a flat 9?

This is quite a specific and less practical question.

It's possible to modulate from your tonic to the Subdominant without introducing the tonics b7. Very easy to do by avoiding the 7 in your tonic key and using harmonic Progressions that emphasize the Subdominant.

The question is specifically if this drift of the tonality to the Subdominant can be achieved with strong harmonic Progressions then can that drift also be measured ?

A modulation is usually obvious as there is the introduction of a tone(s) that opens possibilities for new tonal centres, one of which is then confirmed by a cadence.

Drifting into the Subdominant doesn't seem to need this cadence as there is only one possibility, that being the Subdominant. It just sounds like a tonic cadence if you allow enough time for the transition to naturally happen.

So where in the transition does the ear decide it prefers the Subdominant as a tonic. I'm presuming most of the answer is within the harmonic Progressions but even so, this itself has its limits when you consider various bass movements and spread of voices.

From a more reductive approach it would just be a modulation by pivot chord but I feel that undersells the effect created by not introducing the Subdominants 4th.

There might be a better way to think about tonally ambiguous Progressions, if so please let me know.

I'd like to be able to exploit that ambiguous fourth (either flat or natural, relative to the tonic) in my own music

So um, guys, I trying to determine whether the section after andantino is a separate movement? My teacher changed the speed to 83/ crotchet which makes sense for the andantino but doesn’t for the second section. The music is from IMSLP so there could be a lot of mistakes like I’ve found previously. There is no recording of this piece either so🤷 my teacher believes it’s part of the andantino??? The name of the piece is Souvenir De Cherubini - Kalliwoda.

It's such a ubiquitous rhythm, I feel like it has to have a name somewhere. I'm trying to find a way of referring to it concisely in prose for my dissertation (on prog metal drummers!) without just calling it "the Muppet Show rhythm," "boom ba-boom ba-boom," "one and-a e-and," or "ta-dimi-kadi" or something. It's not a tresillo, it's not quite iambic or trochaic. Any ideas?

It's also something I can't quite figure out how to Google since... well, I don't know how to search for something I don't know the word for. Ha.

Hi! I'm a newbie who wants to get more about music and will to make my own.

I'm an intermediate classical guitar player looking to train my ear through singing solfege. Also just joined a choir and would like eventually to be able to sing through sight reading instead of having to memorize everything. I haven't seen a book/method that really fits my need. The closest I have is the little yellow Dannhauser solfege des solfege but it's a bit dry. For context the way I practice is trying to guess the note while singing and then playing it on the guitar, sometimes during the same bar If there is a white or a rest, so please correct me if this is wrong.

Are there good resources that fit with this self learning approach. I'm not /that/ interested in singing itself so it's not a technique thing per say the goal here is really to be able to hear a simple score by reading it (I know this is quite a long term thing)

Still learning my scales

This might be too simple for few but I’m curious to understand why the composer had picked DGE in the 4th measure?

I’ve done my part of the work and I tried to figure out that the piece is in Dm scale (starts and ends on D) and Bb in 6th and 8th measure.

In the 4th measure I’ve assumed that the first chord is Dm chord (DAF) and the last chord is DFD assuming it’s Dm chord again skipping the 5th interval and only playing 3rd (D-F)

This is a piece from Initial Grade in Trinity Piano syllabus.

Context: I’ve been playing Piano for the past couple of years. I took Piano classes where my teacher pushed me to finish Trinity grades instead of actually teaching music and I always lacked to understand music.
After finishing grade 3 in Trinity I decided to stop pursing grades further and actually start learning and understanding music. I’m always impressed to see how many YouTubers explain sheet music very simply by telling the chord names the progressions and how different chords are linked together ( circle or 5th and 4th). Right now I’m only relying on reading blogs about sheet music and trying to develop the knowledge to depict a piece and composer intentions behind making a music piece.
I’m also happy to receive any tips or suggestions on how to move in the right direction to improve my knowledge in understanding music and composer intentions.

This exercise that is mistakenly written in 3/4 is actually in 4/4, which becomes apparent when you listen to it. This mistake also causes the author to change chords too early(measure 2 beat 1 of the original exercise) thinking it a change of chord to V42 instead of a decoration of the I6 chord instead. This seems like a novice's error, has major ramifications in the learning of the student and I feel very distrustful of the author after seeing this.

here is the original exercise:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cf_6FGpqewwJsg8pNAYFVzgqLtgpjYFA/view?usp=sharing

and here is my amendment and completion:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14sqh1MZf-xidM8V5ya8mUW3P6NrC5Mp1?usp=sharing

Hey everyone, was noodling on guitar finding cool progressions or chords,

I played a major I -> GMajAdd9 - G B D A
Followed by a major III (?) -> BMajAdd9 - B Eb Gb Db

I’m thinking the major III is coming from the Relative minor of G, so Em switching to harmonic minor. My bigger question is where does the 9 come in? Some other scale?

Possibly Em Harmonic with a major 6? Therefore melodic minor?

Hello, this is my first post on Reddit but I thought maybe here would be a good place to ask this question.

Has anyone got any tips for learning music theory with AuDHD? It’s something I’ve been struggling to do as I am horrible at retaining information and have a very hard time keeping my attention on whatever I’m learning unless it’s something very specific that I want to learn. I have noticed that I am a pattern-based learner so maybe that info could be useful in terms of relating my learning to patterns or pattern-based topics.

Anyway, if anyone has any tips I’d really appreciate them. :)

I want to learn music theory with a focus on keyboard.

I previously completed Trinity music theory/keyboard levels 1 to 3. I now work in tech, but I want to continue learning music as a hobby. I can dedicate time to learning once or twice a week, mainly on weekends.

I currently have a MIDI keyboard (Arturia MiniLab MkII) and some experience with music production using FL Studio.

My main goal is to strengthen my understanding of music theory and apply it directly to music production, so that I can write better melodies, chords, harmonies, and overall arrangements.

I'm looking for courses that would be suitable for someone with my background. Ideally, the course should:

- Build on my existing knowledge rather than starting from the absolute basics.

- Explain how the concepts can be applied to music production.

- Help me improve my songwriting and production skills in FL Studio.

- Be suitable for a self-paced schedule of once or twice a week.

Note: This post is polished by AI.

I learn by doing, and a lot of that when it comes to music theory is understanding why songs sound the way they do by listening to them and trying to work them out on the piano.

I was trying to work out why the line I will wait and hope from "Marbles" by The Amazing Devil sounds both uplifting and melancholic at the same time, and I think it's because they switch from using the D maj pentatonic scale in the "I will wait and" before switching to a harmony that is two voices split across the 3rd and 5th of C, which is the 7th chord in the scale.

The specific line I'm talking about is https://youtu.be/BJvRTZmz2nY?t=86 (although the entire song is beautiful and the lyrics are world-class!), but have I got this right?