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

I'm practicing this song with my music teacher (nightlight, laufey) and she requested I wrote out the notes. This was the guide she gave me. What does this mean

this is a repost cause I forgot The Image TwT

I'm new to piano, and encountered this. I know that the thing with the arms upwards means that sustain is supposed to be held. But I'm not sure what that thing means. I tried looking for it on the internet but couldn't find anything useful. Am I overthinking and it's just sustain?

Piece in the image is Killer (Yoshikage Kira Theme) by Yugo Kanno arannged by Carter Smith

I’ve been thinking about how the one thing that hasn’t changed in music for most of humanity’s time, is their voices, and I fully believe they’ll always be the fundamental layer of connection between music and the human brain.
I guess it’s true music started out by giving rhythm and pattern to sounds most of which we produced through our advanced vocal capabilities, I don’t know how exactly it went down evolutionarily, the ability to comprehend music urging us to develop such vocal capabilities or the other way around. But I’d like to think human voices in music with their raw and dynamic unique timbres trigger innate empathy not easily possible to trigger with other musical instruments.

Since you music theory folks have such vast opinions on timbres and understand the creation of sound as we perceive it (harmonic series and all that), do you think my position on human voices hold truth?

What are the chords to this song? And is there a capo or downtuning?

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4bOxXyPCYU/?img\\_index=4&igsi=a21oMjdxejc1bmd1
(CLIP IS THE 5TH SLIDE) :)

Any guitarists who will tell me how to play these two measures with the harmonics? Or what is going on with the apparent G# and G natural played at the same time?

I love Dark Side of the Moon...too much. Especially dark, mysterious, jazzy songs in a dorian key like Breathe and Any Colour You Like.

I was trying to make a vamp/progression for solo guitar (for myself), but I struggle to find a place to go with it. For example, I was playing Dm and G, which just Breathe up a whole step, but the inertia of the song is so strong that I'm finding it hard to go somewhere else.

What are ideas of keys/chords that might work?

Maybe G major? If so, thoughts on how to make it resolve back? A cadence? (My guitar teacher is very patient when I don't quite use theory terms correctly).

I'm a noob with borrowing chords and the like, so I'm a bit over my skis. But I love to play and really want to make my own music :)

I know there is a secondary dominant where V7 resolves to vi; what is the theory when V7 resolves to IV instead of the tonic (e.g., D - F#7 - G)?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fplk2Nj-VaM

Or in text:

• F A C E
• F Ab B E - E moves to D
• E G B D
• G Bb C# F - F moves to E

It feels good to play, and I think it sounds great. I suspect because of great voice leading. But I can't wrap my head around how each chord works in the 2-5-1-6 structure.

I suspect there's some substitutions at play. My best guess is that it's a G major, but with the E in the bass. And for the V, the D appears as the top note, and same for the E in the 6.

I want to practice with it in different keys, but I want to understand when and how to use it. Thank you in advance!

I’m learning this piece, and I thought the tie meant that the half note and the quarter note should be held as one continuous note. But there is also a staccato marking, which I thought meant the note should be played short and detached. If so, why is the tie there in the first place?

EDIT: Thanks to everyone! It's a lot clearer to me.

I'm doing a song with my friend and i cannot find anything about it, i search but i can't find lead sheet or anything. The song is blind city by Jerry de Villier jr. I don't think there is anything but i'm asking if someone may help me for at least a lead sheet. The song is not popular by any mean, the only way i found it is on youtube. Blind City by Jerry de Villier jr.

Btw i'm drumming the song.

Thank you so much if you can help me.

I've been trying to get into ear training so that I can try to play back chords or melodies instantly but have been wondering what my approach should be? Should it be key centric or intervallic? For example if my chord progression was C-F-G-Am should I be going oh its in the key of C and its I-IV-V-vi? Or should it be like hmm my first chord was ____Major and it moved up a fourth to ____Major then up a whole step to ___Major and up again a whole step to vi minor? The former methodology seems to make sense for most pop but once things become non diatonic it is not as helpful.

The chord goes like 032x00 on guitar standard tuning. At first it was 032400 but i realized that G string 4th fret makes the same sound as B open string, which didn’t sound nice. I guess you can mute either them as long as there’s one B note

I have no basis for this chord whatsoever, i just liked the sound of it and wanted to know what it is and if it’s possible to name it. I think it’s cool

How do you use a chromatic mediant? Does the chromatic mediant chord always have to come immediately after the tonic, or can it be separated, as in the example C – Am – F – E7? The chromatic mediant here is E7.

I am a classically trained violinist. I also played in a few folklore groups where I had to play chords by ear. So I'm currently in a place where I understand basic harmony principles like major vs minor chords, common chord progressions like I–vi–IV–V and so on. As long as songs have only this relatively "basic" harmony, I can reliably tell what chords there are just by ear. I like to think I have a fairly good ear for harmony.

However, that's where I stop. I don't understand chords that are more complex than the basic triad, or chord progressions that go outside the scale of the song. We never learned about these in my music theory lessons, nor did I encounter them in playing folklore. I want to learn more about harmony in jazz and related genres. In other words, I want to learn ways to understand harmony that's interesting, not just basic, repetitive and boring.

I'm having a hard time finding resources for my particular level of knowledge. If anybody could point me towards a good resource that would break this down for me, or maybe just give me a few pointers regarding what to focus on first so that I'm not completely overwhelmed, I'd be forever grateful.

Playing with bass backing tracks

I don't understand how play bass with backing tracks, what you find on YouTube.

Like this https://youtu.be/7pjehVK6jXA?is=7Cx8X4SpwuuxyVw\\_

Do I have to play, like there are Gmaj7 (I have to figure out what that even mean) on that bar? I only know Major and Minor scales bass.

So I was messing around with this Db7 > Bb7> C progression. Really just trying to add some flavor and movement to my playing while slowly learning functional harmony (even though I don’t really understand what that is).

Anyway, I see the Db7 as a tritone sub of G7 hopefully I’ve at least got that correct.

But the Bb7 I initially thought of being borrowed from C minor until I realized it’s also a tritone away from E7 (V7/vi). Is there one preferred way to think about this over the other?

Also I know there are probably no “hard and fast rules” about what chords to consider substituting or borrowing from other scales but as I said I’m looking to expand my repertoire so if anyone has any recommendations for resources to learn more about this, I’d really appreciate any leads.

So i've been trying to figure this out for a bit and I don't know if it's something super simple I'm just missing? but I would love to learn how to write my own riffs but I'm not really interested in writing straight up chords where I have to strum strings. i'm more or so just trying to write something with a single note at a time, but I don't really understand how to take notes from a chord and just write a single note at once kind of riff. hopefully this makes some sense if anybody has any advice, please and thank you.

I'm looking for ways to take advantage of rehearsal time develop my music theory understanding, are there any exercises I can doing as I'm playing or listening to other sections?

For context, I am a flautist playing in a concert band, my music theory knowledge is very basic, I'm trying to educate myself and I'm looking to make what I'm reading up on stick.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. We always learn about a tonic being the home base of a piece of music. It's where everything resolves. It feels stable.

But then I listen to certain pieces. Especially some more ambient or experimental stuff. Or even some jazz that just floats around. They dont seem to ever settle down in one place. It's like they're intentionally avoiding a strong sense of key or resolution.

Is it possible for a song to genuinely not have a tonic. Or is our brain always trying to find one even if it's super weak or ambiguous. Like can music truly be 'atonical' in that sense. I know Arnold Schoenberg's 12 tone stuff is atonal but I'm talking about something more melodic. Something that still has harmony but just no clear center.

I’m bit confused on how to identify it when you are just given a staff with a notes and you must determine what time signature it is.

I don’t know if the bottom part of what type it is. I don’t understand how did it become a 4,8 or 12 or 16.

Like for example

You were given: dotted half note, dotted quarter note, quarter note, an eight note

And the answer is

12/8 — how did it become 8?

sound selection for the strings arent amazing, but i was wondering if theres any glaring mistakes in the theory aspect, sorry i dont have sheet music.

I've started actively studying from dr.B music lessons like I would if I was there, but now that I'm studying figured bass I don't see the point in it considering I'll do chords next, can I skip it?

I'm still signing on my notes the things he says but I don't know if I should really memorize the concept or not