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Music Theory

Learn to read, hear, describe, and analyze musical pitch, rhythm, harmony, and form.

For: Learners at any starting point, including people who read music and people who learn by listening.

After this page you can: Choose a starting path and explain how selected musical details shape a passage.

Page reviewed

About Music Theory

Music theory is a set of ways to describe and explore how music is organized. In this hub, the focus is on musical notation, pitch and scales, rhythm, harmony, and form. The focus is a useful starting map rather than a claim that every musical tradition uses the same concepts: the MIT fundamentals course covers notation, intervals, scales, meter, harmony, and score reading, while MIT’s Harmony and Counterpoint course names its focus as Western music, principally eighteenth-century central European classical music. You can begin with one concept you want to understand, such as how a rhythm is written or how a chord relates to a key.

Theory can be studied by reading and writing notation, listening, singing, playing, and analyzing examples. The MIT fundamentals course combines notation with singing, ear training, rhythmic and melodic dictation, and score reading; its syllabus also names daily practice and individual and ensemble work. Open Music Theory’s table of contents lists fundamentals including notation, rhythm, pitch, scales, intervals, and chords, as well as sections on harmony and form. For a practical loop, choose a short musical passage, listen for one feature, describe it with a term from the relevant section, and check the description against a score or by singing or playing it. No single path through theory is required here: choose the section that fits your current question, then return to another when you are ready.

Start here

route

I’m new to music theory

Start with notation and fundamentals, then choose a direction such as rhythm, pitch, or harmony.

Start with: I. Fundamentals

route

I’m returning to theory

Use the MIT fundamentals syllabus to revisit the skills it groups together, from ear training to score reading.

Start with: Fundamentals of Music

route

I want to understand chords in context

Begin with harmony and counterpoint, then use the harmony section below for key-relative chord labels.

Start with: Harmony and Counterpoint I

Learn the foundations

1.Notation and rhythmRhythm concerns musical durations, and notation uses note values, rests, dots, and ties to represent them.

Rhythm concerns musical durations, and notation uses note values, rests, dots, and ties to represent them.

  • Rhythmic values

    This reading explains durations, rests, dots, ties, and their relation to simple and compound meter.

Rhythm

The combination of long and short durations in time.

Tie

A notation mark connecting adjacent notes of the same pitch to lengthen their duration.

Try it

A quarter note lasts as long as two eighth notes. How many eighth-note durations equal a dotted quarter note?

Three eighth-note durations: the dot adds half the quarter note’s duration.

2.Pitch, scales, and intervalsScales arrange pitches in steps, while intervals describe the distance between two pitches.

Scales arrange pitches in steps, while intervals describe the distance between two pitches.

  • Intervals and dyads

    This reading explains interval distance, interval quality, and the distinction between melodic and harmonic intervals.

Scale

A succession of pitches ascending or descending in steps.

Interval

The distance between two pitches, usually measured as a number of steps on a scale.

Try it

The pitches C and E are three letter names apart when counting both endpoints. What generic interval do they form?

A third: the counted letter names are C, D, and E.

3.Harmony and chordsA triad is a three-note chord whose pitches can be arranged in thirds.

A triad is a three-note chord whose pitches can be arranged in thirds. Roman numerals label a chord’s root scale degree in a key.

Triad

A three-note chord whose pitch classes can be arranged as thirds.

Roman numeral

A label that can designate the scale degree of a chord’s root within a key.

Try it

In a major key, a triad has its root on scale degree five. What Roman numeral labels its root scale degree?

V, because Roman numerals designate the chord root’s scale degree in the key.

4.Form and analysisMusical form can be understood as a hierarchy of units.

Musical form can be understood as a hierarchy of units. In tonal music, cadences often mark the ends of phrases.

Motive

A regularly recurring unit of music, typically smaller than an idea.

Phrase

A relatively complete musical thought that moves toward a goal and a sense of closure.

Try it

Listen to a short passage twice. Name one brief musical idea that recurs, then mark where a larger phrase seems to close.

A recurring brief idea can be described as a motive; a phrase ending may be marked by a cadence.

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Books

Glossary

Every free Music Theory course and book on RedLectern

Free Music Theory online courses

  1. American Popular MusicMIT 21M.295 · Browse materials
  2. Computational Music Theory and AnalysisMIT 21M.383 · Browse materials · Video
  3. Dance Theory and CompositionMIT 21T.1003 · Browse materials
  4. Developing Musical StructuresMIT 21M.113 · Browse materials
  5. Fundamentals of MusicMIT 21M.051 · Browse materials
  6. Harmony and Counterpoint IMIT 21M.301 · Browse materials
  7. Harmony and Counterpoint IIMIT 21M.302 · Browse materials
  8. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Musical TimeMIT 21M.542 · Browse materials · Video
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  1. Introduction to Musical CompositionMIT 21M.065 · Browse materials
  2. Introduction to Western MusicMIT 21M.011 · Browse materials
  3. Musical AnalysisMIT 21M.350 · Browse materials
  4. Studies in Western Music History: Quantitative and Computational Approaches to Music HistoryMIT 21M.269 · Browse materials
  5. Symphony and ConcertoMIT 21M.271 · Browse materials
  6. Writing in Tonal Forms IMIT 21M.303 · Browse materials · Video
  7. Writing in Tonal Forms IIMIT 21M.304 · Browse materials · Video
  8. Composing with Computers I (Electronic Music Composition)MIT 21M.361 · Open on OCW
How these courses are chosen

Of the courses with “music theory” in their title or in a topic tag, these are listed as Music Theory courses:

  • those whose title contains “Music Theory”, “harmony”, “counterpoint”, “tonal” or “musical analysis”, or
  • those tagged “Music Theory” as one of at most 2 topic tags, or as the first of 3.

Free Music Theory textbooks and books

Show all 10 booksShow fewer books

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