Directory of Theory Resources

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Sites offering music theory, both specific and general, are listed here. Music theory is "a branch of study that includes many different methods for analyzing, classifying, and composing music and the elements of music." (You will find a good writeup of music theory at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_theory ) Music Theory is not Musicology. Musicology seeks answers questions for Who, What, Where, When and Why questions. Music Theory seeks answers for How.

Subcategories

• Educational Software
• Magazines and E-zines
• Theorists
• Tuning Systems

Resources in This Category

• A Beginner's Guide to Modal Harmony

  http://www.standingstones.com/modeharm.html
  A concise explanation of the Gregorian and Renaissance modes and their development in the Common Practice era.

• A-Natural Atonality

  http://www.greenwych.ca/atonal.htm
  Claims that atonality is unnatural while tonality is acoustically and historically natural.

• Analysis of Masterpieces

  http://www.geocities.jp/musikanalyse/eng/text/textE.html
  Analysis of full-music 20th Century atonal pieces.

• Auto-Transposer

  http://www.autotransposer.com/
  Transposes all twelve major keys of chord progressions.

• Bimodalism

  http://www.ubieta.com/bimodalism/
  A contemporary alternative to atonal styles of composition.

• Dolmetsch: Music Theory & History Online

  http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.htm
  Offers a musical dictionary, recorder lessons, instrument information and a composers listing.

• Dynamic Spectrograms of Music

  http://nastechservices.com/Spectrograms.html
  Provides a type of spectrogram suitable for understanding the structure of music.

• eMusicTheory.com

  http://www.emusictheory.com/
  Java applets designed to help students of music improve their basic music reading skills.

• Eric Weisstein's Treasure Trove of Music

  http://www.ericweisstein.com/encyclopedias/music/
  A reference resource on music theory, covering in brief a vast array of topics.

• Essentials of Music Theory

  http://musictheory.redzeppelin.org/
  Summarizes entry-level music theory through advanced topics. Includes beginners' drills.

• Fugue No. 17: A-Flat Major

  http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/wtc/i17.html
  Introduction to the essential concepts of Schenkerian analysis applied to the Ab Major fugue of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I

• Fugue Treatises, Analyses and Tools

  http://www.kunstderfuge.com/theory.htm
  Bibliography of fugue analysis research, writings and analysis.

• Good Ear

  http://www.good-ear.com/
  Online ear training site.

• Harmonic Bindings

  http://vladimir_ladma.sweb.cz/english/music/articles/ifsa97.htm
  A paper about the unification of Janecek's theory of imaginary tones with the two Risinger's principles of functional relations.

• Harmony.org.uk

  http://www.harmony.org.uk/
  By Tom Sutcliffe. Aims to help students of music theory understand the role of chord progressions in musical structures. Site includes animated demos.

• Interactive Circle of Fifths

  http://randscullard.com/CircleOfFifths/
  A free music theory tool designed to help musicians interpret chord progressions, easily transpose music to a different key, compose new music, and understand key signatures, scales, and modes.

• Modes and Scales in Indian Music

  http://chandrakantha.com/articles/scales.html
  A historical look at concepts of Indian scales and modes comparing North and South Indian approaches.

• Music Acoustics

  http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/
  The science of music. Explanations of how musical instruments work via waves and frequency modulation.

• Music Theory

  http://www.musictheoryblog.blogspot.com/
  A guide to music theory that including chords, scales, music notation and other music theory topics. Has weblog format; includes links as well.

• Music Theory Help Site

  http://www.wmich.edu/mus-history/TheoryHelp/TheoryHelp.html
  Intermediate music theory help covering basics through beginning formal analysis and counterpoint.

• Music Theory Instruction

  http://www.angelfire.com/music5/theory/
  Online instruction for all musicians beginner or advanced. Covers scales, chordal theory, progression theory, modes and foreign scales.

• Music Theory Society of New York State

  http://www.ithaca.edu/music/mtsnys/
  Provides a forum for the exchange of information and to promote music theory as a scholarly and pedagogical discipline. Site also contains membership and scholarship information as well as open calls for papers.

• Music Worksheets

  http://www.musicatschool.co.uk/worksheets.htm
  Downloadable worksheets for elementary and middle school students.

• Pattern Thinking in Music

  http://www.seepatts.com/
  Offers visual aid to recognizing musical patterns occurring in melody, harmony and rhythm. Provides online demonstration; requires download.

• Ricci Adams' Musictheory.net

  http://www.musictheory.net/
  Includes introductory and intermediate music theory lessons, ear trainers, and books.

• SchenkerGuide

  http://www.schenkerguide.com/
  An introduction to Schenkerian analysis for undergraduate music students. Includes background, working method, glossary and bibliography.

• Sight-Reading Rhythmic Patterns

  http://www.rhythm-patterns.narod.ru/
  Rhythmic exercises with accompanying MIDI files.

• Simplified Music Chord Theory

  http://www.rpsoft2000.com/rps_chordtheory.htm
  Explains scales and building chords from them.

• Skytopia: Music and Art Aesthetics

  http://www.skytopia.com/project/rating.html
  Author's overview of how every piece of music, every sound, and every picture can be rated on its own merits outside (as well as inside) human opinion.

• Solomon's Music Resources

  http://solomonsmusic.net/
  Resources for composers, music theorists, and researchers of music, with sound files, papers and compositions.

• Star Theory

  http://www.musicarrangers.com/star-theory/
  Free preparatory syllabus in music theory and orchestration.

• Technical Committee on Musical Acoustics

  http://www.public.coe.edu/~jcotting/tcmu/
  A group within the Acoustical Society of America, that concerns itself with the application of science and technology to the field of music. Contains members, a list of papers, acousticians and links.

• Teoria

  http://www.teoria.com/
  Includes software, books, exercises, and links.

• The Ancient Musical Modes

  http://www.pathguy.com/modes.htm
  Ideas regarding the "classical modes" described by Plato and Aristotle.

• The Music Theory Minute

  http://www.musictheoryminute.com/
  Online music theory tutorials for beginning students.

• The Tonal Centre

  http://www.tonalcentre.org/
  Interactive site for music composers and theorists which explains and demonstrates some of the key concepts of tonality; including chords, scales, cadences, and modulation.

• VCU Music Theory Resources

  http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bhammel/theory/resources/index.html
  Music theory and ear training resources from Virginia Commonwealth University.

• What is Music - Solving a Scientific Mystery

  http://whatismusic.info/
  Provide information on the book by Philip Dorrell which explains a new scientific theory about music: the super-stimulus theory.

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• Home > Arts > Music > Musicology

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