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

The chord progression is ?-F#-Bm-Dm, I can’t quite figure out what chord would work in that spot

I love music and I want to get a degree in it but I already have a D in the class and it’s only the 4th week of school. I am very passionate about music and I want to make a career out of it but I feel like after looking at my grade in the class, that I it’s probably better off for me to just drop my degree in general and give up on my dream career because I am not as well informed in music as I thought I was and that I should probably drop the class. It also doesn’t help that I have a learning disability that takes me longer to understand and grasp things than everyone else. So maybe I am just too stupid to follow my dreams and pursue a degree in a career I have been passionate about since I was a kid

This song is in 4/4 but the second bar of the first line has 3 half notes and a quarter note. Can someone explain to me how that works with the song?

Im sure it relates to tones, idk any possible name for it other than A and B.

A could sound happy, epic, sad, stuff like that

B could also sound happy and epic, as well as hopeful and tragic and stuff

I have some songs I made, https://youtu.be/xlHsvc7DXWE?is=UuyXLaSlHCgVG2FT and https://youtu.be/iqswOV6TSQ8?is=JeL8Cx_nHYcRt_C_ are both the B tone

https://youtu.be/t-sR2gIes5E?is=IPq89bo9yHHiFwIw and https://youtu.be/TZJAGBXj3_c?is=vscubvOBcZyiJDfe are the A tone

https://youtu.be/G0LKGuOvtz8?is=wL2lIy0f5U4AAJoZ sounds like a combination

I really dont know how to describe it, please help

Sorry I am a beginner😭

When I improv in C major I like to use the major pentatonic C D E G A and drop the third note a half step to C D Eb G A, which I think is the minor pentatonic scale, correct?

In F minor key the major pentatonic is F Ab Bb C Eb, would the minor pentatonic scale be F Ab A C Eb ?

Am I forming the minor pentatonic scales correctly?

Harmonic Analysis of the First Movement of Faust Symphony — The Opening: A Matrix of Augmented Triads and the Absence of a Clearly Perceptible Tonal Center — A Philosophical Perspective

While I was practicing harmonic analysis of the Romantic style, I worked on more pieces by Liszt than by any other composer. I managed to analyze and solve everything I practiced, but when I came across this opening, it genuinely intrigued me and caught my attention so much that I wanted to explore the harmonic analysis of the entire symphony—or at least the first movement. If the piece begins like this, who knows what other fascinating things might be hidden within it!

Since I am particularly interested in “systems,” I noticed what seems to be a quasi-system within this matrix of excessive augmented triads, known as the twelve-tone system. I have read Weitzmann's Regions, My Cycles, and Douthett's Dancing Cubes by Richard Cohn, Das Projekt »Dreiklang«. Natur und Technik bei Logier, Weitzmann, Wagner und Liszt by Johannes Menke, and other texts. I understood Neo-Riemannian theory, Weitzmann's theory, and Schoenberg's theory, and I saw that Kurth and Lewin had also written about this subject. And there is only one more female author left for me to read...

Without going into too much detail, the one thought that keeps running through my mind is that, within this twelve-tone system, the entire field of all tonalities exists simultaneously. I don't think there is any possibility or space to examine it from just one perspective.

This particular opening, specifically the way Liszt composed it, arranged the material, and contrapuntally maintained the linear voice leading, seems to me to be the strongest evidence that the twelve-tone system is a circular relationship in which all tonalities are present at once, simultaneously.

Could someone offer some thoughts on this? Because I find this idea absolutely astonishing.

Honestly, when something like this emerges as an absolute truth, it frustrates me, and I simply cannot accept it as such. I want to do something about it, driven by my frustration with the way everything is reduced to a circular relationship, where one thing becomes another and both become equivalent in their influence through enharmonic equivalence. I believe that enharmonicism could be used to derive a substantial system, one that could serve purposes far beyond those dictated by the Romantic style.

*I haven't yet put my ideas into practice or developed them into actual works. For now, I'm focused on gathering knowledge. Later, I would like to pursue all the questions and problems I find interesting and worthy of investigation professionally, as an established music theory researcher, after completing my doctorate in a few years...

I'm thinking about those progressions where each chord just seems to lead downward to the next one but never really resolves in a typical sense. It's not necessarily sad or dark just a continuous descent. Like a musical Sisyphus. Does anyone know if there's a name for this kind of harmonic movement?

In the left hand of this measure at the top of the page (time signature is 4/4), aren’t there some missing rests? Shouldn’t there be a quarter rest at the beginning of the measure and an eighth rest in each gap?

I'm a guitarist learning about intervals and triads around the neck. I'm practicing playing triads right now, and playing the intervals that ''enclose'' each triad. Like I'll play a minor triad and find the flat seventh and second next to the root, the fourth and second next to the flat third, etc.
I'm practicing playing triads along with this song (''Hold on Magnolia'' if it matters.) The song is in the key of E. The chord progression goes I vi iii V IV I IV. Ill play the I chord, then mess around with that chord's root's second and fourth and stuff. Then I'll play the vi chord and do the same. Then I'll play the iii chord, and I'll mess around, but then I hit that chord's root's second, it sounds really weird. I can't make it sound good along with the song. It's an A#, which I know isn't in the key of E, but it is in the key of G# minor, and its G#m's second.

I thought that was what playing with the changes was-- playing the corresponding scale for each chord, because even though some notes might not be in the song's key they'll sound good with the chord and it causes tension and tasty stuff. But this A# never sounds good. Why not? Only playing the A along with the G#m sounds good. Apparently I've really misunderstood what ''playing with the changes'' means. People say that to really advance, you should learn to do more than just play the key's scale over the whole song. So how do I really know which notes are good and bad?

Thanks a lot guys. I didn't really know how to ask this question so I gave a lot of information so that i hope yall can find what im confused about.

RESULTS

More than 70% of ppl replied A - and at least 25% expressed either disgust, hatred or terror of option B. Message understood, i'll go with A.

80bpm. meant to be played on strings + choir.

If your reply is B, do you have any exemple of a famous score showing it ?

For context, the piece is in regular 4/4, strong beats being 2 and 4

depending on the piece i might use that rythm either repeatedly or only once or twice

I've been playing a lot of RPGs lately and it feels like every other major boss theme has that distinct raised 4th and flattened 7th. It creates such a dramatic yet heroic feel. Am I just imagining this or is it a recognized trope in game music composition?

About myself - I can play the drums enough to make myself happy. I actually got good at hand feet coordination after my college, and never played the drums in a band. I played the Congo and Octopad with people.

Now onto my question - I tried learning the Guitar online a few years ago. Back then I found is extremely mechanical - I was trying to get used to all these chords etc, but I never understood WHY did musicians decide a chord works. Also, I felt any tune can technically be played with just one string, why do we need 6.

I thnk the questions I'm asking belong to music theory. I also have always been really into jazz and will want to play jazz music, and I think I need to understand music theory to get a good feeling of jazz?

So yeah, I thnk I should try to understand music theory to make my guitar learning experience better. Are there resources (hopefully books) that can help me?

Edit - I also need to mention that on drums/Congo/cajon, I can often listen to a song and start jamming. I feel it's probably much harder on a guitar, but I want to be able to do that. While I was trying the guitar the last time, I always had to look up a sheet music to play along. I didn't really like that.

I've been playing a lot of older RPGs lately and I'm noticing something interesting. Some composers use really unexpected chord changes in background music. It's not always functionally clear why they make those jumps. It creates a cool, unsettling, or often majestic feeling. I'm wondering if there's a specific term for these kinds of less conventional harmonic progressions in game music.

I ran into a new music theory question trying to learn a song by ear using a chord diagram - Mississippi Waltz by Kenny Baker in F. I'm a novice when it comes to theory, slowly self-learning what I need to play at the local bluegrass jam. I am working on learning melodies by ear starting with the pentatonic scale

I was trying not to cheat by looking up a tab but got stuck working out the notes because they don't fit the F Scale. The chords are F Ab C7 and I started with the F major scale but the Ab chord has Ab and Eb which would be F Minor, but A and E natural are in the F and C chords.

So I don't think I can use a standard scale for this tune so do I just combine all the notes for F Major and F minor and work from all of those?

Any insight into the topic would be appreciated!

Genuinely need a piece converted to guitar tab and I don't know how to and all the online converters are hot garbage at conversion. Its called The Rune Of Hospitality by Alf Houkom. Can anyone at least give pointers? I can read sheet music but this is just past my ability to be able to convert to tab.

Apparently this is a major third, but my understanding is that when descending you go halfstep back which would take you to the open A, then a whole step back which would take you three frets down the low E string so you'd end up on the G. Why is this not the case?

Apologies for the repost of an earlier question but I wanted to get some feedback on this screenshot of my workbook. My understanding is that the major scale formular is WWHWWWH? So why does descending from the interval not start on a Half step instead of a whole step? I realize its a 6th but why would that change the formula?

The chord progression in this sax solo goes Em7 Am7 Em7 C7 B7 Em7. So assuming we're in the key of Em and taking only the last four chords, I think of if as a i VI V i progression. But because it's a minor key, I expected the VI chord to have a major 7th (Cmaj7 here but we get C7) and the v chord to be minor (Bm7 but we get B7). It sounds really cool, very tense during C7 and B7, but I don't really understand why. Any help?

Sorry if this is a simple question, I'm kinda new to chord progressions.

As a person who has studied music for around 60 years, I don't remember the word "tuplets" being used until I started using Finale in the late 80s. Is it possible that Finale's creators invented the term? Before that, I only recall references to specific groupings, like duplets, triplets, quadruplets, etc., without any generic term. It occurs to me that maybe musicians didn't need that term until a tool had to be invented that treated them all as one category.

So in G I played Am7>Am6>Bm6>G

I use the ii6 voicing a lot because it shares the same notes as the viim7b5 (F#) so it has a nice pull to I.

Today I played a m6 on the B as well, playing essentially the same notes as a G#m7b5.

Seems like a cool sound, was wondering if anyone had any insights or other examples of this and why exactly a bii half diminished works here? My initial guess was something to do with tritone subs with it being a half step above the root and all. But idek if you can do that with diminished chords.

Also, the reason I’m not definitively saying Bm6 vs G#m7b5 is because I guess I don’t really know the function here and I’ve been yelled at for conflating minor 6 chords as inversions of the half diminished lol. So I’d appreciate some clarification there as well.

Cheers!

Hey guys,

I think I understand chord progressions. However, I am struggling to understand the concept of major triads. For instance, If a chord progression is as follow C-F-C-F what would the major triads be of the individual chords?

My guess is:

C-E-G

F-A-C

C-E-G

and F-A-C

Sorry for the hand written notation. My problem is that the tenor in bar 3.4 leaps down to a chordal 7th, which I would like to avoid if possible, but moving stepwise to B produces parallel fifths going into bar 4 and I can’t see any way I could alter the proceeding material which would make the voice leading any better. Please help!