r/musictheory • • 21h ago

Notation Question Which is correct ?

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24 Upvotes

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


r/musictheory • • 13h ago

General Question Are both violin 1 and 2 melody? Are they of equal importance? Is this counterpoint?

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18 Upvotes

Sorry I am a beginner😭


r/musictheory • • 14h ago

Answered Missing rests?

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8 Upvotes

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?


r/musictheory • • 10h ago

Notation Question Is there a term for a chord that feels like its perpetually falling?

8 Upvotes

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?


r/musictheory • • 11h ago

Notation Question Does anyone else notice how common the lydian dominant scale is in video game boss themes?

6 Upvotes

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?


r/musictheory • • 9h ago

General Question Looking for recourses to understand music theory while starting to learn the guitar.

3 Upvotes

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.


r/musictheory • • 23h ago

General Question “Enclosing” the I with half-diminished chords.

2 Upvotes

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!


r/musictheory • • 1h ago

Discussion I Feel Like I Am Too Stupid For The Degree I Want To Have A Career In

• Upvotes

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


r/musictheory • • 9h ago

Songwriting Question Unusual harmonic motion in video game soundtracks

2 Upvotes

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.


r/musictheory • • 12h ago

Answered Why descending the major scale starts with a whole step instead of a half step?

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1 Upvotes

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?


r/musictheory • • 2h ago

General Question Question about ''playing with the changes'' & intervals on guitar

1 Upvotes

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.


r/musictheory • • 3h ago

General Question What do you call this type of scale/key for this song?

0 Upvotes

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!


r/musictheory • • 6h ago

Notation Question Sheet Music to Guitar Tab

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0 Upvotes

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.