When you look at a melody how do you know in which key it is composed? This music theory lesson presents a short piece and explains how to determine the key of a given melody. It also talks about modulation to a different key. How good...

A flowchart for reading the Key Signature

How to build all minor scales

Find out how to borrow chords from the parallel key as a means of adding colour to your harmony and to understand how composers use this technique. This music composition lesson presents a short piece of harmony and demonstrates ways...

Introduction to the Circle of Fifths

Just by looking at a melody can you work out which key it is in? How can you tell just by looking at the notes which key a melody is in, especially when there is no key signature? Even if you can work it out how do you know if it’s in a...

How to build a whole tone scale and exploring some of its uses. Most musicians are familiar with major and minor scales but what about other scales? The whole tone scale was much used by Debussy and other composers, and it generates a...

Today we look at the three chords (I, iii, vi) that have the specific function of being Tonic Chords. <br/>

Learn how to work out the key of a piece of sheet music. In this music theory lesson we take a look at four extracts of music and practice working out their keys. You'll learn how to make sure you get the correct key by looking at the...

How good are you at naming and identifying chords in a piece of music? This music theory lesson explains how to determine the key of a given piece of music and how to work out the chords that belong to that key. It then invites you to...