Explore the differences between the major scale and Arabic scales in music theory, from emotional tone and intervals to cultural influence and sound.

What if you didn't need to hear a melody to be able to know how it goes? What if you could just read it and sing it or hear it in your head, just as if you had played it on an instrument? This is the power of Solfege and Sight Singing.

Chords are the foundation of harmony in music. There are a lot of different kinds, but they're all based on fairly simple patterns, and most chords describe themselves quite clearly.

Hint: Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" uses it.

Writing a 4 part harmony can be very difficult if you don't understand the basic principles behind voice leading and arrangement. There are countless rules one must follow to emulate the stylings of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. But these rules are not ne...

From 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'

A lot of people ask whether music theory is even necessary to learn – and if so, then what theory should they learn, and how much of it? I get many questions ranging from learning to read and write music, to learning ear training, to questions about orche...

The Riffs and Runs Vocal Workout features the exercises presented in my popular Riffs and Runs Masterclass. I have created a new version with increased volume, longer (more range) exercises and less talking! There are 5 slow exercises to practice the no...

Like an actor's script, a sheet of music instructs a musician on what to play (the pitch) and when to play it (the rhythm). Sheet music may look complicated, but once you've gotten the hang of a few simple elements like notes, bars and clefs, you're ready...

Perfect Pitch is the ability to recognize and produce notes by name on command. You probably can't develop perfect pitch if you don't already have it, but you can get pretty close with relative pitch and pitch memorization.

How does music work? What did an Ancient Greek philosopher have to do with it? Why did he keep drowning people?

The circle of fifths is a unique pattern of the 12 pitches in western classical music theory which is commonly paired with information about key signatures but also gives many insights into harmony, intervals, transposition, and chord structure.

One of the most important skills in learning to read and write music is note naming. It’s not unlike when you were learning to read and write. You had to learn the alphabet. The musical alphabet is a bit simpler because it’s only 7 letters long. This vide...

Minor scales are directly related to major scales, with a few extra rules. Like a lot of things, they're easy when you know how. You're going to need to know major scales and key signatures to understand minor scales. Check out the links below the video...

Key signatures are easy...when you know how they work. This video explains what they are, how they work, and some patterns that emerge when you look at all of them. It also includes a brilliant trick to remember all 15 major key signatures!