Music Theory Foundations TUTORIAL

Music Theory Foundations TUTORIAL

So here I am, sitting down to write the “Sales Page” for the Music Theory course, I already had a full sentence:
“Learning Music Theory is very similar to learning a language”

All official and what not, and I wanted to go from there and start explaining why it’s important to learn about Music Theory. But then I thought: F it, why not explain what the course is really about.

That being said, just in case you’re not yet convinced about the importance of music theory; here’s a quote from Brahms:

What is Functional Harmony?
Often, when learning about Music Theory, people start by learning about scales, chords, perhaps some modes and then they sort of.. stop.

Maybe I’m just talking about myself here but I definitely experienced this, and it made me miss out on of the most exciting parts of Music Theory: Form

Form is a term used to describe the structure of a musical piece, it uses the language of Music Theory in a pragmatic manner. Learning about Form with help you understand how all the smaller elements in a song work together to create a single unified experience.

In this course you’re getting an introduction to Functional Harmony, a system where Chords get categorised into their own unique “functions” This allows you to build chord progressions that evoke specific emotions, that create a story in which you’re the writer. You can take the story into any direction, go on a a bit of side journey and then take it back to the beginning or an insane plot-twist.

There are all silly metaphors of course but hopefully it gets the point across, functional harmony allows you to gain full control over your music. It’s not about “finding a chord that works”, it’s about telling a story with chords and understanding how they relate. Honestly, It’s freaking exciting stuff.