Learn music theory by hearing it
A hands-on course that starts with one vibrating string and never stops sounding: every lesson pairs readable theory with an interactive lab you can hear, poke and play — on the on-screen piano, your computer keys or a MIDI keyboard — then a short quiz locks it in. It ends with music you wrote yourself.
Sound & Pitch
0/2Where notes come from: a vibrating string, a frequency, and the twelve equal steps that every piece of Western music is built from.
Pitch: What a Note Is
A note is a vibration counted per second. Double the count and you get the same note again, one octave up — that one fact shapes everything that follows.
The Twelve Notes
Between one A and the next there are twelve equal steps. Seven of them got letter names, five got sharps and flats — and the piano's black-and-white pattern shows exactly why.
Reading Music
0/3Turning sound into symbols: where a pitch sits on the staff, how long a note lasts, and how beats are bundled into bars.
The Staff & Clefs
Five lines, a clef to name them, and middle C floating in between — that is the whole system for writing pitch down.
Note Values & Rests
A note's shape says how long it lasts. Whole, half, quarter, eighth — each one is half the last, and a dot adds half again.
Time Signatures & Meter
Beats come in bundles with a strong one in front. The two numbers at the start of a piece say how big the bundle is — and the tempo says how fast it goes.
Scales & Keys
0/3Seven notes chosen from twelve: the major scale's pattern, its three minor cousins, and the key signatures that tell you which seven a piece lives in.
The Major Scale
Whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. Start that pattern on any key and you get the brightest scale in music — and a name for every step.
Minor Scales
Lower the third and the mood turns. The natural minor is the major scale's shadow; the harmonic and melodic minors fix the one thing it lacks — a leading tone.
Key Signatures & the Circle of Fifths
The sharps or flats at the start of the line name the key. Their order never changes, and arranged in a circle they map every key's neighbours.
Intervals
0/2The distance between two notes, named and heard: numbers and qualities, the inversion trick, and a reference song for every interval.
Intervals: Naming the Distance
Two notes, one distance. Count the letters for the number, count the semitones for the quality — and learn the flip that turns a third into a sixth.
Hearing Intervals
Every interval is the first two notes of a song you already know. Borrow those songs, and your ear will name distances before your eyes can count them.
Chords & Harmony
0/4Notes sounding together: how three notes become a chord, how seven chords grow out of one key, why V pulls to I — and a melody transcribed by ear to close the core course.
Triads: Three Notes, Four Moods
Stack two thirds on any note and you have a chord. Which two thirds you stack — big or small, in which order — decides whether it smiles, sighs, grinds or floats.
Diatonic Chords & Roman Numerals
Build a triad on every note of a scale and you get the seven chords that belong to a key. Number them with Roman numerals and the same song reads the same in every key.
Progressions & Cadences
Chords in a row tell a story, and the last two chords decide how the sentence ends: a full stop, a soft amen, a comma, or a trick.
Capstone: Transcribe a Melody by Ear
Everything in the core course points here: hear a tune, find its notes, write it down — the skill that turns theory from something you know into something you have.
Progress & backup
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