Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?

#161

Post by k__ » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 4:55 PM UTC

zozbot234 wrote: post #68

k__ wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did some simple courses and they all started with this. Naming stuff 1-12 and I, II, IV etc. I found this much more relatable. Only keyboards seem to favor C major with their layout, which makes applying these "relatives" a bit more cumbersome, if you don't want to use that scale. At least on guitar everything looks the same.

> Only keyboards seem to favor C major with their layout Once you're familiar with the cycle of fifths, modulation becomes fairly trivial. You start to apply the appropriate corrections "sharpen this, flatten that" simply as a matter of habit. In fact, this is precisely how modulation arose historically; it used to be the case that all music was notated diatonically or nearly so (only distinguishing between B and B-f…

I just find the black and whites puzzling.

Sure, the steps are the same from the prime up, but with C major you end up on all white and with others you can end up on blacks here and there.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?

#162

Post by iQuercus » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 4:58 PM UTC

kossae wrote: post #109

iQuercus wrote: post #90

Put down the books and websites and articles. Write music.

I've done it this way for the whole 15+ years I've been playing and producing music. The problem is, I learned by ear (which seems to be a valued skill), but I can't for the life of me tell you which chord I just played or communicate effectively with more classically trained musicians. This has led me to start learning music theory myself, as there is definitely value in the 'by-the-book' method as well. I believe t…

I think it’s better to know it in your bones and then go back and formalize it with theory and terminology.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?

#163

Post by sailfast » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 5:05 PM UTC

I haven't watched the whole thing but this lesson from Barry Harris (and the whole Lincoln Center Jazz Academy) is pretty great for thinking about harmony, solos, and improvisation / voicing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8JJncSUdUU&list=PLReW5Mv77O...

I've also enjoyed the Leonard Bernstein Norton lectures at Harvard in terms of overall theory of why things sound good to our ears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fHi36dvTdE&list=PLKiz0UZowP...

Re: Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?

#164

Post by new_guy » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

Some of the answers here are straight up imbecilic. The best thing you can do is get yourself a private music teacher.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?

#165

Post by sansnomme » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 5:10 PM UTC

There are two ways of learning music: by ear and by sight. The first way is often (but not always) associated with or referred to as the "jazz way" in Western music. Either way works if you just want to play the music, the main use for theory is composing music. (And to sound vaguely intelligent when dissecting a piece of music but by itself that has little value unless you work in a conservatory or art museum) There are plenty of YouTube channels that teaches the core concepts of music theory. E.g. 8-bit Music Theory.

Let's be real here, there's no way to truly learn music theory without practicing. It's like math, algorithms, you don't have to learn it to compose (if you are talented you can easily cruise on raw talent) but you have to practice with pen and paper (or computer or instrument) to actually learn it. Many replies here focus on the mathematical patterns and relations, they are useful observations but ultimately has little bearing on the actual usage of theory.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?

#166

Post by abruzzi » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 5:14 PM UTC

atomack wrote: post #71

Maybe I'm a luddite but I used books. Any book on common practice harmony will help with most pop/rock and classical up to 20th century. I used Harmony by Piston and happily recommend it. For some jazz theory The Jazz Piano Book by Levine was good for me.

Agreed. I loved Piston, with the caveat that his book is about the "Common Practice Period". It will teach you the standard approach to harmony used in the 18th and 19th century. But its a grounding that helps to make all the post 19th century developments in harmony make sense.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?

#167

Post by arvinsim » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 5:16 PM UTC

I have tried learning music theory and got as far as learning how to construct scales and chords.

For me, the theory was fairly easy. But it was still hard for me to translate theory to actually composing music.

It did help me in a way to narrow down the notes to play. But it left me feeling that I am missing something.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?

#168

Post by byproxy » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 5:18 PM UTC

DavidPiper wrote: post #22

https://www.musictheory.net is an excellent resource for getting started, and for maintaining practice. There's also the Music Student 101 podcast, which many people recommend highly (I've only listened to a few episodes). The musictheory subreddit is also one of the best subs I've found, for all levels.

As someone who has taken two years worth of music theory at the college level, I can vouch for https://www.musictheory.net

It basically covers everything we covered in that time-span. Everything is explained quite simply and clearly.

Also, don't neglect ear training!

Re: Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?

#169

Post by byproxy » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 5:23 PM UTC

adamnemecek wrote: post #69

I'm working on an IDE for nusic composition, I'm launching soon http://ngrid.io . I'm hoping you won't need to know music theory, the app will guide you.

Looks cool, but this person specifically requested resources to learn music theory.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?

#170

Post by zozbot234 » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 5:24 PM UTC

a_lieb wrote: post #79

For this, I would highly recommend the music theorist/composer Dimitri Tymoczko. His career project is to rebuild the basics of harmony from the ground up from (mostly simple) rules, closely based on how people hear. A catchphrase he uses a lot is "why does music sound good?" He teaches a set of 2 comprehensive introductory music theory classes at Princeton, and he makes the lecture notes public: https://dmitri.mycpa…

One can argue whether Tymoczko's approach genuinely leads to understanding theory "from the ground up". His research is best understood IMHO as a worthwhile (in itself) "tweak" and generalization of a previous theoretical approach known as "Neo-Riemannian theory", named after Hugo Riemann's descriptions of tonal harmony (i.e. the general working of 'chords', or rather, major and minor triads). Seen from that POV, it's quite helpful. As a general description of what might go on in a piece of music (even "classical" music)? Maybe not so much.