Ask HN: Tools to learn music theory?

For ear training (eg intervals), I use the Perfect Ear app. [1]

For transcribing, I use software called "Transcribe!" [2]. You can repeat specific parts of a song, and also slow it down without altering the pitch (known as "time stretching").

You can also use Audacity for transcription but Transcribe! does tend to be a bit easier to use.

  - [1] https://www.perfectear.app/
  - [2] https://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html

Sight-reading exercises are great for improving, but it seems you are struggling to choose an appropriate difficulty. A piano teacher is very helpful in this regard and can recommend books/exercises for you to work through.

If that's not an option for you, there are piano music grading systems that provide some orientation. For example IMSLP[1] has music by level, according to the Royal School of Music.

Disclaimer: I'm not an avid piano player, so I don't know that much about these grading systems, other than they are used for exam and certificate prep.

[1]: https://imslp.org/wiki/Special:DiffPage/DiffMain/1

I was tired not remembering how to name intervals, construct chords, my arpeggios and scales and what not. So I coded it to help me figure all of that out. I also wanted a frontend to visualize all of this because notes on the guitar are all mixed up and it's hard to reason about when you have a terrible memory like I do:

- Theory.res: https://github.com/tbinetruy/solfeggio-calculator/blob/maste... - Frontend: https://tbinetruy.github.io/solfeggio-calculator/

I also have some notes on that repo that have helped me a lot where I can summarize my findings. But this exercise has been enlightening. Both from the coding and musical perspectives. Because Ocaml really forces you to model music and thus ensure that you understand the concepts which helps you remember them.

I can finally start soloing over chord progressions using arpeggios now! It's essentially comes down to playing a scale in thirds starting on the chord root note on chord changes! And I can finally understand my fretboard without having to look at my frontend's chord diagrams anymore. I still don't know the notes, but I understand their relations with each other.

I've also started learning jazz because it's a lot more theory based than pop/rock since you have a lot more exotic chords and solos are guided by the underlying progression. I really like Jens Larsen's YT channel. It's very hard to get into at first because he goes quite fast, but has some very accessible videos such as this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q2LB45ts0M.

Hope this helps :)

But ultimately it's about making the music that's inside you, and not everyone needs music theory to do that.

A problem I've seen with pianists and theory is they can get stuck because each key has different fingering, unlike stringed instruments.